Easter 2023

The past two years, we have attended the Maundy Thursday service.  I realized that I think I need this as part of my Easter cycle.  Palm Sunday is a lot of rejoicing.  Easter is a lot of celebration.  And if you don’t go, you miss the sadness and the sacrifice.  And I don’t want to miss that because then I miss the significance and the choice that led to my salvation.  The service was short dialogues between various people throughout the nights leading up to the crucifixion.  At the end of the night, you leave in silence and meditate on the story.  This night, God greeted us with a reminder of who He is by painting the most beautiful sky.  And I just stood and stared.  Standing in the parking lot, gazing across the field, awash in His glory

Three days later, we gathered to celebrate Easter.  The day was beautiful.  The Easter breakfast allowed time for us to reconnect with others in the church body.  The service supplied rejoicing and worship. 

Then, the Edigers gathered at my parents house for Easter dinner (lunch) – ham balls, cheesy potatoes, salad, homemade rolls, and green beans.  The seating was switched up for the first time ever.  Sophie, Lilli, and Chloe were upgraded to the adult table, the boys moved to the living room, and the three younger girls in the kitchen.  The conversation was entertaining as we shared stories – some that we have heard before but could hear every time and some new ones. 

We took our family pictures.  The sun, while perfect for playing and egg hunting, was not perfect for picture taking, so we all look a little squinty-eyed and washed out… but good, right?

                           

There was an epic scavenger hunt egg hunt designed by Jen.  While the eggs were being placed in position, the kids were up in Grandma and Grandpa’s room writing a fun memory of each of them.  They actually took this very seriously and it was fun to hear what they came up with.  But when the partners for the hunt were chosen, it was all on the line.  Kids were squeezing past each other in hallways, zooming up and down stairs, racing around the house, taking shoes off, putting shoes on, and finally finishing for a pick from the box of big candy.  It was fun to watch and hard to catch on camera.  They had a blast.

                                                

From there, we went to the Brickers.  There were not many Brickers left by the time we got there – just David, Marianne, Erin, and Gloria.  But there was a bit of food to round us off for the night.  And there was Muffy, their tiniest puppy; the girls love her.  I brought a Jell-O dessert I wanted to try because it looked fancy. It was tasty and pretty. I may make it again. 

Gloria had invited the girls over a few days prior to help her decorate a lamb cake, a traditional Easter cake that I think Great-Grandma Bricker made sometimes.  It is quite a production – bake a cake, cool it, frost it, coat it in coconut, and add the jellybean eyes and decorations.  It looked great!

  

Muffy is a favorite diversion at the Brickers.  The girls and Erin took Muffy for a walk.  The adults talked.  When they got back, they tested Muffy’s little outfit on before we left.  Such a tiny ball of fur!

    

And we left in time to get home and in bed since we had school the next day.

Fashion Show, Spring Break and the rest

Spring break wasn’t flashy with a big week long trip, but that is not usually how we do it.  Usually, at spring break, I am tired and behind on a lot of things around the house and in life.  While it sounds fun to go somewhere because I love to go places, typically we don’t.  We have before, and we thought about it this year.  We tentatively planned to go to Nashville to see Caedmon's Call in concert at the Ryman, but the closer the time came, the less that sounded like something I could mentally handle preparing for. 

Anyway, I say all that to say we just hung out mostly.  We went to Cleveland (see previous post).  I cleaned, had a church meeting, grocery shopped, read a book, just did something and did nothing.  The girls start off super bored and then figure it out – fireboy and watergirl game on the computer, pulling out toys, shopping trip to MCC, and making slime.  It is fun and relaxing.  Travel is coming.. it is just in the summer.

At the end of the week, we went to find some spring clothes for the girls.  We love Once Upon a Child – every brand, less expensive, and a teacher discount.  It is great.  Plus, we usually find enough.  The girls came home after our trip this year and put on a fun fashion show for Jeremy and I.

                             

On the way to shop, we also stopped to buy roller skates that we had found on Facebook Marketplace.  They weren’t the exact design Ellie was hoping for, but they were a decent price. 

And I have time to make some decent meals.  And the weather was nice so we could enjoy the patio.  And the meals just looked pretty – Chicken Tikka Masala and Sloppy Joes in a Bowl. 

    

Pepper always enjoys joining us on the patio.  Sometimes he has an agenda!

My birthday was not during spring break, but I am throwing this in now since the next post will be about Easter. 

I turned 45 this year.  It is just a number.  And right now, students at school are still guessing a younger number.  I only asked because I mentioned my birthday to them as a joke to have them bring me the Cadbury mini eggs that would surely be discounted at the store after Easter.  One of them asked how old I would be and so I let them guess.  They ranged from 36-40.  Pretty close, but not exact.  I thanked them all for being so kind :)  My birthday was on Sunday, but I started celebrating Saturday. 

The girls had a half day girls only STEAM activity they signed up for at the College of Wooster. 

That left Jeremy and I free.  We headed to watch a movie. In a theater. We saw Air, a movie about the making of the iconic Nike Air Jordans.  It was interesting and entertaining.  From there, we came home.  The only thing I asked for for my birthday was the garage to be cleaned up.  It was a nice day, so we put on our old clothes and started a project.  The girls were extremely helpful and had positive attitudes, so the job was actually fun.  And the garage looks great again… and I can breathe.  We ended the night with company and burgers on the patio. Jeremy grilled the burgers to perfection.  I made a salad.  My mom brought an angel food cake made from scratch (Larry Mast’s recipe) and homemade ice cream.  Then, we just sat in our scuzzy clothes and enjoyed the night and the weather.  It was perfect.

Sunday (my actual birthday) started off well.  Gloria met us for lunch at Que Pasa, which was delicious.  She took the girls to watch the Cinderella ballet. 

    

Jeremy and I went and got a $127 back on the generator that we bought during the wind storm because it is now on sale, so they matched their price.  Nice little birthday present.  The night had a negative ending because I got a call from our insurance that sounded like we would only get our roof repaired and not replaced after we submitted a claim for some wind damage after the last storm.  The contractor had said he thought it would be a roof replacement since they didn’t make our shingles anymore, so we had started to think in that direction. It was a hard left turn to imagine the insurance paying nothing and us paying $900 for a repair when we thought our roof would be replaced for around $20,000-$28,000.  That is a major difference in what is going on in your savings account.  A follow up on that (since it has taken me forever to blog), the insurance approved the total roof replacement.  So happy birthday to me!! That topped the gift of buying a new hot water heater on my birthday one year! 

Anyway, here’s to a great back half of my 40s. 

Cleveland Excursion

We took a day to head to Cleveland this month.  The girls have been asking to go to Top Golf again, and we finally made time to do it over spring break. Tuesdays are half price day, so it is a great day to go.

We started the day at Top Golf.  This time, we splurged on some lunches while we golfed.  Again, some of us were better than others, but all of us had fun.

         

From there, we went to Westside Market, which was closed on Tuesdays.  It was fine because we walked to Mitchell’s Ice Cream to get a scoop of deliciousness.  Interesting story here… While we walked down the sidewalk, we said hi to a man on the street.  He was dressed normally, but appeared to be a person who hangs out there a lot.  He didn’t follow us closely, but he did end up in Mitchell's shortly after us.  He asked if we would buy him some ice cream.  I said sure.  He said he wanted a double scoop of butter pecan.  I laughed out loud and told him we don’t even buy ourselves double scoops (I mean, that is a lot of ice cream, and a lot of money!).  We chatted some more about ice cream in general and introduced ourselves (his name was Kevin) while we waited there.  We handed him the ice cream.  He was gone before we all even had our ice cream in hand.  Would we have asked him to sit with us?  I don’t know.  It would have been the right thing to do though.  It was a good experience for all of us to be stretched a bit. 

Then, we went to the art museum.  It is free (except for parking), so even though we didn’t have a lot of time, and some of our group was not excited about going, it was fine.  In the end, everyone found something they liked looking at or doing.  There is an interactive room that is just generally a fun and interesting experience. 

         

Last stop, GV Art and Design.  It is a t-shirt shop run by a friend of Jeremy’s brother.  They have some really cool Cleveland apparel (also some other college and general Ohio stuff). The owner is also known for his Etch-A-Sketch work. 

Our ride home was only delayed by a stop for supper at Penn Station… with the obligatory chocolate chip cookie.  One of the only places I get dessert with a meal.  I love those things.

(This trip was made possible because of some wiling dog sitters; thank you, mom and dad!)