A Snowy Day, Easter and a Birthday.Mostly in Pictures.

It's snowing here today. A little odd for spring, even in the Pacific Northwest, but I do remember it snowing a lot one year on my birthday. I don't mind poor weather really. We just choose to have a stay-in day. Maybe I'll make some soup for dinner.

Steele and I did some school work this morning - something I have gotten out of the habit of doing but need to do more of. Steele functions much better with some structure to his day. And frankly, so do I. I find he is exceedingly more obedient when he has house work and school work to occupy his little hands and mind. We may head down to the library to pick up some books I reserved, mostly seed starting and vegetable gardening books, but I haven't yet decided.

We had a quiet but enjoyable Easter celebration. As with most holidays, I really treasure the cultural and family traditions I remember from my childhood. While, as a Christian I think it's important to set aside time to remember the Christian significance of these holidays, I honestly think it's more important to daily remember what God has done for me. I may write more on this another time but that said, as a family we participate in many of the traditional and cultural activities associate with Easter.

I don't have any pictures of egg dying this year - it turned out to be pretty chaotic with me trying to get Steele to gently place the eggs into the egg dye and my grandma attempting to get him to take an ounce of interest in the stickers she had brought for him. Neither of us were very successful but we all got a great laugh out of it - and two dozen or so colorful, cracked Easter eggs.

My grandma came over another day and we made 5 dozen Pierogi. My grandfather was all Polish and while I appear mostly Mexican, my stomach must be half Polish. I was raised on cabbage rolls and pierogi and I don't regret it one bit. It's comfort food to me at it's best.

Can you believe she's 80?

After brunch at church and our service, we headed over to my mom's house. Although it was cloudy, it didn't rain until the kids went out to hunt for eggs. It stopped right when they were done.

Here are Steele's thoughts on rainy Easter egg hunting.

My mom and grandma watched from the dry bedroom.

My brother Gabe's creative Easter basket.

The best eggs are found in overgrown garden vegetables.

And here are a couple pictures from my birthday. Funny how, with children, 2 hour drives can quickly turn into 3 hour drives... or more. I actually quite enjoy taking life at a slower pace. I'm definitely more of a scenic route kind of gal. Thus the reason that I'm looking forward to a drive down to the Oregon coast for a few days in a couple weeks.

On the left, Justin's sister Meghan and her husband, Camron.
On the right, his sister Jessica due with her first baby, a boy, in April.
We are SO excited for cousins!