Spring Flings and Easter Things

Spring Break has come and gone and Easter snuck up on us way too quickly! Is it me or was Easter really early this year?

Chapter 1: Spring Break

 It was filled with beach days, sleeping in, playing in the park and enjoying this gorgeous weather.

A ridiculously windy day in Pensacola Beach

PINK! sunglasses

Making a sandcastle

I got to have some quality time in the garden and on the sewing machine. What can I say? Spring Break was da bomb!

Leeks!

 I cooked and ate my very first leek this year and after seeing all of the amazing uses for it, I decided that I wanted to plant some. I was happy to see that they successfully grew in our crowded little garden! 

Colorful carrots!

 The kids pulled up all of the carrots to make room for our sunflowers and we yielded an insane amount! I was so pleased to see that the white, purple and yellow ones came out just fine. We roasted the carrots with the leeks for Easter dinner. It turned out delicious!

Eggplants!

Our Japanese eggplant that we planted last year survived and has started blooming again. I had Matt buy me another one just in case it didn't seem like it was going to make it, but it did. Looks like we're going to have a ton of eggplant again this year! Lucky for us we love eggplant.

Tomatos!

So my failed attempt at planting and harvesting tomatoes last year made me more determined to be successful this year. I am pleased to say that our first tomato of the season has made an appearance! There are also several flowers on our other tomato plants, so I'm hoping we will have plenty! 

Chapter 2: Easter

Easter, oh Easter... How is it that the Easter Bunny procrastinated this year? I prayed one Lenten prayer everyday hoping that the Easter Bunny would plan ahead and come to our house on time. By golly! He made it! 

Lily's Basket

Sunflower seeds, Chinese Lantern seeds and Doughnut seeds

Generally speaking, I don't like the commercialization of Easter. I wasn't raised on the belief that you get all sorts of presents and stuff like that. I don't even remember a time when I was young where my sisters and I were given actual Easter baskets except for Easter egg hunts. I mostly remember getting to pick out a beautiful Easter dress with a matching hat and going to church for what seemed like 3 hours. Now you walk into Target and you're overwhelmed with giant pre-made Easter baskets stuffed with a bunch of junk that will end up broken or in the trash. 

I love the concept of welcoming Spring during Easter and we thought it would be a good idea to put that thought into the girls' Easter baskets. We put packets of flower seeds into each basket, including a little joke: Doughnut Seeds. The kids got a good laugh out of that one! They also each got a kite, a jump rope, a magnifying glass and a chocolate bunny to eat. One kite has already been destroyed because of an unfortunate run-in with a tree and all of the chocolate bunnies have been consumed. One packet of seeds are germinating and the others are waiting their turn. 

Sophie's Basket

A cool magnifying glass, sunflower seeds and those crazy doughnut seeds again!

As always I really wanted to do something special for the kindergarten kids. They're only one step away from being big First Graders! I indulged them in making white chocolate dipped Peeps!

All in a row and in their little "nests"

Stop looking at me like that little Peep!

Ready for Kindergarten consumption

It wouldn't be Easter without dying Easter eggs! After reading an article about dying your own Easter eggs naturally, I decided that I had to try it. Even though the kids still wanted to go the Paas route, they were still excited to see how my little experiment would turn out.

What I liked most about dying eggs in this manner was that you didn't know what you would end up with. For instance, who knew that stewing you Easter eggs in red cabbage would yield a blue egg? Or that soaking your Easter egg in red wine would give your eggs a rough texture? The end result were varying shades of green and brown and the amazing blues!

Red cabbage was my favorite by far!

Children and their Paas kits have been a long winded tradition in many American households and ours was no different! Only now they offer cool little cups to hold and contain the dye and eggs. How easy is that?!

Big smiles for a Happy Easter!

They turned out beautifully and it was loads of fun! Talk about bringing back childhood memories... One of the many fun things about being a parent is showing your children the things you used to do when you were a child and then showing them how to do it themselves.

All the colors you'd find in nature!

Happy Easter!

Time is of Your Own Making

Time spent with family is time well spent.

I have to admit, the past four weeks have been a little rough. Emotionally and physically; although the former provoked the latter. So what happens when things get a little turbulent and you're not really sure what to do? You look at your challenges head on and make some changes one step at a time.

It all started when my friend Insomnia came to visit. Insomnia likes to show up uninvited during stressful times and oddly enough she helps me sort through my thoughts. She made me think about the things that made me happy. My list consisted of my family: my husband, my kids, my mom and sisters. Followed by sewing, crafting, running and bike rides. Reading, sitting in bookstores for no reason, drinking coffee, baking, quiet times. Driveway drinks with our neighbors, gardening, listening to music, listening to children play, volunteering. Good things, happy things.

The following nights of her visit consisted of the hard stuff. What am I stressed out about? Why? How can I change it? After a lot of praying and talking to Insomnia in my head, I decided that I just needed to give my burdens up to God. I didn't want them anymore. And that was when my dad decided to chime in and put my mind at ease. My dad asked me what I wanted out of life right at this moment and my immediate answer was: TIME. I want time. Time to live. Time to enjoy life. Time with my family. It seems like a reasonable request. So my dad granted it to me. He told me that maybe I should take a break from teaching Zumba, take a step back and refocus. This was the one thing I could change right away that could give me more time.

My decision to take a break from teaching couldn't have come at a better time. I guess timing really is everything. It wasn't a week into my decision that my mom learned that a lesion in her brain was causing her light-headedness and forgetfulness. It was apparent that her cancer is trying to make its way to her brain. More radiation treatments are in order and that makes me very concerned. I want more time with my mom...

I feel like I've always lived on borrowed time. Being a Navy spouse will do that to you. You do certain things because you never know when you'll move again. You wait to do things because you want to do them when your husband comes home from deployment. It is a constant struggle to live in the now, but when you come out of the past and into the present it feels good. You feel strong and that's a good feeling.

I am thankful that at least we are in a decent financial state in which I can give up a paying job that used to bring me joy. First and foremost, I am a mother and a wife and I have never grown tired of that job. In fact that is the job in which my time is most precious. Children grow up. We grow old. Our parents pass away. It's the circle of life. Time is precious and it is not to be wasted on things that bring us unhappy thoughts or experiences. There will always be bad days, bad weeks, bad months, and even bad years. But the little things that give us joy, even for just a short amount of time, are the things that matter most. Happy times are not a waste, they make our lives more meaningful.

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back."

-Harvey MacKay-