Spring Blog Hop: What was in your Easter Basket?
What was in your Easter Basket? By Samantha Hunter
Whether you observe the religious holiday or just enjoy getting together with family and friends, I imagine most people have some kind of Easter memories from when they were children. Most of mine – perhaps like everyone’s? – relate to my Easter basket. J My mother would make us go to Church on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, but for a child, largely it was the hurdle to be cleared in order to get to the large basket of goodies waiting after.
Among the usual chocolate and other prizes usually earned in the egg hunt, my parents always put certain kinds of toys in the basket – the two I always remember getting were the Silly Putty™, the Chinese jump rope, a yo-yo, and the Slinky™.
I adored Silly Putty™, and my very favorite thing to do with it was to use it to pick up the print from the comic pages, and I would do that until it had so much ink that I couldn’t use it anymore, at least not for that. But then there were a million other things you could do with it until it was spent. The Slinky™, likewise, was the most fun to walk down the stairs – that was always a challenge. The thing inevitably became hopelessly tangled at some point, but there would be another one coming the next year. J
The yo-yos were also a challenge, fun, but never one of my favorites, since I didn’t know how to do the fancy tricks. The Chinese jump rope was probably the worst, LOL, because I was the youngest, and I didn’t have any siblings my age to be able to use it – my parents clued into that after a bit and got me a regular jump rope. I also recall getting odd sorts of toys – the little dime store toys that now go for large amounts of money on ebay as “vintage.” J
Oh, and sidewalk chalk! How could I forget that – frankly, I would still get into using that now, LOL.
So what was in your Easter Basket when you were a kid? Do you carry that tradition through with your kids or grandkids?
www.samanthahunter.com
Spring Blog Hop: Liz Fielding’s Easter Feast
Think Easter treats and the first thing that will come to mind is the chocolate egg. My mother always said that the chocolate in Easter eggs was better than any other and I imagine it’s because it has to be very smooth to get that thin, crisp shell. They are still, even with all the amazing chocolate on sale, a very special treat.
Then comes the Simnel cake, traditionally baked for Mothering Sunday. In the UK we have our very traditional Mother’s Day on the fourth Sunday in Lent, a day when girls in “service” were given time off to visit their mothers. They took home a cake and the wild flowers they picked as they walked home as gifts.
not long after Christmas and this last weekend my daughter brought us some particularly luscious ones with chocolate, orange and caramel. Yum.
And finally, Easter Day – the time for chocolate eggs and something very special for lunch. A turkey, maybe, if there’s to be a big family gathering, or a piece of pork roasted until the crackling is golden.
Liz’s latest romance, For His Eyes Only, published by Harlequin KISS is available now. You can find her at her website
Chocolate Box Spring Blog Hop: The Colours of Spring
The Colours of Spring with Liz Fielding
After a particularly nasty winter – not particularly cold here, just endless rain – it seems that the flowers can’t wait to put on a
show.
pulmonarias is lighting up a dark corner and golden wallflowers are filling the air with luscious scent. And across the road we look out on the stunning deep pink magnolia in a neighbour’s garden.
Even the tulips, that end-of-spring favourite, are sticking up fat green buds, in a hurry to join the show.
What flower says to you that winter is over, puts a bounce in your step, makes you smile?
Liz’s latest romance, For His Eyes Only, published by Harlequin KISS is available now. You can find her at her website
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Does Anyone Really Spring Clean Anymore?
Today’s Blog Hop post is brought to you by Susan Meier, one of my favorite people on the planet. One of the first things she ever said to me in person was “A rising tide floats all boats”. She’s full of wisdom and humor and a really fun person to be around. Don’t forget to enter the Blog Hop contest at the end by using the rafflecopter form!
As I was cleaning my mom’s house on Saturday, I gave thanks that she got rid of the old coal furnace and switched to oil heat. It was so easy to wipe down the kitchen, dust, scrub the floors. But as I was cleaning, I remembered how necessary it had been when I was a kid that my sisters, mom and I gave the house a good cleaning in the spring to get rid of the coal dust, and open the windows and let in some fresh air.
And I thought…Does anybody spring clean anymore?
With Swiffers and Swiffer dusters (LOL!) I can pretty much keep my bedroom and downstairs dust free year round. Scrubbing Bubbles keep my bathrooms sparkling. And my husband has a rule…if you don’t use it, you toss it. So we don’t have a once-a-year run through of our clothes to toss things we don’t wear.
In a way, it’s sad. Some of my fondest memories are of the sweet scent of Pine Sol wafting along the breeze blowing in through open windows. The feeling of freshly laundered throw rugs under my feet. And the crisp look of washed and pressed curtains. The ritual often felt like the first sign that we were shaking off winter and welcoming spring with a clean house.
Like so many rituals of my childhood that are now gone, I miss it. So I’ve decided to take a few days (as soon as I’m sure it’s not going to snow anymore) and clean with Pine Sol!
So what about you…do you spring clean?
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