The Berenstain Bears' Easter Blessing

An engaging lesson from the iconic Bear family about the true blessing of Easter-the Resurrection of Jesus. Stan and Jan Berenstain launched the Berenstain Bears books in 1962 with The Big Honey Hunt. Since that time, more than 365 Berenstain Bears books have been published, making it one of the best-selling children's series ever. Today, more than fifty years later, Mike Berenstain continues his parents' tradition of creating warm and engaging stories featuring the lovable Bear family--Papa, Mama, Brother, Sister, and Honey--now in a board book format. In The Berenstain Bears' Easter Blessings, the cubs learn about the many blessings in their lives, and especially the greatest blessing of all-the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter. The short, simple story and well-loved characters provide toddlers with a perfect introduction to this very important Christian holiday. Ages 2 to 5.

My thoughts: I loved the Berenstain Bears' when I was a young child! So, I am thrilled to see some new titles coming out to share with my own children. This board book is a great way to talk about Easter blessings with one's children, especially the greatest gift of all: Jesus Christ. My little girl has enjoyed my reading this book to her countless times already! I think it would make a wonderful gift for Easter Sunday.
I received this book from First Look in exchange for my honest review.

School has started again. On the worst possible day, might I add.;) Monday was a hectic day, with tons of orders through the three schools we provide bread for. This is a huge blessing, but it still makes Monday's busy.;) Anyway, while we were forming all the hot dog buns, hamburger buns, dinner rolls, etc, I tried to chop the tip of my thumb off. Stupid, I know.:P Thankfully, it didn't need stitched, but I did a number to it and have had butterfly band aids, along with a regular band aid on top of that, on my thumb ever since. Makes doing small tasks interesting, but better this than stitches.;)
I also came down with a cold on Monday.:P Andrew had it last week. I am hopeful that this is the last day of it being an annoyance.;)
I'm glad that this term, I only have the one math class. Next term, I am signed up for Art Appreciation, my last Algebra class, and then Intro to Business, so I will pay for having such a light load this eight weeks.;)
I discovered that I had ordered the wrong text book for my Intermediate Algebra course.:P So, today, I posted the imposter online and ordered the right one! When I first looked the correct text book up, I found it listed for over $100 at the cheapest.:P I almost ordered it off Amazon, but decided to look it up on one other site. I'm glad I did, since I found it for half the price! God is good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, since it was the one where we would either pack up and head to Kansas to be with extended family or have the whole clan over to our house. It's kind of funny that it was a bigger deal than Christmas when it came to seeing family. I suppose that is because most like to stay at home on Christmas day.:D I'm glad my in laws celebrate Christmas with all the relatives, since that is just how I like my holidays. But, I digress.:D
Other than getting together with family, I love the opportunity to reflect on those blessings that the Lord has given me. I'm a bit of a worrier by nature, so sometimes I forget all that I have been blessed with. It's a good practice to count one's blessings, not only around Thanksgiving, but throughout the year.
This year I am especially thankful for my wonderful family, both the one I was born into and my in-laws. I'm thankful for a loving husband who is there by my side. I'm thankful that we both have decent jobs, even if we do work hard.;) I have also been thinking how thankful I am for a roof over our head. A year ago today we closed on our house and, as of last month, it is all ours! When we bought the place, it hadn't been lived in for at least 9 months, so we didn't know what we were getting into. Thanks to the help of family and friends, we have been able to replace the plumbing, re-do parts of the electrical (we haven't touched the upstairs yet, since we aren't living up there), put in a new water heater, hang sheet rock in two rooms, mud walls, paint, and replace the bathroom vanity. In some respects, the inside looks like a different place! We still have our work cut out for us this coming year though.;)
Happy Thanksgiving to all my online friends! Take this opportunity to reflect on those blessings in your life.

Might not be the stuff I would choose, but this is the stuff You use. Francesca Battostelli

This winter has made me seriously reconsider my choice in a vehicle. I used to love it, but somehow, with all the Winter storms, I have lost my appreciation for my car. Why, you ask? It is rear wheel drive.
Just last week I was driving to my parents house, on the way home from work, when I wound up in the ditch. My youngest brother was in the car with me and lamented that "Every Winter I wind up in the ditch with you!". lol. (It's not quite that bad!) His comment made me realize that he was reflecting my own thoughts. Instead of realizing how blessed we were that no one was behind us when we spun all over the road, we were focusing on the inconvenience. There have been several instances like this one over the last couple weeks. Like, the time we had to cut into the newly painted wall to replace the shower fixture. It was sad to have to take a step backward. Yet, we found that some of the plumbing had been cross threaded. It was better to find that out now, rather than waiting till it caused problems!
Its made me think of the things that happen every day that I count as an inconvenience, rather than to see if for the blessing it is.

Our house! We had to fill out paperwork today to get the extension needed by the title company. So, it could be at least another thirty days before we are in it. I would complain about that, if it meant we would be on the streets once we are married, but we have been incredible blessed to have relatives offer a empty house to us until ours is ready. *confetti*
Things are coming together nicely for the big day, though I find myself making massive to-do lists of all the things we can't do until the week of.;) I just hope that I don't wind up losing one of those lists, since they are the equivalent of my brain these days.;)

So much to be thankful for

Lately, I have been rather blown away at the amount of answered prayers there have been in my life. After hearing "wait" for Dad to get a good job for so many months, he recently got hired on by a local college. I'm thrilled that he is working for a place that values all his gifts and areas of expertise! The job has been a huge blessing so far.
We are finishing up the last minute plans for the wedding, which included finally sitting down and writing up a schedule to make sure everything is done in time. (finally, those nightmares regarding a half planned wedding can stop! lol) Right after we finished, I had several friends offer to help with whatever needs to be done the week leading up to the wedding. *whew* Now I don't have to try and figure how to decorate the church with just three pairs of hands or plan on a all nighter working on flowers.;) I feel incredibly blessed by the friends I have!
Is it wrong for me to be super excited about how the cake is looking to turn out? I think it is one of the things I am most excited about, since I have had a clear picture of how I want it to turn out for so long and yet didn't think it was possible. I want the cake to taste good, and then the look is second, so I didn't want to have to go with fondant as the design seemed to call for. Well, Poppy came up with this ingenious plan to do buttercream frosting on the actual cake, but then make the flowers out of fondant. So, it will both taste good and look the way I want.:D Because, it is just wrong for the baker to have a awful tasting wedding cake. lol.
We started the gluten free bakery and it has been amazing to see the doors open for that! God has richly blessed my family.

Today has been one of those days that is filled to the brim with blessings. I found a key that I didn't know I had lost in the driveway, which is a blessing in more ways than one! I didn't have to wait till I knew it was missing (as in making a trip to the new store and finding that I didn't have a key to open it up).:)
When I opened the back porch door, I dropped a gallon of milk. Not just any gallon of milk, since we buy raw milk and it is in glass jars. So, seeing it bounce and not burst open was pretty amazing! I was happy not to have to clean milk out of the indoor/outdoor carpet and run the risk of smelling sour milk through the summer months.;)
Our a/c here at the house is now working correctly! It will be especially appreciated tomorrow, when we get home from a long day in a warm bakery.;)
I also picked a bunch of gooseberries this afternoon, to add to the basket from last week. It felt good to be outdoors, since it was relatively cool out after the storm last night.