I think a lot of us have known this for a long time, but giving really is better than receiving. Even the scientists are figuring it out:
“Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not.”
come rain or come shine
Yesterday was the weirdest day for weather that I’ve ever experienced. We woke to a thunderstorm, which quickly turned into a hail storm. By the time we came down for breakfast, it was just dark and windy. Eventually the sun came out, and I took the kids to the supermarket - and as we stepped out of the car, it began to snow. It rarely snows here, and never in March. When we came out of the supermarket, the sun was out so full & bright that I wanted to take my coat off. We got home and had lunch, and it began to snow in earnest - it even stuck to the ground. Incredible. The day just went on like that, from one extreme to another. Hello Spring, hello global climate change.
I didn’t get much stitching done, with four kids trapped inside for the day. I started a little gift and I looked at my biscornu-in-progress. I envisioned Rowen’s birth sampler completed, framed, and hanging with her brothers’ samplers. I thought about how much I want to do the whole Hawk Run series and wondered where, in our tiny house, I would ever hang them all. Maybe borrow the rotating exhibits concept from museums? Send out little flyers announcing that this month our house will be featuring birds or houses or Quaker or …. Maybe I could even charge a nominal admittance fee for future stash. 
hippity hopping along
So what are your Easter plans this year? I fully intended to stitch gifts for the kids, and my story is that if Easter were in April, like it usually is, I would’ve succeeded. They tricked me by having it in March this year. LOL. Every year, I try to re-create Easter from my childhood, but every year I feel I’ve fallen short. Maybe you just have to be a kid to be tuned into that wavelength of expectation, joy, and surprise? When I was around 8, we lived waaaayyyyy out in the New Hampshire woods in the White Mountains in the funkiest A-frame house. The trees grew right up to the house, there were only a few dirt roads connecting those families crazy enough to live out there to the rest of the world. I loved it. Anyway, that Easter I discovered rabbit tracks outside and around the house - not so surprising, given that the rabbits probably outnumbered the humans, but it convinced me that there was indeed an Easter bunny. That year, Mom had also outdone herself on our baskets. We didn’t get much in the way of candy of chocolates, but she’d make something (that year it was yarn chicks and they were so cool!) and of course we had new clothes. We didn’t go to church, but for some reason new clothes seem to be associated with Easter.
For my kids, I’ve tried all kinds of different Easter basket themes. My personal favorite was the grow-your-own theme, where I put seeds and little gardening gloves and those tiny seed-starter peat thingies in the baskets. I thought that was a brilliant idea. The kids were less than enthusiastic, though. I’ve also tried artistic themes, where the kids get crafty stuff, but they usually have just gotten a lot of that stuff for their birthdays so it tends to be overkill. This year, I’m going with a *KISS theme (LOL!) and we’ll stick to a community basket filled with various edible yummies and, of course, an egg hunt in the morning. I make something for them every year - this year they’ll find these soft felt bunnies with pompom tails.
I’d love to hear how you celebrate Easter in your home, if it’s a holiday you recognize.
*keep it simple stupid
