Saturday, April 7, 2018

Finish the Sentence Friday - This time of year

There are countless ways bloggers might choose to respond to this Finish the Sentence Friday prompt. This is the prompt that Kristi Campbell at Finding Ninee and Kenya G. Johnson at Sporadically Yours, host and co-host respectively, have thrown our way this week: This April's fool and/or Easter.  That being said, we were given license to write about pretty much whatever we wanted to regarding this particular time of year. Be sure to click the link to see what interpretation of this prompt others have taken.




Like spring weather which seems to all over the map, so are my thoughts for this prompt. Thoughts landed briefly in my mind and then fleeted onward only to be replaced by others, mostly past memories, but not all.

Watching my paternal grandmother clip purple and white lilacs by the back steps of her house and then placing them in a large black vase that cast a maroon glow when the sun shown on it


This is the large black vase that once belonged to my grandmother and was handed down to me after I was married. In another month we will probably have some lilacs in bloom that I can put in it, instead of the arrangement of daisies shown here.

Carefully treading around large mud puddles in the lane from the farm house to the bus stop all the while trying not to get my white buck shoes dirty. . .Thank goodness for my bunny bag (Even though other white shoes were worn beginning on Easter or after Memorial Day, depending on where you lived and then not worn after Labor Day, it was a different story when white buck shoes became popular.)

Spring break and going to the beach with some friends, one of whom had her license, and feeling so grown up

Easter dinner at my paternal grandparents house (A few of the things that I looked forward to were the simple lettuce salads with a few pieces of small shrimp, pieces of tomatoes, avocados and a simple lemon juice and salad oil dressing; eating the fried chicken feet that only my Grandma and I liked; and the yummy angel food cake with the icing so thin one could almost see through it.) Note: Several adults gathered around to help my grandmother devein the shrimp, kind of an arduous task. Watching my grandmother make cakes captured my attention. She would sit on a chair with her legs spread apart so she could rest the bowl on her house dress and hold it in place with her knees while she rapidly beat the cake batter to the right consistency with a spoon. I loved watching and hearing beat of the spoon against the sides of the bowl. My mother had a mixer and rarely made cakes in the same way as my grandmother.

Going to Disneyland with the family 

New Easter dresses, purses, lacy socks, Easter baskets filled with a hollow chocolate rabbit, a few other pieces of candy, and pastel colored Jordan almonds (my favorite)

Going to my first Easter sunrise service when I was in junior high

Rainbows that appear with the fickle spring weather 

Bluebirds and robins arriving


This male bluebird landed on a metal rack near our house. His colors of orange and blue are so vibrant.

Lambs, kids (the baby goats type), piglets, calves, bunnies and kittens which are all soft and new and appreciative of attention 

The growth of new moss and ferns brightening up tree limbs and forest floors

Budding trees and flowers painting a new spring scene every day



A clump of narcissus in bloom on our hillside


These chartreuse yellow buds on this maple tree just started popping  out this week.

Family birthdays (Here is one for the "what are the odds" books. One of my grandparents on one side of the family was born on the same day as another of my grandparents on the other side of the family, except for the year being different.)

Cotton Day at my high school when the girls wore cotton dresses, usually new, and quite often dresses they had sewn themselves

As a young child making Easter and May Day baskets by weaving construction paper strips

Being baptized by immersion as a 27-year-old pregnant mother in the church I belong to now and several years later having a child born on that same day/different year



There is so much to enjoy about this time of year!


What are your thoughts about this season? 



8 comments:

  1. Wow, you gave birth on the same day you were baptized in a different year? I've read so many stories about people with significant dates like this, I see the meaning in it. Your grandparents from different sides of the family born at the same time? The stories I'd read recently is when a woman had a pregnancy loss (miscarriage) and SO MANY had babies born on the same day a year, two years, three years later. There's something to this. I know there's something to this. I'm not sure what it is...
    My husband's first wife is exactly my age but for one day different. I raised her daughter all through high school, and there are other significant dates there too. Makes me wonder what the message is. Here's to spring flowers and new beginnings and old meanings.

    Also co-host for this is Kenya, I think you maybe mixed TToT Wendy up with her, which makes sense. All these linkup s and all that :)

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    1. Oh, thank you for pointing out my error mixing up Kenya with Wendy! Well three out the five letters are the same. LOL! I will go fix that right now.

      There are so many coincidences (?) in life. Maybe, and maybe not.

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  2. Aw, love all your Spring and Easter time memories. Like you this time of the year is just so special to me as I truly get excited that the weather will be warming up (hopefully soon) and that there is extra daylight to spare, as well now. :)

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    1. The extra daylight is wonderful. Things can often seem pretty gloomy when there is lots of rain and dark skies. I pretty much turn on most of the lights in whatever room I'm in on days like those.

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  3. Wonderful memories! I think my fanciest Easter was probably the year I lived with my grandparents when I was in the first grade. My grandmother sewed and I'm sure she made my dress. But it was a major production to get shoes, socks, purse and a hat. I saw a bluebird a few weeks ago and also took a picture. I wondered where he was going to go for the night as at the moment Spring had turned to Winter and he was getting "wintery mixed" on while sitting in a naked tree. I felt sorry for him. It was like he came back too soon.

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    1. Oh, that poor little bluebird. I hope he returns soon. We put up some bird houses a few years ago especially for bluebirds, and also feeders where we could put out mealworms for them. The bluebirds come every year now. They are such beautiful birds.

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  4. You and my husband both with the chicken feet! ha! It's nice to share something like that that only you two liked to eat.
    So many of the gorgeous parts of spring are a bit lost to me right now. Not sure if it's where I live or climate change or what, but I so miss the springs of my youth. Today it's snowing here and my daughter is sick!

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    1. So sorry that spring is being hidden by snow today for you and that your daughter is sick. I hope that you don't get sick too.

      I don't know if I would enjoy fried chicken feet now. I remember a time trying to eat something as an adult that I enjoyed as a child, and it wasn't a good experience. :-/

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