Monday, March 24, 2008

Random Easter recap

Easter came too early this year. My spring decorations are still in their boxes in the basement, and winter/Valentines still reigns in my living room. For Easter to be over and done with before I’ve even registered that it is spring just seems so unbelievable.

One of my favorite days used to be the day before the time change. That first, fresh April day would dawn, and I knew that spring had arrived. Within 24 hours, the daylight would last longer, and I could look forward to evening walks with the kids, later sunsets, and spring bulbs bursting all over my yard. Now the time change comes so early that it hardly seems remarkable. The change in the air that used to come with the time change is gone. Now it’s just the drudgery of getting up an hour earlier and being grateful that it’s still dark when the kids are ready to go to bed (I will admit, that is the ONLY improvement to the new time change day). And early April and longer days and warmer weather to me is synonymous with Easter. Combine this lack of enthusiasm and constant sleepiness (I miss my extra hour of sleep!), I feel cheated that Easter is already over. What do we look forward to now? Memorial Day? Gee, thanks.

Despite all of this, Easter itself was a great day. Easter is one of the two holidays that I pull out my scriptures and we read them together as a family (the other is Christmas Eve). I look forward to reading the account in John about the Savior appearing to Mary. I love when it describes Mary’s anguish over the loss of the Lord, and how she mistakes him for the gardener. I love how he turns to her, and all he has to say is “Mary.” With that one word, she knows it is the Lord. She can’t understand yet why he is there, but she knows that something miraculous has happened and she is standing with the man that she loves and reveres. I always get a little teary as I read it, but I look forward to those few moments at breakfast each year. If I don’t get any other spiritual sustenance the rest of the day, I am happy for those few moments of reading together.

The rest of the day was spent hurrying to church and home again to get ready to visit our moms’ houses. It’s funny to me how I always know exactly what I can expect at the houses we visit on holidays. At Shane’s mom’s house, it will just be us, quietly chatting with Vonnay while the kids play. At my mom’s house, it will be chaos, with 80 million people going in 20 different directions, and all those directions trying to avoid some sort of drama. After a family gathering last weekend that was oozing in family drama, I was glad that this one was relatively drama-free (although I found out that this was due to some familial interference {read: don’t say anything about you-know-what! Whatever.}) But we had a fun Easter-egg hunt, yummy food and good conversation, so there wasn’t much to complain about.

I realized yesterday that 2008 may be the last Easter that we spend at my mom’s house, which is the house I grew up in. My dad has Alzheimers, and as it progresses there will be some changes my mom will make, and moving will eventually be one of them. It is strange to think of having Christmases and Easters and Thanksgivings anywhere else, but one day soon, it will change. I tried to be a little more thoughtful in my picture taking yesterday because of this. I took a few of the mountains as I left town, thinking that the familiar mountain face that I used to stare out at during dinner time and that has lorded over my parent’s backyard over the years will one day be looked at by a different family; a different family will be hiding eggs in my dad’s carefully-planned flower beds. A poem that Amy posted on her blog yesterday could not have been more timely.

Looking over this post, I realize it is really random. But I know I would be sad if I didn’t put these thoughts somewhere. And to keep it random, I’ll share this: I am so looking forward to tonight when I use the rest of my carefully dyed Easter eggs to make egg-salad sandwiches for dinner. My kids think it’s gross, but Shane and I love them.

I hope everyone had a great Easter! Now go and eat some of your kid's leftover candy.

1 comment:

Stephanie said...

Done. Sophie's Easter candy: gone (thanks to some sneaky snacking on my part). :-)

I totally 100% agree with you on the time change thing. It really screwed us up this year for at least a solid week. And I have been looking in vain for spring to REALLY be here, too! I actually saw a flower bed full of blooming daffodils and hyacinths this morning and was almost shocked. Flowers! There are finally spring flowers in bloom! And that's the day after Easter. When will it finally get warm?!

It's so sad to me that your dad has Alzheimer's. I can't even imagine my parent having such a terrible sickness. It will be a sad day when your mom does have to move out of her home. Our parents moved out of one of our growing up homes just before I got married, and it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I have to admit, though, that I still drive by their old home every now and then and get nostaligic about it.

Well, here's to warmer weather!