Easter isn’t quite what it used to be since the four boys have grown to become adults and have their own homes. Only the oldest is married and they have no children so I have no grandchildren to pass the traditions on to.

But I do have good memories that still make me smile.

In our family, Palm Sunday was the day to dye Easter eggs every year. I would boil about five dozen eggs, a dozen for each son to decorate and a dozen for their dad and I to decorate. That may seem like a lot of eggs if you don’t have a large family. With five guys in the house, those eggs made into egg salad sandwiches or eaten “as is” or added to a salad were gone in no time.

I would cover the table with newspaper and set up cups with water, vinegar and dye tablets of various colors. I had saved the five egg cartons to put the dyed eggs in to dry.

We would spend all afternoon (okay, maybe only an hour or two) making the eggs our creative works of art. We talked and laughed as we decorated. It wasn’t often the four boys were all home together for an activity. This was fun!

If the interest was still there after dyeing the eggs, we would cut out rabbits, ducks, and other forms with cookie cutters and bake Easter cookies. Sometimes, I would cut out round circles for faces and we would decorate them with chocolate dough used for hair, beards and whatever else the imagination could conjure up.

When they got tired of being in the house, they would run outside and get some friends together and shoot baskets in the driveway or go to the nearby fairgrounds and play baseball.

An older lady whom everyone in town knew-she had been a business owner on Main Street for quite a few years and everyone liked her-would walk by and say to me, “Enjoy them while you can, they grow up way too fast” And I remember thinking, they can’t grow up fast enough for me, as I labored in the trenches of mounds of laundry, cleaning rooms, and staying one step ahead of them at all times. Little did I know how very wise she was.

It didn’t seem long, maybe the blink of an eye, and they were all gone. I am so happy we made lots of family memories that I can carry with me and bring out and reminisce about. Now, I find myself telling young parents to enjoy their children while they are young because they grow up way too fast.

Have a very blessed Easter!