Easter Greetings

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter season celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord.

We cannot even begin to fathom the importance of the events that took place during that special weekend.

Because Jesus died for our sins on the cross, if we believe in Him and ask Him into our lives . . .

. . . we will live forever with Him in Heaven.

What a wonderful gift!!

Please don't let life go on another minute without receiving the gift of eternal life that Jesus has given to you.

Ask Him to forgive your sins and enter in.  It is the most important thing you could ever do.

God loves you enough that He sent His Son to die for you.

Happy Easter!!

xox

cheryl

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16 

favorites on friday

My favorite this Friday is this Friday . . . Good Friday.
Today we remember the greatest gift of all:
"I owed a debt I could not pay,
He paid a debt He did not owe."

wonderful way to teach the Easter story

Today, I bought some Resurrection Eggs from Hobby Lobby for half off. 
That is only $8.00.

If you have never heard of Resurrection Eggs before, they are a wonderful tool to help teach your children about the Easter story.

They come with a story booklet that gives a scripture passage and little story for each egg.

Some examples of what the eggs contain are . . .

a donkey that Jesus rode into town on,

a crown of thorns,

a cross,

and of course, nothing to represent the empty tomb.

Luke and I went through each egg today and he was so riveted the entire time . . . excited to see what was in the next egg and what it represented.

I highly recommend these eggs!

You can get them here for $12.99 ($4 cheaper than Amazon)if you do not have a Hobby Lobby nearby.

You can also get them at your local Christian Book Store or church bookstore. (I think WalMart also sells them.)

how to tell if an egg is fresh

Since it is Easter season . . . I have eggs on the brain.

source

I just learned (from my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Magazine) how to tell if an egg is fresh or not.

Gently place the egg in question in a bowl of cold water.

If the egg is really fresh, it should drop to the bottom of the bowl and lie on its side.

If the egg is somewhat fresh, the egg should stand on end and bob about in the water.

Eggs that float should be tossed in the trash.

Good to know!!

Also . . . check the "sell by" date. The eggs are usually good for up to two weeks past that date. 

(the number before the "sell by" date is the day of the year the eggs were packed . . . the carton below was packed on day 267 ~ Sept. 24) I learned that here.

source

The kids and I will be coloring some eggs in the next few days.  I'll make sure to use fresh ones! ;)

sweet music

Jake had to skip his baseball game to play in his orchestra concert.
That was hard for him to do, but I'm glad he did.

I must have really been enjoying the music because I totally missed the girl who threw up in her violin.
And I was even sitting in the very front row!!

How did I miss THAT?!

"third time's a charm" personalized Dollar Tree tote

OK . . . I promised you I would write a post about how to make this personalized tote that I brought to my friend who just had a baby.

I brought her dinner and I wanted to carry it over in something cute, so I dressed up this bag I got at the Dollar Tree.
She almost cried when she saw her sweet baby's name on it.
To see what I brought her for dinner, click here.

I just love these bags!! They had them in other colors as well.  They are not real durable, but they are only $1.00, so I am not complaining!!  They are similar to the kinds you can get at the grocery store for a couple dollars, but these are way cuter.

I found these iron on letters at Hobby Lobby (right next door to our Dollar Tree . . . convenient).   



I just peeled off the letters and lined them up how I wanted them . . . I didn't put them in a straight line, I like to angle them all in a whimsical manner. :)

The next step was to just place the hot iron on the letters for 15 - 20 seconds . . . and this is where I failed. 

I didn't realize that the iron was going to melt the bag.

This is what the iron looked like.

I cleaned up the iron and went back to the Dollar Tree (luckily, it is only a mile away from my house).

I tried a second time using a lower iron temp (my iron has numbers ~ I set it on 4) and using only the tip of the iron instead of the whole thing. 

That worked great . . . until I decided to turn the iron up just a tad to make sure the letters were securely ironed on.

Big mistake.

Ugh . . . just turning the iron up a tad melted the bag again.

It wasn't that bad this time . . . if you look closely, you will see a hole under the name.  Not good.

Soooo . . . this time I had my husband go back to the Dollar Tree for me (and Hobby Lobby to buy more letters!) Why didn't I just buy extra supplies the second time?? I don't know . . . next time I will.

The third time was definitely a charm . . .

the key is LOW iron temp and using JUST the tip of the iron on the letters.  (I think the bag is made out of plastic)

I love how it turned out and now that I know just what to do . . . I will be making a ton of these!!  I'm thinking party favors, beach totes, soccer bags, teacher gifts, alternative to wrapping paper, etc . . . 

So, learn from my mistakes and go make a pretty personalized (and cheap) tote!!

Thanks for stopping by!

~cheryl

I'm linking up with:

meal for a new mother

When I had my babies, I was not really connected in any church or school groups so I didn't have many people making me dinners.

When I had my third baby, two people brought dinner to me and it meant the world to me.

I felt loved.
I felt cared for.
I will never forget those two dinners or the people who made them for me.

So now I try to take new moms dinners as often as I can. 
I hope they feel as blessed as I did.

Today, I took one to a friend who had a sweet baby girl.

This is what I made:

ValSoCal's Chicken Cordon Bleu Penne
(recipe here)**note: I added another half jar of alfredo sauce and decreased the bread crumbs to 1/4 cup (I used Italian bread crumbs mixed with melted butter)

Cut Up Fruit
(doesn't it look great?? It's all from Aldi and it was cheap!)

Toffee Bars for dessert
(recipe here)

I wanted to carry it over in something cute so I found this bag at the Dollar Tree.

I ironed the baby's sweet name on the bag.

(I will make a whole post about this ironing on process because it was a big fail, not only once, but twice.  I went back to the Dollar Tree two times!  Anyway . . . I have got it down to a science now.)


I added a hair accessory for sweet Mirabelle. (can you get over that name??)

It was a blessing to me to be able to serve my friend in this way.