Mother Nature

I'm dying to be outside in the sunshine. The only problem is that there is no sunshine! I turn crazy towards the end of February and into March. Well, more crazy. I start feeling like I am going to EXPLODE if Spring doesn't come soon. Remember when you were a kid and you'd plunge under the water and hold your breath as long as possible while counting in your head and fighting to hold out just a few more seconds? It's like that...but with your heart and soul thrown in besides just your lungs. On the bright side, when Blessed Spring does show her soul-saving face, I am the happiest person on earth. Maybe literally. Here's what happens to me in the Spring:

1. I want to tackle every project my brain can think up
2. I dream of paint swatches and power tools
3. I am drawn to the color yellow like cops are to donuts
4. I can't get enough nature
5. I can't drag my kids outside enough
6. I feel like singing all the time
7. I get to finally reunite with my beloved bike
8. I have funny conversations with the maple men
9. I feel like cleaning...for real
10. I reenact daily the opening scene from "The Sound of Music"

Despite the above, Mother Nature has recently buried the emerging flowers beneath the choking ice and snow. Along with them, she has buried my salvation. (Dramatic much? Yes. But whatever.) Spring's arrival feels like a matter of life and death when you live in Michigan. And so, we're not getting along, Mother Nature and me. I'll forgive her once our playhouse is built and the girls and I can throw open the windows and feel warm, flower-scented breezes play in our hair and make our sundresses dance. Until then, the only project I have finished is my Family Home Evening chart. There are matching oval picture frames with each of our photos in them that hang from each knob. It's so not a playhouse or freshly painted shutters, but it's something. Sigh.

P.S. Ironically, the walls shown in the above picture will eventually be painted a lovely blue-green. Just one more project...