Catching Up: February and March

February: a succession of cold snaps and "heat waves." 

March: a holding of breath on the cusp of Spring.

This wall used to be such a blank -- it took over a year for me to figure out what I wanted, but I'm so pleased with it. I tinker with the details as the seasons change.

Our snow melts straight away, but we enjoyed some leftover drifts in a nearby more "elevated" town. I love how handknitted socks peek through my Dalias.

The number of photos in each month's folder usually reflects how challenging it was, and there are precious few photos from February. Losing Baby M brought weeks of anxiety to a close, only to be replaced by grief. It was a particularly busy month for my husband at work, too, so it was more a "survive" than "thrive" month. But God's mercies are new every morning, and we navigated this season by His grace. We kept homeschooling without interruption; the familiar rhythm was comforting and helped maintain some sense of normalcy.

Towards the end of February I put up some wooden bead garlands that I'd made over the holidays. A few hours later I came back down, and Little Man and Rosa had displayed many of our watercolors and even created new art to add -- they wanted to cheer me up, they explained, because they'd noticed how sad I'd been. I'm so grateful for their sweet, loving hearts.

We celebrated Laddie's sixth birthday -- definitely the highlight of the month -- and I find myself wondering where the years have gone! We went bowling for the third year in a row, and surprisingly I haven't improved much since last year! *wink* His quiet delight over everything from his presents to the green streamers and helium balloons was so dear. Laddie was a rainbow baby all those years ago, and he's just as much a gift now as he was then.

Not long after, he lost his first tooth (which he handed to me in the middle of a church service!) and finished up his reading lesson book. How have I been through this book three times already? 

 

I can't seem to get enough of flowers lately -- I seem to come home with something green on every trip to the garden center! This pot of daffodils caught my eye, especially with its half-exposed bulbs. I did find it amusing that the attached tag recommended planting 2-3" deep with 5" spacing... I also planted some crocus, hyacinth, and tulip bulbs in a pot, which all bloomed beautifully.

We have ever so many bulbs at our home in Virginia (like this beauty!), and I've been missing them so.  I'll save all this year's bulbs in hopes that I can plant them in Virginia next spring. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my potted blooms -- fingers crossed that the zinnia and ranunculus I planted will come up soon.

I keep feeling like something's missing from these posts, and I've realized it's all my recent reads and crafts! They'll need a post of their own, I think.