Light

Tomorrow marks the first day of spring. It will occur at 6:45pm (EST). I don't know how the Almanac figures that out, but that's what the website says.

There will be equal parts day to night. Or dark to light.

Days will be longer. The sun will continue to warm us with her light.

We will need to adjust the lights in our home that are on timers.

I hope that through my blog I am sharing a little bit of light. Which I hope is then shared by you, which is then shared by others.

I saw darkness tonight and I object!

Where is the light? Where is the hope? Where is the love?

I know we're all human and some days are just not good days, but we have to try. We have to reach for the light.

When I catch myself driving with a scowl on my face, I start looking at other drivers (which is easy driving in the city, not so easy driving in the suburbs, or the country, or the highway) and I look at their expressions. It often makes me smile, if not laugh a little. I can't help it, I like to smile.

Share the light!

Near

I have been near my computer all day. Tuesdays are longer days for me in that I work at BPG until lunch and then I head over to the church and work there until 5pm or so. I take my laptop into the building because it has been too cold to leave out in the car. I keep it near me.

I also keep it near me because of the 2013 DC stolen laptop experience. I have panic attacks when I can't find something important. (Things listed under this category are my phone, my wallet, and my glasses. All are thing I have misplaced and then had said panic attack before finding them minutes later.)

At the church I work at my desk and use my laptop. You could say, it's near me there too.

After my day at work, I came home and had to shovel the driveway. It was covered in a nice coat of heavy, wet snow topped by a thin layer of ice.

I have heard more people wish they were on a cruise or in a sunny location today than all the days this winter combined.

Even though we had a lovely, sunny day yesterday.

Back to shoveling snow, or what I do best.

I did not have my laptop near me while I was shoveling.

I will end with this thought; we are one day closer to Spring. It is near. I could feel it in the air outside while I was shoveling.

My Gardener's tan

I am ready to go to bed. I worked hard today.

I am not working for Heather this week. I am working for a church friend.

She has two flower beds that had become overgrown with grass. Her teenage son tilled up one of the gardens. However, when I arrived this morning, the prepared bed was sleeping under a blanket of blue tarp and roof shingles.

She's having another church member re-roof her house.

These are all great things, and I want to make sure this doesn't sound like I'm complaining.

The other garden needed to be prepared so to do that I used a shovel and started cutting lines and removing sections the reverse of how sod it laid. I got about half of it done. Then I went and bought plants, garden soil, and a few other items.

I'll be going back to continue working on the flower beds tomorrow.

I'm taking pictures. I want to wait to share them when it's all finished.

Needless to say all this work outside is giving me quite the unusual gardner's tan. I wear a hat, so my face isn't getting burnt. But the back of my neck has missed some sunscreen applications. My arms are gloriously tan between my t-shirt sleeve line mid-way down my upper arm and my gardening glove line at m wrists. My legs are almost completely white because I wear long pants. And then, because I've worn a few v-neck t-shirts, I have a crazy v-shaped tan that fades into white. I'm definitely not taking a picture of my tan. The sun has been lovely and I'm thankful for it.

flowers, the new camera and different lighting

I went outside after I blogged last night and used the last of the evening sun to take some pictures. Then I went out again this morning. I wanted to compare pictures. Here are the photos from last night:

 These tulips are in the front yard.

 This one is also in the front yard and is the only one this color.

 These are the tulips I was talking about in yesterday's blog.

 This is in the backyard and is the only one like it.

And here are the pictures from this morning (the light was better):

Yellow tulips through the flowering quince.

The yellow, pink, and red tulips in the backyard.

The same tulip in the backyard that I took the photo of last night.

The Bleeding Heart (which is behind the garage and I always forget about it).

The sunlight creeping into the backyard.

Wednesday

We spent most of the day traveling. We made it out of Detroit into Midway. We were about to board the plane there and were told there was a mechanical problem.

We waited and they told us there was another plane coming in that we would be using instead. The plane we were originally supposed to board had a hydraulic leak. All together it set us back an hour and a half.

We made it to Las Vegas. While Bill was in line for the rental car, I broke my sunglasses. On our way to his parent's house we stopped by the outlet mall so I could pick up a new pair. I couldn't go very long without sunglasses out here.

It's pretty sunny.

I was thankful we finally made it here.

dry heat or humid

Bill and I differ on our choice of ideal temperate location.

He loves the desert. He loves visiting his parents in Henderson, Nevada. It's dry. It's usually hot. His sinuses are clearer, his skin is healthier, and his asthma doesn't bother him.

I prefer humidity. My sinuses are clearer, my skin is healthier and I can make my hair pretty wavy. I don't mind the sweat and dripping that comes with it (when it's summer).

When we've gone to visit his parents, my skin dries out, my sinuses dry out, my hair goes limp.

Bill has more allergies here. He doesn't have to worry about his hair, but his skin varies with the seasons.

All this is leading up to our trip for his birthday. I am amused by how different we are when it comes to ideal locations based on weather.

I can't wait to take pictures (yes, I'll post them). We're going to a buffet, we'll do some hiking, and we're hoping to check out the Bellagio. I'm also hoping to go to this museum. I'm going to make this cake for his birthday.

In the meantime, it's supposed to snow an inch here today/tonight.

I'm ready for 80 degrees and sunshine.

Spencer's 2nd birthday party

I forgot my camera, but I had my phone. (Here's a great tip: never leave your phone unattended while you use the restroom when your teenage niece is still sitting at the table. 176 photos later… I found this out.)

Here's the birthday boy!

 He kept walking over to the bowling balls and would say, "Bowl". Or maybe it was, "Ball".

Either way it was cute.

 He likes hats, so we got a new one for him. He immediately took it and put it on. 

Backwards. 

That's how the kids wear them these days. (That's how they wore them back in the day too. I'll be sure to tell him that when he's older.)

I'm thankful for both my nephew and my niece, who are at this very moment on their way to Florida for spring break.

I asked my sister to bring back warmer weather and sun. She said she'd try. I told her at least send me some pictures.

the lake house

I'm thankful for our friends Jenny and John. While Bill works at his office in St. Joseph, I get to stay at their lake house. We've done this a couple of times since last fall. It's a lovely retreat for me. They have a dishwasher! It's wonderful. The above photo was taken from their front porch (from inside, it was -8 degrees) this morning.

Today it was actually warmer in Grand Rapids then it was here. But we had sunshine, Grand Rapids did not (according to the news). 

I opened up the curtains to let light in. It was so nice to see the sun. Then when Bill got home from work he told me to bundle up, we were going outside.

We walked over to the lake because it was quite beautiful. Now, I almost brought my camera to the house, but since I had several other bags, a cooler, two grocery bags and my work bag, I decided I didn't need to lug my camera with me.

My phone worked well though. Here are a couple of shots of the lake. We have sat here a couple of times and watched the sun set. Today was not going to be one of those days.

Can you see the piles in the middle of the picture, down at the lake?

Those are piles of snow, drifted into snow dunes.

Here's a picture looking north. The lake is frozen as far as the eye can see. 

This is me. Bundled up. We came right back to the house and warmed up with a chili dinner.

An Ode to Winter Sun

And what I forgot to mention in yesterday's post about the new coffee grinder is that KitchenAid is located where?

St. Joseph, Michigan. Where Bill spends 45% of his time. Whirlpool owns KitchenAid.

I just wanted to share that.

There was a brief period of time this morning where the sun was actually shining. There was blue sky. It was lovely.

Incredibly cold, but sunny nonetheless.

At one point, on my short drive to work in which my car never did actually warm up, the sun hit my side view mirror in a very blinding fashion. I squinted, paused, and then smiled because it was so nice to see bright sunlight.

In these dark winter months, I find myself turning my face to the sun when it does shine through the clouds. I give thanks for the sunlight. It's welcome rays are rare and precious. The days are getting longer. And I like to delight in the moment of crisp, glistening winter sun.

(photo from Meijer Gardens, taken on a sunny day...)

four and a half hours

Here's what happens in that time frame:

 These are the tulips in the front yard at 2pm yesterday. Just that morning they had no color whatsoever.

When I got home from the HPC meeting, this is what they looked like (6:40pm):

On the other hand, in just an hour and a half our friend Amy can have baby #2, affectionately called H2, now known as Amaura. Congratulations Amy, Adam and big brother Wes! We can't wait to meet her.

lights on please

Here's my P.S.A. for today:

Please turn on your headlights when it's foggy.

Thank you.

This has been a P.S.A. from me.

**********

On the other hand what started out as a foggy day turned into a sunny day. That was nice. It seems that no one can predict the weather here lately. It was supposed to be a nice, sunny weekend. It rained. But we're blaming that on ourselves because we both got our cars washed. Then Bill stained the deck. It was rainy yesterday too. It's always nice to have some sunshine between showers. Bill just informed me that tomorrow's weather is also questionable. It's supposed to be kind of nice, but it might not be nice.

Well, I'm glad we cleared that up.

So rainy or foggy, please use your headlights when driving. It helps the rest of us see you. 

Saturday post

I keep thinking it's Sunday. But it's not because we fly out early Sunday morning. And I'm typing this from Don and Judy's computer, so that must mean I'm still here.

But when you've been on vacation for a week, you start to lose track of time.

Vacations are nice.

We (as Americans) should take them more often.

It's been so nice.

Relaxing.

Fun.

Full of laughter.

Oh, and don't forget the sunshine. There's lots of sun here. It's going to be a whole lot different when we go home.

I'm going to go take a picture right now of what it looks like here. And then I'll take a picture when we get home tomorrow. I'll post them for your enjoyment. And for contrast. I'm sure there's going to be some contrast...

But for now, it's time to finish relaxing and enjoy Bill's family and the sunshine.