Easter Events

A) We lost Jack at Grandma's house today. Seriously, post-dinner and egg hunting, Jack was nowhere to be found in the backyard or the house. Or the street for that matter. Jeff saved the day and called off the search party when he followed the sound of vacuuming...and found Jack at the neighbor's house. With the neighbor's vacuum.

B) Charlie had a recent hard-core public meltdown over wearing a new pair of shoes (a problem I don't really understand as I thrill over a new pair of shoes, myself). New clothes and apparently also new shoes are the stuff of Charlie's nightmares. They terrify him in their newness. On a brighter note, today Charlie wore a whole new-to-him Easter outfit (thanks for the hand-me-downs, Cousin B!) including new blue boat shoes (adorbs!) to church today after totally and completely screaming his heart out, and finally just giving in to Jeff's persistence and putting it on. Drama, people, drama. We know all about it 'round these parts. Couple of our kids seem destined to be thespians, so practiced are they in the dramatic arts.

C) I read a terrific novel about the bubonic plague in a small English village in Derbyshire circa 1665, which made me grateful that we live in a time where we don't have a rat and a flea problem, and where we do have antibiotics ("better living through chemistry," quoth my dear old dad). It's a difficult subject to broach, but man, Year of Wonders sure felt real and so, so readable with it's beautiful writing. And if anyone has read it and wishes to discuss it with me, what in the world do you make of that ending???

D) Easter was lovely. Aside from Jack squawking his way very, very loudly though sacrament meeting, the day sailed by smoothly, with some really lovely parts, standing out:  baby shrieking with joy over the little foam ball in his Easter basket, and gleefully tossing it back and forth with Henry for a good thirty minutes; listening to Mo Tab sing "He is Risen," and feeling the beauty of that statement; eating a heavenly dinner with family al fresco while watching my boys play games on the lawn with cousins; and taking a sanity walk with my neighbor in the cool twilight with a hint of impending rain in the air. Delicious.