Day # Palm Sunday and an Idea!

Palm Sunday! Our church here in Maine always gets a bunch of palms to have for Palm Sunday. While they can be terribly messy, it’s an actual visual reminder of the palms that people threw down for Jesus. I kinda missed that today. We had services online along with the rest of America today, and while it is good to hear the Word of God, I truly miss the fellowship of the believers. But...God is faithful. I pray that today you were able to find rest in Him.

An Idea!
A few nights ago, I had trouble sleeping so I was up thinking and praying. I came up with an idea of how our family might be able to bless some of the older folks in our church. Since I’m going to be making a large Easter Dinner already, I had the thought of making meals for some of the elderly in our church. Many of them don’t have family around the area, and I thought might be able to benefit from a meal. I contacted our pastor, who said “go for it”. And then I reached out to a friend (Judy)  to see if she would make phone calls to some of the folks in our church that might appreciate or need a meal. The plan is that I will make the meal, we will plate the meals, and then drop them off to the folks. There will be no contact (obviously) but it’s still a tangible way to say “we are thinking of you and we love you”. I’m actually very excited about this opportunity! I’ve thought that my love language is probably gift giving, but my friend Allison says “it’s cooking!”. Either way, I’m excited for our family to serve others, and I am planning on having our kids make cards this week. If you live in the area, and would appreciate an Easter dinner, I am more than happy to make you a meal! For real! The menu includes: ham, turkey, rolls, roasted green beans, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, pink fluff, and Asian salad. For dessert I am making Double Chocolate Bundt cake and lemon cheesecake bars...let me know if you would like a meal. There is no charge, it’s just an act of love.

I got up early today to do an actual grocery shopping run. I had thought that if I was at the grocery store right when it opened then I wouldn’t have to wait in line to get in. Crazily enough there was already a line of people before the store opened at 7am! However, I was in the first wave of people that they allowed into the store, so that was good. I had also assumed (wrongly) that the shelves would be stocked and I would be able to get everything on my list. This is my first actual make-a-list grocery store visit since this craziness started, and I quickly found out that the list didn’t matter anyways! Oh, well, we will improvise! I was happy to find milk, and was horrified at the prices of eggs! What happened?! Did the chickens quit laying during this virus!? Eggs are difficult to be without, so I bought some anyways, but we will have to use those carefully. A few weeks ago, a dozen eggs was about $1.30, and today it cost $4.39 for eighteen eggs! Now, that’s crazy! I bought many of the ingredients for our Easter dinner that I could buy a week in advance, and we will see about getting the fresh ingredients later this week. God is good. The grocery store cashiers and workers seemed calm and collected, and I greatly appreciated that. None of them were wearing gloves or a mask, and that actually helps me feel calmer. It’s bad enough to have arrows on the floor telling you which way to go down the aisles, and tape on the floor marking off six feet, and the plexiglass between you and the cashier. But, I survived!


After coming home, the boys ate breakfast of bagels. In the past we’ve often gotten a dozen bagels from our grocery store. But since I haven’t been going to the store, and we haven’t been going out on Sundays, they have missed the bagels. Everyone was happy to have bagels for breakfast...and lunch! It used to be that the customers could hand pick their own choices of bagels to make a dozen, but now you have to buy them in packages of six. Our kids favorites are the cheddar bagels and the everything bagels. We can easily go through a dozen in a day and one-half. The bagels are made fresh in the store, and they are delicious!

The sun was shining for part of the day today, which is another reason to rejoice! The kids tromped around outside, played football, and also cleaned up the yard (which is an never ending job!). Roger and I went on a walk, and we were able to talk to our neighbor for a few minutes. We had to yell across the yard, but it was good to check on our neighbor. I am thankful for those interactions. These are the moments that we need to be looking for ways to connect with others, even if it is yelling across the yard!


Maine News: The number continues to rise as we are up to 470 cases as of today. The governor has mandated that hotels, motels, campgrounds and other lodging to be closed today. We are still praying for God to do a mighty work and to stop this virus. And for patience while we wait!