Now all I need is some purdy gold shoes

I like to find children's books that I remember from my childhood and share them with Z (and E). Shortly before Easter, I had a vague memory of "The Country Bunny and The Little Gold Shoes" and after seeing the cover, the memory got stronger so I bought a copy. Usually, I try to pull out holiday books a couple of weeks before a holiday and then put them away a week or so after the holiday has passed. That means, by the end of this week, I should be stuffing this one in with the plastic Easter eggs and the @#*!#& Easter grass and saying goodbye till next year.

It's going to be hard to part with it.

If you aren't familiar with this book, a little brown country bunny hopes that when she grows up she will be chosen as one of the five Easter Bunnies who deliver joy throughout the world on Easter morning. Instead, she has a husband, "much to her surprise" has 21 babies and fears she is "just an old mother bunny". But then, one day, after her children are "half grown", she proves herself worthy of the esteemed mantle of Easter Bunny. It turns out that her swiftness in chasing baby bunnies, wisdom gathered from years of teaching bunnies manners and chores and kindness from loving her bunnies not only made her a great mommy bunny, it also prepared her for this most esteemed job of Easter Bunny, which she then ROCKS.

(GO MAMA GO!)

This SAHM mists up reading this book every night (luckily, Z loves it as much as I do at the moment). I am floored, just a bit, that this author was a man, a white Southern man, in 1939 no less. This man, who apparently was raised by a single mother after his father died, told this story to his daughter (the "Jenifer" in the byline) and was persuaded to put it down in book form. What a gift he gave to her, and the rest of us.

It is a lovely inspiring story for anyone: that we can do anything we put our minds to, no matter where we're from, what color we are, how rich we are. But the message I hear drumming in my head for hours after reading it is this: all these hours spent loving and raising these children are worth something. I am a swifter, wiser, kinder person than I was before motherhood. And these attributes will serve me well when I chose to go back into the paying workforce.

I think I'm going to have a hard time putting this one away in the plastic box marked Easter. I just may need to keep it out for awhile.