hi!  currently sitting in spyhouse in front of a great big window watching the rain come down.  i'm so glad i'm right were i am on a rainy tuesday.  i just wish they weren't blaring the fray.  ha.  i know i'm very particular about music and believe in its power to make an atmosphere so much, but i just need to let some things go.  letting it go.  ...trying really hard. ha.
anyway.  i wanted to share some pics from our easter because the day really stands out as beautiful in almost every way to me and i love sharing the things i find beautiful.

well let's start out with glorious sun, huh?!  i slept over at my parents' house in my old room the night before easter and waking up to such glory after the gray weekend was exactly right.  i just feel really strongly that the earth should pay respect to such sacred days as good friday and easter, honoring their Maker, and this year i was proud of it, haha!  it was cloudy and sprinkly on good friday and gray until easter when the sun shone in glory.  good job, earth!

haha, on the wednesday before easter at church with my high schoolers, the leaders asked us to raise our hands if we still got easter baskets, like it would be funny if high schoolers even still got them and i raised my hand with a few teenagers.  raised that hand REAL PROUD.  yes, i am almost 24 years old, and yes, that is an easter basket from my mom and dad.

my beautiful fam!  everything is made better when paige is in town.  

this freakin cheese/fruit board was as unreal as it looks!  my parents hosted easter at their house this year and they freakin blew me away.  i was like where are we??  who even are you guys??  ugh, they're so good at making everything, even food, beautiful, and it's one of the things i admire most about them.

one of my favorite moments from the day was when grandpa walked in with that lil plant!  OH!  his little collar!  i love that man so much.

i mean, COME ON.  mom made those little flag labels for each kind of cheese.  WHAT.

one thing has never been denied about the speichs... we love cheese.  LOVE cheese.  mm!  my kinda fam!

paige and dave buddies!  they are beautiful humans and they really love each other a lot.

aunt wendy made this beautiful cake for us, with flowers!!!  flowers on the cake!!  i decided for my birthday all i want is a cake covered in flowers and a bruno mars hat with twenty-four in roman numerals like the diva div i am. (;

thank you, mister sun.

that sun on my beautiful mama.  the most self- sacrificial one.

happy belated easter!  but really i think we should be celebrating easter every day.  easter is a year-round holiday, but i love that on this one day, we dress up and rest together and make/eat really good food and invited our loved ones to the table and sing songs.  that is the most beautiful thing.  i hope you celebrated really well, and if not, good news is Christ being alive is never not true, so celebrate tonight or tomorrow or the next day, huh?!

ugh, today has been hard.  i've felt just really unsettled inside and kind of like a loser in pretty much every way.  & just really lonely.  all of my dearest friendships are far away and that bums me out and i'm the worst at calling them.  i'm really not great at knowing how to spend my unplanned free time and that can give me anxiety and i've felt extra touchy and irritable and i don't know.  sharing this because i share my joys here so i want to share my blahhhhhs.  this isn't even a down, it's just nothing.  a big gray blob of a day.  haha.  i'm fine, i'm just weird and down today.  plus i think i'd love if i read this from someone else so i could say "uh huh, me too, sister, thank you and that sucks" so maybe someone else can love that i'm just layin down all the crap today.  also, since i'm already layin it all out here let me just also add that i joined match.com and it's going gr8.  and what i meant when i said it's going great is i hate it and think it's stupid and no, stonedloner, i don't text. haha! ...that was really someone's username... stoned loner.  it's fine.  i like don't want it to be sunny, i just want it to rain so the day matches how i feel. haha.  i feel like watching parks and rec so i can think about leslie knope's life and live through her friendships, but that feels sorta escapist to me and not the healthiest so i'll probs read my Bible because i'm two days behind in my reading plan anyway.  feelin like the world's #1 noob today.  thank goodness i know Jesus loves me and even likes me because otherwise this post might be a little embarrassing!  dodged a bullet there. (;

and here's a couple melodramatic pics for ya!  on this blog i really try to provide a multimedia experience for the reader (;

"radical obedience to Christ is not easy... it's not comfort, not health, not wealth, and not prosperity in this world.  radical obedience to Christ risks losing all these things.  but in the end, such risk finds its reward in Christ.  and He is more than enough for us."
david platt, radical: taking back your faith from the american dream
​(taken from my friend sam's blog... please read his blog)

today reminds me a lot of a day in june 2014.  sidney and i went to the rose gardens in minneapolis, then to a little local coffee shop off main street in hopkins before seeing the amazing spider-man in the cheap theater for the second time because helloooo, emma stone and andrew garfield!  today feels as sweet.  that was the last time i'd been to this coffee shop, and here we are today at the same place before seeing la la land again in the cheap theater (ughhh, don't even get me started... i love that movie SO much).  just reminded me of that day and this video that i made.  actually one of my favorites that i've ever made!  (kind of embarrassed by other old ones so don't look too deep into the youtube archives, k? haha)  
​here's the original post if you're curious/bored (:

yesterday cass and i made plans to meet up at this trendy waffle bar downtown for brunch after church, but quickly learned that every other diva white girl had the same idea.  ha.  so, we headed in the direction of como zoo & conservatory, because i've been dying to be amongst any kind of warm/leafy/tropical anything!  we found a random shop called "bagelry" on the way and grabbed breakfast sandwiches to go!  i'm so thankful for this dear girl, and really thankful for those plants.

saturday was my favorite day for so many reasons! paige was in town, sidney came back from her mission trip to zacatecas, mexico, and it was a wonderful sunny 60 degrees!  we ate a really good breakfast together at home and i spent the whole day outside helping my parents with yard work and exercising, and it felt soo good.  going to cub to buy pansies with my mom also stands out to me from the day.  she's such a dear friend.  in the evening, dave came over and we picked up my aunt wendy and headed to red cow for dinner as a bit of a celebration for being together, and that my mom got a new job and my dad passed his realtor licensing exam!  also paige will be gone in michigan for the summer and dave will be in florida, so it felt extra sweet to be all together.  

i love them so much i could cry.  these people are my whole world!  good, Jesus-lovin, giving, kind, funny people and i can't believe they're mine.  i want to celebrate them every day.

when we stepped outside after finishing our dinner, we headed across the street to whole foods to pick out dessert to bring back to my parents' place.  i was so happy walking in the warmth and being with those people i love so much, especially with the sun reflecting on those beautiful buildings!  a man sitting outside of whole foods asked if we were tourists because we were ooing and ahhing at the way the sun reflected the buildings and taking pictures, ahah!  

evening light in our apartment.

^ why isn't holland here all the time??? ugh.  when she left i was like, "where's holland?  she's supposed to be here." ha.  i love her so much.  can't believe i get to call her a dear friend and know her world.

free ice cream on the first day of spring with my roomie and a shot of sid on her work break at panera, the lil queen she is!  can't get enough of that kid.

the most beautiful aft turned 24 (!!!) and she was in town from madison to celebrate.  isn't she stunning?!  so much love in my heart for her.

more beautiful moments to come, every day.  life with Jesus is exponentially beautiful all the time, in the smallest, even hardest, ways.  what a King.