My mother was born on Good Friday and Easter was always her favorite time.  She studied piano for many years and often spoke of the lavish Easter egg hunts her teacher threw for her pupils.  In those days there were live chicks and bunnies given away (thank heaven society realizes that is wrong now, as people do not commit to the little animals for their lives and they wind up abandoned or worse).  I have always loved Easter more than Christmas.  And hunting for Easter eggs is the ONLY type of hunting I adore!  Well, that and scavenger hunts.  I grew up in an apartment and we really did not have anywhere to go so each year I would wake up and Mama had hidden eggs all over the living room.  As I got older it became more difficult to find them all.  She had a baby grand piano and I could always count on an egg placed carefully inside the wood before the strings.  I think it was the nicest thing she ever did for me and I looked forward to it more and more with each passing year.  Now they just dump eggs on the lawn and kids scramble for them; where is the fun in that?  I am thrilled that my little girl gets to go to an elegant country club where they have the Easter Bunny, a lovely buffet, face painting, baby animals to pet, a pony to ride, and a colorful train in addition to the egg collection.  But this is the year I am going to start my mother’s tradition of a real hunt inside our home.  It will require time, patience, and thought.  I have often wished my husband would do some type of treasure hunt for me.  But of course the greatest gift any of us could ever hope to receive has already been given:  through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ who gave His life so that we all might live.  The British Cardinal Basil Hume said:

“The great gift of Easter is hope – Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.”

My little one will awaken tomorrow to an Easter basket full of goodies.  But it is my hope that she will discover the joy of eternal hope through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  His treasures abound; we have only to see them.

When I was a little girl, I insisted upon taking my beloved stuffed animals with me wherever we went.  I always started out carrying them proudly but eventually got tired of keeping up with them.  I still hold loving images in my mind’s eye of my big, strong daddy clutching an armful of stuffed animals in public without an ounce of shame.  As I got older I had to keep up with them myself or leave them at home.  Our little one is very good about remembering her things.  In this case she had her hands full carrying her new shoes and just couldn’t manage her dog, too.  Looking at my husband standing there holding my four year old’s purse took me back to cherished times and precious memories with my sweet Daddy.  I am so glad my girl will have the same experiences I had with a strong man who loves her and isn’t afraid to nuture that in whatever form it may take.  So last night her Daddy took Sparkles the husky to the car without a trace of embarrassment and my heart was full.  American author Kent Nerburn (writer of one of my favorite books, “Neither Wolf Nor Dog”) said, “It is much easier to become a father than to be one.”  God graciously allowed my husband and me to have a child together, and that child is making him into a better man.

I really don’t think it’s my age; I am just not a fan of taking pictures of myself.  I never have been.  Do I want to be in some pictures?  Certainly!  I mostly want to be in vacation photos or with my family.  But today I got the best pair of sunglasses I’ve ever bought in my life.  They fit perfect, the lenses are polarized, and you can still see my eyes through them.  I like that because I don’t like speaking with people when you cannot see their eyes.  Best of all they are my favorite colors — dark blue and silver!  I love that they’re mirrored and frankly I will not care when they are no longer trendy; I will still love them.  They do not slip, pinch, or sit whompy-jawed on my face.  They alter the color when I see out but not so as to be depressing by being too dark.  And they are titanium so they’re super light.  They don’t have a big hunk of weird plastic or huge “accents” on the side.  They’re just great sunglasses I wish I’d had for the vacation we just took on spring break.  But everything happens for a reason as well as in its own time and I am just thrilled I was able to get them.  So thrilled I snapped this selfie at a stop sign after I’d put them on.  I didn’t pose, wasn’t made up, or take 2,000 pics.  I just wanted to capture the moment and remember how incredibly happy a pair of sunglasses made me.  German-born writer Eckhart Tolle said, “The outward man is the swinging door; the inner man is the still hinge.”  My new shades have me covered inside and out; pretty cool. 😎

Call me old school, but I miss arcade games and glow in the dark ice hockey.  Thankfully my all-time favorite is still around; skeeball.  Our little one just went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese and I was shocked to find it is now more like a kiddie casino.  I have always loved the idea of earning tickets to win a prize.  There used to be SOME level of skill or modicum of thought involved in order to get tickets.  Now the games seem to have no redemption.  You just slap, slap, slap and pay money until you get enough tickets.  Recently on vacation we had to cross the casino several times going to dinner.  I saw rows upon rows of people sitting slack-jawed and staring glassy-eyed, slapping and slapping the button on the video slot machines.  They sort of resembled zombies, colored by the ever-glaring, blueish glow of the machines and seemingly unfazed by the chaos swirling around them.  I went to my first casino at 40 and knew immediately it was not for me.  Between the giant windowless, aimless wandering of it all, the flashing lights, and the constant barrage of noise it was literally too much.  My husband and I still laugh because I literally pulled him out and declared we weren’t going back in.  We blinked like dazed moles coming out of the ground walking blearily as we realized with some shock it was still sunny out.  WOW that is not a healthy environment; particularly for someone with ADD.  We had a budget and my husband slapped through his within minutes.  I’ll never forget I snatched my money back and bought two really nice looking wolf knickknacks with it instead of gambling.  I felt guilty before I realized it would have just been slapped away anyway with nothing to show for it except lost time.  I am sure casinos are great for someone good with numbers.  I am not.  So it is just not for me.  I could not possibly hope to add even the simplest amount or pay attention to cards with any sort of acuity and especially not while drinking!  I watched our little one slap, slap, slap with a frightening genetic similarity to her father and decided I’d better win her some tickets or she’d leave with nothing.  My daddy taught me skeeball when I was kid.  I do pretty well.  So I snuck away and got us enough tickets for her to get the little pink heart necklace she wanted.  I slipped them in her bag and after she was all slapped out of money her tickets were counted and she was so thrilled she could get her necklace.  She had 25 tickets left over and the pimply faced kid was about to trash the paltry amount with dismissive disdain.  Horrified, I asked Maris if I could try to get something with what she had left and she proudly said sure!  Pictured above is the little blue plastic sea star I now have as a keepsake.  Some people enjoy the experience and don’t need a take away.  I guess I really like going home with a memento at the end.  So other than an image of James Bond strolling like a panther through a casino in Monte Carlo, gambling is just not for me.  I’m going to do my best to instill the concept of earning in my daughter and thankfully “Slappy” (the hubs) has agreed he MIGHT have gotten a little too souped up in the casino that time.  I came across an unattributed quote on Pinterest once that said, “Chuck E. Cheese:  because it’s never too early to introduce your child to poor nutrition and gambling.”  Lucky for us, our little one can no longer have gluten, dairy, or eggs.  I am thankful the good Lord is watching over us.  In fact, I’d bet money on it.

When I was a little girl everyone said I should be a vet.  In those days, that really was just about the only option for someone who loved animals.  But I always knew I could not handle the sadness that accompanies being an animal doctor.  I wished I had been tougher but knew my heart could not handle it.  So to stumble my way into owning and operating a petsitting business as an adult was serendipitous.  For 16 years I have had the joy of caring for animals and I have often joked I would pill them but not shoot them (with needles).  Administering shots was not something I thought I could do and I did not want to use anyone’s fur baby as a pin cushion for the sake of making a new client.  And then along came Alamo.  For over a decade at least I have cared for his four-legged brethren (both canine and feline) and his mom recently told me he has diabetes.  Faced with losing him since I had never given anyone shots, I decided I must overcome my reticence.  I guess that year of in-vitro really got me comfortable with needles even if it was only on myself.  I know how to draw back the medicine, sterilize the area, and check the viscosity of the drugs like the back of my hand.  The real test was in not hurting Alamo.  Turns out he didn’t even flinch and I was so happy knowing I could do something to help him and his mother when she was away.  Famous French-German theologian Albert Schweitzer said, “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.”  I guess you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.  😉