spring holidays











Do you know what is happening to time? It seems to be stretchy and rather less tangible than usual. I have been on annual leave since Good Friday and I can in all honesty not tell you what I have been doing for large parts of the days. Easter in a non-religious family is a bit of a non-event. I no longer bother with decorations or Easter traditions that I remember from growing up. The chances that any decorations are still up by Christmas are high. My mum continues to dye the most beautiful Easter eggs and I am sharing her photos she sent me of this years eggs. The younger children in particular do not share my lack of enthusiasm for Easter but this is of course due to the prospects of eating ridiculous amounts of chocolate and not any notion of spirituality or the wish to have pretty decorations in the house. Chocolate eggs are a must and this year I managed to get to the shops before they sold out. I was armed with clear instructions of what is an acceptable chocolate egg. Unfortunately, these were all wrapped in so much non recyclable plastic that I just could not bring myself to put them in my shopping trolley. It was challenging to find plastic free replacements that also satisfied my children's preferences and pointing out the fact that any blind tasting would expose their preferences as commercial nonsense was futile. Alas being the holder of the sacred visa card gives me the the upper edge and in the end, all eggs were devoured without complaint. I am of course of the conviction that any Easter chocolate should be in the shape of a bunny, as is the customs in my native land. My mum sent us all Lind't bunnies, which was very much appreciated. The four bunny families came in four gigantic cardboard boxes despite being ordered in one sitting from the same place. I have to question the sanity of the packers here. Annie also organised an Easter egg hunt in the garden. It was miraculously dry on Easter Sunday. The Easter bunny does not visit here, I find it creepy, creepier even than a bearded stranger in eccentric red clothing climbing down my chimney at Christmas.

The children are on their spring break, which is nice. Sam of course should be studying for his exams but I have not seen much evidence of brain activity. He is creating an astonishing mess though so I am fairly certain he is still alive. Sam has accepted his preferred unconditional offer for university and I can only assume that he is perfectly happy to live with the shame of performing badly in his final exams because really these don't matter now.

Annie is her cheerful self. She is hugely excited about a trip to Centre Parks next week, with her best friend's family.

James and Alistair are out on the football pitch when the weather is dry enough. They love nothing more than kicking a ball and play a match with friends. Unfortunately, the weather has been truly awful for the majority of the holidays so far and we were forced to spend more time indoors than they like. Neither is very patient with playing with their toys and more often than not, what started as a game of lego ends in chaos and argument. The mere suggestion of playing with their toys can precipitate a drama. I am sure their disadvantaged start in life has a lot to do with their inability to focus on play. Play is something that starts early and needs nourishing encouragement. It is not something they were exposed to on a daily basis until they came to live with us. Anyway, it is a sunny day today and everyone is happy.

We sorted through the boys wardrobe yesterday, it was this kind of day. Alistair has outgrown most of his clothes, literally over night. Luckily, he can now wear James's stuff. I also hauled three big bags of clothes and shoes from the attic and sorted all out. I kept much of Sam's clothes after we decided to adopt and were matched with two little boys. We also received bags full of clothing from friends and continue to receive more. I don't want to be ungrateful and take all with a smile but if I can be honest, it often goes straight to charity because I only have two little boys, not an entire football squad. It is lovely to see all of Sam's clothes in James' wardrobe though, lots of nice memories.  I filled three bags for charity. These are now in the car. I decided to keep everything else close by as I only remembered the attic treasure after I searched for a two man tent up there last week. I have now three under bed storage bags: one for shoes, one for clothes that are nearly the right size and one for clothes that will fit in a year or two. I am very pleased with that. There is no no more room under the bed for James and Alistair preferred tidying up method, which is a bonus. I have made a mental note to explore the attic some more, there might be more treasure.

Must dash, lots of non-memorable stuff to do. Dinner time is approaching fast, eek. Wish me luck, my last big meal including a Persian bulgur wheat salad and an also Persian cucumber/radish salad with orange blossom dressing didn't go down well. At least they liked the roast chicken that came with all "that fancy stuff". The leftover chicken went into a Noodle soup the next day. This was more successful.

I'll leave you with with a brief conversation I had with Sam. Thanks for stopping by. x

Sam:  "I am going to hide my Easter egg soon"
Me:    "Do you want me to hide if for you?"
Sam:  "No, it will be easier to find if I hide it myself"

Comments

  1. Sam’s egg hiding reminds me of L sticking a label on a chair in his bedroom when he was little and writing “happy birthday” on it. This was apparently in case we forgot.

    Time does disappear doesn’t it? No idea what I’ve been doing here either, apart from running.

    I so agree about plastic egg wrappers. We avoided buying it ourselves but alas received it from family members.

    Good luck with supper. Prawn and bacon pasta with veg here, cheesecake and rhubarb crumble pudding options. That must be what I’ve been doing 😬 xx

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  2. I try to hide candy from myself too, but it never works. :) I don't think we have the same kind of candy eggs here, with plastic wrappers. The ones we have here usually have foil wrappers, I just throw the foil in the recycling bin like any other foil. Our plastic eggs that we put jellybeans in for hiding in the yard are old, we use them year after year, never throwing them away. I think there's a lot of candy in Europe that we don't have here, though. Candy is actually my favorite thing to look at when I visit a market that sells "foreign" groceries; I love the Kinder eggs, especially.

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  3. Your mother's dyed eggs are really gorgeous! We didn't dye any eggs this year, but we got big chocolate bunnies for the two boys. Your two young men have the most gorgeous red hair! My sister had red hair, the only one of the 4 of us kids, and all three of her kids had red hair. I love it. We're part Scots/Irish and I'm sure that's where she got it. I really enjoy reading your posts. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  4. I was so impressed with the beautiful eggs your other dyed, I don't bother these days but it was something we used to enjoy as a family when the girls were little. Sams comment really made me smile...

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  5. What beautiful eggs your mother dyed. Easter in our house is just about the chocolate too... it was Lindt bunnies all round. I used to like organising an egg hunt when my boys were younger.

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  6. It sounds like your Easter weather was much better than ours. Love the painted eggs, something I’ve never tried, must give it a go one day. I remembere the down shifting of clothes with my three boys. Eldest always had new, middle son had his cast offs. By the time we got to youngest they looked so tatty he often had new again. Bone of contention with middle son. Enjoy the rest of your holiday before it whizzes by. B x

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  7. I am laughing so much at the last part!!! Your eggs are beautiful, I wonder how she did them. Lots of quilting going on here this Easter. You will be proud of me Christina, I am hand quilting the King Size, it is epic. No hole in my finger to report - yet! Jo xx

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  8. I'm laughing, don't want to take any chances on not being able to find that egg. I need to do some wardrobe rearranging and decluttering as well. I work best without people breathing down my neck though if you know what I mean. The littlest boy finds it very hard to part with ANYTHING. A vast amount of arguing here. Anything involving playing together outside for starters, that always goes horribly wrong. Oh it's hard sometimes. Glad you had a peaceful moment though. Your meals sound delicious. I often get people telling me they don't like what I make before they've even tried it. It's a rare day when everyone likes what I make. Wishing you a good weekend Christina. CJ xx

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  9. I'm laughing, don't want to take any chances on not being able to find that egg. I need to do some wardrobe rearranging and decluttering as well. I work best without people breathing down my neck though if you know what I mean. The littlest boy finds it very hard to part with ANYTHING. A vast amount of arguing here. Anything involving playing together outside for starters, that always goes horribly wrong. Oh it's hard sometimes. Glad you had a peaceful moment though. Your meals sound delicious. I often get people telling me they don't like what I make before they've even tried it. It's a rare day when everyone likes what I make. Wishing you a good weekend Christina. CJ xx

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    1. Yikes, sorry, don't know how I did that. Feel free to delete me. CJ xx

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  10. Completely agree about the Easter bunny. He never visited our house and we didn't perpetuate the Father Christmas myth any longer than we had to either. Your mother's eggs are beautiful.

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  11. Hey Christina,
    Just catching up here, after a hectic few weeks. Reading your lovely blog has made me think about my own, and how I have lost my way with it rather. I so enjoy reading about your family and the day to day of life at yours. You have often made reference to the hum drum of it all, but for me (and I suspect everyone else who visits here) it is far from that. I love your honesty, and feel privileged to share a glimpse into your home.
    Food for thought for me and my blog. Have a lovely rest of the week, my fiend.
    Leanne xx

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  12. Christina, I enjoyed hearing about another non-religious family's Easter. My daughter was strangely excited about Easter. For her, it is going to Grammy's house with family and doing the Easter egg hunt - reason enough for a 5 year old to be excited! I found this article pretty interesting. I knew there had to be something pagan in its roots. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/03/easter-pagan-symbolism

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  13. Easter does get a passing nod here with some minor treats for the kids. Sue puts out some Easter decorations, but she changes themes often. From Easter she will morph to spring, which I guess means no bunnies and eggs and more flowery things.

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  14. As usual an amusing honest and well written blog, you make me laugh. I do like to think about what Easter means to me (not the pagan side) but we're all different and that's ok. The truth is we all have free will. It's good to celebrate Easter with family. I like your Sam's egg hunt plan, very good. We met with friends last year to do an egg hunt and a shared meal. It was great but sam would've hated it. It took everyone absolutely ages to find their 'named' eggs. Cathy x

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  15. Ha ha I'm thinking for a non religious family that was an awesome Easter effort. Especially when you take into account the family harmony over the holidays, starting with the cute dog and cat, a relaxed son in his final school months of study, a happy daughter, food on the table, eggs to hunt and only falling apart over the lego. Love this post! Take the rest of the year off, you just won Mum of the Year award ... or an extra chocolate egg of there are any left :)
    Wren x

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  16. Hiding his own Easter egg? Sam's going to be just fine :) xx

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  17. First, your mom’s eggs are such lovely creations, christina, that it almost seems sad to destroy them by eating. We also did an egg hunt with just a few candy surprises, chocolate bunnies & Peeps and some monetary additions. Looks like your crew had a nice find of colorfully wrapped eggs. Our dinated items are taken to thrift stores here and like you, I load bags into my car ASAP to not re-think the decision to remove them from the home, whichnis now an apt with more space limitations😕

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  18. I agree with you 100% on excessive plastic and packaging! I enjoyed reading your post - sounds like all is well. Hoping the weather improves and stays that way :)

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  19. There is so much packaging and so little recycling. I at least try to be very good about that and am often found digging things out of the garbage that need to be put in the recycling bin. You weeks sounds about as chaotic as mine. We are not big Easter people but I did put up a few decorations and got a basket ready for Little B.

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Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment, I love to hear from you, I really do. I sometimes reply by email but I am not all that reliable... Christina xx

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