Olivesprouts Mama

In theory, I would love to celebrate Easter at the level of Christmas. When you think about it in terms of the story, Christmas is the "enter stage left" of the Messiah, but Easter is when the enemy is vanquished. And isn't the glorious victory worth a big party? Yes. In reality, Easter for us is smack dab in the middle of "birthday season" - 4 kid birthdays in 3 months - so it tends to sneak up on me and get a bit overlooked and hastily slapped together on a small budget. This year may not be much different, but we've progressed over the last 5 years in our celebration, and Lord willing in 5 years we'll be that much better at it. Practice makes perfect, or closer to it, and practice at celebration and rejoicing is no different! Maybe someday we'll have a beautiful sit down Easter dinner, host all the neighbor kids for a glorious egg hunt, roast a lamb on a spit on the front lawn, surprise the kids with big gifts, and generally party it up

1. Prioritize rest Yes, you are busy - too busy to crash from exhaustion mid afternoon or halfway through family dinner! Go to bed early, sleep in when you can, and try to listen to your body. Don't assume that what your body needs most is to wake up at 4 am to work out. If you're short on sleep overall, maybe it needs the sleep more. 2. Hydrate Always have water within arms reach when you’re sitting down. A good stainless steel or glass water bottle is a great way to do that, or a lidded mason jar with a straw. Caffeinated beverages - while wonderful - do NOT count for this! The Plant Nanny app is a great way to track and motivate hydration! 3. Routines Pick a healthy breakfast and make it every weekday morning. There’s nothing wrong with sweet potatoes and eggs for a week! You can rotate weekly, but just having a plan and being able to put a healthy choice on autopilot makes life easier. For me, breakfast on weekdays is always a rocket fuel tea latte

This week is our spring break from our homeschool co-op. My husband is working, and we’re not leaving town, so we’ll be having a chill, restful break.  I do have some ideas for low cost, low prep fun, though! Library trips  We have some things that need returned, and a whole stack of holds to pick up - including some movies like Ponyo, The Sound of Music, and Hidden Figures! I'm looking forward to curling up with Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes and also reading   Balanced and Barefoot :  How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children Plus, we all love going to the library and enjoying the kid activities they frequently have laid out, and just sitting and reading there. Park days The weather looks lovely today, so hopefully that holds!  I think it would be fun to take a morning or afternoon and head to one we haven't visited in a while. Plus, I wouldn't mind sitting on a park bench for a few hours

All Amazon links are affiliate links. If you click and buy, it supports my blog and pays me to keep writing! So please feel free to click through and buy a stack of books. 😉 (Or, add the incredibly helpful  Chrome Library extension  to your browser, and put a stack on hold while viewing them on Amazon. So handy!) Living Life Backwards: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us To Live in Light of the End This is an excellent book! I did it with my ladies Bible study and it was a really good few months of deep discussion about death, legacy, and gratitude for the good gifts of God. It's good to thoughtfully contemplate the meaning of our lives and how to joyfully live the short time we have on this earth. There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids Thought provoking read on the cultural differences and how Scandinavian's cultural emphasis on outdoor play for children is something our culture should l