Easter itself was pretty laid back for us but the weekend was full of a lot of little stuff.

• On Saturday I took all 3 girls over to the hairdresser for some seriously long overdue haircuts. We walked in and within 30 minutes the 3 of them were back out of there looking polished. What were the odds that none of the 3 hair stylists working on Saturday would have a client at the very moment we walked in? I should have bought a lottery ticket.
• I dropped the girls at home and took off with my son, the lone boy in the family, to go shopping for Easter basket stuff. Procrastinate much? Sure makes the choices easier. There is one major department store in the city we shop in that has fallen by the wayside in the shadows of two of its major competitors. It’s the one I go to for all of my hard-to-find items because no one shops there anymore. I walked out of there with all of my goods for Sunday morning within 20 minutes of arriving - plenty of candy in stock, no crowds, no lines at the checkout. Sweet.
• Took my son out to dinner just him and I. We never get to do anything sans his sisters so I wanted to make sure we had some fun. I let him choose the restaurant and we sat down, had some good conversation and some delicious burgers and fries (not fast food - real thick, juicy burgers and fries with the skin still on). It was awesome. And something I plan on doing a lot more of in the near future. Before it’s too late. And he’s a teenager. And all I’m good for is cash and a ride somewhere.
• Saturday night you would have found me staying up until the wee hours assembling Easter baskets by myself, hiding eggs on my own and wrapping birthday presents I purchased earlier in the day for my youngest daughter (her birthday was Sunday in addition to Easter). Usually my husband and I do these things together but he was in bed sick - a sickness of his own making - and to say I felt a tad resentful would not even begin to cover what I was feeling. But that is another post for another day.
• Easter morning the kids let me sleep until almost 8am. They had already started hunting for eggs - they couldn’t be bothered to wait for me to drag my sorry ass out of bed. Ahh how I long for youthful enthusiasm. The egg hunt was topped off by a breakfast of champions - M&M’s, Kisses, Reese’s, Milky Way, Peeps, etc.
• The rest of the day was pretty casual. There was no visiting the relatives - they are all too sick or far away. No Easter dinner since my husband was out of commission for the entire weekend and my kids don’t like most of the traditional dinner fixings anyway. I know - I allowed them to be fussy and now I’m paying the price.
• My stepdaughter came over later in the afternoon with her son. My husband finally managed to drag himself out of bed and we celebrated my daughter’s 5th birthday complete with cake, ice cream (yeah more sugar *sob*), a stuffed cat with its own carrying case and more Littlest Pet Shoptoys.
• My husband spent the rest of the night trying to make up for the weekend but it was too little too late.

How was your weekend?

For those that celebrate it - I hope you have a wonderful day with your families.

And have fun peeling your children off the ceiling by the end of the day. I know that’s always my favorite part.

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

Excerpts from Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech:

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
One more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?

U2 - Pride (In the Name of Love)