Spring Decor

Ahhh, spring is finally here and the few sunny days that we had already inspired me to shuffle some things around and to get down our Easter box from the top of the garage shelf.

About a month ago the children made birdhouses at their Home Depot craft hour that they custom painted on a later day. They were thrilled to see their work on the mantle along with some flowers, a butterfly and eggs.

These eggs are from years back. In Hungary we blow out eggs and color them ... then safely tuck them away in egg cartons. They have been pleasing my eyes year after year when Easter rolls around. I also made a hole bunch with some hangers that we traditionally decorate the Easter tree with.

It must be my childhood memory, but I have to have a live branch or two part of the spring decor. I got these on our latest nature walk with the children. The quest for the perfect branch has been going on for years ... but I think I found just the right one for our dining room window. Lutza is my assistant in decorating this tree every year.

This is my Hungarian corner .... just like I remembered. I love all the colors.

Pew!

Well, it has been quite a month so far. I don't even know where my memories of these past few weeks start ... maybe by getting in an accident with three children and crashing the van, followed by injuries to two more vehicles in the family, getting the the flu first ... topped off with the stomach flu. Oh, it has been quite a month.

When mommies go down, they go down big time. I don't recall being sick in recent history this bad, to the point that I did not even want to get out of bed but still had to because my little ones needed me and felt the same pains as I did. But we made it. Lutza and Vidor are such troopers and unfortunately know the drill when tummy troubles come. But little Goo-Goo just wanted to be hugged .... when I could not even stand my own clothes touching me. I did not make - or at that matter ate - a square meal for days and got the puzzled looks from my children that 'you did not feed us dinner' after I served them toasted bagels (that's the cooking part) with cream cheese and strawberries. And when I thought things can't get worse, the washing machine quit - QUIT! When I had piles and piles of sheets, blankets pillows and towels to wash ... why could not just the dishwasher quit?? So I officially declared that it was family emergency and my darling husband (who has been working and living out of town) drove home and took care of business .... and peace returned to our house. There is a reason why God gave two parents to each child and a man for a woman!!!

So this past week has been a blur but we still got a little green spirit going. Before we all got sick, we made green salt dough for evening activity. Whoever thought about the idea of giving children dough to play with ... I owe him/her big time. Without play-dough I would never have dinner made. Lutza made this happy green witch that we dried. We also made shamrock cutouts that we painted and glittered to use for further decorating. We embellished an outside door hanger with it and I used them at school to make St. Patrick's day pins by adding a pin to the backs with hot-glue-gun.

I also found random green card stock that we cut into shamrock shapes to string on the mantle.

Since Daddy has been out of town through the week, we made the traditional St. Patrick's day dinner a week prior. Being gentle on the recovering tummies, I stayed away from fancy desserts, instead we made healthy banana muffins and decorated them to be rainbow muffins. They were pretty good. Oh, I was brave enough to cook something yesterday and I could not stop with only the main dish. So I made tapioca pudding by using coconut milk, hint of cinnamon, raisins - sounds pretty good. Cracks me up even if I just think about the faces that my children made ... Vidor - bless his heart - says "Mommy, thank you so much for making this wooonderful dessert! Is it okay if I don't eat it?". So tapioca was not a big hit in our house ;0) and I did not even have to go as far as coloring it green.

Their present - a marble racer - was greatly appreciated. It has been keeping them busy for hours every day.

And this is our St. Patrick's day portrait without Goo-Goo. He refused to participate sadly. In spite of all the troubles and challenges of this past few weeks - as Jeff said - we are still blessed and fortunate that we have not been swept away by a tsunami or fear radioactive exposure. May God bring peace to all the people in trouble around the world.