Happy Easter! Sunday was very warm, bright and sunny. Our church's sanctuary was decorated with many lilies and tulips, and the smell of incense wafted through the building. The sun's rays poured through the stained glass windows depicting various scenes of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. The organ accompaniment, the crisp taste of the consecrated host, followed by the sweetness of the wine- attending Easter services at an Episcopal church is a rhapsody for the senses. Here are a few pictures of our day. I hope you all had a Blessed Resurrection Sunday.

Beloved, my husband brought home the cake pictured above. Along with a large tray of brownies.

There was a bakesale at his job, he said, and well, he brought me... a cake. And a large tray of brownies. 

As I mentioned earlier in this Lenten season, I gave up sweets until Easter. So I haven't so much as popped a peanut M&M since February.

And here we are, at the start of Holy Week, looking ahead to celebrating... and my husband, the man I vowed to love and honor before God, came strolling into our home with some kind of green frosted chocolate cake. And a large tray of brownies. Oh, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

One of the things I love about attending an Episcopal/Anglican church is the liturgy from The Book of Common Prayer. During the Thanksgiving season, we use prayers specifically listing the many things for which to be thankful, from life and leisure to firemen and police. The leader may say, "For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice," and the congregation will respond by saying, "We thank you, Lord" or simply, "We give thanks".

This post is a prayer of thanksgiving for my husband K and daughter Z, and the very special daddy-daughter relationship they have. This week, K and Z have come to some kind of arrangement where K would take Z's stuffed polar bear ("Ice Bear") to work with him and take pictures of the bear's adventures. I'm not sure how this set-up came to be, but it's been on, and this afternoon K sent a few pictures via text for me to share with Z:

Happy Sunday, All. Tomorrow is Zoe's third (!) birthday, but we started celebrating early. K will be at work all day tomorrow, so after a trip to the Carteret Waterfront Park (we were going to hit up a beach, but with the temp around 75 and plenty of clouds, we skipped it), we did a little celebrating at home. There was a surprisingly sturdy pinata (K had to crack it open) and candles on chocalate cupcakes made by me. On Thursday night I hung a bunch of paper lanterns from twine- I was trying to give it a summer/outdoor party feel. I lit the lanterns with tiny LED lights.