Hello All,

I am needing a good dose of spring, it's raining, blustery and just plain blah outside today. The boys are on vacation this week and it's been a combination of beautiful, warm, cold, windy, snowing and raining. They have been playing cars...all day....almost every day. Music Man and I have no complaints, they've been really playing well and having fun with each other with minimal fighting all week. Not having extra cash in the budget right now, it put a big kabosh on the fun plans I had for the week prior to a month ago and unemployment. So, we're very thankful that they've made the best of the situation for themselves.

Earlier this week, some of their cousins came over for a fun day of sliding. It was marvelous out the day they came, sunny and really warm. They had a fun time, and the boys always love hanging out with them. They are considerably older then our boys, but always include them in the fun and make sure that they are taken care of and having lots of laughs. After sliding in the warm sun produced wet clothes, they went in the house and enjoyed an impromptu game of hide and seek. I have to wonder how bad the dust bunnies were under our bed when I went into our room later that night to find some of the stuff under the bed had been moved. Brave children, those dust bunnies are fiercely protective of their underworld! All in all a very fun visit and a nice chance to catch up with my sister-in-law, enjoying a lovely afternoon together.

And, it got me that much more wanting spring to spring. I'm ready. It's not been that cold of a winter here thus far, but it has felt long. Last year was the first year since moving to NH in 1978 that I can see why people leave to go somewhere warmer for the winter...6 days without power last winter tipped some kind of scale for me and I can now understand the charms of not having to deal with that, or shoveling, or constantly feeling cold for months on end. I don't leave to warm up in an office building, I'm here in the cold all the time. We keep the heat on a constant 58 degrees (unless we have company coming over that is, we do turn it up for company). So, you never really lose the chill here are home. I'm ever amazed at how the boys can walk around with no socks on our hardwood floors, with one layer of clothes on and be comfortable. Meanwhile , I'm under long johns, wool socks, sweater and/or fleece. Craziness.

I posted this picture today purely to cheer myself up. I hope you enjoy it. The whole taking-a- picture-a-day thing sort of feel apart about a week and a half ago when I had some not so great things happen and had what I could do to keep it together. So, perhaps March will bring that project to reality, it remains to be seen. Until then, please enjoy some of the archive photos I've got to show. This is a beautiful flower, not sure what, taken last summer at the Olson House in Cushing, Maine. You Andrew Wyeth fans will recognize the name, and of course so will my parents, as it's their hometown now.

Peace and the whisper of spring breezes to you, ~Peacemom