One Year Older and Wiser Too

Spring started this week! 

It was Spring Break and Alan's birthday this week. Alan can't ever have his birthday off unless we have the whole week off, because his birthday always falls on Spring Break. This year was another "work on your birthday" year.  We stayed home, even though I longed to go to Idaho or Utah.

Things I learned:

- 1/10:  I do NOT recommend not having a plan for Spring Break. Griff seemed to want a break from planning and traveling and doing stuff. The best things happened when I just made a plan anyway.

-Making the kids do yard work with me was one of my favorite parts of Spring Break. We had some strong winds that got a lot of sticks out of the trees we needed to clean up. When you go do sticks together, they start to open up about all sorts of topics DURING THE DAYTIME! Some of my favorite topics that got some good air time were male puberty (Eve was horrified), racism, and what people at school think of religion (not much use for it). 

-With some planning you can have great dates with people. I had a Matt Ross/Taco Naco date with Griffin, a TJ Maxx/Homegoods date with Eve, and a Bristol/This Is Us birthday date with Alan. I took Griffin and Eve to the temple and The Big Biscuit. I also got a great FaceTime with Jenny and Shawna, who are so busy I feel honored to make it onto their schedules. Shawna is getting closer and closer to leaving on a mission. Jenny is throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs game (duties of Mesa Woman of the Year), and having Rex get engaged, and still doing a zillion other things. I got together with my poetry friends via Zoom and we shared haiku we had written. Eve and Griffin and I also got to hang out with Judah and Adin in Adin's back yard on a perfect afternoon. Adin said distractions were the needed thing for her energetic 4 year old as she is so, so close to having her second baby.

Warming up for the Sunday walk

I tried making shamrock pancakes for St. Patrick's Day. Nailed it.

Betsy saved this fun Alice in Wonderland centerpiece for Griffin and Eve.

Ken Sheldon is going to share some of his art for Walk With Jesus

We made a scarecrow to keep herons and cranes away. A scare-on, if you will.

Eve danced with her before she fell over and lost an arm.

Alan turned 57 on Friday. On Tuesday he set an all-time speed record for his bike ride to work: 19 minutes 33 seconds. A powerful tailwind, a lighter bike, and a whole lot of personal fitness made that happen. I'm sure he is wiser too now. I don't know how he just keeps getting better!

Our family birthday dinner. Salmon, of course.

I was going to take a photo of the food and my phone crashed down and broke one of Mom's beautiful plates. It's lucky she gave me a lot of them.

Forsythia suspensa!

We have neighbors who have a wild spot between the houses and someone planted SO MANY daffodil bulbs there years ago. Bless them!

Impromptu fun is also good. My favorite unplanned things were calls from Mariah, Eliza, Willa and Wyatt, visiting with Carrie on her driveway with a Pelegrino, and getting all caught up on The Bachelor. (Season 29 is totally worth it. Mariah and Eliza played with Litia when they were little in Texas.)

The great thing about Spring starting, is that even through the dead leaves and bare branches, there is hope for more and better days to come. Easter is coming, more light is coming, and there will even be leaves on the trees again. It gives hope that this iterative mortal experience will work. All the learning will eventually lead to more light, more joy, and desperately needed peace.