He is alive, I am alive!

I love Easter. The older I get, the more it means something different to me than it did when I was a kid on a chocolate-marshmallow-bunny high (which I've since passed on to Noah).

For me, the best part about Easter as an adult is church. Yep, you read that right: church. I don't consider myself the most "churchy" of folks, but I do love a good Easter service. First there's the fancy clothes (when I was little, the ladies of our family always had hats & corsages on Easter Sunday...even me!), then there's the uplifting sermon, and more than anything... there's the music—beautiful, renewing music.

Even though I've reduced my singing commitment to one Sunday a month at Peace Lutheran in Gahanna, I try to always sing on Easter. And this morning, I got to do just that. As always, I got lost in the music. We don't sing too many classics at Peace, but we sing GREAT stuff.

This morning we had nearly the full Peace & Praise team—minus a handful of folks—plus the band, plus a brass ensemble and our fearless leader and pianist, Michael.

I asked David to bring Noah to watch his mom dance around like a silly woman on stage (I do that... I can't help myself), so he obliged by coming to the early service. And since he was there, I asked him to catch a few clips of our songs. I thought you might appreciate a taste of the renewal I had this morning during Peace's hour-long Easter celebration.

(Note: a little shout out to Kristen Porter Jarzecki, who's also singing in these clips. I wish David had caught her solo; she was fabulous! I'm on the far right...the one who won't stop moving, of course. Oh, and I forgot to have him record "The Wonderful Cross," but it was amazing as always. This year, I managed to sing almost every note...albeit through very blurry eyes.)

Happy Easter, everyone!