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BY TIFFANY EVANS

Journal Columnist

With Easter right around the corner, I recently began my search for cute outfits for our two boys. Obviously with COVID, our Easter plans are limited, but I still wanted them to have a cute Easter wardrobe. I visited several stores and even shopped online in hopes of finding that adorable perfect choice.

What I found was very annoying. Every store was filled with tiny suits and tiny ties for boys, but the truth is while these are super cute, I find them to be overpriced, especially considering they are likely to only wear them once and then grow out of them. I had hoped to find a cute, simply Easter T-shirt. In the past I had found shirts with peeps, or a cute little bunny, nothing crazy just cute and fairly comfortable (and affordable). As I visited shops, I found lots of cute little girl T-shirts with bunnies with bows, and cute T-shirt dresses to be worn with leggings. All things that were adorable and affordable, and likely to be worn more than once. However, for boys… the options were suits or polos. Seriously!

After wasting a large amount of time, I decided that the boys would just make their own shirts. I bought white T-shirts, tie die, a bunny stencil and fabric paint. Ready to go. I had hoped that they would enjoy getting to make their own shirts and create a T-shirt just for them. I was not entirely wrong, but nor was I entirely right. At first, they seemed uninterested, and then they discovered that the tie dye came in small squirt bottles that they got to point sort of at Mom.

My youngest son went first. He was excited to simply be outside playing in the sun. I rubber banded his T-shirt and equipped him with plastic gloves. The fun began. He took the first squirt bottle and started to spray the T-shirt with light blue dye. Then it hit him. Mom doesn’t have gloves on, and every time he squirted too hard or up too high, it covered my hands and arms. The giggling started. He doused his shirt and me, with bottle number one and then switched to the dark blue dye. Voila! Shirt number one tie dyed and ready to set.

My youngest son went next. He was initially less enthused. He began to aim the dye at his shirt, carefully dousing the once white material with light blue dye. Then his little brother stepped outside. “No, you are supposed to spray it on Mommy.” Oh my! He let him in on the secret that apparently made tie dyeing even more fun. Bottle number one, some on the shirt and some on Mom. Bottle number two proceeded in the same fashion. Blue dye squirting in every direction, with me dancing around attempting not to be completely blue before the end.

By the end of our tie dyeing adventure, the shirts have come out nicely tie dyed, and as for me, the blue ink has mostly faded away. However, the memories of my boys hosing me down with blue dye will last a lifetime.

Today as I sit here recalling this memory that I in no way expected to go the way that it did, I am reminded of today’s devotional. Both Scriptures and devotionals this morning reminded me to slow down. We spend so much time attempting to rush through life to get to the next part that we fail to really enjoy the here and the now. In this season, I am blessed to spend more time with my boys and will enjoy making every memory. I do not know what the next season holds, but God does and that alone is enough. I can relax, breathe and enjoy being covered with tie dye as my boys laugh hysterically and gather memories.