DECORATING AND DOWNSIZING FOR EASTER - EASTER - EPILOGUE

OK - Easter has come & gone & I'm sitting at the computer, early Monday morning. How did it go? How was our first holiday in the down-sized cozy little cabin?

The entry before this one tells of the very few ways we were decorating this year & I think you can tell from the photo montage above that there is no doubt Spring/Easter has arrived in east TX!

Do you notice there is not a lot of Easter "stuff" to put away? At most if would be the little bunny . . . but I like him a lot as he reminds me of my dearest childhood friend, Brenda, who collected bunnies & I'll leave him out all year. Wouldn't he look very patriotic with a little American flag to celebrate Independence Day?

The cross is really a bookend that stays out year round, as does the crystal candy dish, kerosene lamp, wire basket, Pyrex bowls, teapot & cheerful deviled egg tray. There is nothing to store for next year! Later today I'll mash the leftover colored eggs into egg salad sandwiches & deviled eggs.

See how easy this is? The real stars of the show were the people who honored us by spending their holiday with us. My soon-to-be 89 year old mom; my daughter & her hubby; & KI & Milan.

The 2nd photo on the 2nd row shows KI with his head thrown back in laughter. He is from Ghana, attending seminary in east TX. We were laughing about the fact that he & his wife, also from Ghana, were driven to the hospital by his Czech friend, to have their twin boys delivered by an Egyptian doctor. It's a small, small world!

By the way - even the menu was down-sized: ham & easy-to-make ham sauce; decadent mashed potatoes (made Saturday & reheated); Italian green beans; yeast rolls (Rhodes' frozen), Pineapple-Upside-Down cake (baked Saturday); teacake cookies (baked earlier in the week); dyed eggs (also earlier in the week); & iced tea (also made Saturday). Most of the really dirty prep dishes were done earlier in the week. Seeing as how we don't have a dishwasher, it's good to do a lot of the messier cooking earlier in the week. Still, I very much appreciate my hubby for washing all the dishes last night!

It's time to go & feed hubby breakfast....I bet it will include some hard-boiled eggs! :)

DECORATING AND DOWNSIZING FOR EASTER

I haven't written about the fact that we have downsized; dramatically so! I suppose with the house and outbuildings we're now living in a home almost, but not quite, 1/2 the size of the former house. What do you think Amanda? Close to it?

I'll write later on about our desire to down-size, but for now let's talk about the realty of downsizing & decorating for special celebrations & holidays.

I need & want to downsize even more than what has already been done. I do not have the room nor the where-with-all to store & bring out a lot of "stuff" several times a year.

Here is my simplified plan, using Easter as the example. I put a few little Ajuga blooms into a very tiny little bunny vase. He will not take up a lot of storage room when not out on display. Use whatever flowers you happen to have on hand.

In our part of Texas there's lots of wild onions blooming now. The point is that it doesn't have to be elaborate. Bunny is in the bathroom because if you're not doing much decorating you must be sure to place what you do have in a prominent place...everyone visits the bathroom!

Go through your old photos and gather up favorite photos of Easters past - the ones of Easter baskets, egg hunts, portraits, etc. If you collect Easter cards, bring them out. Once you have your collection all together, pull out your favorites & put them on a memory board. Be sure to display them in a prominent area so all will see it!!!!!

If there's enough room, buy a flowering plant to put in one fabulously breathtakingly beautiful planter out on the porch near the door. At the end of the season, plant in the yard if it's still alive. If not - toss it. What did you lose? $10-$15?

I admit, I haven't made the memory board & I still haven't made it to the plant farm to buy a hydrangea. . . but I have dyed eggs, baked tea cakes & pulled out one vintage Easter postcard that I stuck in the side of an old mirror. If I can find where the metal cross is, I'll put it out too. (Remember, I'm still unpacking). The point is - make it as uncomplicated as you need. Decorating our homes is not suppose to be a burden!

Do something similar for the other holidays your family celebrates.

Even without the memory board, I think the house will festive enough. Peeps & teacakes,eggs & vintage cards should be enough. . .What do you think? I've been giving this a lot of thought & it's very appealing to me. What do you think? Am I cracked? :)

PS: Wendy, of Wendy's Wonderings, shared about dyeing Easter eggs. Instead of the usual little dye tablets that come in kits, use Wilton's icing dyes! To 1 cup warm water, add 1 Tablespoon white vinegar & some of the gel dye. We used toothpicks for spoons & kept adding color until we got the intensity we desired.

Thanks Wendy, Wilton should pay you royalty for all the people you inspired to go out & buy their dye to make the best Easter eggs ever!

DISCOVERING THE COZY LITTLE CABIN - EPILOGUE

Normally I think God doesn't really care which house a person chooses to live in, as long as they can afford it & aren't caught up in "the pride of life". I heard a radio preacher put it like this: It's like baking oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, & snicker-doodle cookies & telling your child he can have one. We don't sit back & say, "He better pick the chocolate chip. If he chooses the snicker-doodle, I'm gonna' be so mad at him"! We don't have a preference . . . we just want to bless the kiddos with homemade cookies! He said it's the same about lots of our choices in life. As long as our choices don't contradict God's principles, it's okay with Him. In the case of buying a car, if it's affordable, safe & in good running condition, God maybe really doesn't care if we drive a Chevy or a Ford!

But in the case of the cozy little cabin, I think He did have a preference! Everything about the white house with black shutters seemed to be God ordained from how we found it, to the next door neighbors, to the lot size, out buildings, fishing pond, etc.! Everything! And then the door slammed shut. The following Saturday I got up & found the little red cabin in the woods! And we are convinced, without a doubt, that this is the house God wants us in! This is His best for us...which what our oldest son & his family specifically prayed for!

Life is so exciting when you're looking for evidence of HIM being involved in it My prayer is that God will grace you with eyes to see Him & ears to hear Him. It's a wonderful way to live one's life!

There's more to the story, involving lots of loving people sharing their Christmas with us, etc. But you've got the meat of the story. . . God is good. All the time.

One more thing: While out shopping with my daughter, shortly after all these events, I found a vinyl wall quote that reads, “When You Can't See His Hand, Trust His Heart”. Yeah – I bought it! Happy Easter. . .