Works For Me: Celebrating Spring

I think I've made it pretty clear how I feel about winter.  As far as I'm concerned, it's the necessary evil we must all trudge through to pass the time between college football season and St. Patrick's Day.  When winter does finally shed its sorry self, I feel like celebrating--don't you?

Add to this my inability to stomach the over-commercialization of Easter (I can't quite fathom what this has to do with this.)  So we do things a little differently around here.

Instead of doing the bunny and egg dealie on Easter, we have a celebration-to-end-all-celebrations on the first day of spring (March 21st, this year).  We color eggs, we hunt for them, we do silly little gifts and (the highlight of the day!) we bake a bunny-shaped cake that the kids get to decorate (instructions here).  Basically, we do all the more secular Easter traditions on the first day of spring. 

This little family tradition serves several purposes.  First, it frees up Easter to focus on the real reason we celebrate.  Secondly, the kids still get all the fun of egg hunts and the like, albeit at a slightly different time.  Thirdly, it just feels right to celebrate spring, that old friend who faithfully returns to make me feel a little lighter each year.  My kids love this tradition and start talking about it weeks ahead of time.  And I already have a humdinger of a celebration in the planning stages (this year the first day of spring falls during spring break, which will make for an even bigger event in years past).

Have a clever idea you'd like to share with all of Bloggityville?  Post a link to your post below.  Guidelines for participation in Works-For-Me Wednesday can be found here.

IMPORTANT REMINDER:  Next Wednesday, March 7th, is WFMW: The Kitchen Edition!  Have a clever way you organize your recipes?  Plan your meals?  Stock your pantry?  Clean your appliances?  Please share your clever kitchen ideas with us.

1. laughing mommy (lasagna recipe) 2. Heather (product manual organization) 3. Laura in KY (disciplining children) 4. An Ordinary Mom 5. An Ordinary Mom (laundering shower curtains) 6. Smockity Frocks (Place Value Chart) 7. mommablogger (Tangy Chicken Breasts) 8. Nikki (Sleep) 9. Joyful Days (cards for hospital or camp) 10. Jane (EZ patch & paint) 11. Org Junkie (slow cooker cookbook) 12. lizzykristine (wedding boutonnieres) 13. Terrific Teens (photo coasters) 14. Cyndi (plastic cup fun) 15. Kerri (potty training tip) 16. Julie (No-Lump Gravy) 17. The Lazy Organizer (disposable bibs) 18. Ann Kroeker (crepes) 19. Tammy\'s Recipes (protecting crib mattresses) 20. Jessica (baking with kids) 21. Trista (The Pumkin Patch) Family Organizer 22. Michelle at Scribbit 23. Chrystal (Sock Organization) 24. Honey (Floating Flowers) 25. Dawn (how NOT to run out of checks) 26. Rebecca Mielke (Bamboo socks) 27. Jill (Assets) 28. Karla (traveling with kids) 29. Susanne (Ladies Night Out) 30. Azul (Vinegar Cleaning Solution) 31. Liza - Conquering Debts 32. Amy (cheap holiday bathroom decor) 33. Marcia (sorting laundry!) 34. Zing Things (Childrens Arts Activities) 35. Fiddledeedee (Garage Sales) 36. YewNorkBabe 37. Michelle (Best Moving Tips) 38. emily (protecting naptime) 39. Mary Ann(no-slip hangers) 40. Carol (a just for fun one) 41. Bethany (Tips for working moms) 42. Dianne (Cooking Ahead) 43. Mama Says (Want it Now) 44. SeaBird (Free Heirloom Tomato Seeds) 45. Lauren S. (easier dinner prep) 46. Mom In Action (Organizing Tip) 47. MCMilker (Great Books) 48. Laurel Wreath (planner) 49. Jessica (Pacifier Cleaning) 50. Barbara H. (inexpensive prints) 51. Flourishing Mother (Vegetarian Crockpot Use) 52. Sarah (Garage Sale Box) 53. Trixie @ Farm Home Life (plants & gardening) 54. CharityGrace (trip packing) 55. KellyM (distributing the diaperbag load) 56. Whymommy (museums with baby) 57. Elena (The Firm cardiosculpt review) 58. Tiffany (feeding a baby)

59. Kim (Organizing Kid\'s clothes) 60. Margaret (Planning Meals Online!) 61. Merci (Auditory Learning) 62. Shalee - Going Bananas 63. Frugal Momma (Caring for Table Linens) 64. Lady Why (learning to knit) 65. Beth (diaper storage) 66. Frugal Homemaker Plus (Planning Meals From Your Pantry When You\'re Sick and Tire 67. nicole (tissue travel packs) 68. Mommy Dearest (help for hanger horns) 69. Amberly (cure for the winter blahs) 70. Lisa (Preschooler sleep trick) 71. Homeschool Mama (cut it up fast!) 72. The Building Brows (Privilege Ladder--part of discipline system) 73. chilihead (Blogging Basics 101) 74. Anne-Marie (Banana Split Sandwiches) 75. Melissa Wiley (dirty dishtowel storage) 76. Mira - charitable donations 77. The Preacher\'s Wife - Homemade Pimento Cheese 78. Amy (free book swap) 79. Shereen)remembering prayer requests) 80. Bessers (toddler veggies) 81. Brian (Storing water for an emergency) 82. Sarah Cool (Honey Mustard Chicken) 83. Kara (doing dishes) 84. GiBee (affordable stainless steel cookware) 85. momanna98 (Time Manage Meals) 86. Pastormac\'s Ann (creative communication) 87. Grace4Gayle (Leftover Genius) 88. RicMama(No Brainer Veg. Soup) 89. The Wuggy Chronicles--Baking Soda 90. Alexandra(Frugal Gardening:Making Planting Beds) 91. The Preacher\'s Wife (Homemade Pimento Cheese) 92. Toni (Cood Ahead Breakfast) 93. Toni (oops, Cook Ahead Breakfast) 94. Gina (Firefox vs. Internet Explorer ) 95. Linda (removing scratches from cds) 96. Amy W (fun yogurt for kids) 97. Proverbs 31 (Happy House Cleaning) 98. One Of The Bunch 99. Amy Jane (Talking About Touching) 100. Yolanda (Don\'t Throw Out That Shampoo!) 101. Beth F. 102. Annette (wrapping paper) 103. A Juggling Mum (Clothes on Coat Hangers) 104. Diatribal (Dryer Sheets) 105. Jessica (Financial Peace) 106. Beth F. (easy and low fat snack!) 107. Heather 108. Kristi(quick pizza crusts) 109. Paula (easy toy storage) 110. Emily (crock pot) 111. Malissa (faster juice making) 112. Melissa (Snowy Boots in the Minivan) 113. The Ink Spot (Laundry) 114. MrsLady (Organization) 115. Makita (Personalized Gifts for Children) 116. The Pumkin Patch (recipe organization)

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Comments

[Heather]

That is a wonderful idea! I've always struggled with how to deal with all the fun activities vs the real meaning of the Easter holiday.

[An Ordinary Mom]

I can't even begin to explain how much I love this idea! You are brilliant! And of course I love how it moves the focus of Easter back to the original reason of why we are celebrating it.

Thanks so much for sharing!

[Myfriendconnie]

Thanks Shannon!

[MommaBlogger]

Cute idea. We don't celebrate Easter commercially either. We've just stayed away from a lot of those things. I've thought about trying some sort of basket for Easter morning, but I like the idea of doing it for spring instead. It moves the focus completely.

[Joyful Days]

My boys have never known "Easter." We celebrate Passover and then Ressurection Day.

While there is never a lack of chocolate here (bad mommy) I admit missing some of the fun decorating things. Especially being artsy with decorating eggs.

Sounds like a good approach, Shannon and then the focus is on Him.

Blessings,

[HolyMama!]

i love your heart behind this particular family tradition. and after all of your snowed in-ed-ness (oh yeah. i typed it.), i bet this spring celebration will be especially sweet!

[The Lazy Organizer]

Great idea!

[Laura]

Such a sweet idea. I too look so forward to the start of spring. This day really should be celebrated!!

Laura
PS: Great fresh springy look you have!

[Melissa]

I like your idea. I think it prevents confusion in young minds. And really, every Lord's Day is a celebration of the resurrection!

[Jill]

What a great idea. I am so ready for Spring. I hate the commercial-ness (is that even a word?) of some of the holidays. My probelm is, since my kids are older, and we have been playing along all of this time, how do you go from that to a scaled back version?

I am trying to change so many things in our lives, and this just tugged at my heart. LOVE it.

[Chrystal]

LOVE YOUR NEW LOOK!

Wow...so springy!

Chrystal
www.chrystalschronicles.blogspot.com
or
www.homeschoolblogger.com/chrystalschronicles/

[Dawn]

Great idea on the spring celebration! Can't wait to see what all you have planned..........

[Rebecca Mielke]

I love your idea! Especially the reason behind it.

[Azul]

I love your new spring theme!

[Robyn]

What a great idea - love it!

[Theresa]

What a great idea, I think I'll try the Spring celebration with my boyfriend's children.

[Carol]

Does the bunny leave a basket? 'Cause that's my favorite part.

[Mama Duck]

That's a good idea, we never did the bunny/egg thing because of the whole "focusing on the real reason for the holiday" thing, but moving it sounds like more fun ;).

[Andrea]

Mine's up--first time ever! :)

[Barbara H.]

I love the resurrection picture you linked to -- just gorgeous.

For the longest time we didn't do anything "Eastery" because we didn't want it to take away from the focus on Christ's resurrection. But it did feel appropriate to celebrate the coming of spring as a gift from God (winter is not my favorite season, either) and to picture spring itself as a representation of resurrection. So we did tie the two together. We started with Easter baskets. No one liked hard-cooked eggs, so a few years we've hidden plastics eggs with coins in them. We keep it pretty low-key. We never did the Easter Bunny though. And I am appalled when I hear people ask children, "What's the Easter Bunny bringing you this year?" like they do with Santa at Christmas.

I do see the reasoning behind keeping the celebration of spring separate from celebrating the resurrection, though, and I think it's good.

[sidetrack'd]

This is a great idea; Spring is my favorite season! Of course, it doesn't hurt that my birthday (20th) coincides with the first day of Spring; just one more reason to celebrate in our household! :-)

[Shalee]

Boy I feel SO stupid. Although I get the egg hunt on Easter morning (Mary and Mary hunting for Jesus that morning), I abhor how the festivities have not much to do with the celebration of our risen Savior. This Spring party is just the thing to separate and celebrate both times. As usual, thanks for the great idea. You're just full of them, aren't you? :)

[stephanie]

Thanks! I had this on my calendar for this year, and one of my to-do's today was to google the start of spring! And that cake recipe looks great! :)

[nicole]

Fun idea. Thanks for hosting.

[Mommy Dearest]

That's a really good idea. It's so hard to prepare for Easter--mentally, plus the clothes, decorating eggs, etc.--all at once.

[smcarney]

Me leaving a comment. Thanks for another great WFMW!

[Anne-Marie]

What a great way to celebrate spring! I love finding a different way to use all the secular stuff that comes this time of year!
Blessings!

[mira]

Very cute idea, I like the cake. I also like the new colors of spring on your blog. One of these days I'm gonna have to learn how to do that for myself.

[Jessica]

See, this'll be something your kids will always remember fondly - how much you wanna bet your future grandkids'll celebrate the first day of spring too?

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

[Iris]

I am a first time visitor here. I am going to give this a try today!!!

[singinole]

i LOVE this idea! my husband and i have talked a lot about keeping Christian holidays sacred and celebrating them for what they're meant for not all the secular "stuff". however, i still really enjoy all the "stuff" and want our future kiddos to be able to enjoy it too, just know the difference. thanks for the wonderful idea!

[Kathleen Marie]

Spring! It usually arrives here in June, but we can always hope! Thanks for a great idea.

[momanna98]

I did my first WFMW, finally. :-) I've been meaning to for awhile now.

[Alissa]

yer a friggin' genius. i hate worrying that i'm doing my children a serious disservice by incorporating the easter bunny... we're totally starting this this year. thank you thank you thank you!!!

[Karen]

I feel like Martha Stewart, but I've gotta say it..."It's a GOOD thing." We have so struggled with a way to separate the true meaning of Easter with all the commercialism. And this comes just in time to DO IT! You da bomb.

[Holly]

I love this idea. I have struggled each year with the whole Easter Bunny thing colliding with what our beliefs are about The Resurrection.

Thanks for sharing a way to still do the fun celebration without interfering with Christ's sacrifice.

[Jenni]

Coming out of my lurky cave to comment...I love this idea. I also read it in a great little book you might enjoy by Carolyn Mahaney, "Honoring God in Our Traditions". And I know the themed WFMWs are booked up for the next couple months, but maybe you could squeeze on in on Easter/Resurrection Sunday traditions? My family is not Christian, and we didn't grow up with anything but secular holiday observations. I love reading others' ideas and tips and hope my kids will have Christ-centered memories...

[lrlwreath]

Oh I love your suggestion, and what a great idea!!

[Alexandra]

I love your comments about Easter!

Boy, I've got lots to read! So many awesome ideas here.

[The Preachers Wife]

I just love WFMW! The first link I left had a typo..Hope you'll try again!

[Stacey]

That is a wonderful idea!

[KimC]

Wednesday again, already? Oh. I need a way to remember what day it is.
Here's what might work for me: tatoo a calendar to my forehead with Wednesdays highlighted. Even if I forget to look in a mirror, the kids will see the calendar cuz they're always looking at me, and they can tell me when it's Wednesday.
Think it will work?

[Nichole]

To answer your question about what marshmallow peeps have to do with the resurrection of Christ - nothing.

"Eostre was the Saxon version of the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara. She gave her name to the Christian Easter and to the female hormone estrogen. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal equinox -- almost the identical calculation as for the Christian Easter in the west."

Bunnies and eggs = fertility, and also yummy marshmallow treats!

Info found, compliments of Google, at one of my favorite sites, religioustolerance.org.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/spring_equinox.htm

[Heth]

I love this Shannon. Unfortunately the first day of Spring falls smack dab in the middle of birthday season at our house. If we add anymore sugar to the mix, we might just explode.

[Toni]

We have a big Easter celebration too but I've always felt a bit odd lumping the The Reason for The Season and the Easter Bunny into the same basket. I love this idea.

[Gina]

Awesome idea! I struggle with the blending of the two "holidays" as well.

I think we might just try this out!

[proverbs31]

We do something different for Easter, too. This year I have come up with something COMPLETELY different. It would be too long to go into detail here, but look forward to an upcoming post about it! :) Have a good day!

[Fiddledeedee (It Coulda' Been Worse)]

I think this is a wonderful idea Shannon! I want to celebrate Easter with the focus on our risen Saviour, not the Easter Bunny. What a great way to begin Spring!

[Heather]

Wow. We do exactly the same thing (which the grandparents REALLY appreciate cause they LOVE the traditional Easter stuff.) Glad to know we are not alone.

[RicMama]

Ditto on the whole winter thing. I love the warmer weather.

On Easter: My son and I were walking through Hobby Lobby last year and his comment about a wreath of pastel colored eggs: "It just screams resurrection, doesn't it Mom?"

From the mouths of babes...

[Amy Jane]

Love this idea. I want to try it if I can get coordinated enough.

[Lei]

Just had to stop in and say I love your idea! For the past several years we've been doing our egg hunts and the like on a different day (for the same reasons), but making it a celebration of the arrival of Spring is even better!

[Farm Wife]

What a wonderful idea! I adore the egg hunts, Easter baskets, and bunnies galore, but have a hard time explaining to the little ones why Easter is about Jesus and not a giant rabbit that breaks in while we're at church. I may have to start this one...

[Jessica]

Great idea! Hopefully we can try it this year.

[Susan G.]

I love this idea and this is the perfect year to do it - my oldest two figured out the Easter Bunny and my younger two don't remember much from last Easter!!!

Thank you Shannon!!

[Heather]

Thanks for hosting this. I've been a lurker for quite some time and have gleaned helpful hints, so I thought I'd leave one of my own this week.

Thanks for your thoughts on a spring party too!

[MrsLady]

This is my first "Works for Me Wednesday" post-I just hope I haven't messed anything up! [Except accidentally linking myself without a topic. I already know I did that. Ooops, sorry!]

[Misslionheart]

I'll be away then, but I'll post something this weekend, although I won't be able to link it up to here. (Unless I can find a computer in the hotel) Oh, did I not tell you I'm off to Cuba? lol

[edj]

Ok I bet you're not even Irish (or maybe you are, with a name like Shannon! I don't know the nationality of Dryer ;) ) but you celebrate St. Patrick's Day and miss St. David's Day? Shame on you! St. David is the patron saint of Wales and you celebrate on MARCH 1ST (today) with daffodils! It's also my twins birthday. So HAPPY ST. DAVID'S DAY! Buy a big bouquet of daffodils--they bring spring to your house, and have a Welsh cake (sort of a griddle scone with currents and fruit in it) for us.

[GP]

Just found you guys!! As an innkeeper here in Montana, I definitely want to play in the next Wednesday extravaganza

GP in Montana