Happy Easter!

Death has died.  Love has won.

This day changes everything. 

 

Praising our Risen Savior today!

So thankful that by His wounds we are healed, and that through His victory over death, we have hope beyond this life.

Easter

How was Easter already a month ago?  And how in the world do we only have a few days left of school!?

I'm ready, but not ready.  Our dinner and bedtime is already getting so much later.  And we are jumping into that relaxed summer time mentality a little bit early.

Have you read this blog post, by Jen Hatmaker?  It's hilarious, you may just laugh out loud. I ran across it last year and am starting to see if circle around again. It is so nice to know this happens to most of us moms!  It is so spot on.

So let's back up to Easter. 

We got out our candle wreath and switched our wood figure of Mary, on a donkey (from Christmas) to Jesus carrying his cross.  And we loved listening to this Easter version of Hallelujah while we watched the candles flicker.

I love the anticipation of Christmas, the smells, songs, traditions, memories.  The thought of all the years of waiting for a Savior, and one night He came silently. 

But there is something that goes so much deeper at Easter.  The excitement and joy is hard to even explain.  It's way down deep inside.  Maybe it's because Easter isn't crowded by so many other things, and we can focus more on the actual events and meaning of that day.

Or maybe it's just that this amazing love story culminates to this spectacular climax, leaving us awaiting the next return.

I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, Easter is becoming a favorite of mine.

After church, we ate lunch out together, just us 5.  And had a quick photo shoot before we got home.

I tried to be in some.  But those didn't turn out :-(

I was shocked that they all asked me to take a picture of them alone.  We actually told THEM we needed to stop taking pictures and get home.  Maybe it was a stalling tactic for naptime.

We normally do Easter with Dave's family but his parents were gone this year, so we were on our own.  We ate out for lunch after church, took long naps and then had friends over for Easter dinner.  They didn't have any family to spend Easter with either, so it worked perfectly.

(although I have NO idea why these 2 pictures are not clear one bit) 

I told them to squeeze together and this is what we got.  Couldn't have happened more perfectly.

I don't think these kids realize how lucky they are to have a gate that goes from their yard to their best friends' yard.

And now, here we are.  Almost July 4th.  Geesh.

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas is far from the usual.

Dave's brother and family couldn't make the trip like they do every year to all be together for Christmas.  Sydney can't be that far away from home and probably isn't feeling up to it much anyway. 

We were hoping to make it there before she goes in for her bone marrow transplant (2 perfect matches were found by the way!) on Janary 6.   But wouldn't ya know, after someone being constantly sick for 6 weeks straight, we got a week break and then it's all started again.  So coughs, runny noses, fevers and more yucky viral stuff is keeping us home. 

And it's also keeping my parents from coming to our house.  No one wants to be around the sickies.

It's all a little discouraging.  But we're trying to find the joy in it.  

While our day with Dave's family was shortened quite a bit to avoid being around each other for too long, we did still get to celebrate with them, which almost didn't happen at all.  We still started our morning out at Drubers, even if it was just us and not our usual 3 table crowd.   This afternoon we put Gavin down for nap, and then Dave and I, and the big kids snuck away for the 2pm Christmas Eve service at our church that we've never made it to before because we usually go to Dave's parents' church service.  The 2pm service was small.  It was quiet and peaceful.  The exact intimacy I was looking for in the midst of all the other stuff going on. 

It was such a wonderful time to stop and refocus my heart and worship.

Tomorrow we'll find the blessings in our very first Christmas Day just the 5 of us. We'll do Christmas with my parents as soon as we are all better.  At this rate, that may be April. 

While this Christmas looks a lot different to us than any other in the past, the celebration itself doesn't change. 

Love came down at Christmas.  To a stable, one of the lowliest places on earth.  To the darkness and emptiness of this world.  To let it be known that He is with us.  Immanuel.  God with us.  He is with us in our trials, in our days, in our nights, in our darkness, in our triumphs. He is not a God who governs from afar.  He is with us.  He came down to restore our brokeness, and the hopelessness...and bring us back to Him.  To offer us a gift that would secure our place in heaven for eternity.  While, yes Christmas is about The Baby...I pray that you can see past the baby...to the cross.  That rugged cross that was your cross too.  That's why He he came down. 

To dwell among us and prove to us the depths of his love.

Merry Christmas to you!

Love,  the Balzers

 

 

mother's day

Since we decided not to hold our garage sale again another weekend, we were looking at a completely free weekend for Mother's Day.  So I decided early in the week that we'd go visit my parents and spend Mother's Day with my mom.  And why not make it a surprise!?!? 

 

But on a side note...did you know it was possible to have strep throat with no other symptoms besides a super bad sore throat?  I found out it was possible about 2 hours before we left town. I should have made an appointment earlier in the week, but I thought it was dumb to go in just to be told I have a sore throat. But for some reason this "sore" was way worse than the normal sore throat, and I only went in because Dave pretty much forced me to.  The only other time I've had strep, I was sicker than a dog, in bed, fever, AWFUL.  This time, I had the same glass-in-my-throat feeling, but nothing else, other than feeling super duper run down.  I just contributed it to having done way too much over the last week or so, between my weekend in Texas, the garage sale in cold weather, and then setting up field day at the kid's school.  But after having NO energy all week, and a throat hurting so bad it was painful to eat, drink, swallow and sleep, I called the nurse to ask if it was possible to have strep without a fever and other symptoms.  She told me to come in, and sure enough, that's what I had.  I'm glad to at least know that something REAL was wrong with me all week.  And thankfully, the antibiotics kicked in super fast and I felt so much better all weekend.

 

We pulled up to my parent's house in Missouri, about 11pm.  I had told my dad we were coming, but my mom had no clue.  The knock on the door at 11 freaked her out enough that there was no way she was going to open the door herself.  My dad let the kids in and they started sneaking down the hallway until they met my mom coming around the corner.  It was a super fun surprise!

 

We spent all day Saturday in Springfield.  Lunch on the patio of Panera...



 

and it's never a trip to Springfield without visiting Bass Pro Shop where Papa works.

There were quite a few new things to see, plus my dad's 40% off discount is always fun to use too.

 Then we checked out Springfield's Discovery Center.

The kids dug for dinosaur bones and went in the tornado machine to see what 70+ mph winds felt like.

The blur in the background is pretty much all that Gavin is these days.

 

 

  They played music, pretended to be news reporters, went grocery shopping, and ran in an hamster wheel to make electricity. The gigantic bubble machine was probably Gavin's favorite, and so was running out of mom and dad's site every chance he got.

 

 

Mason found Papa's glasses and cracked us up.

 

Sunday morning got to spend some time with my grandma. We surprised her too!  And somehow her TV remote made it all the way back to home in Kansas in the diaper bag.  I can only imagine who the culprit was. 

 

 

After church we had a yummy but REALLY long lunch before we left town.  As in 2 hours long.  It wasn't an issue of being crowed and waiting for a table.  We got our table within 15 minutes.  But waiting on our food.  It was far from a delightful lunch.  And the best part was that for half of that time, they were out of high chairs, so we had nothing to keep Gavin confined.  I think the kids and Dave spent more time outside playing than they did sitting at the table. I'm pretty sure we all ate so much chips and salsa that by the time our order came, no one was even hungry anymore.  I will just pretend that lunch never happened.

 

 

It was a fun weekend.  I loved getting to visit and surprise my mom for Mother's Day.  I know our schedule doesn't allow us to get there to visit near enough.  Now if only our littlest traveler will learn to travel as good as his brother and sister - these trips may be a bit more enjoyable.

 On our way home, Mason started feeling really sick. We thought it was car sickness, but the fever and ongoing yucky feelings after we were home for awhile proved otherwise.  Poor thing had his last day of school the next day and we hated for him to miss. I should have kept him home, considering the 24 hour fever rule - but he felt fine Monday morning and I hated for him to miss his last day and ice cream party. Tuesday morning the fever came back, and he threw up all morning.  We were worried about 2 mysterious spots on him that were getting worse and worse, and we wondered if they were spider bites.  FYI, don't EVER look up brown recluse spider bite pictures online.  We were quite worried and got him in to see the doctor.  Ends up that the bites aren't bad ones, but were definitely infected.  I also had no clue that fever and throwing up was a sign of strep - and sure enough he tested positive. 

 

So our summer break is being welcomed in with antibiotics.  And we are waiting to find out who gets hit next.

christmas day 2012

I didn't take too many pictures on Christmas Day.

 

But the few a got sure do capture our real-life.  :-)

 

 

We always start with stockings and then move on to a yummy pancake breakfast/birthday party for Jesus.

 

Someone wasn't happy about singing "Happy Birthday".  And someone else wasn't happy about taking pictures.

 



 

We always love having my parents join us for Christmas Day, I'm thankful they are willing to make the 5 hour trip every year.

 

 

I have been known to go a bit overboard on the shopping in years past.  And so many of those years after our kids get totally spoiled on Christmas Eve, we go home thinking they would be happy if that was all they got. Kicking myself for my excessiveness.

So this year, in the attempt to simplify, we adopted the "3 gift rule", just as Jesus received 3 gifts from the Wise Men.

It sure made my shopping easier, and when I was done, I was done, whether I saw a good deal on something else, or thought of another good gift idea later or not.

The only thing that was tough was that our kids didn't really have big wishes this year.  They didn't really even give us any ideas.  Until the day before Christmas of course.

That was the first time I heard Mason say anything about wanting a rocket ship lego set.

And Taylor continued her wish of an American Girl doll, but then was pretty satisfied with her Bitty Twin from Nana and Papa (which I knew she would be).

So I had no idea what their reactions would be on Christmas morning, as there wasn't anything that they really wished for waiting on them.

 



 

 But then I was reminded of the true joy that kids get on Christmas and their excitement for just about anything. It was another reminder that simplifying Christmas expectations for myself does not steal the joy of Christmas when our hearts and minds are focused on the right things.

 

My kids taught me a lot this Christmas.  Maybe it was the visit to the nursing home, and the joy they had in singing to so many residents in their rooms.  Maybe it was the evening we spent making "blessing bags" for the homeless shelter and then caroling to them and handing them out.

Maybe it was the conversations that took place in our home this year, and the realization they began to have about other people's needs.

Maybe it was the events in Newtown, CT.

But there was something about this Christmas that was different.

Simpler. More joyful. More about others.

And the words from our oldest that I won't forget...

"I really don't want anything for Christmas, I just am glad we have Jesus."

I don't know how much of those words were just the "sunday school" talk coming out in her, and the knowledge she has about what the right things to say are, or how much was truly from her heart.

But from other things I witnessed from her this year, I am leaning towards believing that she truly truly got it this year.

And just to keep it completely real for you, her words were followed by words from another certain little one who said.

"Not me, I want presents!"

:-)

 



Mason was super pumped about his gift from Mema and Papa.  Especially because it's from the place Papa works.

 

It was a wonderful, pjs all day-game playing-lego building-karaoke machine singing-ham, homemade rolls, garlic mashed potatoes- cozy fire-christmas music playing -facetiming with Aunt Rebekah-kind of day.

 

It's always hard to believe it's all over so fast.