Thursday, March 31, 2016

Easter 2013: Memories







 Easter 2013 (Photo by Son Walt)

Thanks to Husband Walter and our Georgia Skupiens, we observed family Easter egg traditions of more than five generations at our home for Easter 2013:

- Tradition 1--Dying boiled eggs on Easter eve;  
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The 2013 egg-coloring team:

Stella


Charlie


Nate

Luke

Tradition 2--Adults hiding eggs the next day;

Tradition 3--Children scrambling to fill their baskets;

Easter gift for the egg hunt

Grandma Sugar, my mother-in-law, crocheted the Easter baskets above for her great-granddaughters and filled the baskets with treats and love.

That was the last Easter Grandma Sugar celebrated. She passed away in August of that year. The baskets that her great-granddaughters have used in their egg hunts ever since are a happy reminder of how much she loved her family and loved making every holiday special.

Easter Sunday morning March 31, 2013, our four visiting grands dashed about in our backyard to find the hardboiled eggs they had dyed the night before.

Sudden shrieks from Charlie sent parents, grandparents and siblings rushing to her side. An unwelcomed visitor was oozing out of a small circular crack in the egg she had just found. 

It was a baby slug. Ewwww!

Seven-year-old Charlie resumed her search. She screamed again. Another slimy invader. Yuck!

Tradition 4--Eating one or more of the colorful eggs after the hunt.

When everyone returned inside, Mom Sarah offered to peel eggs for the children. There were no takers. Neither kids nor adults indulged. 

The surprise attack of icky fauna fractured the egg-eating tradition that Easter morning.

This year we again spent Easter weekend with our oldest son and his family but this time at their home. I was glad to see that they continued traditions using real eggs.

There were no slugs this year, and a few eggs disappeared along with Easter bunny candy. 
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Thursday, March 10, 2016

Travel in 2015


As the weeks of 2016 fly by, I am still enjoying looking back at 2015 travel:

- a nine-day Baltic Sea cruise in May that embarked from Copenhagen and included stops in Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden;
Selfie with our home for nine days, the Norwegian Star on the left in the background

- two trips to the Smoky Mountains; and
The Skupien clan July 25, 2015 (Photo by Hubby)

- multiple trips to Georgia and Louisiana to visit family and attend grandchildren’s events.

But our most challenging trip started in the spring of 2015 when we put things in motion to have a “downsized” house built on property we had purchased more than 15 years ago.

Almost finished (Photo by Hubby)

Now move-in day is less than two weeks away--if all goes as planned. And we won’t actually have a move-in DAY.

Instead, the coming move will be more of an “ooze-in month” or maybe more than a month. And we won’t put our current house on the market until we are settled in at our new address. I am happy with that slower pace. It takes pressure off.

The journey continues.


Friday, March 4, 2016

Southern Spring

Azalea indica ‘Formosa’

Our old-fashioned Formosa azaleas have been trumpeting the arrival of spring even while temperatures at night were in the 30s several weeks ago.

Azalea indica ‘Formosa’ is native to southern India and is common in landscapes in the American South. Growing up in south Mississippi, I loved the vibrant display of magenta blooms that covered the azalea plants for a brief portion of our all too short spring.

And Spring is an even briefer season here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, about 80 miles south of where I grew up. Here on the coast, it sometimes seems that we slide right out of winter into the suffocating heat and humidity of our Mississippi summer. 

But for at least a few more days we have spring with mild temperatures and azaleas blooming. And while I am still wearing a light weight jacket, some warmer natured residents and visitors are already in shorts and flip flops.