Easter

I'm not going to go through all the months I've missed on here, but I wanted to post some fairly recent pics, so you can see how the kids have grown. It was a very cold spring, so Easter required some bundling up for the egg hunt and brunch tradition this year.

This is the first time I dyed eggs with the kids. Belalu is really into eggs right now. Eating them, cooking them, peeling them, cracking them for baking, watching "surprise egg" videos on youtube... she can't get enough of eggs!

The local yarn store has a bunny-petting session around that time, and the kids, especially Belalu talked about those bunnies for days. If we didn't travel so much, I definitely would have bought one.

Belalu carried her basket around for a week. She even wanted to sleep with it!

Happy May!

This is a picture from exactly one year ago today. Hard to believe, since we woke up to snow today. E said "Mama, it's not supposed to be snowing. It's Spring." Don't I know it. Classes were canceled at the local school, but not at the university. It's my last day of teaching this semester. So, very soon I'll be posting Belalu's stats from her 18 month check ups. Give me a day or two.

I did take advantage of the beautiful weekend, though, to get a jump-start on my lawn and garden, so I'm feeling better than my last post.

Ready for Spring!

I came home from work one day a couple of weeks ago  to find E had dressed himself to play outside.  The ubiquitous ties have since been replaced with a Superman cape.

Although all this snow is now gone, it's been below 40 degrees F most of the month. This weekend is promising to be gorgeous, and everyone at this point just really needs that to happen.

We're finishing out the semester, so I've not had a lot of free time or energy, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Though J is gearing up for a trip to Spain soon, and I'll be teaching a May-term course, so the excitement will continue for a little while longer, I suppose, albeit in a different way.

My house plans have not been neglected, however. I have been doing the best I can to keep up the daily maintenance and have been relentlessly decluttering. Last week I gave E's room a thorough cleaning, and it just feels so good to have nothing extraneous in there. In addition, there are three garbage bags of clothes by the front door to donate tomorrow and several boxes more ready to go to the consignment shop on Friday.

This was my hat when I was a baby. I love that Belalu wants to wear it.

I've been feeling stressed and overwhelmed with work stuff, and clutter just adds to my stress, but so does the idea of having to organize it and get rid of it. My personality doesn't really know what it wants: on the one hand, I hate clutter and stuff just laying around, but on the other, I am very sentimental and don't want to get rid of anything anyone ever gave me. All my work this week has made me I feel freer, and I really want to keep it up. When I have time to start on some bigger house projects this summer, I'll be more inspired and motivated to do them with a house purged of unnecessary stuff.

When I step outside and see all the work my yard needs, though, panic starts to creep back in. And that's when I am grateful for the winter-like spring we're having. I'm just not ready to go there yet, though I will be after next week. We were going to start seeds inside this year, but never got around to it for various reasons, and I'm not letting myself worry about it. All my house projects and plans are to improve my quality of life, not bring more stress and worry to it, so I tell myself this when I start to feel bad about not getting something like that done. There's always next year. Thankfully, we have a several great sources for garden plants in the area, and we'll just go that route this year. I am very excited for our Farmer's Market Saturdays to resume.
Dwarf arrived in the mail last week, though I've been finishing up next month's book club book first. I couldn't resist starting it, however. And I couldn't stop crying while I read it. I think I've read two or three chapters so far, and I couldn't.stop.crying. So, guess I won't be reading this book anywhere but home.

I have some updates on Belalu's latest Dr. appts, but I'll save that for another post very soon. (Hard to believe my baby's 20 months old!)

Hope your spring where you are is bringing you lots of sunshine and warmth.

Are you still here, March?

I have disappeared into March. It's been a brutal month, weather-wise. We've just been keeping our heads down trying to work through it. After being sick for three weeks, I finally emerged healthy but stir-crazy. So, lots of playing catch-up with housework, with work-work, etc, but always with the promise of spring break fast approaching. And then...the hotel was booked, everyone's health was good, our conversations filled with talk about where we'd eat and which car/bikes/strollers to take... and then... our destination, which had been 70 degrees the week before ... then... suddenly turned cold and snowy and there was no need to travel 7 hours in the car for cold and snowy, since we already had that right here. And still continue to have it. There is still no green to be seen in these parts.

Even our walking days have been kept to a minimum, because the wind has been frigid. I think I've managed to get out for a walk maybe once a week this month.

 We've had lots of playing inside. Lots of reading and drawing and making and watching, too.

 We've been taking advantage of the indoor gym opportunities to get some exercise and socialize.

The good thing about staying in town for break was that I got a good portion of my spring cleaning done. Walls and baseboards and doors suddenly have new life after a good scrub. Cobwebs are gone. (yes, I really had actual cobwebs lurking in the corners). It's still too chilly to throw open the windows, but the birds have been singing loudly in the trees and in the past couple of days I've noticed the snow making a slow and quiet retreat from the walkways and sidewalks around town. March is almost over, and I'm counting on April to herald in a true and proper spring. I think we deserve it after this winter.