spring has sprung

It's officially spring here. It's sunny, it's in the 60s, the flies are back, and I saw three birds this morning trying to roost in the artificial flowers on my front door. Yes, it will snow again. But I don't care, I'm declaring it spring. (Eva asks me every day if it's spring yet, and I've been waffling, but no more!)

I dropped Eva off at preschool, and I went to the car wash. I got a deluxe wash, and then I spent about half an hour vacuuming it out. I do love those industrial vacuums. It was the first time I vacuumed out my car since before winter hit, and there were a lot of pine needles, leaves, etc. Not to mention the trash I found under the seats.


After I retrieved Eva, we cleaned the insides of the windows and the dashboard. The combination of being out in the wonderfully springy weather and having a nice clean car was exhilarating! While we were thus engaged, Hannah pulled up to give me a delightful birthday gift:

A loaf of homemade bread that only takes one hour to make from start to finish, the recipe for said bread, darling little miniature cupcake/candy cups, one of her aromatherapy heating/cooling bags, and a very cute "green" shopping bag! My family loved the bread, so that recipe will definitely come in handy.

I did absolutely nothing for St. Patrick's Day (unsurprising to those who know me) except for dressing Eva in green and telling her about the pinching tradition. She seemed highly disturbed by that. At preschool, however, they learned about leprechauns, made rainbow and pot-o-gold drawings, and ate rainbow sherbet. And that's why I pay for preschool, right there, so she can do fun stuff!

I did some laundry, I had a piano lesson, and I spent a long time cleaning up and reorganizing my kitchen. I have two possible spots for my new mixer. I'm trying it in one for now to see how it feels in its new habitat.

I had the windows open, kids were playing outside -- including mine! -- except for Max, who has been down with a fever for two days now. I guess even spring can't keep my kids from getting sick. But my spirits are high, and I'm even thinking about doing some spring cleaning...

eye-openers

a few eye-openers from this last week...

1. Airport kiosks for surfing the net! Okay, so I've seen them before, but I've never investigated them. They're not really that expensive, and it's a good way to kill some time during a long layover.

2. Jessie puts her keyboard away. I always thought that keyboards belonged in front of their corresponding monitors, but Jessie feels that that looks too cluttered, so... judge for yourself:

keyboard in working position

keyboard "put away"

For some reason, this just tickled my funny bone to no end. When I saw her keyboard on top of the printer, I assumed she needed to clear a workspace on the desk to pay bills or write a letter or something. But no, she was just tidying up. I could not stop laughing. To her credit, she was a very good sport about it. And for the record, I wish I had more of her compulsion to tidy. (Good thing she has a wireless keyboard, eh? What would she do if she had to contend with the tangle of cords on my desk?)

3. I don't think this requires any explanation.

4. Bella can turn anything -- and I mean anything -- into a toy. She engages in independent play better than any of my kids ever did. I so wish she could teach this skill to Eva.

5. Kudzu. Jessie informed me that it is nicknamed "the vine that ate the South". She had explained it to me, and even showed me pictures from a Google image search, but it was still shocking to see it in person. It just covers everything like a blanket. Wild.

6. Jessie is fortunate enough to have multiple climate zones in her van. I never thought anyone would want the temperature to be lower than me! It was kind of a happy moment to not be the hottest one around, and I savored it, knowing that a miraculous event like that was not likely to happen again.

7. Some seriously cute packaging that stopped me in my tracks at the grocery store.

8. Jessie might possibly be tiring of the hairless cats. (Or it may just be postpartum hormones.) I never thought I'd see the day. (But I would completely empathize.)

9. It's truly amazing to me that, of all the books that have been written, and all the books that I have read, a book can come along that feels this fresh and ground-breaking. So creative that there is honestly nothing else like it. It makes me feel hopeful. As does the character Oskar who says things like "Jose!" (As in, no way.) I loved it so much.

10. On Sunday after church, Eva was sitting on my lap. She turned around and looked at me and this delightful little conversation followed:

E: What's wrong with your hair?

M: Ummm... well, I got a haircut.

E: Well, it looks weird. And what's wrong with your face?

M: I have no idea.

E: It's not cute.

Well, thanks for that. Nothing like a child's disdain to knock the wind out of your sails.

OH, and one more for good measure!
My mom started a blog!! Nothing could have prepared me for this complete and utter turnaround from the mom I used to know, who couldn't work a computer mouse.

Check it out: besusan.blogspot.com