Spring Is In Full Swing!

Well, life is as jolly as it gets around here. Dee has been given his own little dolly baby by my good friend Pintura who smuggled it out of their house and snuck it into my backpack this morning at MOPS. She has an excess of baby dolls at her house (two daughters seems to do that to you) and we needed one for a sweetly paternal little boy who has been wrapping everything and nothing in little baby washcloths and cooing them around the house in cradle hold. Just the perfect trade. Everybody wins. He's been super cute all day, carting "Baby" around with him announcing that now Baby was sleeping and now he was giving Baby milk and now Baby was "cying!" Sweet little man. He's going to make a top notch big brother.

After MOPS the boys and I cruised up to the farm for milk and eggs and a visit with the farmer's baby chicks and then we whizzed to Nutmeg's house for a little yard romp with Sprig and a cold glass of iced ginger/orange/lemon tea...MMmmmm! Hard to believe that its warm enough for ice tea already but, today was quite warm...on our way to pick up A from work the car's thermometer said 89 degrees at 5:00 in the afternoon. Awfully fun but, pretty surreal in the same breath.

And as Nutmeg quipped..."It isn't time for iced tea. This is an illusion." It will be back to spring instead of summer in a few days if the weatherman is right. True, true...and yet...who can resist the joy of flip flops and a sizzling back patio lounging session with a cold glass in their hand...seasonally appropriate or no.

We're neck deep here in magnolias, cherry blossoms, bradford pear blooms, forsythia, daffodils and flowering quince. The world has become a frothy sea of floating petals and misty  floral wonder. Every night when we're driving A home from work now I say, "Look! Look! Look at that!!" I hope it never gets old and that every spring I am stunned by the breathless beauty of it all. So far, so good.

We Did Survive!

 deer prints in our garden

There are bird calls outside my window this morning that I don't remember the labels for anymore after a long, cold winter. Lots of singing going on anyhow, and it sure feels like there are more winged residents in the neighborhood suddenly. Lots of sunshine today and a clear blue sky, noticed the snow had melted away again when I took in the morning view from my bedroom window. I found myself squinting for the sight of skunk cabbage tips peeping through the carpet of brown leaves under the sycamore and the oaks. So far, nothing but, soon, it'll be there and for now...I'm feeling the possibility in a very hopeful way.  And wow...first big spring sighting!!! When the boys and I went outside to play this afternoon I wasn't hallucinating tiny lime green dots on the forest floor. Our local skunk cabbage crop had put out two blossoms. Woohoo!!!! You can bet the local honeybees are every bit as excited as I am. Spring flowers have officially begun.

skunk cabbage blooming!

Feels darn good to be hopeful about anything after a weekend like we've had. This stomach bug that everybody is passing around is the pits...I don't recommend trying it with a squirming person inside of you already. Thankfully, we all feel quite human this morning...the washing machine is whirring away, the dishes are pretty caught up somehow, fresh homemade bread is cooling on the counter and I have a crockpot full of chicken soup simmering away slowly next to the sink. We will make it.

 construction truck patrol across our yard

our black raspberry canes, along the garden fence

This week we get serious about talking to mortgage consultants and begin the big shop around for good rates and best deals and try to get pre-approval all sealed up and done and I get serious about our California plans. Time to compile lists and strike things off and highlight others and figure out what we'll see and when and how insane we're going to be in our quest of adventure, desire to spend time with family and love of nature. I saw another round of drive-by houses this past week and found a few more possibilities although, still nothing that's really making my heart sing any arias. Would like to get out again this afternoon to check out another round.

wild wineberry cane from the woods behind the garden

The next two big tasks on my list are, potty train Dee (he's practically teaching himself anyway) and organize and purge the children's closet in preparation for baby planning. It is suddenly now seeming like a very good idea to know what exactly we have and what we don't.

a little horticultural repose

On the potty training front, Dee as I said is practically teaching himself. I am very rarely taking him to the toilet but he asks me if he can go and I started out no longer changing dirty diapers at all and now I'm starting to have him make it all the way through the whole day with just one diaper period. Dirty or wet...diapers are clearly outmoded here. So, I need to just get it together and put him in underwear and give him the necessary instructions about keeping them dry and maybe spend a day or two down on the non-carpeted areas of the house. I hear sometimes you just luck out with certain kids like this...I'm not sure why its happening...but, I'm for it.