Five Minute Friday: If I Knew I Could, I Would...

It's Friday!  Time for Five Minute Friday hosted by The Gypsy Mama.  The rules are simple:  Throw caution (editing, revising, and worrying) to the winds and just write for five minutes flat. Without wondering if it’s just right or not.  Here we go.  Today's prompt:  If I Knew I Could, I Would . . .

GO.

If I knew I could, I would . . .


Save the world.

Heal the heartache.

Gather the brokenhearted and just give them a hug.

Spend all the money that’s needed to make sure no one is going to bed hungry.

Protect all the unborn babies from the selfishness of their mothers.

Bring back my father’s mind and soul.

Give my mother true joy and peace….and a good night’s sleep.

Guarantee my children and grandchildren a life without the pain that goes on forever.

Express the love I truly feel inside.

Convince every soul that Jesus gave up everything just for them.

Be the person I envision myself to be.

Be fully awake spending every bit of life I have for Him.

STOP.

Deonte's 4th!

We traveled over an hour so that Deonte could have his fourth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese -- his first time there.  He enjoyed it immensely and being the center of attention for a whole day and evening suited him just fine, too!  He played hard and ate hard!  Whew!  Can that boy put away some pizza and cupcakes!

 He so enjoyed opening presents with Daddy, though reading every card thoroughly did try his patience a little!

He can definitely sport his new sunglasses! 

Now, remember that first picture of him riding on the horse?  Well, the adults couldn't let him steal the show, even on his birthday!   

Papa 

Mr. Kevin

Happy Birthday, Deonte!  Nana loves  you!

What My Marriage Really Looks Like

We like to take pictures on Easter of how pretty we look in our new clothes.  Sometimes not everything is so new.  Sometimes we don't look so pretty.  But, when things come together and we do take a good picture that we both like, we are happy.  Didn't happen this year.  Nope.  I did like ONE picture, but he didn't like it.  So, no new Facebook profile pics.  At least of us together.

BUT, what we did end up with were a couple of pictures that illustrate our life together.  Enjoy laughing at with us!

Easter Brunch Menu

We're having Easter Brunch this year instead of Easter dinner.  Same time, different food.  (Yes, that means we might be eating brunch in the middle of the afternoon, but it's the difference in the food itself we're thinking of here.)  Just to do something different.  And because brunch somehow seems more springy.  *shrug*  And because I love trying out new recipes.  Even for guests.  Even on holidays.  Maybe especially for guests and holidays. 

So, here's our menu:

Glorified Rice

 Baked Pear Vanilla French Toast, The Reluctant Entertainer cookbook, p. 153

Bacon, Ham and Lamb  (Sarah's bringing bacon and lamb; Grandma bought a ham...)  Lamb seems a logical choice for Easter.  Growing up, we always had ham.  I've never understood that.  How did ham get to be the meat of choice for Easter? 

Cinnamon Roll Bites

Candied Popcorn

Hot Cross Buns

Scrambled eggs in potato nests

Sherbet with Lemon Crisp Cookies

Cold beverage: Orange Pineapple Mint Punch with "Peep" straws

Vanilla/cocoa flavored chais

Five Minute Friday: The Hard Love

Gypsy Mama hosts Five Minute Friday.  This is my first time participating, but it sounds fun...and good for me.

The rules are simple.  You take her prompt and write for 5 minutes flat with no editing or tweaking.

So, here goes.

HARD LOVE


GO.

Hard love. Isn’t all love hard? Selfishness gets in the way of love all the time. We want to esteem others better than ourselves (as the Word says), but maybe later. Right now, I’m just tired. Right now, I just don’t feel like it.

Today’s Good Friday. I am so glad that Jesus didn’t feel the way I do so often. But, maybe He did. He just didn’t let it stop Him. Who knows? He was human. He did fall carrying that cross up the hill of Golgotha. He was tired. He felt the pain. The physical pain. The emotional pain. I’ve watched The Passion of the Christ. I know how much physical pain He bore. But, I think the emotional, spiritual pain must have been so much worse. Can you even imagine what carrying EVERYONE’s guilt must have felt like? I can barely bear my own. All of our guilt. All of our sorrow. All of our shame. All of our pain.

That’s hard love. How can I not love Him back?

STOP.

Country Drive

With spring trying its hardest to bloom forth this year, we thought we'd go for a drive a few days ago to see how she was doing.  I truly believe we live in one of the most beautiful places with so many differing scenery options.  This day we chose country views.

Though we were hoping for fields of wild flowers, there were only a few patches of poppies.  Too little to even get out the camera.

But, we saw some ground squirrels, birds, and a bunch of cattle.

No fences to keep these bad boys off the road.  But, they definitely were quite interested in us.  They may have been a bit put out since we didn't even ask permission to take their pictures. 

I just love to watch cattle as they mosey along.  They always look like they think they are so much smarter than I am.  Maybe they are.

Look at this one giving us a side glance. 

We only saw two snakes, but they were less than a few minutes from each other.  Both in the road.  This one we tried to urge off the road before he got hit, but he wouldn't listen.  As few vehicles that are out his way, he probably thought he had all the time in the world.

However, we knew better.  This was the second snake we saw.  He had already been hit.  Though, to be honest, I can't say I was sad. 

This looked like a rattler and I am so afraid of rattlesnakes.  I guess I feel like that's one less to breed and perhaps come my way.  I know.  I doubt if his descendants would have ended up in my backyard, but still.  It just somehow makes me feel better. 
Don't judge me!  They scare me!

So, I don't leave you with thoughts of venomous snakes, here's a fabulous bush we drove by.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a fantastic flash of color in the midst of all the green of the rolling hills.

Spring 2011 Manifesto

(Double click on graphic to view in larger format.)