Blossoms, seedlings, and a morning on my own

Do you remember these buds?


Well now they look like this:


Spring. There's nothing like it.



Even the rain smells good at this time of year. To me it smells of freshly turned earth, of green shoots, of damp flowers. For the past two days it has rained, and, while I can't easily go out walking with the children in it, I've enjoyed looking out my windows at the raindrops, and breathing deeply when I step out on my porch for a moment.

Speaking of my porch, here's my garden, which the children and I have now moved outside. (It was quite the parade, pushing them through the house, stopping when Lavella threw a fit because I wasn't "letting" her push the super-heavy pot-that-weighs-more-than-she-does by herself...yeah.)


I didn't harden them off properly, since...well, I sort of forgot them outside that first day of "hardening", and then just ended up never bringing them back in. This is why I've always had a "black thumb" with plants. But anyway, these seem to be pretty hardy seedlings, and are still alive.

It'll be interesting to see if they survive. I hope so! If not, I'm sure I can replace most of them with similar varieties from the nearby plant nursery, but there's something satisfying about starting them from seed myself. Kind of like washing a fleece and taking a project from there. We'll see what happens.

Today the sun came out to shine again. I got a babysitter for the children this morning, put on my Gucci sunglasses, and got into my tiny blue car. No carseats to buckle, no snacks to hand out. I felt like I was missing a limb. Pedal-to-the-metal, I nudged the car up just a bit past my usual 85-miles-per-hour comfort zone. It was weird. I was free.

All I really had to do was go grocery shopping, and it felt like a true luxury to do it alone. I stopped for lunch: a slice of plain cheese pizza and some scary looking buffalo wings at the BX food court. Nasty, but I couldn't even care. I got the food to go and ate it in my car while looking at magazines. Then I knit a little bit. AND NO ONE BOTHERED ME. It was amazing. But then I started missing those little faces (you know, the ones that might possibly Bother Me), and then... I went back home.

Seriously. I think they get cuter every time I look at them.


And of course they're extra cute when I haven't seen them in a little while.

It was refreshing to have just a brief break.


Jonah, visiting with the neighbors

It'll be good to have Greg home with us again.