Happy Easter

Hope all of you had a blessed Easter day with time to celebrate with your family and church. Darrell and I did some celebrating this morning with both our sons and their families at church. We filled up two pews. Eight beautiful, healthy and (Grammy thinks) brilliant grandchildren. The ninth one was there too, but she's still being shy about making her appearance in the world. We had another "this is going to be her birthday" day last Friday, but she said not yet. So we'll see what happens next week.

But the other grandbabies were all in fine fettle. The twin boys didn't raise a ruckus in church and the older kids sat quietly and listened to the preacher. It must have been our day to receive one of those everyday miracles we don't always notice. At any rate, they were all very good. On the way out of church to the car, Katie, the three-year-old, told Br. Fred goodby and then she said, "Goodby, Jesus." Her mama reminded her that we don't say goodby to Jesus and leave him at the church, but that he goes with us wherever we go.

We had an Easter egg hunt here at the house after dinner. My chocolate lab, Dub, found the first egg. So I ruined his fun, got out the leash and made him be an observer only. The kids found all the eggs faster than it took me and the oldest grandkid to hide them. I always put pennies and other change and a few dollar bills in some of the eggs, and my grandson likes finding the eggs that rattle. I never liked Easter egg hunts when I was a kid because I was never fast enough to find any eggs, but today we had plenty to go around and everybody ended up with full baskets and enough candy to keep them bouncing off the walls for a while. It was probably a good thing that they all got to church too late for the little Easter egg hunt they had for the Sunday school kids there.

One of my readers who says she can't comment here for some technical reason nevertheless sent a great comment on my April Fools' day post about Oscar. She thought maybe I was going to say that I had an Oscar Mayer hot dog on April Fools'. I told her I'd share her e-mail smile with the rest of you. I'm glad my real dog, Oscar, wasn't an April Fools' joke. He's a lot of fun.

Well now that we've had fun with April Fools' day and celebrated the blessings of Easter, next week we have to stare tax day right in the eye. That's rarely anybody's favorite day. At least nobody but my granddaughter, Ashley. She'll be six on April 15th. She's way too young to worry about taxes. So instead of taxes, I'll just think about the fun gift Ashley is to our family. Besides we're going to mail in our taxes Monday. We like to be early. Hope you are so blessed as to need to pay taxes, but I imagine you might rather keep thinking about Easter blessings while you save a little chocolate to eat on Wednesday to keep the spirits up.

Maybe I'll have baby news to report on Wednesday. If not, I'll have to start worrying about the Southern Kentucky Book Fest this coming Saturday. But babies can't be rushed. Books can. At least the words in them, but you know I'm not sure the story can be rushed. At least not mine. Those story words have to grow and accumulate and eventually spill out on the writing surface whether that's a computer screen or a notebook.

I'm looking forward to meeting readers at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest on Saturday. I like talking to all of you face to face, so if you're in the area be sure to come by and say hi. I'll be part of a panel at 1 p.m. Check out my website for more details. It sounds like fun.

Don't eat too many chocolate bunny ears. I'm relieved most of the candy I bought went home with the grandkids. My will power's a lot better when the candy is at their houses instead of mine.

Easter Blessings

Happy Easter, everyone! What a great day to be in church with your family around you as we remember the empty tomb! As my preacher, Br. Fred says, Easter is the highlight of our Christian worship. Br. Fred has been preaching at Goshen for twenty plus years, but I never get tired of hearing his great sermons. He should have been preaching in a big church, but life circumstances led him to our little church and we've been blessed over the years to have him teaching and preaching the Bible to us. I know I've learned a lot and it stood me in good stead when I decided to write my Hollyhill books with one of the main characters a preacher. While my preacher can't preach like Br. Fred, he does have the same love for preaching the Word.

Today was an extra nice day at church because both of my sons were there to worship with us along with their families. We packed two pews. Any of you remember back when we had revivals in the summer and the preacher would challenge the people in the church to pack a pew? I don't do it every Sunday, but we managed today. My sons have three children each ranging in age from thirteen to almost two, and so I was surrounded by beautiful grandchildren. I hope you were too. If you're old enough for grandkids. If not, I hope you were surrounded by loved ones of whatever age. Of course at our little church we claim every baby born into our church family as a church grandkid. We all take turns spoiling them.

We came home and had an Easter egg hunt out in the yard. That's not an easy accomplishment with my big old dog and the neighbor dogs wanting to get in on the hunt too. But the kids found plenty of eggs with only a few ending up in the dogs' mouths first. Those were quickly rejected by the granddaughters. Ooeuwie. (I don't know how to spell that, but you get the idea.) My grandson loved it when the eggs he picked up rattled because that meant he'd found one with some coins in it.

So tonight I'm bushed after some marathon cooking sessions and getting up for Sunrise Service (and cooking for breakfast at church, too) and having fun playing with the kids. You know they don't stay little long and a grandma has to make hay while the sun shines. And the sun was shining big time today.

I hope you had a blessed Easter too and are feeling as blessed as I am.