Easter

Like every Christian parent out there, I have spent the last while thinking about Easter and how to make it *special* for my children...in other words, how to talk to them about Christ, what kind of traditions I want to make sure we have, what sort of amazing foods I'm going to prepare, even what their Easter baskets will hold and how they'll look on Sunday.  Now, here it is, Easter, and my hopes for the picture perfect time are not going to come to fruition, and I'm totally okay with that.  I'll tell you why; I've learned that you need to have realistic expectations.

My 'must have' Easter list included new clothing for everyone, washed, ironed, and beautiful and all of our family posed for a picture.  I accomplished new clothing for the children, but not for my husband and I, and I skipped pretty shoes for the girls.  The clothes are washed, and it's possible they'll be ironed, and someone will take a picture of us.

I intended to produce Martha Stewart-esque baskets, which did not happen.

I had several cool Easter crafts lined up - what we managed to do was dye some eggs and decorate Easter cookies with store bought icing.

And so on.  It isn't important!  I have been working all Lent at learning to be more mindful and contemplative and now, faced with Easter that doesn't look like my plans, I'm okay.  We discussed the Easter story, which was the most important part anyway, and I spent a reasonable amount of time doing 'Easter stuff' with the children, without totally upending my daily life, and I touched on the traditions.