Happy Monday! Hope you had a wonderful weekend full of LIFE, love, fresh air, and lots & lots of Easter candy :) :) My family was in town to celebrate Easter & my dad’s birthday, and it was a blast!!! I love getting to show people around Cleveland — weekend visits typically involve going out to eat WAY too many times, but what else can you expect from a city packed with DELICIOUS foods, eclectic tastes, & tasty beers!? Yummm :) I also whipped up some homemade eggs benny for the family Easter morning, and it was quite tasty if I do say so myself! Who knew Hollandaise sauce had so. much. butter.?!

As always, things I’m loving this Monday morning:

1. My family. While we are a crazy bunch, it is always such a joy to get together with all my siblings — no one could ever say the Malloy family is boring, and that’s the truth!!! I don’t have a great every-day bag to safely tote my camera when not shooting a session YET (yet is the key word there, Kelly Moore bag: I’m coming for you.), so most pictures from the weekend were iPhone style. HOWEVER we did bust out my camera for a few Easter morning pictures, and they were a pretty good reflection of our family style :P

Haha!

I’m also loving this song — Hillsong is a great way to start any day, but this one especially hit the spot yesterday as we reflected on the power and GRACE of Easter! Give it a listen :)

And, while this is not really just a Monday kind of thing, I’m loving this stud & felt he deserved a shout-out :) Plus I really liked this picture my mom snapped of us! He’s a cutie, and I am so thankful for Chris’s laughter, creativity, encouragement, and FUN!

The next shout-out goes to my new favorite Easter candy: chewy sprees. Definitely in love. Normally I’m more of a chocolate girl, but for some reason these bad boys are stealing the spotlight! Soooo tasty :)

And finally, I’m loving goosebump, BAM! kinda moments at church. Yesterday, Journey played a quick video pre-sermon, and it kept coming back to the question the Angels posed on the morning of the Resurrection:

Why do you seek the living among the dead? Luke 24:5

While meant to be read literally, I LOVE how it applies to life NOW, 2000+ years later. Why do we seek the living among the dead? Why do we seek LIFE among things that only bring death? I often feel pulled to find my worth and satisfaction in things that quite simply were not made to fulfill those roles. Jesus promises life to the FULLEST, but we still continue to seek that very life in places that are dead. I don’t know about you, but there is nothing worse than feeling flat. I’m all about a FULL life. How awesome is it that that is our God’s desire for us too?! One of my favorite quotes from C.S Lewis relates to this idea…

“If there lurks
in most modern minds the notion that to
desire our own good and earnestly to hope
for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I
submit that this notion has crept in from
Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the
Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the
unblushing promises of reward and the
staggering nature of the rewards promised
in the Gospels, it would seem that Our
Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but
too weak. We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink and sex and
ambition when infinite joy is offered us,
like an ignorant child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum because he
cannot imagine what is meant by the offer
of a holiday at the sea.We are far too easily pleased.”

Deep stuff for a Monday morning, and I’m loving every second of it :)

OH, and I know I said “finally” up there, but a quick last thing I’m loving is this 4 day weekend :) Not quite sure why Lakewood has today off, but I’ll take it!!! Now I’m off to adventure around, do some chores, and finish some grades! Woohoo!

Happy Monday! May you put a little love in your day & seek LIFE in all the right ways!

–Sam