hunting for eggs in the drizzle and mud makes Easter, and life, all the more memorable

Anytime we really want it to rain, we just plan an event.  A big event.  Like an Easter egg hunt for about 200 people.

Now, really, I’m not one to complain about the weather.  I leave that up to my husband.  🙂  “It’s sunny; we need some rain.  It’s cloudy; the plants need more sun.  It’s raining; the hay’s getting wet.  It’s 30 degrees; the field crops are going to freeze.  It’s 95 degrees; the corn is wilting and won’t pollinate”……really, I’m just giving him a hard time.  I just never realized until meeting him how much a farmer relies on the uncontrollable nature of the weather.  Now I get it and I tend to worry some too…

However, we try hard not to worry about the weather when it comes to fun stuff.

Because really, how much do kids love wet, messy mud?  Okay, there may be some who don’t care for it too much, but I bet left to their own minds, without someone scrunching up their noses and scolding every time a bit of dirt appeared on their shirts or shoes, that most kids like to get dirty.  Most could at least grow to tolerate it to some degree-maybe even play, have fun, run around and experience all that mud, rain and dirt can do for them.  Please let them try it and you try it too… ’cause it can do a lot for you.

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So on this particular weekend, when we had a good bit of rain in the middle of the night on Friday and a light drizzle throughout the early morning on Saturday, we didn’t worry about the weather.  The rain was good for the spring crops.  The cloudiness kept the temperatures where they really should be in March.  Jim didn’t complain about it-well, not too much.

“What about the Easter Egg hunt?”  he says.

“It’s a rain or shine event.”  I say

Fast forward to the hunt…

The kids don’t even notice that it’s drizzly and cold.  They’re smiling.  Pink, green, polka-dotted, bunny shaped and old-fashioned wicker baskets are twirling around on their arms.  They’ve worn their boots.  They’ve worn their raincoats.  They’ve brought their parents who are also smiling.   The hunt goes on.  It’s under the tent and inside the giant greenhouse.  It’s outside in the drizzle.  It’s in the messy, wet straw.  There are sweet, feathery chicks and  downy ducks to pet.  There are soft, musky smelling bunnies to snuggle.  There are lots of dirty, messy, filthy kids, clothes, coats and shoes.  There is mud and memories.

Many of our family members came to the egg hunt on Saturday.  Many more of our friends came to the egg hunt too.  I enjoyed seeing every single one of you even though for some it wasn’t more than a moment in the rush of what is always an egg hunt, it was a moment-a great moment.  Thank you to all of you.  Thank you to the new visitors too.  We hope you had fun and we hope to see you often at our farm.

Even though I say we try not to worry about the weather when it comes to fun stuff, you know we still do.  It’s just natural.  I can say that we weren’t worried, but in truth, we may have been just a tad worried.  We wanted everyone to have fun.  We wanted everything to be perfect.  We had plans.  The plans we had weren’t possible because of the weather.   Mother Nature changed our plans and we made it work.

A kind, smiling and damp woman at the hunt said to me that we had a great crowd-that the weather worked out in our favor!  At first I looked at her kind of funny…thinking she was joking.  Then I realized that she wasn’t joking and that she was right.  It did work in our favor.  Thank you to that wise woman 🙂

Here’s to many more muddy memories in your own backyard, at the park or on our farm.    “Nature is beautiful, but it isn’t always pretty!”  Last Child in the Woods