Celebration Saturday

 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!