A busy spring is coming.

This spring is going to be busy for me. There are appointments, birthdays, and trips, and this is in addition to a regular school and work schedule for us. Oh, and did I mention I'll be at a wedding Memorial Day weekend? That, too.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be doing a lot of planning and getting ready for the events to come at the end of April and throughout May.

I'm looking forward to it, really. I like keeping busy in my day-to-day life. I usually have plenty to do, but there are days when there's more downtime than not. And those days can be difficult, especially if the munchkins are with Monty.

Of course, the best part of the busyness is that I'm getting the chance to spend time with friends and family, meet new people, and make good memories. I'll take the busy to carry me through to the summer, and then I'll take some time to relax and put my feet up.

Renew Your Spirit with Spring

It's spring, and I love seeing the trees and bushes poking out their young, brightly green new leaves. I love seeing flowerbeds in front of people's houses starting to spring colorful flowers. These are the moments I love about spring.

I'm in a new apartment now, and I'm looking forward to filling it with happy things, including plants indoors and flowers outdoors. My sister got me some sunflower seeds and some herbs as a house-warming gift, and I can't wait to plant them! I'm going to have an herb garden outside my kitchen door, and sunflowers growing outside the kitchen window. There will be spring at my house.

Spring has particularly importance to me this year. This is the first year I've been able to experience the change in seasons since 2008, and this spring is really a brand new start for me, as spring is for the earth. Cheesy, sure. But I could use a little cheesy these days, so I'll take it.

I encourage you to renew your spirit today by renewing your life. Use spring as your own fresh beginning. Add a plant to your home or office as a symbol of the season, and this season in your life. If nothing else, take some time to appreciate the newness growing around you.

Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as spring--
   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
   Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
   A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden.--Have, get, before it cloy,
   Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
   Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

Floridian seasons, as observed by an Illinoisian

Jen over at Divinest Sense has a nice post up today about spring in Florida.  I started to comment on it, but my comment started sounding like its own post, so I decided to write over here so as not to clutter Jen's comment section with my rambling.

I am not a Florida native.  I was born in northern Illinois, and then followed my father all over the country during his years in the military.  When he got out of the Army, we settled back in Illinois.  I graduated high school in northern Illinois and college in central Illinois.  When people ask where I'm from, I tell them Illinois.  It's the state that feels most like home (outside of Florida).