Growing up Easter was one of those holidays that seemed to sneak up on me... at least when I was very young.  As a result I've been trying to find ways to talk more about Easter in the weeks leading up to it but to be truthful it's a struggle.

As I have been searching for ideas, I've been asking others to share their favorite ways to prepare kids for Easter, and of course that means, asking what kind of books they love!

I wasn't really a social butterfly growing up.  I'd find a few friends, and was more comfortable in the small circle of friends that resulted.  Then as a mom I started to crave adult conversation, and that desire for just a couple of close friends started to change.  I simply wanted to converse with people... so I started making more acquaintance level friends simply to have people to hang out with for an hour here or there... Granted some of these "acquaintance" friends have become super close friends.

All this to say that in order to build real relationships we have to converse with people on a regular basis.  We crave that interaction... but why?

It seems safe to say that the Creator designed us so that we would crave relationships, and that relationships would need regular communication between the parties.

The next question would have to be, then how do we communicate with our Lord?  Obvious answer: Praying....  But how do we do that?

I am an older sister to one brother.  And growing up, we didn't always see eye to eye.  I always figured it was simply because we were so different... He was into art, I was into books.  I wanted things to be ordered and in their places, he wanted to see things in a different light every day.  Now of course we get along great.  So to be honest, when my boys came alone I was curious how that dynamic would be, as it is so different from my own experience.

I might be the odd man out, but I believe my whole generation was done a disservice by the idea that we were told as young children that we could be whatever we wanted.  We simply had to go out and dream it, and then we could do it.  Even now that I have kids, I still am not sure this is the best advice I was given (and I know of many of my peers that have struggled with the realization they really couldn't be whatever they dreamed up...).

Don't hear me wrong, I want my kids to have dreams and wishes.  I want them to set goals that are lofty.  However, I feel that my job as mom is too help them find the steps to take in order to make those dreams and goals a reality, because those steps are often hard and take a good amount of time and sweat.