It snowed here last week which made all of us Pacific Northwesterners roll our eyes hard.
One month ago, we were thrilled with the surprise snowstorm. Now? Not so much.
In just a few days, Spring will officially begin and it feels like all of us are ready for it.
After the hustle and bustle of the fall – with back to school, all the kids in multiple activities, cross country meets and football games and soccer matches – I was ready for the slow and cozy of winter. At the peak of the season, the sun sets here around 4:30 pm, so the dark and cold weather keeps us indoors. I was good with that. I longed for lazy evenings, warm soup, snuggling up with a book.
But now, after a season of hibernating, it only feels right to wake up. To go outside. To clean up the yard and the closets and join afterschool activities again. I can’t to wait to open the windows and bring in new houseplants and for the longer days.
Here are five more things I’m looking forward to this spring:
No. 1
Caroline’s 13th Birthday
My niece is turning 13 in April and we have such a special family tradition that we do when the kids hit this milestone birthday.
Just the adults (grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles) will gather around a table to eat fancy food and share with our sweet Caroline words of encouragement, blessings and affirmations. Each time we’ve done this celebration (this will be #4 out of 9 kids) it is just so special. For us adults – because how often do you get to just focus on one kid and tell her how you feel about her? But especially for the kids – because how often do you get all your best adults to focus on you and tell you how they feel about you?! There are tears, always, because it is a night full of sweet emotion, but it leaves us all so filled up.
Our hope is that when the kids feel lost or pressured or like they can’t figure out who they are, they will always go back to their 13th birthday celebration, surrounded by the people who love them most and remember the words of identity spoken over them.
No. 2
Spring Break in Flagstaff
My college best friend and her family settled in Flagstaff, Arizona after years of moving from city to city as a military family. They spent months searching, praying, visiting different places trying to figure out where they should call home now that they had a chance to choose. They landed on Flagstaff and for the past year and a half, they have all thrived there.
Of course, they could have chosen any other city and been perfectly happy, but I loved watching them pay attention to what their family needed and take steps toward that.
And now I’m excited to take the kids to visit them.
No. 3
The Easter Study from She Reads Truth
Each year, the talented group from She Reads Truth offers a lent study. This year they have broken it into two parts and I’m looking forward to participating in the second half with their
Easter Study. The book is gorgeous (as always) and I love having a themed study this time of year.
The cool think about She Reads Truth is that you don’t need to spend a penny to take advantage of their resources. You can read the daily scripture + devotional on their website. If you like the ease of an app, you can purchase the study there and for an even more tactile experience, the book allows you to journal through, write down prayers and there are always recipes and projects to do.
No. 4
Budding Trees
I live where it stays pretty green year-round thanks to all of the evergreen trees and shrubs, but there are also plenty of bare trees in the winter that start to look pretty sad. When spring comes and the leaves and flowers begin to bud, it makes my heart so happy.
No. 5
Easter Brunch + Dresses + Candy
I love all holidays, but Easter has always been at the very top. I love it, of course, for the spiritual meaning but also for all of the cheerful, delightful ways that we celebrate. When I was a little girl, my mom always sewed elaborate dresses for me and my sisters. She was inevitably up way past our bedtime the night before finishing the last details and we would wake in the morning to our beautiful dresses hanging on our doors. My dad put together Easter basket scavenger hunts for us girls, we ate yummy breakfast in between handfuls of jelly beans and peeps at a table set with cloth napkins while listening to Sandi Patti. After church, we gathered with the extended family for dinner and more easter egg hunts and cousin time. It was truly magical.
We’ve carried many of those traditions over to our family (minus the dress-sewing and scavenger hunt – we’re not overachievers here) and I still look forward to the holiday every year.
Because I have such a hard time limiting my excitement to just 5 things, here are my honorable mentions:
a new season of Project Runway, track meets, a weekend birthday getaway with some favorite friends, switching out heavy coats for lighter ones, fresh flowers.
What are you looking forward to this spring? I’d love to hear your list!
We did similar 13th birthday celebrations for our son and daughter…. they were so special! We also had father/son, mother/daughter vacations to coincide. Great memories. Thank you for the She Reads Truth suggestion. I wish I had known that before Lent, because I am now doing one by CS Lewis that is VERY deep and a bit difficult to understand. We always had sweet Easter traditions with our children, but now that we live states apart we can’t celebrate the same way. However, I still send them Easter baskets full of goodies to remind them of special times. I’m looking forward to blue pansies! and today I actually got to drive my convertible with the top down in northern Indiana. YAY
I’m excited about the new season of PR too! :)
Living in Michigan, I’m just ready for spring in any form. Winter was mild until mid January and then …it hit with a vengeance!
Our family celebrates the 13th birthdays similarly. The 13 year old chooses the menu, we bless them with words of affirmation for who they are, words of advice, and memories. Then we pray over them and have dessert. We are down to the last 2 kids -2 of my nephews yet. Blessings to your family as you share this time once again.
I’m a Texan living in Austria and always love to see the different flowers and trees blossoming in my second home – soon it’ll be the forsythia and that always heralds the start of spring for me. Right now we have snowdrops and crosuses (croci?). And later we’ll see the pink magnolias, which I just love, coming originally from the south. But I do miss our lovely Texas bluebonnets.
I live in south east Australia and the last 3 months could not be more different and your post made me smile.
We have had days of 40 degrees C plus temperatures (don’t know, or want to know what that is in fahrenheit), almost daily dust storms and drought.
The temperature maxed out about 45-46 degrees and even the most hardiest of gardens have suffered.
People would be out doing what they needed to do early and then going home and closing up homes to beat the heat and dust.
Northern Australia has suffered through years of drought with farmers struggling to feed their livestock only to have them decimated by a severe flood. We in the south are still waiting for rain.
We are a resilient lot. As the days start to cool and the light changes and we hope and pray for rain we are already planning new plantings for the gardens to give it another go. Farmers are preparing to sow more crop if/when rain comes.
We are grateful for our family, friends and community. We prioritise mental health in theses tough times.
Life goes on. The last of the swimming carnivals have finished and the football season is about to start. And we are also looking forward to celebrating Easter.
I love hearing about the seasons on the other side of the world from me! Hoping for rain for you all!
Our first ever trip to England and our 30th anniversary !
That sounds amazing!!!