My children are 17 and almost 15. They sleep past noon on weekends and have attitudes and issues and we often don’t see each other’s point and of view clearly. But I love them dearly. Someday I’d like to be able to find the right words that can accurately reflect exactly what that love feels like, but for now, I’m content to just feel it.

One of the things I enjoy about being a parent is establishing traditions. We don’t have a ton of traditions and sometimes they emerge and disappear with other life changes. Today is Easter and it’s the day of one of our longest standing traditions.. the egg hunt.

When they were little it was fun to watch them run around the house (inside or out depending on the weather) looking. Z always had the advantage of being older, more mobile, and a little bit more mentallly mature to look in places C might pass by. These last few years it’s more about speed, the challenge of finding all the eggs, and the competition of who will get the most.

Some of the eggs have candy, some have coins, some have dollars, and some have rocks. Rocks??!! Yeah, there’s typically a bigger money prize like a 5 dollar bill for the person who ends up with the most rocks. Then we have one special egg. It’s called “little blue” and it is, not surprising, the tiniest blue egg. That one is the toughest to find and has the biggest prize.. a 20 dollar bill. Ole Easter Bunny giving up the big bucks $$$ today. 😜

I’ve got all the eggs locked and loaded right now but have not hid them yet. The fun this year will be that we are in a new house and have a lot of new places to hide and seek. It’s only 10am so of course the kids are still sleeping and we have a few hours yet to prepare. We’ll probably do more work outside in the yard and perhaps I’ll hide the real eggs too. It’s going to be another beautiful day out and so it will for sure be nice enough for that.

It is not lost on me that I only have a few more years to enjoy our traditions before the kids fly this nest and start to establish their own without me. I have to savor every egg hunt, movie night, game night, and Dunkin’ run that I can. Yesterday the kids helped us turn the stream on and get the patio furniture out. We had to clear a bunch of pine needles and debris blocking the path of the water. Soon, we will be moving goldfish out to the pond. The might turn into new traditions for us for at least a few years.. things Jim did with his oldest son who is away at college. And so it goes.

It’s going to be a great summer. I’m looking forward to getting out and into the garden. That part of the side-yard hasn’t seen much love in the past few years (or so it looks) and I’m gonna clean it up and get some good veg going with a healthy amount of flowers for beauty and balance. That’s my ‘solo’ tradition. I’ve been a gardener ever since I became a home owner in 1995. It’s one of my happiest places. 🌷🌸🌺🌼☀️🍅🥦🍓🍑🍎🌶🍔

That’s it for today ya’ll. Time to go hide some eggs. ❤️🥚💜 🥚 💚🥚💙🥚💛🥚🧡

Cheers to Tradition!

~Miss SugarCookie