Saturday, April 26, 2014

Celebration Saturday

Discover. Play. Build.

 I'm so happy that Ruth Ayres started a Celebrate Link-Up on her blog!!!  I will be joining the celebration every Saturday!!
 
So much to celebrate!  I haven't blogged much lately, and I've missed it.  If I stay away from Twitter and the blog community for too long, I start to feel a little sad.  That's something to celebrate - feeling connected to this amazing community!
 
It was wonderful celebrating Easter!  We have this beautiful display of The Last Supper at our church that a few of our members made, and it gives me chills when they put it up during Lent.
 

 
 
I teach a Spiritual Gifts class at my church in which participants discover the gifts the Holy Spirit graced them with, and two of the gifts are gloriously displayed here - Craftsmanship and Creative Communications!  I celebrate when people use their spiritual gifts to glorify God!
 
On Easter weekend, we went to The Villages in Florida where my parents-in-law live.  If you've never heard of The Villages, you're missing out!  We call it Disney World for seniors. :-)  There are themed town squares, over a thousand clubs, tons of pools, golf courses, bocce ball, tennis, and shuffleboard courts, speeding biking seniors in full spandex, walkers, runners, shops, and I could go on and on.  My in-laws LOVE it there!  WE love it there! It's worth watching this video:
 
 
 
One of the most entertaining features is that everyone owns golf carts and drives them, not only to golf, but to grocery stores, friends' houses, the pool, etc.  Some of them are souped-up!  We had fun looking around a golf cart shop. 
 
                                               Libby and Katie picked out their sister carts!
 
 We tried to convince Ed's sister and brother-in-law to buy one since they
recently bought a house in The Villages, but to no avail.

We attended lovely Easter services my in-laws' Lutheran church on Sunday.   Despite the clouds and rainy weather, we had a great weekend.

2.  We had our book club on Tuesday.  We had missed two months, so we were definitely ready to meet!  I've met with this book club of five for several years now.  We meet once a month at various restaurants and have read LOTS of books together!  We were very proud to have read this year's Pulitzer Prize winner, Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, not too long ago.  When we get together, we talk about our chosen book, of course, but we also talk about our families, jobs, travels, hobbies, and pets.  One of our book club members, Cheryl, always entertains us with her chicken, alpaca, duck, and dog stories.  I'm grateful for that group!

3.  We had a spirit week at school this past week to gear up for testing.  Thursday was "Beach Day."  I HAD to celebrate one of my students.  Need I say more?

 
4.  Another student had her own celebration when she brought in a reply letter from Jennifer Nielsen!!  Gabby LOVED the Ascendance Trilogy and wanted me to mail a letter she had written for Jennifer.  It didn't take her very long to get a fantastic reply.  Want more to celebrate?  A movie is being made of The False Prince, and she's coming out with another series in the fall!  Woo-hoo!
 
5.  Margaret Simon sent me her beautiful middle grade/young adult novel, Blessen, and I fell in love with the sweet protagonist she created.  Margaret and I got to know each other through our blogs and participating in the Slice of Life meme at Two Writing Teachers.  I celebrate that friendship and how much Margaret inspires me!
 
 
I'm so happy it's a beautiful day since it's Katie's senior prom day!  Off to read YOUR celebrations!  Have a great weekend!


 

10 comments:

  1. Hope Katie has a beautiful prom! Loved your celebration!

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  2. I can't get past that photo of your student for beach day- what a character! Must have made you smile all day! We are celebrating all of this amazing Jennifer Nielsen news in our household as well. Big fans, all of us. Wonderful for your student to get a response back! Jennifer is quite amazing.

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  3. Yes, I hope it is a wonderful prom for Katie. Those golf carts are amazing. What a fun week.

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  4. Wishing Katie a wonderful prom. I recently finished The Goldfinch. It's a book that asks for a discussion. Lucky you to have your group. I hope some of my friends will read it and we will talk about it.

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  5. I love the connectedness that blogging has brought into my life as well. It's always great to hear when authors take the time to make their readers happy!

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  6. Love being a part of this grand celebration! Thanks!

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  7. Your Easter celebration sounds amazing; but, I must admit I smiled from ear to ear thinking about the Villages. I remember those ads on TV ALL THE TIME! Hope the prom is as great (for the younger set) as life at the Villages (for those of us too old for proms)!

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  8. I remember you posting about the golf carts on FB, Holly. Now I know why! Looks like you had a nice weekend. Hope Katie's prom is a beautiful time for her and her friends. Thanks for sharing all your celebrations.

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  9. What wonderful things to celebrate!! I ordered Margaret's book after reading about it here. I can't wait to read it. I hope this upcoming week brings many more things to celebrate.

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