Goodness and Light

Sunshine has returned and April is in bloom!  There is joy in my heart-- somewhere behind all the exhaustion.  You guys, I am worn. out. 

What I want to be doing, every moment, is to be out walking in our neighborhood, breathing the spring warm air, or sitting ensconced on our cozy porch.  I want to be able to bask, dammit.

But mostly I am driving and working like a madwoman and going to the gym and keeping up with testing schedules and making appointments and paying bills and racing home just barely in time for the next thing.....

At least it feels that way right now, hurtling towards 11pm at the end of a very looong work week.

Luckily we did squeeze in a weekend that looked a lot like this:

Loving our front porch right now.  So much sunshine without all those pesky leaves.  We dined al fresco both evenings at our little tiny metal table and it was so fine.

 And like this:

The start of soccer!  Jack was on fire, playing goalie and scoring rampantly and so thrilled to win all three games.  My Ivy girl actually kept up with the ball and made contact a few times, and toughed out a game and a half-- such an improvement.  It was actually almost  TOO hot out on Saturday.  No happy medium around here...

We've also found time to visit a pretty shwanky art show....

Ivy and Jack each had a piece on display at the CH-UH district-wide show at the library.

Oh-- and grilling out with friends, a family concert at Severance, an evening at Horseshoe Lake park, visiting the lake, core-aerating and mulching the yard.   

It was a great weekend, actually, and I owe you some more pictures of it. 

The memory of all that light helps ease the tiredness of this week.  Hoping for a bit more time to bask, in just a few short weeks!

A few things to remember:  

* Jack, saying he wants to only play classical music for piano from now on. Channeling his Grandpa Jon! The boy who doesn't even cry when he falls in kickball -- and did I tell you he played GOALIE?  Amazing. 

* Ivy, who can talk about nothing but earrings and the VERY particular arrangements of her upcoming birthday party-- the girl with the long legs who is so articulate all of a sudden and who can read "green eggs and ham" to us!

It just goes so fast, all of this goodness...

April Snow Showers...

...Bring May flowers, right?

Trying to hold out hope around here, in the face of a bout of rather wretched weather.

There were daffodils blooming out there a few days ago... :(

There is nothing quite so dispiriting as an April snow.   Sigh. 

Let's back track a bit, shall we?

Just over a week ago, April 2nd at Lakeview...

This was part of a pretty fantastic weekend, actually.  Even though our first April snow arrived just hours after these photos were taken...

Backtracking a bit more before I forget!  Friday April 1st-- I got to meet Glennon!  One of my favorite bloggers-- a personal hero, really.  She's so amazing in person.  Super funny, super kind and real.  Amazing to think about all she is doing in the world-- the lives she is touching through her blog and her charity work-- just by being honest and unafraid...

I was so glad my mom could go with me.  It was really a special day with her, sharing the insights from Glennon's talk-- and a nice lunch and shopping together.  Stolen time, for sure..

 Saturday-- I missed the Lakeview daffodils because I spent the day setting up for the WSC benefit.  Managed to pull it all off but I tell you-- I am taking a year OFF from the benefit committee next year!  Phew!  So much to do!

(But you know I love it, really.  The busy-ness, the gathering of things, adjusting tablecloths and arranging dishes, ordering everyone about... its kind of my thing.)

Nat and I getting ready to party!  Or, in my case, mix, mingle, photograph, monitor, and assist with an auction..

Some of the fun and fabulous crew who made the party possible!

 Sunday--It was a "wintry mix" sort of day and I was recovering from a party-- a History Museum sort of day for sure.

 The museum is being renovated this year.  On the off chance that the diorama exhibits are removed or changed... we took some pictures of the kids enjoying them with the same wonder I felt as a child.

Stepping right in to the African Savannah...

Taking it all in...

The week at work.  Well.  There was literally more paperwork to do than I had hours to do it in, even counting hours at home.  Only made it to the gym 2 times, which made me even grumpier.  Blarg, I say.  Blarg for assessment season starting right at the end of the grading quarter.  

By Friday I was The Most Tired Person.

But we went out to the Art Museum to hang out with some friends anyhow.

Pictured: Signs of spring!  not pictured:  The big fat snowflakes that were beginning to fall as this photo was taken...

 Myla and Bryan, some friends who moved to Virginia a few years back, were in town visiting family, and we scored this time with them and their beautiful children.  They are the sort of people who you can just fall back into friendship with, conversation coming easy and picking right back up with no regard to the three years we haven't seen them.  Delightful.

The little ones were fast friends right away too...

 We capped off the evening with running time out by the lagoon (after the children turned  into wild banshees in the Atrium, and we had to give them some more space to enact their bad-guys-and-the-cops-who-never-get-them-and-are-always-injured-and-maybe-they're-not-really-cops-at-all-but-cats drama....

 We stood in the drizzle with our friends til the light faded and being tired just doesn't matter at times like that.  Or rain-snow mix because its sappy but true-- friends warm you right up.

This weekend-- my fearless traveler Ivy took off with me and Gram on a jaunt to Michigan, to visit Grandma Jan in her condo before she moves in May. 

After putting the trip on a  hour snow delay (because you know, its APRIL.) things went off without a hitch.  Not too many photos because apparently I was too busy coloring, visiting, looking at old photos and generally soaking up the time to take them...

This girl.  She is one great travel buddy.  Quiet and happy in the car, giggly and sweet with relatives, relentlessly positive.  On our drive out she made up a song: "When you choose your attitude you see... how pretty everything really is...."

Loving on Aunt Mary's dogs.  Ivy wants a Chihuahua now.  

Coloring party.  I love these people.  Relaxing with them was good for my soul.

Aunt Mary hugs.  They are the best, really.

Off to brunch with Laura and Alisa.  Ivy thought this walkway was like a rocket.  I loved the amazing architecture in downtown Kalamazoo.  How have we been coming here for so long and I've never even known about how pretty this city is?

 On our way home Ivy and I detoured to see my cousin James and his (new!) wife Megan (who's not really new to our family, but she is newly his wife!  hooray!!) and their bunnies.  And, their trampoline.

Ivy noted as we visited the restroom-- "We are having a really good time here, aren't we??"

Family Love.

Will try to post some more full-family pics once I get them from other people's cameras.

In the meantime-- most of the snow has melted and the forecast promises sunshine this week.

Here's to believing in Spring!

Easter, Part II (baskets and waterslides!)

I read a satirical article on the interweb the other day, about how easter is becoming the new christmas.  

I think maybe that is a little bit true.

Easter Eve found me wrapping gifts, tucking tiny treats into just-right spots, arranging surprises for my loved ones to find in the morning....its my favorite part of Christmas, after all, so why not do it more often?

all ready....

... and, found!

 So we had really good intentions of getting up before the kids, having some peaceful Easter coffee, carefully arranging eggs in the yard in the early morning sunshine...

We woke, instead, to the patter of Ivy's feet on the stairs.... Ivy, of all people, up at 7:30!!  Only on a holiday....

Nat ran interference while I ran out into the yard in my robe, frantically stashing plastic eggs, ostensibly letting the chickens out.

Miraculously, it worked!  The kids headed out into the sunshine after breakfast and had themselves a picture-perfect egg hunt, none the wiser.

There was some drama about the "name eggs," (two for each, with some money inside) when Ivy had found her two and Jack had found none of his yet.  We are so, painfully, all about fairness around here, I tell you.  It all worked out it in the end, though, so all's well.

Jack, duly appreciating my awesome hiding spot.

 Off to Gram's for our second grand meal of the day...

Playing and pictures in the 70 degree sunshine....

... and then, off to Great Wolf Lodge.

We have decided to no try to do a water park visit on Easter again, no matter how much better the prices are.  A busy day of All The Festivity left us with few reserves to handle a mobbed lobby, a long line, an intensely overstimulating water park, and a 2 hour unexpected wait for our room.  in retrospect, it wasn't really that bad, but at the time we nearly thew in the towel and just went home.

Our two little waterslide-lovin' fish were very glad we didn't.

 By the end of day two, we'd all figured out how to be on our vacation, and we all loved the great big tube slides. I'm still not sure that water parks are my cup of tea, but according to these two little magicians, Great Wolf is one of the best places they've ever been.