Easter at the Fletchers

So, because we had this big news pending, I decided to give myself a break in regards to Easter for us this year.

I decided that our multi-year traditon of white shirts and ties for all the boys was just stressing me out to a whole new level of stress. Two of the boys had fairly new dress shirts that weren't white. I didn't feel like ironing multiple shirts. And so, I just let that go.

Then there is the whole "everyone needs to be here on holidays" feeling that I get as a mom. You know it if you're a mom, but I have 2 boys in jail this Easter, so that wasn't going to happen no matter what. Courtney, Isaac's mom, had decided to have Easter dinner with her family. So I let that part go. It was Kyle and Christy's year to go to her mom and dads (and since within a few months we will be living only 20 minutes from them (see this post if you missed the news) it wasn't that important that they be here. Ricardo isn't really talking to us, and Salinda wasn't sure she was coming cuz she had to work. So I let that whole "large family MUST be together" idealism go.

Then there was the "I must take family pictures" expectation. This one causes a mass amount of stress for me. But i didn't really want pictures this year because I didn't want to have to look back and say "oh that was the year that Ricky wasn't speaking to us and Mike and John were in jail." So I let that go too.

Then I have the "I love to sit with all my kids in church on easter" feeling. But I was singing in the choir this year. So that meant that everyone being at the same service wasn't significant. I required those living at home to be at the 7, but everyone could choose if they wanted to go to the 9:00 or the 10:30 or both. That meant that I didn't have to be frustrated when Salinda and Gabby, who did make it up, didn't end up in church with me.

Suddenly everything was much more manageable without all of those "musts." Bart had most of the dinner prepared last night, so today I enjoyed a great service (with one of his best sermon's ever). The cutest baby in the world was here for about 10 wonderful hours yesterday, Apparently we should have watched him more closely, but he had a lot of fun...



and fell asleep in Bart's lap after a bath.



I felt so much more peaceful this weekend than I ever have on Easter weekend than ever before. Maybe not as peaceful as angelic Isaac when he is asleep, but pretty dang peaceful. I think I'm going to let go of some of my huge expectations again next year. Or maybe not. But this year it was nice to take a break. We needed to use our emotional energy elsewhere.