Spring Weekending

Is there anything better than the first few days of spring weather?

Nope! Nothing.

This weekend we each played outside in our most favorite ways - a neighborhood soccer pick up game, biking to and from the park, swinging at the playground, jogging by the lake, pruning the trees and shrubs, carting yard cuttings around in the wagon, spotting birds and earthworms... it felt wonderful!

This morning I baked my annual Easter morning Gluten-Sugar-Overload (aka. Cinnamon Rolls). They were as good as I remember them being last year. They're kind of like pumpkin pie for us. We make and eat them once per year and they're never the same twice since I'm never able to stick to a single recipe. This year I used this recipe for the dough (I replaced some of the milk with buttermilk to try and deepen the flavors. Truly amazing how resilient and determined it was to continually proof despite frequent punching and overnight refrigeration!), and this recipe's filling and icing directions. A delicious amalgamation of ingredients, if I do say so myself.

The kids egg hunted and we were reminded how easily delighted they are at these sweet ages. Their lack of expectation surrounding holidays is so refreshing. It makes it very easy to enjoy whatever we pull together for them. Colin was happy to open and shut the little eggs regardless of what was inside, and Christopher (though certainly thrilled with little chocolate eggs at 8:30AM!) was equally giddy with each new sticker that fell out of his egg haul.

I trust that you enjoyed a wonderful weekend, as well! And I hope that spring has sprung wherever you are... it feels like the season of endless possibility...

Equinox?

I hear that the Spring Equinox was yesterday. Hmm. When I woke up this morning, the temperature outside was flirting with double digits, but hadn't yet gotten there quite yet. So, I scrapped the idea of an early run. I consider myself pretty hardy, but a morning jog in 8 degrees is not refreshing. It's punishment. I opted for more sleep. Smart, no?!

There are plans for egg hunts and new craft projects. Garden sketches and new perennials for the front yard. Apple tree and forsythia pruning (more like shearing for the latter). And as my eyes glanced past the bottle of bug repellent in the back of the closet this morning, I actually thought for a split second, "Won't it be nice to have to use that again?" Come again? Apparently, winter has felt so long that I'm actually yearning for mosquito bites. That's just wrong.

Let's ignore the first part of the long term forecast that predicts snowfall for this weekend and instead focus on the possibility that we will, at long last, perhaps and perchance... move into the 40 degree range late next week. Don't come looking for us in the house! We'll be running at the gardens, biking by the lake, whizzing down the slide at the park and quite possibly barbequing in our flip-flops.

Thank goodness for greenhouses and conservatories. This was taken at the Lincoln Park Conservatory last weekend. We had just visited the zoo with Grandpa and Grandma in frigid temps and flurries. Sheesh.

Mid way through Mile 2...

Oh, yes. A sure-fire way to make sure you RUN until you get to Mile 3! And then, once you're at Mile 3, you have the following to look forward to:

I Think We're Alone Now (Tiffany)
Holding Out for a Hero (Bonnie Tyler)

Um, child of the late 80s, anyone? Seriously, though - that middle one makes me want to pull on some purple legwarmers and a pair of polka-dotted fingerless gloves and brush out my hair into a giant Diana Ross-esque frizzball. Oh, and colorful hoop earrings, a few scrunchies and maybe some super shiny bubblegum pink lipgloss. YES.

If you ever see me running by while I'm listening to this bunch, I'm likely working very hard to rein in my desire to belt along at the top of my lungs.

"CHILDREN BEHAVE!!!"

Written word

I go through periods where I'm consumed with a Need to Read. Which is to say, I am most definitely suffering through one of those phases right now. I can't get to bed at a reasonable hour and my contact lenses are a shriveled mess when I pull them off my eyes at 11:30pm. I cheat and extend afternoon rest time for another 5 or 10 minutes so that I can read just a few more pages. I turn on the bedside light at 6:30am, just after Mike has taken Colin into the living room for their morning playtime, and push my eyelids open to try and suck in a few more paragraphs.

Of course, not every literary endeavor turns out to be a good one, and what I've finally learned... at the wise age of 34 (!)...  is that one need not finish every book one starts. It's true!!! You're not a quitter. You're just a savvy reader. Life is too short to read books that you don't like. (Note that I don't say "bad" lit. I definitely enjoy trash when I'm in the mood for it.)

I just finished Ann Patchett's State of Wonder.
So, what awaits my attention in the reading stack right now?

The Substance of Style: How Singing Creates Sound in Lieder Recordings, 1902-1939 by Rebecca M. Plack (a friend's long-anticipated dissertation from her PhD in Musicology at Cornell Univ!)
Clara Schumann by Nancy B. Reich
The Naked Voice by W. Stephen Smith
French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
This Old House Magazine
Country Living Magazine
Martha Stewart Living Magazine

Words words words. I love words.
Sometimes I wonder what my life would look like today if I'd taken that job with Sunset magazine as a copy editing assistant many years ago...

But I'm wasting time that could be spent reading right now. Must run. To my tea cup and the nearest book available.