An end to the insanity, er, vacation

Easter vacation is over. Yay! It was great and all, but I thrive on "normal" daily life. On the habit and ritualistic fashion of my days at home. Alone. I love love love my kids and husband and having them home during the day with me is a vacation from the daily humdrum monotony I sometimes complain about. But, it's back to normal around here today. This means, I can get back to eating more healthfully (man, does my family like to gravitate towards sugar), back to my normal gym hours, back to getting things done like vacuuming, dusting, washing clothes, etc. Back to reality. And I like it.

Oh we had fun though. Of course the "Easter Bunny" went WAY overboard this year, even though he promised me, after last year, that he would not do that ever....ever again. And we all ate copious amounts of cadbury eggs, snickers eggs, Reece's eggs, coconut cream eggs and every other kind of egg imaginable. 5 GROCERY BAGS FULL, in fact. Sadly, I am responsible for this *spoiler alert* because I AM THE EASTER BUNNY. Sorry, Eden.

And I thought I'd be able to stay out of it. HA! But I've packaged up what was left and put it away so that it's not sitting out, daring me to eat it. I actually, honestly and truly, get dizzy when I eat sugary stuff like candy bars anymore. I'm just not used to it. And it's a really horrible feeling. But the feel good portion of my brains cares nothing about how my body will feel afterward. It's simply thinking of the instant gratification it gets from the sugar.

Anyway, the kids were wondering why I always call the Easter Bunny a "he". And I explained that I just had always imagined him to be male. Otherwise, it would have bows on the ears or wear a skirt, like Peter Rabbit's mom. Right? Plus, Santa, Cupid, and Leprechauns are all male. Why not the Easter Bunny. It's my logic.

And we had another Chopped competition. For lunch on Saturday, the girls went against each other for an entree and dessert round. Eden came out victorious. Then for dinner, Andreas and I went head to head on an appetizer and entree round. I kicked butt!! No pictures this time. Dang! What was I thinking?!?! Andreas is a super great cook, but he doesn't really cater to the kids. He gets too fancy and they don't really know how to appreciate that yet. I made shoe string french fries and pastry wrapped fried hot dogs. I mean, come on, what kid isn't going to like that??? Surprisingly enough, they loved my entree as well. I made potato soup and ham & cheese stuffing cups. Yum.

Andreas's appetizer was a perfect little pastry parcel with ham, carrots, brussel sprout pieces and onion inside. It was beautiful, just not quite cooked through. And the entree was a creative wrap with pan fried banana, rice, orange and some other stuff I can't remember. The kids really didn't like the cooked banana which was what ultimately sunk him. I thought the flavors were marvelous though. But kids are picky about food textures.

Yesterday, we ate pizza and ice cream down town and got Emma's passport renewed. Or applied for a new one, I should say, because her old one is expired or about to expire. She was just a little baby when she got her first one. Seems like eons ago. The girls spent most of their vacation playing (and fighting over) LaLaLoopsy dolls. There are 6 new ones in their collection now which brings the total up to a ridiculous 40, or something near that. It's almost like the squinkie craze. Although they never played with them much. At least these dolls get played with. Constantly.

I just read an article about how scaling down on "stuff" can improve your family's quality of life. And it talks about teaching children that happiness comes from within and not from material possessions, like having the latest tech gadgets or every action figure in the collection, etc. It made me feel incredibly guilty. Because, although I am not a hoarder, I am a bit of a collector and do find it hard to throw out the old when I get the new. I hold a lot of sentimental value in "stuff". And I also am way too guilty of buying my kids "stuff" that I think will make them happy, even if they don't need it (eh hem.....more lalaloopsy dolls). But they get an allowance and usually spend it on the dolls so it isn't all me. Either way, learning to live a simpler life without wanting more and more and more is something I would love for them to learn. It's what the Bible says we should do anyway. I need to work on that.