They have to be here somewhere. At this point it was more about my determination to find what I was looking for than it was the necessity of having them. The spare bedroom had gone from neat and tidy to a complete disaster in about two minutes flat. One way or another, I was going to find those plastic Easter eggs.
Most days, I feel as though we have pretty much settled in to this house. Of course that is until I need to locate a specific item that we don’t use on a daily basis. Our “I can’t find it / Do we still have it?” list has slowly grown over the past four months. We had down-sized so much in the process of preparing to move that we knew a little purgers’ remorse would be inevitable. And yet those items that I could swear we kept and still can’t find have caused more frustration than anything I know is gone for good.
After digging all the way to the bottom of the spring tote, those eggs were still no where to be found. Just as I was about to tear into the fall tote in case they’d been misplaced, Kel came to my rescue by reminding me that he had suggested we donate them back while we were still at the old house. Mystery solved. With that, we decided to use the next best thing for our egg hunt… plastic lemons.
I can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous we must have looked. Not only had I given the go-ahead for my husband to put on his boots with shorts since it was starting to drizzle and the grass was wet, we were two adults running around our yard hiding and collecting decorative fruit. In the midst of this grown-up version of a child’s activity, it occurred to me how beautifully appropriate those lemons were after all.
Sunday marked the first family gathering that we missed out on. Holidays are notorious for emphasizing the emptiness of a house for a reason, and being far away from loved ones adds a degree of sadness to celebrations that we’ve not had to cope with up until this point. We’re still adjusting to the difficult nature of our new reality, and yet those lemons give me a little assurance that we’re going to be OK. Not because it’s always going to be easy, but because we made a pact several years ago to always strive to make the most of our situation and to be deliberate in seeking joy in the little things.
As for the egg lemon hunt competition? I like to think it will be a new tradition of ours, even if that means convincing the rest of the family to participate in the future. Who knows, maybe we’ll even break out the lemons again next time.
Grown-up Easter Egg Lemon Hunt:
– Establish ground rules for hiding.
– Hide six eggs within 60 seconds.
– Who can find all of the eggs the fastest?
(or the most within five minutes?)
-m
