Give me a P, Give me a B and give me some chocolate!

It was a different Easter for me this year. For the past 5 or so years I've hosted a Good Friday dinner/observance. I would make dinner and incorporate it into a time to remember Jesus' last supper and the events leading up to Christ being crucified. We would read on the scriptures detailing Jesus' suffering and end the night knowing we would come together on Sunday to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.
Well, we joined a new House Church a month ago that meets on Friday nights. So, we decided to join in with what the HC had planned. But, Friday morning Doug and I decided to go to IMA (Indy Art Museum) to look at religious art and take time to ponder. We only found a few impactful paintings of Jesus, but we still enjoyed the time at the museum.
Spencer woke up with a fever that afternoon, so I stayed home with him and missed house church. He was sick through the weekend, so I also missed Sunday worship.
So, it was a little different this year...just forcing me to make sure I took time to remember on my own.
Ok, so why the strange title to the post? I fasted from sweets for Lent and now I can't get enough peanut butter and chocolate. Not Reeses. I want big hunks of bunny rabbit chocolate smothered in peanut butter. I've got to eat these gigantic bunnys or else Spencer will. My sister sat and watched him down a decent sized chocolate critter that sent him into a sugar coma. Maegan actually has self control, so she is content with small pieces of rationed chocolate.

Change is coming...

Investors Against Genocide (IAG) is leading a national campaign to make sure mutual funds do not make investments that contribute to genocide. They have submitted shareholder proposals to more than 50 mutual funds that ask the mutual funds to become genocide-free.

On March 19, at the first shareholder meeting on this topic, over a quarter of those who voted cast their ballots for genocide-free investing. More votes are scheduled for April 16 and May 14 at meetings where 19 Fidelity mutual funds will have a proxy ballot question on genocide-free investing.

Momentum is building for genocide-free investing. The March 19 votes received widespread press coverage including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR's Morning Edition, Fox Business News, the International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe. Additionally, AP and Reuters articles ran in regional newspapers across the country. Actress Mia Farrow and Congressman Jim McGovern along with national religious and human rights organizations including the Unitarian Universalist Association, American Jewish World Service, Physicians for Human Rights, and Genocide Intervention Network have backed the proposal. Visit www.investorsagainstgenocide.org/howtohelp for more details.

holy week

I been observing Lent season for the past 5 or 6 years. I wasn't raised with this tradition and I don't fast because I feel like I have to. The community I run with is all about not doing things because we always have or because we feel obligated. Everything we do should overflow out of a desire for loving God and others. Sometimes I don't feel like doing though, and that's when discipline helps. So, my friend Nikki asked me today what I have been experiencing this year. So, this Lent I've been blessed by a friend who has found freedom in her relationship with God and has had an 'ah ha' moment after 50 years of life. I've been comforted by remembering Jesus' experience of this same struggling life. I've also experienced some hard moments of realizing true community and friendship is hard, and it hurts sometimes. I've had a lot of thankfulness for my marriage, my kids, and my family and friends.
I hope you also take some time this week to remember. You have to be diligent, or time will pass by and it will be Easter Sunday. I used to wait until Easter Sunday to wake up and experience all the emotion of what that day stands for. I would try to grieve and celebrate all within a hour long service.
Jesus took the bread, broke it and said 'this is my body which is broken for you. When you do this, do it in the rememberance of me.'

Another Carson takes the seat

I got to work the polls yesterday for the district 7 Congressional seat.
It was a great experience. I just checked ids and signed ballots (and counted voters every hour), but I enjoyed being part of the process. We had some characters for sure. We had lots of angry people and rightfully so. For some crazy reason they decided to change where some people had been voting for 40 years. These were elderly people who lived right next to this voting site and where now being told to go vote several miles away. We had no explanation and we did take the heat for this issue. A lot of people never received notice of the change, and some people just got their notes in the mail that day. What a mess! One guy called us communists and another lady called the situation a "hot mess".