Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!!!

That's me in dress number two for the day. The first dress I tried on- the one I had planned on wearing today, did not look right this morning when I put it on....which created a mini-meltdown for Kendra.

And then, upon realizing we were going to be late for the early service time of hymns and praise our Church was having this morning, my mini-meltdown went on to become a full scale def-con-five meltdown.

Like Beth Moore says, sometimes when you are feeling overwhelmed in life, you need to schedule in some tantrum time. And this morning I became overly aware that I had neglected to do so.

Satan just swarmed my thoughts with feelings of unworthiness and inadequacies...and isn't that just like him? Trying to steal my joy on Easter Sunday, on the day we celebrate our Risen King.

He's got some nerve.

As I fixed my eye make up and put together outfit number two, I was reminded how often joy is a choice.

Sometimes, joy comes naturally.

Sometimes, it needs to be mustered up.

So, after throwing myself a little pity party (at which I not only hosted but was also the only attendee) I did my best to choose to be joyful.

Luckily I didn't have to work at it too long =). Our Easter service this morning was wonderful!! I just loved singing Praise songs and hearing the message today. It was thought provoking, and worshipful.

After Church we headed to Salem to continue to celebrate Easter with David's family, which involved a lot of this:...which of course always brings me joy!!!

I tried out two new recipes, one of which was SO easy and SOOO tasty, I thought I'd share it here:

Paula Deen's Toffee Brownies

Ingredients:

• -3 (6oz) candy bars with almonds and toffee chips (I took Paula's recommendation and used Hershey Symphony bars)
• -Vegetable oil cooking spray
• -1 (17.6 oz) package brownie mix
• -Eggs, oil, and any other requirements listed on brownie mix box

Directions:

Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions.

Line a 13 by 9-inch cake pan with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable oil cooking spray. Spoon in half of the brownie batter and smooth with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Place the candy bars side by side on top of the batter. Cover with the remaining batter.

Bake according to package directions. Let cool completely, then lift from the pan using the edges of the foil. This makes it easy to cut the brownies into squares.

I must say, that whole "line the pan with foil and then spray the foil" thing is GENIUS!! The foil just lifted right out and I was able to cut them into beautiful, perfect squares!!!!!

I did have to bake mine longer than the brownie box had said, as the middle wasn't fully cooked at that time (due to the candy bar I assume), and I also put mine in the fridge for a bit even after they had cooled down just to firm them up a bit. But even with those minor adjustments, they were soooo easy and quite tasty!!!!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday celebrating our Risen Lord!!!!!!

Oh, and seriously, have you EVER seen anything cuter than this???