Frugal Holiday Tip and ramblings.

The “spring thaw” is evident in the house this morning. Every year around mid March to mid April, it smells very strongly of rotten eggs on base. Our neighborhood is especially strong. The smell is so absolutely gut-wrenching that if you walk outside just to get in your vehicle, you’re likely to dry-heave. When I awoke in the middle of the night to comfort G from a nightmare, I thought Bun had exploded out of his diaper—so I sniffed him closely. Then I realized the smell was all over the house. Do I have any desire to boil eggs today? Not so much. We’re thinking of waiting until Monday night anyways when Danny returns from alert. Then we can also pick up some after-Easter sale dye kits and surprises.

Tip of the day: Buy holiday items after the holiday and save for purposes throughout the year or next year. There are several items you can buy after Easter and save for next Easter: dye kits, sprinkles, stickers, stuffed animals, plastic eggs, Sweetart Eggs, bunny-shaped cookie cutters and cake molds, Easter dresses and suits, etc. If you're going to buy something that will be a gift for next year or the year after, make sure it doesn't have the date stamped boldly on it--2007-- or at least be aware of it before knowingly giving it away.

I love to buy the dye kits after Easter and use them throughout the year. Since we home-preschool, we find lots of opportunities to have fun with "color days." Next week we'll have yellow day and dye yellow eggs, have yellow milk, make lemonade from real lemons, grind up their yellow peels in the garbage disposal, cut out yellow construction paper shapes, eat pineapple, have lemon chicken for dinner, and have a yellow bubble bath (from food dye of course). If we have anything yellow to wear, we'll wear it. And we'll blow up yellow balloons to play with. And maybe Danny will bring me yellow flowers. *hint hint*

I bought several stuffed bunnies a few years ago at JoAnn's when they were on sale for 90% off. Last year I spent Easter in Utah and didn't get to pull them out. I also bought paper Easter grass in lovely pastel colors (instead of that static plastic Easter grass) and Easter sprinkles for cakes or cookies or to decorate chocolate dipped pretzels.

One year I bought a whole bunch of Easter M&M's and separated them by color and substituted them for chocolate chips in cookies in a jar recipes and gave them to new mothers. And then I ate all the green, purple, and yellow ones.

Here’s a link to a cute Easter Bunny cake I’m probably going to make on Monday night. I think a lemon cake would make a delicious bunny.