Its a hard knock life...for me

As many of you know, my daughter and I have been doing a recipe blog. (betterthanburgers.blogspot.com) I have had so much fun doing it! My family is constantly telling me that they are really enjoying it as well, since they get to reap the benefits of my cooking escapades.

There is just one draw back....it's a lot of work, a lot of research, a lot of cooking and a whole lot of clean up....and somedays it wears me out! Who would have thought?...but I say "OH WELL, its worth it!"

It fun to try new food, experiment with new recipes, and make up a lot of my own. I have learned things that work for me and some things that don't. I have learned that having a menu is a must for me, I can't fly by the seat of my pants anymore. I have to be organized (to some degree...I know that picture does NOT reflect my organization skills) with my time as well as the things that I do, because I have to MAKE TIME to cook and not just "try to fit it in". Although, there are days that I have to "change up" my menu and throw in the occasional "easy, repeat" dinner because I just don't have the time or energy to cook....but its been rare and far between (my family thanks me for that). I use a planner every single day now...which I have tried to do before, but never really had a reason to or needed one for that matter...BUT now, it's a must. I have too much going on and too much that has to be done, NOT to use one. In fact this week has been a little crazy because I haven't taken the time to organize my days like I usually do. I feel like I am walking around in circles...BUT today, I will get it together...I have to (thats on my to-do list).....so goes the life of the crazy busy mom, food blogger, maid, wife, taxi driver, counselor, referee, gardener, chef and tired woman....just thought you might want to know.

Homespun...

I got a wild hair this year and decided to make purses for the girls Easter Baskets again...yes again. Every girl loves a new purse (mine do) and I thought I would have oddles of time to whip them right up. WELL as my luck would have it...I didn't have the time that I thought I would, so I only got one purse done. But it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself! Maybe I will get the other purse done in time for "next Easter".....

Families who eat together...stick together~

Growing up... (yes, I realize that I refer to my childhood ALOT...but it helped shape me into being the person that I am today) we always had a really nice Easter Dinner. We usually had a big ham and some sort of potato, salads, breads and dessert. WELL....as tradition would have it, I do the same thing in my house. I cook a big ham, make "cheesy potatoes", hot rolls, and this year, I even made up a Jello salad (the one in the cups on the table) that I will put on our food blog (betterthanburgers.blogspot.com) soon.

We had all of our children over, except for Dayna and Jack (they live a distance away and aren't able to come out for everything...although we wished they could because we love it when everyone is here). We all ate like it was our last meal and enjoyed every minute of it!

Easter in the Rocky's~

Yep...this is Easter in UTAH!...if you live "here" or close to "here"...

...the view was probably very similar at your house!

I had planned on having a really fun "Flashlight Easter Egg" hunt outside after dark on Saturday night. I had all the eggs filled and ready to carefully hide in my yard. I thought of some awesome places to put them. As evening came around, I loaded up my eggs and I marched myself right outside to hide them, turned around and marched right back inside. IT was winter weather outside! It was frigid cold. The wind was blowing and the sky was dark, it looked and felt like November NOT April. Although, I do recall last year getting a "lovely Easter snow storm" as well, I don't know why I was surprised that we would get another one this year. 

SO my fun Easter Egg hunt got moved inside. I hid the eggs all over the dining room and living room, making them hard to find since the kids would be looking for them in the day light....and they are teenagers....which means that I couldn't put them in plain sight. I had 12 "special" design eggs that I put coupons in (free dirty room day, free dish day, no chore day etc...) and hid those eggs EXTRA well, hoping that they wouldn't be easy to find....maybe NEVER be found (just kidding). When the kids got up in the morning I sent them on a well planned out scavenger hunt to find their Easter baskets. Its fun to see them still enjoy the "little things" in life and "get into" my crazy creative antics. They raced around the house looking for clues, thinking of "what this clue meant, or what that clue meant"....and hunting feverishly for their Easter treats.

Once they found their baskets, I told them what color of eggs they would be hunting for (each child was assigned a color as to avoid "fighting" over them and one person hogging them all) and then I sent them throughout the house to hunt for plastic, candy filled eggs. It took them alot longer to find all of them than I thought that it would....and yes, they even found all of my "special eggs". I was informed that some of the coupons that I put in the eggs are already getting redeemed tomorrow morning, they waste no time....the ones being redeemed are the ones for "NO Chores Today!".....which means that I won't have any help tomorrow to clean up after the holiday weekend.....maybe my "fun" idea is coming back to bite me in the backside...maybe I should have thought that coupon idea out a little better *wink*.

                             

Our  snow was all melted by Easter afternoon and I have no doubts that I will enjoy the gorgeous 

green grass that our "well watered lawn" will bring in the following months.

It was a nice Easter Day, the kids all got along, we watched General Conference, we ate good food and we remembered the "real reason" for our celebrating the Easter Holiday.....it was a beautiful day all the way around!

Egg-cellant!

I have to say that dying Easter Eggs is one of my fondest memories as a child. I looked forward to it almost as much as I did Christmas. I always made sure that that was one part of Easter that never got forgotten. NO matter how old I got, we still dyed Easter Eggs when I was living at home. I don't know if I loved it so much because it was symbolic of Spring arriving or if it was because it was a "crafty"thing to do, and I loved to "create" and make things. Needless to say, when I started having my own children, they started dying eggs at a very young age. NOW that I have just 3 children left at home and they are all teenagers.....we still dye eggs! AND we all love it! I think that when all of my children are gone and no longer enjoy my little Easter traditions, I will dye eggs all by myself....and you better believe that I will love every minute of it.

Last year we tried the "Paas Foil Egg Kit" (if any of you follow my blog, you will remember pictures from when we did that). I loved how the eggs turned out last year. They were fun and different from what we had ever done before. This year we used the "Foil kit" again, but they made it a little different and not as fun and cool....I wasn't as impressed with this kit. BUT it didn't matter- the kids had fun coloring the eggs and making cool designs on them anyway. Its fun to see all the bright colored eggs and the fun things that the kids come up with. It's also that "little reminder" that spring is HERE!...and it makes me smile. After we are done, we fill up the egg cartons with our yummy colored eggs and wait for Easter to arrive so that we can make deviled eggs for Easter dinner. We usually color a lot of eggs because we know they won't go to waste around here....everyone loves homemade deviled eggs.

We had a great time together decorating and coloring our eggs. I don't care how old my kids are, we all still enjoy doing crazy things together that bring back those childhood memories from long ago.  Someday I am going to make dozens of eggs, dye them and then find a really cool hill and roll the eggs down it with my grandchildren....I love the idea of seeing my grandkids smile and get excited as they watch the bright colored eggs tumble to the bottom of the hillside.

And here are the results or our Easter Egg dying day.......

.....Bright Colors make me happy!

Treat for ME~

I bought myself a little bit of sunshine today...An Easter Lily!

Everyone deserves flowers at Easter don't they, even if they buy them for themselves right?!

No matter how my day is going, or how it looks outside, I can't help but smile 

a little when I see an Easter Lily!

Happy Easter!

Change...what do you think~

After searching for months for the perfect fabric for a new tablecloth (which I didn't find) and trying to make a few "updated" changes to my dining/kitchen area, this is what I ended up with. I made this new tablecloth and runner for my table. I like the way it turned out and I am hoping to get some new curtains that will brightening up the area that we spend the most time in....the dining area. I also want to paint the red chest in the corner.  I am thinking a green (close to the same shade as the runner) with black dry brushing over the top of the green....What DO YOU think???? Yes or No???.............am I crazy????