Easter 2020

4.16.2020


Hello! How was your Easter? It was super weird and a super bummer to not be able to dress up and go to church and have a meal with extended family. F just turned 8 weeks old, and I'm still not on top of anything in life, so I didn't plan an Easter meal at home or buy anyone special outfits. I don't do Easter baskets (not because I'm against them but just because I didn't grow up receiving them so it's not on my radar), but I didn't want to be a total lame-o mom, so the last time I was at Walmart (also only the second time I've been to the store in a month) I picked up a paper tablecloth with eggs and flowers on it that the kids colored while we ate sausage biscuits from McDonald's for breakfast. #fancy We ate leftovers from earlier in the week for lunch, and then we tried to get Chinese takeout for dinner but they were closed, so we ate leftovers again. Our Easter food was basically a giant fail. I blame you, virus!

For the first time in my life I bought plastic eggs and filled them with candy and hid them! Usually I leave that to the grandparents, but I figured Quarantine Amanda needed to step up. We of course don't want the focus of Easter to be candy and egg hunts, but it is fun and something I enjoyed as a kid and want my kids to enjoy also! On Friday we talked about how it was Good Friday and what that meant, and then R woke up the next morning and said, "It's Great Saturday!" That gave me a good chuckle.

After our zoom call with our Sunday school class and after watching our church service live stream, we drove to my in-laws' house to hunt eggs. They live less than a mile from us and have a big backyard, so we drove over there and let the kids run around and hunt eggs. My in-laws wore masks and stayed on the porch, and it was nice to be "together" for a bit, as it were.  It's interesting to me that it's getting more normal to not really hang out with anyone. Like, it's still really weird and sad, but every day it's not quite to strange that we just don't see people. Does anyone else feel like that?

I had every intention of getting everyone dressed up and taking (or attempting to take) a nice Easter picture like I saw so many people post on social media, but in the end we stayed in our rain boots and t-shirts, and I don't hate it. Look at us with three kids. Three!

Adding a child to our family has been difficult each time for different reasons, but I still think going from 0 to 1 kid was the hardest. We knew nothing about anything, and everything was so overwhelming, plus you're just not used to getting so little sleep. I also am pretty certain I had undiagnosed postpartum anxiety. 

I feel much more relaxed as far as F goes, and I'm not dealing with huge sleep withdrawals because I'm used to the kids waking up during the night; also I slept horribly for the last few months of my pregnancy. So it's a blessing to have the perspective that comes from multiple children that it really is all a phase and that not everything is a Huge Deal that I need to freak out about. 

That said, having three kids has been insane, and having a newborn during this pandemic has been incredibly difficult. I am not a stay-at-home mom. I've always had a full-time job, and I'm not used to spending all day every day at home with any amount of kids, no less a newborn and two very high-energy toddlers. (One of whom is insisting on potty training! He peed inside a Lego the other day. What is life.) 

I'm grateful to have this time with them, and I've learned a lot about them from being around them so much. (Maybe a post for another time!) But it's also been lonely to not be able to get together with friends or go to the zoo or even the playground. This is just not how I pictured my maternity leave going. But! We are all healthy and together, and that's what matters. And we are thankful that construction hasn't been shut down and that Jordan still has a job he can go to every day. 

Easter was (as always) a wonderful reminder of the hope we have in Christ and how thankful we are for his peace in these anxious times. I hope you had a good one, whatever that looked like for you!

AnneMarie said...

Happy Easter! That's so great that you got to see family. Those egg hunt pictures are awesome, and the one with the tornado shelter background is pretty perfect. I always forget how strange tornado shelters are to people who don't live here!

We pretty much never do an elaborate meal on Easter. We usually get home late (last year it was nearly 1 a.m.) from the Vigil at church, so Easter Sunday we make liege waffles + Nutella (which are much more involved than "normal" waffles) and maybe bacon and a potato dish I grew up with. It's fun and low-key, and our Easter season lasts 50 days, so I figure that we have plenty of time to get the fancy stuff in ;)

Ashley @ A Cute Angle said...

It's good to hear the your transition with your newest has gone well! Your Easter sounds wonderful!

Rachel said...

Happy Easter! I love the photo of your family of FIVE! Glad that adding number 3 to the crew has been the least difficult transition. Good to know just in case...ha! Adding Glenn to the family has seemed way easier...I don't know if it's just the contrast to such a scary pregnancy and being so grateful he's here safe that everything seems easy. Or because he's the second and babies seem more normal now. But I'm grateful.

Jenny Evans said...

We had homemade pizza on Easter if it makes you feel better.

Also, I love R's shirt in the Easter egg hunt pictures.

Kari said...

This WAS such a weird Easter. We still dressed up and went to church (we pastor and live right next door to the building where we live-streamed service. lol!). I did make sure I had a roast for our supper and some sort of chocolate. I think the day just is what we make it and we all just did our best! Your family is so adorable, BTW.

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