"Boys are found everywhere—on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them. A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair
and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket."
Author: Alan Beck


Monday, March 4, 2013

Another favorite thing...

If you know me well, you know that I'm a Pinterest junkie. Pinning items to my virtual board is how I fall asleep, how I wake every morning, and how I spend every second of free time I have. ('every second of free time I have'....haha.....now that's funny.)

Another well-known Amy-ism is my overwhelming desire to decorate for each and EVERY holiday I can. It's safe to say that finding pinterest has made my holiday-decorating addiction downright dangerous.

One of my all-time holiday favorites was the 'thankful tree' we made in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.  During Christmastime, I found this way to display cards (on pinterest) and I loved the way it looked on the large mirror by our front door.   For Valentine's Day, my kiddos found their mailbox inspiration on pinterest (yes, I've introduced my male offspring to pinterest.), and we've also made some wicked leprechaun traps....with a little help (of course) from pinterest.

With Easter (one of my FAVORITE holidays) vastly approaching, I've been eager to break out the decor.  Easter is always a tricky holiday to decorate for.  Being so close to St. Patrick's day, I never know when to put the green away, and bring the bunnies and chicks out.  I've contemplated keeping them both out at the same time, but that just doesn't seem fair to either holiday, and it messes with my OCD brain.

Just talking about the logistics involved with decorating for two holidays at once is enough to make me feel the need to breathe into a paper bag.

As I slowly pull my chicks and bunnies out of storage (so as not to piss off St. Patrick), I'm realizing that chicks and bunnies are no longer cutting it for me.  Now that the boys are getting older, I want to make sure they understand that Easter is so much more than Cadbury eggs and Peeps.

SO.  MUCH.  MORE.

In times of despair such as these, I turn to pinterest for advice.  I was feeling the same lackluster feeling last year, and came across this and this, but never had the free time to make either of them.

Oh free time.  We have such a love/hate relationship.


This year, however, I am off to a running start.  Have a look at what I made today-

 
 

You like?  Thanks!  It's our crown of thorns, and it will sit on our kitchen table until Easter.  I'm hoping it will help the boys be mindful of the choices they make, and (in some form) remind them of the true meaning of Easter. 

Here's how it works:  each child has an 'assigned' color of thorns.  Red for Evan, green for Luke, blue for Jack, yellow for Logan, and orange for Wes (unless they fight over their assigned color, in which case, there will be some color switching.)  Every time we (the parents) take note of a boy going out of his way to do something nice for someone else (a true sacrifice!), we will allow the good deed do-er to remove one of his thorns from the crown.  Obviously, the goal is to have a thorn-free crown by Easter.

The crown was super easy to make.  (The hardest part was sorting and counting 150 toothpicks.)  I used a grapevine wreath from Michael's and wrapped it in burlap to help hold the toothpicks into place.  Then I stuck all 150 of those bad boys in and my true Easter decoration was ready in less than 15 minutes.  Easy peasy.

I've seen something similar to this on pinterest, but nothing this fabulous....right?

Here's to traditional Easter decor, sprinkled with a bit of sacrificium. 
 

1 comment:

  1. You are AMAZING!! Very cool idea. I love you!!!

    ReplyDelete