Some photos from Easter

Here are some photos I've been meaning to share from our little guy's first Easter Egg Hunt!

It might have been mine too. ;)

 

And here are some of the eggs we painted this year...

The heart and flower are drawn in white crayon before they are dipped in the dye.

In a similar fashion, we put little dot stickers on the green one before we dyed it, and then removed them to reveal the white eggshell still underneath.

What a wonderful season to celebrate new life in Christ. 

"But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” When she had said thi...s, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!”
John 20:11-16

 

Hope you had a wonderful Easter!

C

 

First Day of Spring!

Today, I continued my photo project started here.

This photo was taken this morning in the park. Notice how active the creek is! It was very high and had lots of rushing water from all the rain and snow we've had the last couple of weeks. Also the sky today was gloomy and grey - lots of low overcast clouds. So you'll notice those are the two reasons why the trees don't reflect in the water as nicely as they did in December, when everything was so dead and quiet. Very different now! The earth is active - swirling and churning and busting out blossoms and painting everything green! :)

Here is the same photo taken three months ago (on the first day of winter).

You can see the grass is not quite as green, the trees are bare, and what leaves they do have are brown and dead. I can't wait to see what it looks like in June!

What are your plans for the season? I am hoping to start a community garden with a few friends of mine and I am very excited about working the ground again. I haven't been able to do that in many years. I hope you are having a refreshing First Day of Spring!!

 

BUNNY GIVEAWAY!

Time for a giveaway! :)

This cute little bunny is the perfect addition to your child/grandchild's Easter basket, or just as a cheerful spring-time gift for a little friend. 100% upcycled cotton. Embroidered face makes it perfectly safe for children of all ages! More pictures and info can be found here.

I am so excited to be using Rafflecopter for the first time! I find it so user-friendly. Please enter using the Rafflecopter below. I will pick a winner on Monday the 19th, email them and announce it here. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or an alternate winner will be picked. My goal is to ship by March 21st so you can enjoy your bunny before Easter, if you are so inclined. :)  Good luck!

P.S. If you are interested in any of my other toys for sale, please visit my Toy Section.

A couple of Fresh Veggie Recipes ^_^

I have been meaning to get on the blog here and share these recipes with you for a few weeks now. Since I finally got here to post the giveaway, I thought I would share these real quickly as well. Both of them are easy to make and delicious, which makes them a winner in our house! And since we have been trying to eat more yummy veggies, they fit right into our new meal plan.

Although we don't usually ever eat them together in the same meal.

If you aren't already, I encourage you to eat organic veggies: they are so much better for you and taste far better in my opinion, too. Buying local is the best, whenever possible. I am learning to incorporate more local veggies when I can. Among other things, it ensures the freshness and supports your neighbor's businesses. :)
First one: Chicken Salad in a Pita!  Since it's the only pita I really make, it's known simply as "pitas" around here. As in, "It's pita night." I have had this recipe in my box since I was a teenager, but didn't make it until about 5 years ago. It is so refreshing! Nice for lunch or light dinner, especially on these warm days we've been having:

1 cup your favorite salad lettuce

1 cup alfalfa sprouts or pea shoots 

1 cup tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped (or shredded)

1/2 cup green bell peppers, chopped

1/4 cup of mayo (or your favorite salad dressing might work nicely)

pita pockets

1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped

As you can see, the most time consuming part of this recipe is all the chopping. If you have a super-duper chopper thingy, it would probably go pretty quickly. But I do it all the old fashioned way, so I try to save time by cooking the chicken while I am chopping all the veggies.

DIRECTIONS are pretty straightforward: just toss it all in a bowl and stuff the pitas with the salad. I highly recommend warming the pita pockets, it makes it sooo yummy when the cool salad is stuffed in the nice warm, chewy pita bread. I usually wrap 3 pitas in a towel and put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Nom nom!

The chicken definitely adds a lot of flavor, but I would say it is optional because I really feel that this could possibly stand alone as a vegetarian dish. Another option: when I made it for a vegetarian guest one night, I just added a little bit of tofu "chikin" and they said it was most acceptable.

Fun to play with this one. You can add whatever you want, basically. Joel likes a little bit of red onion if we have it around. I added some Persian cucumbers the other night and it added some extra Yum to it. :)

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The second recipe is easy-breezy. I make it at least once a week because we like it so much and never seem to get tired of it. :)

 Charity's Greek Salad:

1 tomato, chopped

2 Persian cucumbers, peeled and chopped (I get the organic Persians from TJ's)

~1/4 cup (or 2 oz.) feta cheese, crumbled

Italian dressing

That's it! You can add more or less cheese to your taste. And over time you can fine-tune the tomato/cucumber ratio as well.  

Enjoy!

Recesky

Took these yesterday and today with the Recesky.

 

Even though it's a little challenging to see through the top-end viewfinder (and it's a mirror image, so I kinda lose myself sometimes - haha), it's still a really fun camera to use. And I love the results!

I think I need to work my focusing skills on this one, though. A few of the pics I didn't share because they were a bit too blurry.

It might be awhile before I get to play with the Diana, but looking forward to that too. I have taken more photos this weekend than I have in the past 3 months probably! But I was just so excited to get out with these and get the rolls back! :)