New Blog, Life Updates, and Easter Reflections

So good...

As I promised on Facebook, I posted the recipes for our grilled steak meal last weekend...on my new recipe blog! I will continue blogging here, but check in on that blog for new and updated recipes as I continue this cooking adventure.

We're still having extremely fickle weather. One day it's in the 50s, the next day in the 30s. I'm getting kinda tired of this. Indiana, make up your mind!

Easter is fast approaching, causing me to reflect on past Easters and, of course, on the meaning of Easter. We've all heard the story so many times that it can become very routine and unexciting, just the same old resurrection story again.

And then of course there's the commercial aspect. Every retailer out there, from clothing to food to home goods, is trying to capitalize on another holiday, another reason to spend money. Quite frankly, if next weekend is anything like last weekend, it'll be too cold to wear those pretty sundresses and run around outside!

I'm blessed to say that I've gotten a new job and will be starting this week. Of course, when I finally get a job on night shift, they switch my honey back to second shift! It seems we just can't manage to be on the same shift anymore! It's frustrating, but this new job should provide a much more manageable schedule, plus more money and a better work environment, so I'm very excited about it.

That being said, this Sunday we will both be on night shift until morning, and then be too exhausted to make it through a church service without falling asleep. Unfortunately it will be the first Easter in many years that I haven't made it to church, but sometimes that's just how it goes. The Lord is more concerned with our hearts.

#3 with me, Easter 2014

So this year we plan to hide eggs for each other in the house, and hopefully will spend the afternoon (after catching up on sleep, that is) visiting with some very dear friends. A low-key day, but usually those are the best, really.

Easter...what does it mean, anyway? It's another originally pagan holiday that was Christianized to commemorate Jesus' rising from the dead. The simple fact that Jesus is alive should be celebrated every single day in the way that we live, because if He did not come back to life after being crucified, He would not be God and our faith would be placed in just another man. Our daily lives should reflect an ongoing delirium of joy and resolution of character simply because Jesus is alive and our faith is real. Sometimes we need a holiday to remind us of that, but while we are glad to celebrate on this day, every day should be an Easter celebration in our hearts and reflected by our actions of love towards others.

So this Easter, celebrate in any way that appropriately reflects the kind of love that would die an excruciating death, because that love is ALIVE, that love is in us, and that love just can't be kept in a tomb or in a heart without spilling out and into more hearts and lives.