An Impending Spring

Spring is about to, well, SPRING! The cherry blossoms are popping, the robins are singing and the longer days are returning.

With a strong El Niño effect this year, it seems as if the drifting snows and freezing cold of winter have simply passed us by, which is really fine by me. I’m ready to ditch the sweaters, wool coats and scarves for the cute spring dresses, flippy sandals and fun shorts. Well, maybe not shorts yet – but the high today is supposed to climb to a tropical 60 degrees Fahrenheit!

With less than a week until the true start of spring, the newness and excitement of this season always inspires me to get moving. And yes, you guessed it – a lovely list always follows said inspiration.

Things on my Spring To-Do List:

• Do the Spring Cleaning thing – no brainer that this tops the list.
• Register for the Tulip Run, though still not sure if I’m doing the 5-mile gut-buster or wimping out with the 2-mile fun run. Training was sadly derailed by my bum knee last month, so we’ll see.
• Jumpstart date night. We’ve been in a rut lately (read: RedBox), so I need to come up with some good, new ideas to get us out of the house… and babysitters!
• Sign up for swim classes with Benjamin. I’m strangely excited to do this “to-do” that requires me to don dreaded swimsuit. Go figure.
• Stage the house: a work in progress. I’ve decided that it’s quite fortunate I didn’t go into interior decorating for a career, as my 6th grade soul so desired to do. I’m so not good at this stuff and can only give mad props to a sweet friend that laid out intricate plans to help a design dummy get her house ready for sale.
• Continue house hunting. We’ve been at this for several weeks now, and we have yet to find the perfect house, yard, neighborhood and ward combination. What’s been even more discouraging and disheartening is the state of many of the homes that are in foreclosure: broken windows; toilets labeled “Danger”; torn and mismatched carpet; molding, gooey bathrooms; weird remodels; strange carpet stains; offensive orange-painted kitchens (yes, plural). Oh, the tales I could tell. Anyone that knows where the perfect combo is sitting, please send the listing my way – it would be most helpful.
• Sell all of our unwanted stuff on craigslist
• Buy a child carrier for our summer of hiking & camping adventures. Last year, my single outdoor adventure was backpacking less than a mile, doing the blue tarp camping thing and spending the entire night awake, as my 7-month belly and a continual downpour robbed me of a single moment of sleep. This year will definitely be better.
• Discover new pureed recipes for Benjamin. I made some pureed carrots and froze them last week – they turned out great. With our weekly organic produce delivery, I have an ample supply of goodies to choose from, so he should eat very well.
• Discover new recipes for us. With all of the produce we get, as mentioned above, I have had to become more creative in my cooking, while using up all of that beautiful produce. We’ve dined on gorgeous grapefruits for breakfast and huge salads for lunch. Sunday was the best – beef stew filled with carrots, fingerling potatoes, garlic, parsnips, onions, green beans and corn. The hearty meal was topped off by homemade whole wheat rolls that simply melt in your mouth. Good days, good food.
• Start thinking of ideas for Benjamin’s first birthday – I know it’s a ways off, but spring is nearly here, which means his birthday will be here before we know it!
• Gear up for General Conference. Always look forward to the pearls of wisdom that are offered up every six months… plus, church in pjs is the way to go.
• Prepare for Benjamin’s first Easter – just think of all the cute outfits that could later become fodder for blackmail. I’m really looking forward to the next year or two when he starts to understand the fun of holidays, but for now the pastel pinafore and matching bonnet will have to do.

I better stop listing to-do items before the spring list gets any bigger. You'll have to excuse me - as you can see, I have a lot to do today!