As I sit to write this column Easter has just passed and I found myself spending quite a bit of time looking at pictures on Instagram and Facebook. It was such a sweet thing to be able to see the children, and in some cases grandchildren, of people I hold dear in my heart. In just about every picture everyone is dressed in their Easter best, smiling and looking at the camera. I just stare in wonder and wonder, how did they do that? I am telling you it is proof miracles still happen!
Now, for you mommas out there that did not get that perfect Easter picture because “Johnny” got paint all over his outfit while doing his craft in Sunday School that morning, or because you couldn’t get all the children to look at the camera at the same time for even one second, believe me I feel your pain. You see, I thought I had taken a perfect picture of my husband and boys following our Easter dinner. But upon closer inspection of said picture I discovered my dear Dillon had a toothpick hanging out of his mouth.
What is a momma to do? Well, for sure don’t crop the picture too tight. And hope no one will notice.
I am told there are magic programs these days that can remove toothpicks and various other undesirable things. They can even take your child’s smiling face from one picture and place it over the monster face they are making in another. But hey, what is the fun in that? We have enough make believe perfection in this world; let’s keep it real people.
This takes me to my next subject: Easter Eggs. Oh my, I saw some pictures of over-the-top, beautiful Easter eggs. And even more amazing was that some parents claimed that they made these eggs with their children! And some of those children were boys. Are you kidding me? I sat there in absolute amazement looking at the creations and thinking that never happened in my house.
Don’t get me wrong, my boys loved coloring Easter Eggs. They even liked putting stickers on them and attempting to make them multiple colors. But anything that would require a step one and then wait five minutes before proceeding to step two was more than they could bear. Heck, they wanted to start hiding them before they were completely dry. So every year we did the easy one step process and out the door we went with our wet eggs to begin the hunt with food color stained hands.
Not a crafty one in the bunch. But I sure miss coloring eggs with them.
I, on the other hand, love to craft. I did try a few crafting projects with my boys but it never did turn out like the pictures in the magazines with everyone smiling — no mess anywhere, proudly gazing at their new creations. Call me a wimp but I gave up.
However, the more I looked at those egg pictures the more it began to dawn on me: there are no rules against a grown woman coloring Easter Eggs. Yeah, I know my kids are all grown up and gone but that doesn’t mean I have to stop coloring eggs. Yes, I am sure it will be weird at first as I sit at the table all by myself, but hey I have been known to still color pictures in a coloring book all by myself. Don’t judge. It is therapeutic.
Maybe now is my time to do all those fancy decorated eggs. Maybe I will see if I can master the multiple step process to amazing eggs. Maybe my kids will think I am crazy when I post pictures of my beautiful eggs on Facebook next Easter. Maybe I will even poke a toothpick in one in honor of Dillon.
Hard-Boiled Reality
