Easter Treats

title BY JO MCCLURE

Frosted Easter Almond Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp almond extract 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt Frosting: 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 4-5 tsp milk 1 tsp almond extract Easter colored food coloring or decorate with sprinkles or Easter candies if desired

Combine butter, sugar and almond extract in a large bowl and beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the dry ingredients and roll into 1 inch balls and flatten with a sugared cookie press or the bottom of a glass. Bake at 375˚ for 7-8 minutes. Allow to cool and frost. Makes 3 dozen.

It’s Spring…

and I Don’t Need to Clean

BY LURA ROTI

In 2021, I got a head start on spring cleaning, thanks to low interest rates making spring a good time to refinance our home.

Sure, I know appraisers don’t care about dead flies in the chandelier or dust on top of the trim, but after nearly 12 months of no indoor visitors, I made our home’s appraisal appointment my excuse to spring clean in December.

Whenever I spring clean, I think about a former co-worker, Terri. Because each spring, Terri would take a week off work to deep clean her home – which included washing the ceilings and walls!

My friend, Cody also comes to mind. Growing up, Cody’s mom would not only deep clean each quarter, but change up the furniture arrangement. I learned this when I called her up one day and casually asked what she was up to. She mentioned that she and her young daughter were just rearranging the furniture for spring.

I admire folks who change up their furniture because it’s something I aspire to do, but in 15 years, I have managed to do it only four times. I’m the type of nest maker who, once I’m comfortable, it takes a big life event, remodel or a new piece of furniture to motive furniture re-arrangement.

Along with deep cleaning, I also engaged in some major decluttering. Isn’t it amazing how large a room feels after three garbage bags of stuff and things are removed? And with finishing our basement on the horizon, the decluttering extended to our home’s lowest level as well.

When it comes to stuff and things, my rule of thumb is this – if it has a home, I can keep it. If it doesn’t, I either need to get rid of it or a different item, to make room.

Because we enjoy estate sales and antique shops, it is a very good thing that my husband, Shon, and I don’t rent a storage unit. I will say, the older I get, the easier it is for me to let go of things. Or I should say, some things.

I still can’t part with cool dishes, “you never know when an event may call for matching teacups and cookie plates.” And I have a soft spot for linens – especially linens with embroidered figures on them.

As I was going through the old dresser which stores my linen collection, a poker table, a tablecloth with smoking card suits made me laugh out loud. I’m not sure what event will call for this linen…especially since my card repertoire only includes gin rummy and Go Fish … And we aren’t smokers. But I still can’t bring myself to give or donate it.

Fortunately, our 10-year-old daughter, Parker does not have a problem getting rid of things. When she gets the urge to purge, get the Goodwill bin ready!

The other day she freed up an entire shelf on her bookshelf, parting with many “baby books.” And I no longer need to put seasonal clothes in a basement storage bin because she freed up enough space in her dresser to hold four seasons worth of clothes.

Not only is she good at getting rid of things, but she loves organizing. Although her room typically looks like a tornado tore through a town of Shopkins, stuffed animals and LOLs, the other day I walked in and her bookshelves, dresser and desk were completely organized. She recently told me that last year in school, her friends would pay her in candy to organize their desks!

And, when she returned to school the first week in March, one of the first things her friends Kinsley and Sophia asked her was if she could organize their desks. As a parent, I am always floored when I realize there are things about my child I don’t know.

Now that the COVID-19 infection numbers are down, we made the decision for Parker to return to in-person school. She LOVES it!

The house is much quieter during the day. Our dog, Tulip, spends her days sitting at the window waiting. But for me and Shon, it is so much easier to get our work accomplished. It is so wonderful to just be Parker’s mom.

And now that spring’s here, it’s nice to have workdays that end before dusk so we can spend time outdoors on yard work. Yardwork is my favorite part about spring. And cleaning the flowerbeds is most often the reason that seasonally-appropriate spring cleaning doesn’t routinely happen in our home.