Easter Egg Hunt Variations

Good Wednesday morning!

I just want to take a minute to brag on our high school principal and vice-principals. We had a meeting yesterday regarding some "Josh" stuff, and it couldn't have gone smoother. It was nice going into a meeting without being sick the night before, and it was unbelievably nice to come out of the same meeting feeling better than when we went in. It was a good meeting... and you know how I feel about meetings! I've probably used the words "good" and "meeting" in the same sentence... Hmmm. I don't think I have ever used those two words in the same sentence!

I hope everyone had a great Tuesday. The week is cranking up, and I know everyone is busy fixing Easter baskets and buying the finishing touches to the kids' Easter outfits, etc., etc. It is hard to buy a short sleeved pastel yellow shirt while I'm wearing a red turtle neck, heavy black sweater and leggings under my jeans. But James Spann is saying it will be warmer by the weekend. We'll see. We'll see.

I've added a picture of the pups in our new pine straw. They love new pine straw. It must be one of those little pleasures in a dog's life. I like looking at it, but they just wallow in it!

Now, on to the Faulkner F1 Tornado Story you've all been anxiously waiting for.

(I've also added a couple of pictures from the tornado.)

We were expecting bad weather. It had been predicted all day long. We even knew it was supposed to hit after midnight April 7. In Central Alabama, we hear this A LOT. And for the most part, we take it under advisement. For instance, I wouldn't want Austin or Josh or Roxie out and about when a storm was predicted to hit. I would want them home... just in case. On the other hand, that same prediction which makes me want my chicks close by, does not mean we will be spending the time they have predicted the storm in the basement. (But, like many good Central Alabamians we DO have a basement. Not all of us, but many.) Even if there is the inevitable tornado siren, we are still pretty calm. We will watch James Spann to see what part of the county the "rotation" has been spotted. We will keep the TV on until the warning has passed, and then it is pretty much business as usual. (This is after a lifetime of living with tornadoes.)

Since this particular bad weather was supposed to hit after midnight, we knew everyone would be home. I was talking to a friend on the phone ("bandofbrothers" as a matter of fact), and she said they were trying to figure out where to park their cars. They didn't want them under trees where falling limbs could scratch them and since they were a house with a teenager, they had to worry about three vehicles instead of just two. I was on the front porch during the conversation and my car was parked out front under two trees, and Mike's truck was parked at the end of our driveway (also, under two trees). When I got off the phone, I told Mikie what we had been discussing, and we decided to move the van and the truck to the end of the driveway closest to the house (where they would be under only ONE tree). After that, we didn't put any more thought into storm preparation.

We were both awakened around midnight to the sounds of the storm... lots of wind and rain. Mike slipped out of bed and went to the den to watch the weather. The siren went off, but Mike said everything was okay. It was in a different part of the county. He sat down in the recliner, I stayed in bed and the kids never woke up.

About an hour later, I woke again. Everything had intensified. I was getting out of bed when the siren went off. I heard Mike yell, "Belinda," but I was already out of bed and running behind him up the hall to the kids' bedrooms. I've been in a lot of storms, but something was different this time.

He ran into Roxie's room and grabbed her, and I started yelling and yanking the boys up by their arms. (My guys were big, even three years ago, so there was no picking them up and running downstairs. Mike had Roxie, Josh was standing up but was definitely not awake, and Austin was sitting up in bed like he had all the time in the world. CRASH! That woke everyone up enough for them to start down the hallway toward the basement. Three out of five us ran down the basement stairs, and Mike ran after Josh who must have been sleep running because he was running to our bedroom... not the basement. By the time we were in the basement, of course, the tornado was gone.

The kids pulled out sleeping bags from the camping closet and got comfortable, and I found Mike looking out our garage door window. There was no light except for sheet lightening. It was evident the one big tree had landed on his truck and my van and the corner of Josh's room. It wouldn't be until daylight we discovered moving the two vehicles at the last minute probably kept the tree from coming all the way through Josh's room.

Kids settled, Mike and I went out in the front yard. Sparks were coming out of broken power lines. The two houses directly opposite our house were fine. Mike knocked on one of our neighbor's doors, a widow, and woke her up. No damage. No harm done. Before he went to another neighbor's house directly across the street, I could hear someone yell and ask her if she was okay. She answered she was fine. That left the house beside us. Again, the only lighting we had was a small flashlight and lightening, but staring at the house, we could tell a huge tree had come down on the house, much like ours, but had gone all the way through.

Mike carefully made his way to the front door of our elderly neighbors' home and knocked. Miss Mary (with Mr. Joe right behind her) came to the door, but she was hurt. The tree had come through her bedroom and a large limb had not only gone through her bed, but also through the floor into the room beneath her. She was literally only inches from where the branch would have hit her. Mike called her daughter and son-in-law who lived only a minute or two away, but they had no idea the tornado had hit our street.

In the light of day, the devastation was truly amazing. The street behind us was untouched. The street on the other side of us was untouched. A couple of houses had minor damage, but most had a good deal. Miss Mary was the only person hurt, and she eventually recovered from the cuts, bruises and other injuries.

Now, as far as the Faulkner Five went, Josh had already had his breakdown and was fighting with everything he had his OCD... the greatest part of which at that time was unrealistic fear of tornadoes. This all happened in April after he got sick in December... only four months into his illness. Dealing with his illness... AND a tornado hits Josh's room. This is the part when you say, "Okay, God. What are we supposed to do with this?"

Josh was eerily calm the entire day... and the next... and the next. Things started falling apart slowly, but surely, after that and we dealt with the issues as they came along. (And they did come along!)

Some of the things I remember most looking back on that day...

1. A very nice man with a bulldozer coming to our house (for just a minute) to lift the tree off my van so I could leave and get breakfast for Mike and the kids.

2. The kids sleeping in the basement floor... the brothers on either side of Roxie.

3. Realizing moving the vehicles had kept the tree from going all the way through the room to Josh's bed... and thanking God.

4. The dozens and dozens of people walking up and down the street bringing food or helping pull trees off houses, cars, etc.

5. Me, Mike, Roxie and Austin asking Josh over and over and over again if he was okay, and him nodding yes. (We now think he may have been in some sort of shock.)

6. One of Josh's teachers from the middle school coming by in her car to see if he was okay.

7. The power coming back on before it got dark, and everyone getting a shower before bedtime that night. (Wonderful!)

8. I didn't hear a freight train sound before the tornado hit. We have heard that all our lives, and I didn't hear anything except wind... but no train sound. And my ears stopped up because of the pressure building in the house (not unlike flying to California).

9. God totally taking care of EVERYTHING.

Our total damage was as follows:

1. One "smushed" truck.
2. Two trees (one totally uprooted and one half ripped in two)
3. Roof damage
4. Driveway damage (from the uprooted tree)
5. Crumpled trampoline
6. Deck damage
7. Leaks in Josh's room, living room and den from roof damage
8. Dent in the top of the big gold van
9. Ceiling and window damage in Josh's room
10. Our azaleas not blooming for TWO years after the tornado (I think they were too scared.)

We came out very well. Our family was safe. Josh had the most problems, but at the same time, he had survived what he feared most. He had to get a year or two of distance from the event itself to see that, but it eventually came.

You may be saying, "What a downer. There is nothing funny about this story at all." Well, that's not exactly true.

Right before the man took down the rest of my beloved backyard tree, I stepped on the tiny back porch to take a picture of the back yard and the tree one more time before it was gone. "Get back in the house," he yelled at me over the sound of the chainsaw.

I held up one finger... the universal sign for, "Just a minute while I take a picture," and he yelled again. And he turned off his chainsaw.

I heard my Mikie tell Austin, "This ought to be good. No one tells your Mom NOT to take a picture."

"I need to get a couple more pictures before you cut it down," I explained sweetly.

"And I told you to get back in the house," he replied... not as sweetly.

Two pictures later, and I was safely back inside.

I'm a scrapbooker. It would take more than a chainsaw to keep me from documenting. And all the scrappers said, "Amen!"

Easter Egg Hunt Variations

These are just four fun things you can do instead of the traditional egg hunt.

"Story of Easter" Egg Hunt

These are also called Resurrection Eggs, and you can now buy the "kits" at most Christian book store. If you want to do it yourself, number plastic eggs 1 through 12 and hide them with all the other eggs you will be hiding that day. (Make sure you don't hide the resurrection eggs in hard-to-find places.) When the hunt is over, have all the children sit in a circle and ask for Egg Number 1. Have them open it revealing what you put inside. Then read the scripture and tell the story one egg at a time.

1. Bread - Matthew 26:26. While they were eating Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples. "Take and eat it," He said, "This is My body."

2. Coins - Matthew 26:14-15. Then one of the twelve disciples, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and asked, "What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?" They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him.

3. Purple cloth (representing a purple robe) - Mark 15:17. They put a purple robe on Jesus.

4. Thorns - Matthew 27:29. Then they made a crown out of thorny branches and placed it on His head, and put a stick on His right hand; then they knelt before Him and made fun of Him. "Long live the King of the Jews!" they said.

5. Scourge (a small piece of rope or thick string) - Mark 15:15. Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed Him over to be crucified.

6. Cross - John 19:17-18a. He went out, carrying His cross, and came to "The Place of the Skull," as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called "Golgotha.") There they crucified Him.

7. Nails - John 20:25b. Thomas said to them, "Unless I see the scars of the nails in His hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in His side, I will not believe."

8. Sign - Luke 23:38. Above Him were written these words: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

9. Sponge - Matthew 27:48. One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make Him drink it.

10. Spear - John 19:34. One of the soldiers plunged his spear into Jesus' side, and at once blood and water poured out.

11. Rock - Matthew 27:59-60. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a new linen sheet, and placed it in his own new tomb, which he had just recently dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

12. Empty - Matthew 28:6. He is not here. He has risen just as He said.

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

This is something for the tween set. There are six kids in our family, so each child is assigned an egg color. If there are 14 clues, then there are only 14 hiding places with six eggs in each place... one egg per child. (When Roxie figures out the clue, she may find a total of six eggs in one hiding place, but she knows to get the yellow egg, etc., etc.) Here is a sample of some of the clues.

It's smaller than Grandmother's house.
It's just a little red.
Last year she hid the eggs real deep!
This year they're on top, she said.
(Six eggs hidden at the shed behind my Mom's house.)

It's a porch just like Grandmother's,
As pretty as can be.
Across the street at Miss Olivia's
Easter eggs you will see.
(I broaden the search to include two or three neighbors' homes as well. With their permission, of course.)

In the yard, you will see many
But special is one tree.
Aunt Bev taught you all to climb
So high you can see and see.
(Six eggs hidden in the "climbing tree.")

A gazebo is something we do not have.
We know one is nearby.
Miss Linda and Mr. Charles have said
Find your eggs and go bye-bye.
(Six more eggs hidden in a neighbor's gazebo.)

You get the idea. The clues do not have to be rhymes. The eggs can be hidden in harder places, also. When I made the clues, I always mixed them up. Each child had the same clues, but each child had them in a different order so they were running everywhere. The first one back to the front porch won a dollar.

Midnight Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

This is the same as the above except you do it the night before Easter. When it gets dark, hand each child a pastel colored flashlight and their clue sheet. They have to find the eggs in the dark, which makes it much more challenging and a lot more fun.

Video Easter STUFF Scavenger Hunt

Because we have teenagers, we did this one last year. We put all the guys in one van (Mikie, Austin, Josh, Uncle Tommy, Brad and Zac), and all the girls in another van (Me, Roxie, Aunt Bev, Katie and Grandmother). We had a set of things we had to find in a specific time limit (1 hour and ten minutes). We had to video each item or a person standing beside the item. The first team to make it back to my Mom's house won. (We beat the guys by five minutes. For every minute you were late returning, you lost a point.)

The list went something like this:

1. Easter Egg Tree (Video someone standing next to the tree.)

2. Easter Inflatable (Video someone standing next to the inflatable.)

3. Church sign with the word "Easter" on the sign. (Video the sign.)

4. Use some of the money in the attached envelope, and go to K-Mart and buy one Easter item. (If it is the same item the other team buys, it cancels out the point. Video yourself going through the store.)

5. Find a cross in a yard or in front of a church. (Video someone next to the cross.)

6. Use some of the money in the attached envelope to go through a fast food drive-thru and order ONE milkshake with six straws. (Video everyone taking turns drinking the milkshake.)

7. Somewhere hidden in your car is a pair of bunny ears. Find the bunny ears and take turns wearing them. (Video everyone wearing the bunny ears.)

8. Go to Southside Baptist's park and find three Easter eggs hidden inside the fence. (Video people looking for the eggs.)

You get the idea here, too. Use the neighborhoods and areas you are most familiar, and make it fun. We had a ball, and pitting the guys against the girls made it even more competitive.

And, of course, you know this weekend we're trying something new... Amazing Race - Easter Style! See last Wednesday's post. We'll definitely let you know how that turns out on Monday.

Please have a wonderful Wednesday. Even though it is my least favorite day of the week, I do hope you enjoy it! Tomorrow tune in for a "local" family date... a spring day trip within 30 to 40 minutes from good ol' Gardendale. And guess what? Tomorrow's post will not be so terribly, terribly LONG!

I'll talk to you soon.