The Charms of Easter & Spring

The Easter Bunny fulfilled his yearly obligation by bringing us baskets with chocolate and pajamas, a Spring tradition that I love. 

In the afternoon, JT and I went to Colonial Park and turned our faces toward the sun and blooms.  

I made a delicious supper. 

I worried a great deal about planning holidays in the aftermath of my breakup with T, fearful it would feel lonely. But holidays were sometimes loaded for her and therefore everyone around her.  The freedom to celebrate unapologetically is a welcome change and among the challenges of the last year, that feels good to acknowledge.

Front Porch in March

Easter is the theme for this month and I am clearly ready for some Easter warmth, as I set out the decorations on the first of the month when plenty of snow could still be seen in the yard.  The cast iron bunny is back on duty for the coming warm days.

There is an Easter basket, my tin lamb,  and pastel colors to keep the bunny company.  The Easter wreath is on the door and the Easter flag is in the breeze.

The day’s light is steadily growing and with it comes the prospect of daffodils and crocuses later this month.  That is happy, y’all!

Easter

Easter is my most favorite cooking holiday and pandemic or not, I was ready.  

There was ham, mac & cheese, potato casserole, Spring salad, hot rolls, deviled eggs, and bread & butter pickles.  For dessert, I made lemon cakelets in the shape of bunnies. 

We had a delicious supper and ate with the windows open so that we could hear the birds chirping.  All the leftovers fit in the fridge for a second meal later this week.  Last year, JT wasn’t home for Easter and I missed him.  This year, circumstances being what they are, he is home. We are well and very aware of all the blessings in our lives.  This year, that feels like an abundance  and I can't help but think that there is a lesson in that reality.  Happy Easter, y'all!

Front Porch in April

Usually, I set out each month’s porch decorations right on the 1st pf the month.  But this month, between the cold weather and my stay-at-home status, I was a little late getting my act together.  The bunny flag and Easter egg wreath stayed out because I love them.  

The table got an Easter basket and Easter florals.

I’m trying not to lose sight of my cherished habits in the new normal that is staying at home.  I know being home won’t last forever and it’s easier to manage if I combine it with some of my happiest habits.  So the front porch is cheery, even if we rarely leave the house to see it.

Happy Easter!

This is my first Easter weekend without JT at home and I’ll miss his appreciation of his Easter basket (though I won’t miss the candy wrappers he’d leave lying about).  I sent him a box of candy earlier in the week; I'll have a small package for him when I see him next week.  T and I will have our Easter supper together.  It will be lovely; holidays together are always nice.  My day will also be filled with memories of the days when an eager little boy scampered around the yard in search of plastic eggs filled with candy.  We’ll surely think about the avid hunter, Pesky the squirrel.  This year’s flowers and blooms would have provided perfect cover for the hidden treats.  

Things are lovely; with more blooms and green with each day.

I hope that Spring in your corner of the world is just as pretty as it is here.  

Easter Celebrations

In addition to some chirping birds and watery morning sunlight, the Easter Bunny brought us some Easter baskets.  This one was a gift to me from my craft friend TO, who made these beautiful eggs and tucked them in a basket.  It was a lovely addition to our table!

I filled this basket for A, who cheerfully puts up with our family and should have a chocolate reward for her troubles.

T got some sweet treats because she is sweet to me.

JT had a basket full of candy and some new pajamas because in our house the Easter Bunny brings pajamas.  

There was a family supper with ham and all the fixings.

In this house, Easter is a celebration of Spring.  That’s happy!

Easter Traditions

The Easter Bunny still delivers candy at our house and so JT’s basket was set out last night and had plenty of treats come the morning.  T also received a little something from the bunny, because treats are always happy.  

I miss the days when JT would hunt the garden for plastic eggs filled with candy, but other traditions of the holiday are still pleasing.  I love holiday cooking and Easter is no exception to that rule.  I had a three day weekend for the holiday and the extra day off was a blessing that found me with the time I needed to prepare our holiday meals in a leisurely fashion.  We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, made from a recipe T has from her grandmother.  These rolls are incredibly delicious and a reminder of family.  The whole house smells amazing when they bake, a scent that reminds T of a beloved grandmother, so that’s most happy.  

For our Easter supper, there was ham, a potato casserole recipe that comes from my family (they’re called funeral potatoes because the original recipe was obtained from a funeral supper and the smell of them baking spells holiday for me), rolls, and asparagus.  We also enjoyed an embarrassing amount of deviled eggs because of course we did.

Holiday traditions like this are one of the things that I love best, a happy reminder of family and a chance to enjoy the traditions that make life rich. 

April Front Porch

Around here, mild Winters can sometimes result in a slow arriving Spring, as has been the case for the last few years.  A big snowstorm in March, just days before the official arrival of Spring, had me nervous that this year would follow the same routine and that Spring would arrive in an agonizingly slow fashion.  

In mid-March, our Spring Break was rather cold and we’ve had a great deal of rain since then but it’s been accompanied by some sunny days in the 50s and 60s.  This week’s forecast looks quite promising for more of the mild sunlight that will set us up for verdant blooms before this month has ended.  My April front porch is ready to show the way, with plenty of fresh white flowers and a cheery purple ribbon on Flopsy, my cast iron bunny.

Easter is next week and I love the look of this wreath on my front door, so it stays for April.

The bunny flag is keeping time with the breezy days.

This month, I replaced the front porch lights with a string of Edison bulbs.  I love the look of these bulbs and in the evening they provide a warm and welcoming light for the porch.  I’ve had them for a few months and was excited to finally hang them up; they light up as lovely as I imagined.

And that is really the theme for my feelings about Spring, I think.  In the Winter, I thumb through my garden catalogs and imagine how lovely Spring will be.  Then it arrives and it’s even nicer than I imagined.  That’s happy!

Easter Traditions

I must confess that I miss the Easter mornings that featured an excited little boy scurrying outside in his pajamas to collect plastic eggs full of candy.  Those days are gone; sleeping in is now the order of a weekend morning.  Even so, the big boy set out his basket with expectations of a candy on-slaught to be provided without any labor on his part.

The Easter Bunny delivered and there were treats for everyone, of course.

One of the greatest pleasures of my adult life is the planning and execution of holiday traditions.  Easter’s annual celebration of new life and awakenings is a happy event in Sassafras House; one that I use to remind myself of the many blessings in my world.   Later today, we’ll have our Easter supper, one that features favorite dishes old and new.  But the most important thing at my table are loved ones.

Happy, Happy

I collected these hand-carved wooden bunnies when I lived in Nebraska.  As Easter approaches, I set them out and enjoy their company.  I first bought the carvings simply because they were cute and I love rabbits.  But as my collection grew and years passed, the bunnies came to be a reminder of the passing years.  When JT was small, the bunnies were placed on a higher shelf.  Toddler JT  liked to gently hold each bunny in his hands; sometimes I’d let him tuck one of the more durable rabbits in his pocket.  Their presence in this window sill (next to some framed family pictures) is both a reminder of Spring and a tour of some very happy memories.

Amidst the Chaos

I always forget the degree to which life goes insane just as spring takes off.  There is baseball and the start of end-of-the-year school events.  Add in final projects and assignments to be complete and the school year seems to come to a roaring close.

A mama like me needs a moment of zen in the midst of the hurry and these were mine last weekend.  I added some ribbon to craft paper eggs and dumped them all in a polka dot bucket.  

I added some pretty packages.

Cheerful is always happy.

Easter Sunday

The evening before Easter and our annual backyard Easter egg candy hunt, JT made an effort to skip the hunt, by suggesting that the Easter Bunny should just leave the candy in his basket.  I put the kabosh on JT's work stoppage efforts because I'm a killjoy.  There is an established division of labor at Sassafras House and it is expected that children will hunt for the candy.  The basket itself is readily available, and contains pajamas and a chocolate bunny, in keeping with long-standing Easter tradition.

But the rest of the candy must be searched out and the searcher's goal is to find the eggs that are obviously "hidden".

As well as those that were more subtly located.

Note that none of the candy eggs were hidden in the poison ivy patch, because T and I are nice like that.  Pesky didn't actually help with the hunt this year, though his power was invoked.

It was hard labor, though the boy survived.  At least he didn't have to hunt for Easter supper, which could be easily found on the dining room table.

Our day started with sunlight and though there is now a rainstorm, I remain convinced that warmer days are headed our way.  That's happy!