A minimalist Easter celebration and why

This year for Easter, we decided to keep things simple.  As in years past, we went to church Sunday morning and had a simple dinner at home (maple glazed ham, mashed potatoes, and creamed spinach.)  We also opted to dye eggs on Easter Sunday too.  However, we did not do baskets for the dumplings.  We've never done anything outrageous or grand on Easter, but this year we decided to scale back on the candy and chocolate, gifts, and "stuff."  The girls each got a little chocolate bunny and two small chocolate squares.  Caleb got a bag of gummy bears and marshmallows.  They all split some peeps.  That's it.  And not a single one of them complained.  Well, Havi did when I first told her she needed to eat breakfast before she ate her chocolate squares.  But then I relented, and all was well in the world again.  

Earlier in the week, the girls did an egg hunt at Patrick's work while Caleb went to tennis practice.  And as such, we decided to skip the egg hunt at home.  Once we got home from church, we snapped a few photos of everyone outside.

The sequence on Havi's dress was so reflective that it shimmered on Caleb's shirt.  I didn't even see this until I uploaded the photos. And if you couldn't tell, that big boy of ours has decided he wants to grow out his hair.  Just how long he's going to let it grow, only time will tell.

So after photos, it was time to dye eggs.

After egg dyeing, we went swimming and watched the movie Home Alone 2.  I found it funny that we watched a Christmas movie at Easter.  lol

Anyway, the simplicity of our Easter celebration was the result of our desire to keep our focus on the true meaning of the holiday.  We wanted to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, not keep track of baskets, eggs, candy, and "stuff." 

One of our goals for 2015 has been to declutter our home and our lives.  We have donated a lot of stuff we no longer use in our home, and it feels great.  But we're not just ridding our home of unnecessary things; We are also "decluttering" our lives, in particular our food choices and screen time.  All three dumplings have been supportive of these changes as well.  It's been great seeing them spend more time doing things together as well as taking an interest in their health and well being.

While we still have a way to go with decluttering our home, we're happy about the direction we are going in.  We've realized the importance of living with just the things you need.  That was one thing my Bubby (gramma) taught me well.  But that was easy for her to do, as we had very little.  These three precious kiddos of ours, however, are growing up in a very different world than the one I grew up in.  Patrick and I have a greater opportunity to provide for them, making it more difficult to instill in them this same core value.  The world and its influence will also try to pull them in a different direction.  But our desire is for them to value togetherness over stuff.  And if that is our desire for them, we need to model it for them as well.  Now don't think we're going to go off the deep end and sell everything we own and live off the grid.  We're not going that extreme. But...we're embracing the minimalist approach to living and are already happy with how it's working for us.