Looking for something to do with your kids to spice up your regular Easter routine? Try these (click on the titles for the links):

Resurrection Eggs (PreK-2nd Grade)

You can treat this activity like an advent calendar for Easter or go through the whole thing on Easter or from Good Friday through Easter morning.

Road to Easter (2nd-6th Grade)

This is a cut and paste timeline activity for the events that happened between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.  You can have your kids hunt through the scriptures to check their work.  Check Matthew 21, 26-28; Mark 11-16; Luke 19-24; and John 12-20.  (Those are a lot of passages, but to help your younger kids along you can glance through your section headings in your Bible and get a good idea of where to specifically send them.)

Jelly Beans Easter Poem

Try putting this into your kids Easter baskets or just as a little gift for them.  Put jelly beans into a bag and attach this poem:

RED is for the blood He gave.
GREEN is for the grass He made.
YELLOW is for the sun so bright.
ORANGE is for the edge of night.
BLACK is for the sins we made.
WHITE is for the grace he gave.
PURPLE is for His hour of sorrow.
PINK is for our new tomorrow.
A bag full of jelly beans colorful and sweet,
Is a prayer, is a promise, is a special treat.

I pray that you have a blessed time celebrating Jesus’s victory over sin and death! Jesus is risen!

He is risen, indeed!!

I was chatting with a couple of the moms from our church yesterday as one of our toddlers was melting down… we started talking about our mom anthems.

They mentioned that they really like the song “This is the Stuff” by Francesca Battistelli.  I hadn’t heard it before, so I went searching this morning.  You can listen to the song for free on her website here.  Here’s the video with the lyrics.

I love this because as moms neck-deep in the little (or big) annoying things of life, sometimes we lose the perspective that all of this stuff is what God uses to mold us and shape us and make us like Him.  In Philippians, Paul commands us to “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Then he really emphasizes it with “I will say it again: Rejoice!”  We say to our kids in the midst of complaint that the Bible tells us to be thankful in everything (which is true), but I know I forget to do that when I’m cleaning up the 8th potty-training accident of the day or am leaving the grocery store – and the cart full of groceries – while I carry a screaming, thrashing toddler out to the car.

There is a song I just love to listen to when God has stopped me in the midst of the craziness to quietly say to my heart, “Even this is sacred.” “Sacred” from the Overdressed album by Caedmon’s Call gets me every time.  The lyrics shoot right to my heart like a laser beam:

My cup runneth over
and I worry about the stain.
Teach me to run to You
like they run to me for every little thing.

When I forget to drink from you,
I can feel the banks harden.
Lord, make me like a stream
to feed the garden.

Could it be that everything is sacred?
And all this time
everything I’ve dreamed of
has been right before my eyes?

What are some songs that draw you back to God when things get overwhelming?