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We had a great Easter this year!  We stayed at home and did Easter crafts on Good Friday (both girls were out of school).  We dyed eggs, made Easter Egg Hunt cookies and decorated a tree on Holy Saturday.  The Easter Bunny hid baskets this year, so after some early morning hunting (for Sam at least), the girls dug through their baskets then we skirted off to church.  We had to take the obligatory family picture (which I think had some tears) then we hunted for Easter Eggs all day.  And I mean all. day.  It was relaxing and fun to spend the day outside playing.

Still not finished. I blame the mortgage company of our previous house that has since gone out of business.  It has nothing to do with our procrastination.

It’s nearing the end of Lent, and I’m running low on no meat ideas for Friday dinners.  I’m fine eating a bowl of cereal (yum!) but I don’t think my meat-eating family would like that every week.

In an effort to jazz up the lunch box when Samantha started taking her lunch to school last fall, I started reading a few lunch box blogs.  It takes only a little more effort to make lunch special, which then means, it will get eaten.  I have to admit, these days, Brian usually makes her lunch.  However, Samantha has always been pretty good about eating vegetables and fruits of all kinds.  (Her favorite vegetables are peas and beans.  My least favorite!)  The common theme in getting kids to eat healthier is fun.  We had some discussions about superpowers.  For example, carrots make you have super sight.  I make Ants on a Log and arrange food playfully on the plate.

So, last week I decided that a hot meal was out since it was so hot outside.  Samantha loves rainbows, and I’m trying to instill that we need to eat food of all colors, so I had the idea to make a rainbow dinner.  Nothing fancy.  It received great reviews though.  It even inspired Sam to eat her squash, which is her absolute least favorite veggie (and one of my favorites!).

Ellie on the other hand is trickier.  Her diet consists of dairy, fruit and crackers.  That’s about all she’ll eat.  I’ll keep working on her.

strawberries, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, asparagus, blueberries and purple grapes

I’m no snake expert, but I think this is a Black Rat Snake.  It’s shiny black with a white belly.  Janie:  ”It’s got a big ole hole in the mouth.”

I’ve realized that I’m using twitter (@janiemauter) to update the world on my life instead of this here blog.  Apologies.  I’m trying to update, so some posts are back-dated.  If you’re reading from the web, go back a page or two to make sure you get them all.  If you get to the Guatemala post, that’s far enough.