A marbled Easter egg dyed using the whipped cream method became the favorite, with soft swirls of blue and orange blending across the shell.
GILPIN COUNTY — Being a single parent means making a lot of decisions on your own, and some of them carry more weight than you expect. It helps to call a friend or a relative sometimes, not because they will solve the problem, but because they help you hear your own thoughts a little more clearly.
I had a trip planned to New Orleans over Easter weekend, and I had really been looking forward to it. We were going to fly in, grab a cab to a nice hotel, and take it easy the first night.
The next day, we had a swamp tour booked, and on Easter Sunday, we planned to check out the parade and have brunch at Brennan's, which is known for Bananas Foster.
I pictured us walking through the French Quarter, exploring the cool voodoo shops, and maybe doing a city tour on Monday. Then we would head home on Tuesday. It was the kind of trip that felt like a reward for getting through the busy parts of life.
Then things changed.
My son sprained his AC ligament, and my daughter tore her ACL. Both injuries happened after I had already booked the tickets, and suddenly the trip looked very different. What I had imagined as fun and easy started to feel like a lot of walking, a lot of waiting, and a lot of discomfort for both of them.
I called a friend and talked it through. She listened, asked a few questions, and gave me her opinion: postpone the trip. By the time we hung up, I knew what I needed to do.
I canceled the trip.
It was not an easy decision, but it was the right one. Sometimes you have to take a step back and slow things down, even when you were excited about what's ahead. Plans can change, and you have to adapt, especially when your kids need something different than what you had planned.
Since it was Easter weekend, I started looking for something we could still do together that did not involve travel or too much movement. I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole and found some fun ways to dye eggs that felt a little more interesting than the usual kits.
We tried making what are called fizzy eggs, and it turned into part art project and part science experiment. We hard-boiled the eggs first, then mixed baking soda with food coloring and a little water to make a thick paste.
The kids painted the eggs, and then we poured vinegar over them. The reaction made the colors bubble and spread in these unpredictable patterns that actually looked really cool once we rinsed them off.
We also tried the whipped cream method, which sounds strange at first but works surprisingly well. We spread whipped cream in a muffin tin, added drops of food coloring, and swirled it with toothpicks.
Then we rolled the eggs through the mixture and let them sit for 10 minutes before wiping them clean. The colors came out soft and marbled, and it was surprisingly easy to clean up.
Later that day, I played the part of the Easter Bunny and hid the eggs throughout the house. I made it difficult, and I made a map of where the eggs were hidden, so there would be no stinky surprises weeks later.
It was not the Easter weekend I had planned, but it was still time together. It was slower and quieter, and in many ways, that felt like exactly what we needed.
We will make it to New Orleans another time, possibly during my son’s birthday in November (the weather will be nice, and everyone will be healed up). The swamp tour will still be there, and so will brunch at Brennan's. For now, staying home and adjusting to what life handed us felt like the better choice.
Sometimes being a parent means knowing when to keep going and when to pause. This time, pausing made all the difference.
