Mason 365: Day 4

Let's Just Pretend It's Still Saturday.

Holy Week is always both truly inspiring and entirely draining for me.

Today's going pretty well so far (I say so far even though it's almost midnight and I'm probably the only person I know who is still awake) because before I can go to bed I still have to: finish this post, clean, prepare Easter baskets, decorate the "Easter Tree" (oh it's happening Tracie; I'll take the pictures when it's all done,) get dress clothes washed and laid out, and possibly build some puzzles (long story; Easter-related though.))

• I took the kids grocery shopping this morning for the first time in who knows how long - and despite the $270 cart-full I came out with I, of course, still forgot my average of at least 6 items. I can't even seem to leave the store with what I need when it's on the list! I start looking at it and talking to the kids and getting all confused and before I know it - home - with no waffles, no maple syrup, no cat food, no frozen veggies, no chicken, no milk, no nothin'. But that's okay. It took me long enough just to put away the stuff I actually did buy.

• Other than the food shopping we pretty much spent the day just cleaning and arguing ...and dying Easter Eggs! They don't look all that awesome, but we had a fun and surprisingly stress-free time making them. I found this recipe where you use just food coloring and water and a little white vinegar to dye the eggs. I was really egg-cited about how well it worked out - until I went into the Easter decoration bin and found about 15 of those little color tablets left over from last year. I'm always kind of frustrated with them, though, because you can never tell what color they really are until you get them in the water. At least this way the kids got the egg-act colors they wanted. (Yeah I know that's annoying, but I'm pretty egg-hausted, so I'm probably not going to stop.) Logan and Julianne both wanted blue and Logan wanted blue for Mason as well. When I asked Corinne what color she wanted she said, "purple." Another egg-citing development! I really expected her to say 'blue' because she tends to just repeat what other people say, but she made the decision all by herself (!) and she even pronounced the word 'purple' with surprising clarity.

• One of today's many and varied highlights occurred at the end of the Easter Vigil, when Fr. Ken wished us all a "very blessed Christmas." It was nice to be in the company of another person who is noticeably feeling the effects of the Holy Week Frazzle (and, as Zach's aunt pointed out, we do still have our tree up (another story for another day.)) 

Fr. Ken blamed the weather for his confusion.
For mine... I blame the kids.

I let the kids put their own eggs in the bowl and scoop them back out again.
This was a pretty big gamble since we only boiled four - one for each kid.
(Nobody much likes to eat them at our house.)

I thought they were going to break them all right out of the gate,
but they waited until slightly later...
to be continued...

(Julianne's in this pouty won't-smile-for-pictures stage.
They all go through this at least once or twice prior to age 5 and she couldn't have timed hers better.
After all, who wants to look at pictures of happy kids on Easter anyway.)

This was supposed to be a picture of Mason "dying Easter Eggs"
(i.e. fast asleep in the monkey bouncer)
but the kids woke him up before I could snap it.

Three of the finished eggs (Logan was still working on his)
while Corinne's was still intact...
another  mysterious clue...