I hope you all had fabulous weekends! Mine was superb. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my special decisions. I will have to get to the date night one in my next post, because in today’s post it’s all about recapping the special holiday. 🙂

Sunday morning, we all got purtied up for church service.

As I expected, going to worship on such a special day had me all emotional. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t tear up at an Easter service. I take that back – I actually tear up in many worship services. What can I say? God’s love never ceases to amaze me.

After church, we went out for brunch with my family.

We had coupons my family wanted to use to save some money. For IHOP. I never really had a problem with IHOP before, but it’s been awhile since I have eaten there. Let’s just say my tastes have changed. I hated it! I ordered the Nutella crepe which came with banana and topped with strawberries according to the menu. This is what I got…

The crepe may have tasted good. I don’t really know because all I tasted was strawberry juice with unnecessary whipped topping. Plus flimsy bacon with cold, dry eggs. Sound delicious? I ate it because it was 12:30 by this point and all I had eaten was a small bowl of cheerios 5 hours earlier. I just know that, from now on, I will go with my gut to pay the extra $10 for brunch at The Flying Biscuit. At least I had time with family!

An early dinner with Peter’s family made up for it all though. We did the normal Italian thing there with a large get together and copious amounts of pasta, salad, and sweets. I had some ravioli, garlic bread, half a spicy sausage, and some salad for my meal.

Then, we let things digest for awhile with lots of chatting, goofing around, and preparing for fun with the kiddies. More egg hunts! M has certainly caught on and was on a mission to fill her basket.

The day finally finished off with sweet treats. I ended up making the triple layer cookies & cream bars per Peter’s request and they seemed to be a hit again. I nabbed one for my plate, along with a vanilla cupcake with lemon frosting (courtesy of my sis-in-law), and a small bite of lemon cake.

I was actually happy that I didn’t overstuff myself with the sweets, which I can easily do on special occasions. I know I would have if sweets were what I had given up for Lent!Speaking of which, I wanted to finally share some things with you all.

For Lent, I gave up some of my morning “me time” and viewing blogging as more than a hobby. What does that mean? For starters, instead of waking up around 6 am to type up a morning blog post for the day, I traded in the blog writing for time in prayer or to read my Bible and devotional. That meant only having time during naps to prep posts…which in turn meant me dropping to posting typically only once per day instead of twice per day like often before.

During Lent I also gave up checking any and all blog stats. Page views, subscribers, ad revenue, etc. I had come to a place where I no longer cared about “building my blog” and I wanted to make certain my actions reflected that. My view of blog success had changed – because I admit to getting caught in the appeal of growing my readership - and I took the 40 days of Lent to solidify that change in perspective. To me, blog success has nothing to do with popularity and page views. Blog success for me is the following:

• having the opportunity to share my passions
• creating mutually beneficial relationships with readers/bloggers
• perhaps motivate someone in the process – to care for their health, grow closer in their relationship with God & Jesus, take on pregnancy with a fun approach, adopt a more positive daily attitude, etc

The past 40 days confirmed for me even more that while my path does involve blogging and sharing my story (from overcoming binging to my faith to motherhood to my weight loss), it is no longer my GOAL. My goal is to ever grow closer to the God who loves me. My goal is to have the strongest relationship I can with all my loved ones.

My goal is to live a healthy, fun-filled life. My goal is to inspire others to health and hopefully one day pursue something along the lines of personal training. Instead of trying to one day reach the point to blog for some income, I hope to continue living my life and fit blogging in where it will. The money it brings can simply add to my life – you know…funding things like races and blog conferences and dinners out. 😉

I guess what I’m trying to share is that Lent means so much more to me than going 40 days without something. It means sacrificing something so you can learn and grow during that time. I know I did. I hope, with or without Lent, you have strived to learn and grow personally too. And that you always strive for the most fulfilling life possible – whatever that may be to you!

• Heavy: What’s something important you have learned recently?
• Light: What was the best thing you ate this weekend?

Happy Easter to those out there celebrating! For me, this is such a glorious day and actually my favorite out of all the holidays when it comes to the meaning behind the celebration. Since Jesus loved us all so fully, I wanted to share a self-love reflection that would coincide with his number one message – to love others! This message is for everyone, regardless of beliefs. Love is such a powerful force. Use it for good in your life.

[source]

I have already shared how important it is to recognize others’ love for us. You might remember that one. It was probably my personal favorite of this series because I felt it so deeply. Accepting love from others can threaten the walls we build around ourselves. We fear breaking down all our defenses because it may reveal our weakness, hurt, and shame. We cannot keep those defenses though. Not only do they make it hard to accept love from others, but they also make it hard to give love to others.

When I lived my life secluded in the hard shell of depression, binging, and negativity, not only could I not see others reach out to me but I didn’t want to reach out to them. I hated my loneliness  but I put on a happy face as much as possible to appease others so they wouldn’t come too close. I felt I had no love to give.

[source]

My faith and allowing myself to attempt new relationships played a large part in opening my eyes to the importance of loving others. It started with loving Peter and not wanting to hurt him. It grew with not wanting to pretend in front of others. It grew even more when I got more involved in the church and built up amazing relationships there. Not only did I learn people could care about me, but also I cared about them. Doing things to uplift them helped me feel good too. Then it became this never-ending cycle that continued to build upon itself.

Now, I love hard. I care so greatly for the obvious contenders – my husband and my children, my parents and siblings, my close friends. I also truly love people I’ve never even met. You all. I feel blessed to have met some of you and hope to get the chance to meet each one of you, but even if our paths never physically cross I honestly don’t know what I would do without you and wish the best for each of you. I hope you know that.

[source]

I even extend my love to strangers. I believe in random acts of kindness, the power of a smile, and how a polite conversation with someone for even just one minute can make a difference. And I always feel better about the world and myself after such actions. The only way to feel love deep down is to give it and receive it. It’s what we were made to do. If we deny that part of ourselves something will always feel missing, making it that much harder to fully love ourselves.

How are you going to show love to someone this weekend? We have numerous people in our lives to love…be open to all! Have a fabulous Sunday!

[source]