Hello Spring- my thoughts on life this week.

Hi again. I have to admit that I'm only posting because I feel bad when I neglect writing for over a week. These impromptu posts wind up being somewhat of a rambling of thoughts, my apologies in advance. My little family has been battling colds and allergies, like many others I know. Adam seems to have it the worst, with a cough that keeps us both up all night. Fortunately, he started taking antibiotics yesterday and should start feeling better soon. My cold has been more annoying than anything else and it's just adding to my exhaustion. My body is telling me to slow down and rest, while my mind keeps adding to the to-do list. I'm having trouble reconciling the two.

I think one of my favorite things about living in the northeast is the obvious change in seasons. I love watching everything turn green after it was brown and bare for so long. All of our trees are flowering and the grass is coming alive. The birds have returned and even my detested squirrels have revived swagger in their tails.  The beagles are happy to be outside for hours at a time. Even now, when I look outside, Starsky has a clear smile on his face.

I've been working on prepping my garden for planting. I'm glad that I did the heavy-lifting last year and just have to pull weeds and add some compost this year. I have started about 80 plants inside- they have all germinated but they are still very small. Next week, I will plant the lettuces, spinach, carrots, and peas outside. May 20th is the predicted last frost date, so I'll plant out the rest of my seeds and transplant my seedlings then. My mom recommended a book on square foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew. It really simplifies the entire concept of growing a vegetable garden, and, had I read it last year, it would have saved me a tremendous amount of work. I decided to test the method and Adam helped me build a small raised bed on the other side of the yard. Once I get the squares marked, I'll post some pictures. We still have some work to do, but our yard and gardens are starting to come together.

Meanwhile, the little tyke in my tummy is growing rapidly. I feel as though there is no additional space but it still has 10 or so weeks to go. If this one is on Gavin's timeline, he or she will arrive in just about 8 weeks. I'm excited to meet this little thing. (Is it weird to call a baby a thing?) We're going to start changing our guest room over to the baby's room and moving the guest room up to the loft. Yes, I've decided to rename our finished attic, "the loft." It sounds far more chic and once we get it all set up with an a/c unit, it'll be a nice place for our guests. Plus, they'll get a nice leg workout while they visit. Ha, now we can call it Canyon Ranch! Come, stay, enjoy upstate New York and leave with nicely toned quads! There is even a nice selection of yoga and pilates dvd workouts up there!

On that note, I'll end this rambling post. I hope you're all enjoying the beginnings of Spring.