I hope everyone had an amazing Easter and enjoyed time with their family and friends! This year was the first Easter that I had to work, so my family and I planned to spread out some of our Easter traditions throughout the week!

It also happened to be my older sister Sarah's birthday this past week, and my younger sister Emily had Good Friday off, (she's a 3rd grade teacher), so turned out to be a wonderful week with lots of time spent with my family!

Since I had so many 'celebrations' this week, I decided to share a weeks worth of 'highlights' on this Daily Dish post, as opposed to just a single day! So here you have it...The Daily Dish~ Easter Week!

Because I work the afternoon shift at work, my family and I were able to spend Easter morning together! We attended the early church service, which was awesome, because it was truly a celebration of our Savior Jesus~ (Hey thats what Easter is all about after all!)

We came home and whipped up a quick Easter brunch! I made my Light and Fluffy Pancakes...

paired with hard boiled eggs, chocolate biscotti, coffee...

and sliced strawberries! It was delicious!

And as good as the food was, nothing is as good as celebrating our Risen King with my wonderful family!

And as always, mom decorated the table so very cute!

This week we also took some time to decorate eggs... Because let's face it...It wouldn't be Easter without coloring eggs!

And we had a few hard boiled eggs for a snack! I made my egg salad with 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, and about a teaspoon of miracle whip and mustard! I baked up a low carb wrap (I seasoned it with a sea salt/garlic mix and parmesan) to put the egg salad on! Yumm!!!

We also made/exchanged Easter baskets! We filled them with all kinds of goodies, including a few treats, but I enjoy the non-edible gifts best, (after all~ they last longer)! :)

One of my favorite gifts to give/receive is scrapbooking stuff! It's one of my favorite hobbies, (besides cooking/baking of course), and it makes for a great gift!

Emily and I go together with a friend on her day off, and we spent the day scrapbooking!

Sarah's birthday was Wednesday, so we went to her house for a 'Family Birthday Tradition' where we whipped up some Shish Kabob and sang "Stolat" (the Polish version of Happy Birthday) over a Dashing Dish Ice Cream Cake!

And here's another little treat that surprised us this past week here in Michigan...SNOW!!! Yep~ about 2-4 inches to be exact! CRAZY huh!?!

I am personally so grateful to Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins, but the amazing thing is...He did it for you too! And what's even more amazing is that He did so much more than wash away our sins when He went to the cross.

The bible explains what exactly Jesus did when He he was crucified, and it just takes my breath away! He not only bore our sins, but the bible says that when He went to the cross He carried our weakness, and was weighed down with our sorrows. He was beaten so we could be WHOLE...and whipped so we could be HEALED!

4Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;

it was our sorrows that weighed him down.

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,

a punishment for his own sins!

5But he was pierced for our rebellion,

crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

He was whipped so we could be healed.

6All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

We have left God’s paths to follow our own.

Yet the LORD laid on him

the sins of us all.

(Isaiah 53)

So if you are like every human being and have weaknesses, and sorrows... and are looking for healing and wholeness, I challenge you to come to Jesus. He bore it all for you and me to have complete freedom and restoration from anything and everything life brings our way.

Jesus did not promise a life free from pain, infact He told us in his word that, "In this world you will have trouble..." But He followed this statement with, "Take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Which means that no matter what we go through in this life, we can overcome it with Jesus!

I'm living proof that there is nothing too big or small that you can't overcome with Jesus by your side! If you don't know Him personally, just ask Him to reveal himself to you, and I can promise He will! After all, He didn't die for you and I only to keep Himself a secret! He loves you so much and wants to reveal Himself to you more than you even want to know Him!

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)