Picked with Love

First dandelion bouquet of the season - handpicked with love from my little 6-year-old.  Is there anything sweeter?

Earth Day

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, 

we borrow it from our children." 

- Native American quote

Holiday Decorating

I may have mentioned this before, but when I was growing up, no one in my house put much effort into decorating for the holidays. For Christmas, we had a macramé Santa face that my dad had made hanging on the front door, a Christmas needlepoint on the wall (again, made by Dad!), a wreath over the fireplace and a tree in the family room -- that was it for the holiday decor... With the birth of my first child, came the birth of a holiday-decorating fiend!! I started out small at first and I have been growing and growing ever since! I absolutely love decorating for the holidays – ALL of them! I have tubs in the basement with Easter, St. Pat’s, 4^th of July (which I actually leave up from Memorial Day in May until Sept 11^th), Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations. After Christmas I take down my Santa-related Christmas decorations and my nativity scene (and the trees - we put up two) and I switch over to snowmen for the rest of January. I have a few things for Valentine’s Day, but I really need to put a little more effort into that holiday! Since having my daughters, I really enjoy making a cozy home for my family and I love to make each holiday special with decorations. I was never sure if anyone appreciated the effort (although I don’t mind – I would do it now, regardless!) until my 12-year-old told me several times that she loved how I had decorated the house for Easter. 

And my 6-year-old has obviously developed an appreciation too!  The week before Easter, I was tucking her into bed and she told me that she felt bad because she didn’t have a lot of things to decorate her room for Easter. I looked around as she said, “I only have my bunny books, my bunny rabbits, and my Easter bonnet!” And sure enough, she had pulled out any books that had bunnies on them, she had pulled out all of her stuffed rabbits, and she had put a big hat on her big, stuffed Tigger! She had placed the books and the bunnies around the room – carefully decorating for Easter! I was so tickled – she obviously got that from Mommy! Children are such little sponges – they absorb everything around them! Holiday decorating may not seem like the most important thing to do with how busy we all get, but I think it’s so important to do what you can to make your house a home for your family – to show them that they are worth the effort, and to give your children positive, happy energy to absorb!

We finally took the Easter stuff down this week and I immediately tried to think of the next holiday that I should be decorating for...  I think Memorial Day!  I'll have to put a few Spring decorations up to bridge until I bring the patriotic decorations out...

Happy Easter!

This year we had a quieter holiday than usual – our usual plans changed and we decided to do something a little low-key for a change of pace! We tend to run from place to place trying to make the rounds to visit all of the family, and while we are blessed to have so much family to get together with, this year for Easter, we thought it would be nice to do something on a smaller scale. On Friday, the girls and I had our weekly visit with Great Gram at the nursing home – we brought her some sugar-free candy, a calla lily, and a couple of bunnies to decorate her room. We had a nice visit with her – my 6-year-old read two books to us and Gram was so pleased to hear her read. 

Saturday we did some house-cleaning (my 12-year-old even voluntarily cleaned her room!) and Saturday night I did some last minute prep for Easter – I made a cute “Peeps” candle that I saw on Pinterest (where else?) and I filled eggs for my husband to hide for an Easter morning egg hunt. The girls got up early and searched for their baskets and eggs, and we went to church, had a little brunch, and spent a quiet afternoon coloring our Easter eggs and watching Easter videos. We normally try to do both of those things before Easter, but we had a lot on our plates this past week and it was actually quite fun and very festive to do it on Easter! My mom is coming up from Florida this week – we can’t wait to see her!! – and I’m planning to make a ham for a belated Easter dinner with Nana!

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

Our little 6-year-old just constantly keeps us in stitches...  Tonight's classic was "I'm buying lunch tomorrow!"  And my husband and I looked at her and said, "Oh really?"  And she said, "Yes, because it's Friday, and I always buy lunch on Friday!"  (Which is actually true, she does not like homemade pizza or most pizzeria pizza, but school pizza on Friday is apparently fabulous to her!)  So I said to my husband, "I have no cash on me."  And he said, "I have no cash."  And our daughter (who was sitting there holding Mabel, our dog) said, in a very dry tone, "Don't look at me!  I have lots of money in my piggy bank but I'm saving up for a CAT!" 

Good to know, apparently we're getting a cat!  And we need to run to the ATM...