Celebrating Easter with my family is one of my favorite days all year. I love the touch of warmth in the air and the feeling of new life all around us.Hosting Easter lunch after church is a big tradition for our family. Todd and his Dad hide Easter eggs while the his Mom and I put the finishing touches on the food. Then we watch the boys go on their Easter egg hunt. And afterward, we come in and sit down for a delicious lunch.
I love the excuse to create a tablescape and a holiday is the perfect excuse! I’ve got a house full of family, delicious food, and I want my table to reflect how excited I am about the celebration.
Over the years, I have collected a few different Easter decorations. I have these fun pastel eggs that I always use on the table. This year I found the adorable hydrangea bunnies and wanted to add those to the table. I like to run out to the craft store to find some spring-colored ribbon to add to whatever glass containers I’m using.
And I love that I can just run to the grocery store to find beautiful, fresh flowers. The pink tulips are absolutely beautiful and are the perfect pop on my table!
I picked up these fun multi-colored gingham napkins at the store for such a low price and knew that they would be the perfect way to dress up my table while still keeping it fresh and approachable.
I love the perfectly coordianted line of Chinet® Cut Crystal® premium disposable tableware. The matching plates, cups, and cutlery are convenient to use and disposable, but they are beautiful! The line is stylish and the crystal clear design features a unique swirl pattern to complement any table setting.
I love that the Chinet® Cut Crystal® tableware keeps my table looking fresh and beautiful, but that I don’t have to deal with hand-washing dishes when we’ve finished our meal. I want the freedom to play outside with my kids and look through their Easter baskets.
I put together a Pinterest board for some inspiration in putting together a perfectly coordinated spring party. The Chinet® Perfectly Coordinated Pinterest board has tons of great ideas! The clear plates are a beautiful blank canvas and easily coordinate with my decor. It also perfectly coordinates and complements everything on the menu.
How do you make your occasions perfectly coordinated? Post a comment below for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card and a Chinet® Cut Crystal® party pack.
Sweepstakes Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from This sweepstakes runs from 4/3/14 – 5/7/14. Be sure to visit the Chinet® page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!
Book Review: Fly Away
A few summers ago, I read Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah and immediately fell in love with the characters, their friendship, their stories, and their heartache. I just felt connected to them.
They reminded me of my mom and her best friends and of me and my best friends. These generations of women who lived life together and know each other’s secrets and hurts and sickness and health and love. These friendships that are like a sisterhood.
When the book Fly Away came out as a follow-up to Firefly Lane (now in paperback), I was so excited to read it. You get invested in the characters of Tully and Kate and Marah, especially since this is a book that is so relatable about friendship.
My mother has three of the most amazing friends anyone could ever imagine. They have been dear friends for three decades. They have experienced pregnancies, raising children, sending children off to college, watching kids get married, and raising grandchildren together. These women are also like second mothers to me. Looking at them brings my childhood into focus and I know that because they love my mother almost as much as I love my mother, that they would do anything for me… and this loyalty spans the generations of all of our kids.
As we’ve gone through the realization of my mother’s melanoma diagnosis and the acceptance of her condition, I’ve looked at these friendships in an entirely new light. These are the ladies that know my mom’s stories. They are the ones that she confides in when she needs someone to talk to. I am so thankful that my mom is with us. We cherish every single day and never focus on what the future holds. I know that if anything ever happens to her, her friends are the ones that I want to sit down with to share memories and secrets and stories.
I was reminded of my mom and her friends when I read Fly Away, the story of three women who need each other—plus a miracle—to transform their lives.
An emotionally-complex, heart wrenching novel about love, family, motherhood, loss, and redemption, Fly Away reminds us that where there is life, there is hope and where there is love, there is forgiveness, and Kristin Hannah reveals why she is one of the most beloved writers of our day.
To enter to win a $100 Visa gift card and a copy of Fly Away, please comment below and answer the following question: “What is your best memory with your best friend?” You can also visit the website to read an excerpt and watch a couple of videos that bring you into the world of Fly Away.
Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
- Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
- Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
- Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
- For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 4/1/2014-4/30/2014.
Be sure to visit the St. Martin’s Press brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
Family Retreat 2014
On Friday afternoon, Todd, Hudson, Hayes, and I headed to an area conference center (about an hour away) for our church’s annual family retreat.
We attended the retreat last year, and in that weekend we developed a family mission statement. It was an incredible weekend last year that really opened my eyes to the responsibility that we have not only within our family, but also the responsibility we have to reach out and across to other families.
This weekend we were surrounded by many of our friends and also got to meet lots of new friends and cultivate new friendships. We attended different seminars about raising Godly kids and growing together as a women, and finding other couples to invest in and asking other couples to mentor us. Our boys had wonderful experiences with other kiddos and leaders. And we ended the weekend by participating in the family olympics. Hudson got the top score in the “shake it to make it game!” Absolutely hilarious watching him jump around to get all of the balls out of the box.
We worshiped together and got to see kids worshiping alongside their parents.
It was a great opportunity to reflect on who we are as a family, where we want to go, how we can grow, how we can change. But, more than that, it was a great weekend of connection with other families. Of letting my kids see our interaction with other families and other couples. And knowing that my boys should feel comfortable going to those families for mentorship and fellowship.
(I love this picture of Hudson at the family olympics!)
In the past few years, we’ve been so fortunate to grow alongside other families who are raising babies and finding ourselves in the same parenting situations and marriage experiences.
This is what the body of Christ is to me. People who have my kids’ backs. People who can open their doors to our family. People who we can call when we need to talk through an issue. People we can trust to pray for us and look out for us. People who know my kids’ names and help hold them accountable and be there to talk to them when talking to mom and dad doesn’t seem like a good idea.
It was a great weekend! It rained. We didn’t get a whole lot of sleep with all of us sharing a room. There were kid meltdowns. But we were all in the same boat. Tired, melting down, and rained on, and ready to face the day and fellowship with old friends and new friends.
It was a really fun weekend for our family… followed by a ton of sleep at home!
a Wednesday night story
I started this blog because I wanted to tell stories and remember things that are important to me, and I haven’t done a lot of that lately. Some of that is because of fear. Some of it is a desire to keep some things sacred.
Wednesday nights are my favorite. I’ve mentioned that around here before, but I just love Wednesday nights. We go to church, eat supper at church, and then the kids go to AWANA for Cubbies and Puggles and I go to choir. Todd goes to the Pastor’s Bible study. It’s just a fun family night and we get to see a lot of our friends.
I’m helping with four-year-old choir now, which is really just singing songs and doing fun motions with them. It’s a fun opportunity to see Hudson in that environment and to be in a role different than “mommy.”
Last night after dinner, Todd went home to get some work done and the kids and I stayed at church. After choir was over, I went to pick up the boys. I decided to get Hayes first and had the opportunity to eavesdrop on his sweet little class.
I watched him following directions and singing songs and falling right in line with his class. And it was such a big life moment for me. I’ve spent so much time worrying about sweet Hayes and his developing speech and hearing from his therapist that he needs to work on sitting still. And in that moment, I saw that he does follow directions and does participate and is doing exactly what he needs to be doing. And there was so much freedom in that moment. My boys is growing up and I’m so proud of him.
Hayes and I walked down the hall to get Hudson, and the boys immediately started doing what brothers do and weren’t able to keep their hands to themselves. Which usually leads me to separate them and silently pray that we can make it to the parking lot without a meltdown or fight. I was holding each of their hands and Hudson stopped mid-sentence and said, “Mommy? I love you so much.”
It was as if his little stream of consciousness was suddenly interrupted and he just had to tell me right in that moment. Goodness! I should do that more often and tell other people how I feel about them right when I think it. Because it was sure nice to hear from my four-year-old.
These are the things that I don’t want to forget.
