I’m not going to lie, this past month was rough.

It was really tough to go seemingly backwards in time.  Instead of moving into Spring and the hopefulness of being able to spend time outside and seeing things growing and becoming more beautiful, we instead were back in January.  Nature totally covered by snow, the blank whiteness blinding us everywhere we went; snowpants and gloves trying to give one last valiant effort to last to the bitter end.

Chloe and Josiah were so ready to be done lugging their snowpants, hats, gloves and boots to school everyday.

But then this weekend, everything changed.  It warmed up and the sun started to melt away our blues.

And today I can officially say that Spring has arrived.  It took a while, but we made it.

The kids have spent hours upon hours outside over the past couple of days.  I’ve started deep cleaning the house. I’ve welcomed back my long lost friend:  motivation.  😀  Tim even blew the dust and leaves off the patio and put up all the lawn chairs again.

Chloe went to a sleepover on Saturday night and I cleaned her room, and I mean REALLY cleaned it.  It was a good thing she was gone.  I now fully understand why parents send their kids away in order to clean.  Ha!  And when she came home she was dazzled and leaped for joy with how clean it was.  Mom for the win!

This morning the Littles and I went on a walk.  It was glorious.  See?  No more snow!  And it was warm enough that by mid walk I took off my light jacket and was comfortable in my sweatshirt.

The studio door is closed most of the time.

So, on a rare occurrence that the Littles find the door open they make a bee-line for the piano.  They love it with a capitol L.   And sometimes you just need to all play piano at the same time.  Or in Levi’s case, he needed to be able to play piano while holding his precious toy, but he still needed to be on the bench…  Hehe!

Someday maybe they’ll actually play a trio for real!

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.  One thing is for sure:  they’ll have a much harder time fitting on the bench as they get older!

In this picture you’ll notice Maddie is wearing a butterfly hair clip, Chloe’s headband, Chloe’s bead bracelet, Josiah’s wand and a mischievous smile.  She likes it when the big kids go to school so she can find treasures (that don’t belong to her) to play with.  Ah, the life of the 3rd born.

Today I walked into Maddie’s room to find her with Josiah’s (sound reducing) earmuffs on her head and Chloe’s winter earmuffs around her waist dancing in circles.

Oh, that girl.

Just when we thought Spring might be around the corner… it was not.

I mean, how dare we assume Spring would come in April?  Mid April, even!  No, Winter has decided to hang on for an encore.

And what an encore it is.

It snowed non stop from Friday night until Sunday night.  We had rain on Friday afternoon first that turned to ice as the snow started that evening.  It was legit blizzard conditions for most of Saturday afternoon and we got between 15-20 inches of snow.  We even broke some records!

The kids and I went out to see a musical (at a nearby church) on Saturday afternoon because I had a bunch of students in it.  We left before it really started to “blizzard” but by the time it was over it was white out conditions.  We only had a a couple of miles to go from the church to our house and there were moments where I couldn’t see anything.  I couldn’t see houses right next to me, or stop lights, let alone where the road was.  I even made the kids stop talking so I could focus.  Needless to say, I was happy to make it home and then hunker down for the evening.

This is my ideal Christmas morning weather.  Lovely fluffy snow–and so much of it!  It really was quite picturesque as it was snowing.  Well, once I got home and safely inside…  then it was lovely watching from the comfort and safety of my living room.   So we enjoyed the rest of the weekend by living it up:  we drank hot cocoa, watched movies and played games.

But, now we wait. We anxiously and impatiently wait for the arrival of Spring.

Tim hasn’t been able to start work yet.  He did have one random job in March in that tiny bit of time when we didn’t have snow and we thought Spring was right around the corner, but he hasn’t been able to officially start.  They haven’t even sent out their first batch of fliers, because, let’s face it, no one is going to think about landscaping when everything is covered in a foot and a half of snow.

But on the plus side, I haven’t had to mow yet!

I asked Maddie to help me take some cups (unsupervised) to the basement the other day, and this is what Tim found… She definitely did her job!

I finally did it!  I FINALLY made the football food stadium pictures into a photo book!  And I’m excited.

Unfortunately, Tim was hoping I would have it done a bit sooner than now…. since he first made it LAST January.  Ooopsie. Well, better late than never right!  I’m so excited to see how it turns out!

In other news… still snow on the ground here.  We’re supposed to head up north to help Ryan and Stephanie move this weekend but there is snow in the forecast (again!) so we’ll see what happens.  I gotta say, I am the most ready for Spring as I have EVER BEEN.  Normally I’m excited to let the kids go out and play, but this year I am beyond ready.  I don’t want to complain, because it really could a lot worse.  I’m still thankful for the slightly rising temperatures and a big yard and friendly neighbors…

Tim and I have started eating better this past week.  It was his idea, so I happily jumped on the band wagon.  I always think I’ll hate eating better after a long break of being a sloth, but I forget how good it feels after just a couple of days.  It’s nice to enjoy foods again and be full faster.

I have another interview with a prospective tonight.  You think I would be past the point of getting nervous after all these years, but I still do… ugh.

I went upstairs the other day and found these signs on Chloe’s door.  They crack me up.

Then a couple days later I came upstairs to find these on Josiah’s door.  Monkey see, monkey do!

I find these signs extra funny because I remember mapping out my room on paper just like this.  I would often to it to see how my room would “look” if I rearranged.  Unfortunately I was never very good at understanding how big things actually were, so while it worked well on paper, most of my room rearranging didn’t work in real life.  Ha!  But it was fun to dream!

You’ve probably already seen this on Facebook, but if you haven’t it is VERY accurate.  I take no credit in coming up with this image.

Evidence of this?  Here is a picture I took Monday morning…

And then here was yesterday afternoon… We even had school cancelled!

I mentioned yesterday the egg experiment, so for those curious I thought I would elaborate a little more.

We were eating deviled eggs at our Easter gathering and somehow we got on the topic of how we hard boil our eggs.  I seem to constantly struggle with getting them to peel properly.  I’ve tried shaking the eggs in a jar with water.  I’ve tied baking eggs in the oven.  I’ve tried peeling them with a spoon… And let me tell you we go through a lot of hard boiled eggs around here.  When I did the 21 Day Fix challenge this past fall I was going through well over a dozen each week.

Anyway, I happened to mention how I do it and it turns out the method that another gal at the gathering uses was DRASTICALLY different.  So, we decided to put it to the test.

Yup, right then and there we got out two pots and I hard boiled 4 eggs my way and 4 eggs her way.

1. My Method:
   • Put eggs in pot.  Cover with cold water.
   • Put on stove on medium high and bring to a boil.
   • Once eggs reach boiling remove from heat and cover.
   • Let sit for 20 min.
   • Put directly in ice water.
2. Her Method:
   • Put eggs in pot.  Cover with water (any temp).
   • Put on stove on high and bring to a boil.
   • Let eggs boil on high for 8 minutes.
   • Drain out water and fill pot with cold water until eggs are cool enough to peel.
   • Peel immediately.

Isn’t it interesting how different the methods are?  And let me tell you–her method was WAY faster than mine.

Conclusion?

They turned out almost exactly the same.  They peeled the same.  They taste the same.  So, I’m going to switch to her method for now and see if I have more success.  Plus, I’m stoked to have a method that takes a quarter of the time mine did!

I’ll keep you posted.  😉