EASTER!

While the week started out with the residuals of my last weekend sickness, happily I got better as the days wore on with my energy gradually returning.  Music lessons and cello practice resumed.  We did grocery shopping.  I finally cleaned the house on Wednesday and I finally worked in the yard on Saturday.  I shuttled fourteen-year-old Chelsea to and from school for three days as her mother had emergency colon surgery last Sunday.  Steve and I worked on income taxes.  He was finally able to get his raspberry plants into the ground.  And he did a lot of shuttling for Fred Olver and Charles Tabor towards the end of the week.  

But, the big focus this week was Easter.  Steve worked all week on scripture reading assignments for today's sacrament meeting and it turned out very well.  I led the ward choir in "That Easter Morn" and I played in a string trio that accompanied the congregational hymn "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" for this morning's service.  Wednesday night was a rehearsal for the string trio.  Thursday night was our ward's Maundy Thursday service that comprised an hour of quiet contemplation and prayer with reverent background music.  I played fifteen minutes of that music on my cello with a piano accompaniment.  Friday evening Steve and I traveled to a Methodist church in Webster Groves to hear Emily sing in a small ensemble for a Tenebrae service.  It was quite beautiful and moving and Emily had a gorgeous solo at the end.  And, throughout the week we have joined Elizabeth Crippen in reading the scriptures connected with each day of Holy Week as well as watching related Bible videos.  So, it has been a beautiful week in that regard.  

Below is my Easter tree.  The ornaments are old but the tree is a saucer magnolia branch I found this year.

We have creeping phlox that I planted two years ago in the strip of ground by the street 

On Saturday, I planted more sets of creeping phlox in another front flower bed

Steve and I found some more stable pots for the two front-door evergreens and I repotted them yesterday afternoon.  The original pots narrowed so much at the bottoms that whenever we had strong winds, they tipped over.  They were also made of a faux pottery and these new ones are real terra cotta - so much heaver - and hopefully, no more tipping over.

I planted the little daffodil bulbs in the ground and replaced them with violas for my front door sitting area.

Steve and I watched a very satisfying episode 8 of Picard on Thursday night and we watched a very old version of "Treasure Island" last night.  When Steven was here a few weeks ago, he mentioned that he had recently watched it.  We actually had a VHS copy of the movie in our family video library while the kids were growing up.  Do I remember watching it with the kids?  Hardly.  I probably saw it once. I had seen a 1950 Disney version of the story and really disliked it because it was so stressful.  So, why I agreed to buy a different version is beyond me.  But, we had it and Steven liked it so he watched it again last month and I decided I needed to watch it, too.  Thanks to the public library, I did.  And, yes, this one was stressful (so much treachery and killing) but it was a good story and well executed.  Charlton Heston as Long John Silver had a great role with great lines.  In fact, there were so many cliche pirate lines throughout the movie and I wonder if Robert Lewis Stevenson originated them?  Arg...

I close with a very depressing photo of Steve's sister's front walk in Liberty, Utah (waaay up Ogden canyon).  SO - MUCH - SNOW!