Palm Sunday

This entrance into Jerusalem must have been grand!!! They cried out “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!”

You can read the details in the Bible! Look up John 12:12-19 and soak in the words and rejoice today that Jesus is still the Lord of lords and King of kings!

Another Nor'easter

We got yet another blast of snow during the night and it's snowing all day long.  It's another "no school" day.  The kids are home today and hubby came home early from work because of the snow.  Our second day of Spring is snow covered!!!

I'm feeling like this robin!!!  Snow???

Can you see the cardinal?  It's in the trees.

The kids slept in a little this morning and when they awoke, it was snow covered outside and hundreds of snowflakes still dancing in the air.

Ashlyn bundled up and went out searching for icicles. 

Breakfast came and went in many shifts today.  Bacon is an extra special treat here at our house.  It's a food I don't like to make.  The grease, the house smelling like bacon ALL DAY LONG and it's pork.  All not a favorite of mine.  But this morning, bacon it was.  The kids enjoyed it.

Then it was games of BINGO.

And monopoly.

Everyone probably has a messy drawer in their house or a drawer that's the collect it all place.  Well, here is that drawer in our home.  Austin often grabs the little step stool and then investigates.  Today, this is what he was intrigued with.

And like I said, breakfast went in shifts today.  Matthew loves creating fun foods with a pancake.  This time it was a pancake, topped with fresh honey roasted peanuts, then crumbled bacon and topped with some syrup.  Calories to the max but he loved it!!!

The kids bundled up again and this is how the outside is looking.  Big snow icicles and lots of snow.

These poor babies are wanting sunshine not snowflakes.

These two are our snow buddies.  Here's the view from my kitchen window.

 

 

And this is exactly what I'm ready for too!!!  Mowing!!!  Gotta love this kid.  Mike says over and over that Austin is so much like the Riehls.  Aggressive and "lets get it done"!!!  It's in our DNA.  It's how we function.  How we work.  How life is fun!!!  I laughed and went running for my camera when I say Austin pushing the mower in the snow because Mike texted me the other week when we had a "warmer" day and asked me if I'm mowing.  :)))  Nope.  Not yet.  I'll wait for Spring to start that but Spring is now here but so is the snow. 

 

Well, with snow storms usually come soft pretzels and games for us.  I'm off to do both and hopefully drink some good coffee and eat some homemade hummus!!!

 

First Day of Spring!!!

Yeah!!!  Spring has finally arrived and made it through yet another winter.  The weather forecast is not making that reality because more snow is to come our way.  These Nor'easter, or snow storms, are coming late for us this year.  March is known to have some blizzards and this year is proving that's true. 

But, on Monday, the day before "Spring", the sun was shining and the weather decent outside.  I decided to pick the kids up at school and we went straight to the greenhouses.  Ashlyn's been begging to go and I'm always into that idea!!!  :)  I'm ready to buy not just some flowers but some seeds too.  But that will have to wait!

Ashlyn begged for one of these.  What a nice display of the cross and empty tomb!!!  It brings our house some Easter vibes.

We came home and got our fingers right into the dirt!!!  We loved the smell of the fresh potting soil and Ashlyn pressed the flowers into the dirt after I laid them in place.

 

The kids played outside like Spring really was here.  They came back inside smelling like the fresh air and in need of baths.

Spring arrives officially tomorrow and we will pretend that the snow forecast is not going to happen.

Let's change seasons!!!

This is mid March and it's still feeling a whole lot like winter outside.  There is again some snow predicted to fall during the night tonight and tomorrow.  Those snow flurries on my phone weather app may now just disappear and instead show lots of sunshine and warmth!!!  God's the ultimate weather man, I know that, so that means He's got the perfect weather for me every single day.  Honestly though, winter is my least favorite season but that's changing a bit for me as the years go by.  I used to dread it.  Not like it. at. all.  I would wish and dream of Florida in those months and even got grouchy if we didn't go south for a weeks to break up the winter colds.  Else I grew up a bit in this area, which was necessary, or I am becoming to enjoy the winter days more!  I love to do puzzles and we sure did our share of them in January!  I love the slower days and extra hours of rest and sleep because once Spring does arrive, it's full speed ahead to get the outside chores completed and the property looking nice!  Winter really has been so relaxing for me this year and I'm SO thankful for that!  Except, now that my calendar has March 20 circled for tomorrow because its the first day of Spring, I want Spring to come!!!  I want to go buy Spring flowers and get my fingers in that potting soil that's been sitting in our garage now for a few weeks.  I want to walk out to the front porch and feel the sunshine without freezing my toes off!  I am so ready to plant some lettuce and veggies in the garden!!!  The weeds, however, will need pulled too but that is the one downer about outside work starting up.

I switched up some inside décor in the house and pulled out my Spring silk flowers and added some Easter bunnies to the open shelves.  It helps to at least make it feel like Spring is coming soon and celebrating Easter in just two weeks will be here before we know it!

Ashlyn loves to hunt Easter eggs.  She always has.  I have thrown away so many broken egg pieces  and have picked up so many eggs off of the floor that I finally went through the toy box and just pitched all that were left over from years past.  But the other day, when my mom and sister visited the new Target, I did grab another small bag of plastic eggs for her pleasure!  She was so pleased and thrilled!!!  Her and Austin have been having Easter egg hunts lots of days.  So far it's mostly just hiding them inside the house because outside is just too cold yet.  But one of these days, I'm going to take those eggs and hide them outside and when she comes home from school, she can laugh and giggle the entire time she goes hunting for them.  It's just so cute seeing her enjoy this!

I also grabbed some cute bunny accessories the other week.  And again, I want to do something outside with them with the weather gets warmer or when the orchard blossoms bloom but the other day we did a quick, little photo session with them.  Check out my cute little bunnies.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday afternoon, the sun did shine bright and Matthew was in the back yard wearing his new spikes that he and his daddy bought when they went to check out the new Dick's Sporting Goods store on Saturday.  Matthew loves his lacrosse sticks right now and is forever bouncing a ball around in the house or in the back yard and then catching it with a lacrosse stick.  Well, yesterday he was outside breaking in his new spikes because we just got an email that baseball practice starts up right after Easter!  He's excited!  Mike and Matthew even threw some catch yesterday and that's the first that this new season is beginning.  Baseball brings us more business and Monday games but we LOVE it!!!  We are ready!  We can't wait to cheer for Matthew and see how the Tigers preform!!!

 

Another first for the season is starting up the moped.  Mike fired it up yesterday afternoon and Austin's eyes about popped out!  He loves, loves all things that ride and move like this.  He could not wait for moped rides again!!!  Ashly got all excited too and even though it was a few short spins up and back down our country road, it totally filled up these two's love tank!!!  They love to do this with their daddy!

 

 

So, the outside events are slowly beginning.  Sports will start up soon.  More mopeds rides will be soon on our daily events.  I'm hoping that we go shopping for a new grill one of these days because when the weather does warms up, that makes me hungry for some good hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill!  I do also hope, and maybe this post will help me keep my word, that I will also start up with some kind of exercise again soon.  I have been lazy all winter and I thought maybe our trip to Florida would spark up my running/walking desire, but it didn't.  I need to discipline myself to get out and just go!!!

 

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And for a few quick photos for 'real life' right now for us.  Every Sunday, Austin is all eyes looking for Josh.  Josh is our church drummer and he watches him like a hawk.  He always asks to go watch him or to sit on Josh's seat.  The other week Josh gave him a pair of drum sticks and Austin was thrilled!!!  Yesterday, we had people snickering behind us because when worship was over Austin asked if it's over now?  :) "Nope, the sermon and prayer time yet Little Man!"

 

And I got to visit Rachel's Crepes last week for lunch with my mom and sisters.  We try to get together but it just always seems to go a few months before we do it again.  This time, we all met at Rachel's and enjoyed some yummy crepes!

His favorite food right now is rice.

I also spent the one morning last week in Ashlyn's first grade class and helped them with a painting project.  So fun!

Yard Sales are beginning up slowly.  I went to one and found shoes for Mike.  I also found some good finds at Goodwill.  I was tickled to buy my first Magnolia item!  A brand new laptop computer bag from Goodwill for $10!  I'm ready for some egg rolls and rice and fun deals coming up in the next few weeks!

Hadassah wanted to take Jess out somewhere for her birthday.  She picked Luca and when I called at lunch time to make reservations, the only thing available was 9:15 or 9:30 Friday evening!!!  What?  So late?  I knew the teenagers wouldn't mind but I've never made reservations ever for this late in the evening to eat Italian food.  But this was now the first!!!  And we had a blast!!!  We did a little shopping first and then went to the city to find this yummy restaurant!  Their pizza was delicious and the dessert was wonderful!!!  I'll be taking Mike to this place because he would love it!!!

And speaking about food, Pinterest has been one of my best friends when it comes to seasonal foods!!!  Ashlyn helped me put these together for a healthy snack to take along to Matt Lapps on Saturday night.

 

 

And we made this to take along to small group last night.  It's really simple and all I did was pop a bunch of white popcorn, add pretzels, M&M's and Easter cookie sprinkles.  Then I melted white chocolate and poured it on top.  Mixed it all up real good and dumped it in a nice bowl.  Done.  Easy and it was a hit!

 

 

 

March is going by fast and I do know that Spring weather will arrive at my back door here one of these weeks.  Until then, I'm staying indoors and enjoying my warm home!!!