Easily Excitable

A few weeks ago, I saw a meme that said, “If that groundhog sees his shadow, Imma grill him.” Can we all give that an uplifted hand and an amen? 

It’s a fake spring: I know in my heart it is. Right soon as I got all excited about it, I looked at the weather forecast, and behold, this upcoming Tuesday has a high of 47. 

Welp. Don’t like that. 

All the same and nonetheless, I’ve been absolutely jubilant this past week and a half. This weather feels like God wrote a love song with me in mind. 

Leading up to that, there was quite a bit of roughing it going on on Porter Road. 

A few weekends ago, when it felt like North Dakota had come to town, the windchill was a balmy 8 degrees.

What. In. The. World. 

As a result, we had to turn off the water in the singlewide, and the heater had to give its all to try to keep up with the cold. 

It wasn’t successful, despite its best efforts; we woke up, and it was 54 degrees in the trailer. 

I felt like Laura Ingalls. Someone, pass me the buffalo pelt. 

And yet! And yet!

There are little wisps of spring starting to blow in, and I, for one, am here for it. It’s hard to come off a week of 70+ degree weather and not be high on both life and all manner of springtime-related things. 

These past couple of weeks have been divine, replete with all the things we love to do in warmer seasons gone by:

Spending time gardening

I’ve never been much for a ‘winter’/ early springtime garden, but I guess this year will be the year. Thursday,

Momma watched the dogs, and Zayden and I planted peas, brussels sprouts, green onions, and sweet onions. After teaching all day, then coming home and doing manual labor like that, I was shot, come 6:30pm. 

I’m not sure how this garden will turn out. It was assaulted by two puppies who should know better. Boone laid across three brussels sprout plants, and they were pancaked to the ground and begging for mercy.

Then, Buddy discovered his favorite thing to dig for is, in fact, onions. 

Needless to say, Zayden, Momma, Buddy, Boone, and I had a ball.

Cooking with the Doors Open

There’s a small window of time when I can leave the doors open on the trailer.

We don’t have a screen door (we do on the front, but it’s missing the bottom half, so I don’t think it counts), so summertime is a no-go. Plus, our air conditioner would freak out at the proposition alone. 

Fall can present the same issue, and winter is a little too chilly and bleak for my liking.

So, that limits my time to open up the windows and the doors to the springtime and, really, whenever Trey isn’t home. 

Monday was the perfect day for it; plus, it was a holiday. 

This also helped, as I decided to cook spaghetti. It smells great when cooking, but that smell doesn’t translate well when it sticks to your clothes.  

No one likes smelling like onions and garlic all day, so it was a good time for some ventilation. 

Spending weekends going and doing

This past weekend was spent doing some of my favorite things.

Last Friday was a teacher work day. If you’re a teacher, you know there’s not much better than that. Anytime a weekend starts without teenagers, it’s a great time to be alive. 

That Friday, I got off work, went for a run (glorious), and bought some plants. Trey and I schemed up a plan to go for a ride on the Ranger, and Boone, exhausted after a day of playing with Buddy, fell asleep in our laps. 

We ended that day with a fish fry over at Momma and Daddy’s house, and Gran came over, too. She was in rare form as she embraced her task of dropping the hush puppies. 

The next day, we took it slow: we got in some workouts, I worked in the garden with Zayden and Daddy, and we ended the night with a surprise birthday party for Quincy. There was no better way to spend the Saturday.

No cold weather, lots of fellowship, and plenty of time spent outdoors. It was magical. 

Sitting outside (of course)

This was something we fell in love with last year, and I’m thrilled to say we’re continuing the trend. We sit our rocking chairs out in the backyard, and just soak in all the sunshine we can. 

We might as well be 80 years old. It’s hard to beat. 

Boone is still all about sticks, so one of these days, we’ll have one heck of a fire with all the tinder he’s dragging into the yard. 

It’s hard to force myself to stay late after school when I can do all my work while sitting in the sunshine. 

Spring is upon us. 

I hope, at least. I love this time of year- I was made for warm weather.

The days are getting longer, the grass is growing, and things are starting to come back to life. I don’t know about you, but that’s cause for celebration in my world. 

It may be a fake spring- I won’t get my hopes up- but I’ll sure enjoy it while it lasts.