March 20 Day one of SPRING

Sunday:  After waking up to pea-soup FOG early this morning and driving to church, holding my breath, traveling at about 30 mph ... the first day of spring turned into a cloudless, clear-blue, amazingly beautiful day--a bit chilly and breezy--but SO NICE. After caring for 14 babies in the nursery this morning, I came home and fixed lunch for Emma and I and then took a nap with Belle curled up in my lap. She is a very cozy little cat sometimes!

It was nearly 4pm when I finally grabbed my camera and headed out in my neighborhood to take a walk. I am trying to prep myself for my Florida trip, which is just a little over four weeks from now, because my brother David takes very LONG walks on the beach. I don't want to wimp out on him, so I figure I had best build up my walking endurance. I headed through my neighborhood over on to Chauncey Avenue, which never disappoints to delight me no matter what the season. You can walk just a short distance and it feels like ... pure country ... farm lands ... open spaces. I love it.

I saw a lot of robins out and about today ... not a single flower ... not even a BUD! But still, it was good to be outside breathing in the fresh air. 

I walked all the way to the Imperial Mill and took a couple of pictures. This place fascinates me. I would love to SEE inside of it! You can only get so close to it because ... there are not any NO TRESSPASSING signs ... but there is a rather large dog ... 'nuf said.

When the leaves are on the trees, you cannot see through to the dam ... I didn't realize it was this WIDE! I wonder if they use the water power to power up their house?

Across the way from the Mill, is this great pond. I just love it. There are plenty of NO TRESSPASSING signs all over this property ... very disappointing. You can't even walk down to the edge of the water!

Wouldn't it be fun to live right here? There is such a lovely little rocky creek and ... the incredible sound of the dam is WONDERFUL.

I walked back home, checked the "health app" on my phone and discovered that I had walked 2.3 miles! Not bad. Emma was out and about--I made her a strawberry/banana frosty/freeze drink and then she said she thought it would be an excellent idea to take a walk! I informed her that I had just walked 2.3 miles and was pretty tired ... no way was I going to do any more walking!

BUT ... she reminded me how out of shape I am (!!) and challenged me to another walk. We just repeated the very same walk I had taken the hour before ... but it was more fun to have Emma beside me.

It's a very nice thing to have a walking partner! We enjoyed good conversation and laughter all along the way.

We actually went further up the road to where it turns into a "Scenic" dirt road and walked that way for a distance until I insisted that we turn around. When we got back to my house, my steps had added up to 12,265--FIVE miles! Yes! I hope I can manage to get out of bed tomorrow without moaning ... 

March 19 Just hanging out ...

Saturday: It rained mostly all day today. I picked Kaity up from Jesse and we just hung out around my house for a few hours.

Kaity and I played a few games of tabletop football--with the help of Paco--he's getting quite good at scoring touchdowns. Kaity beat Paco and I by 3 points in the only game where we actually kept score. We did a lot of laughing while playing! Neither of us seem to be able to score any extra points--we always, always, go WIDE on our kick.

 Mostly, though, it was Kaity and Emma just hanging out in Emma's room. It was really delightful listening to their laughter. I think they had a nice time being together today. My heart is super happy.

March 18 A switcheroo

Friday:  I was asked to switch our Tuesday to a Friday this week with Dylan and Kelly's little ones. SO today was the day! We had a very fun few hours together.

We do a LOT of reading together and we read such great books today. Our favorite one was: "This is a Ball!" by Beck & Matt Stanton. We also read: "Do Not Open this Book!" by Michaela Muntean; "If the S in MOOSE Comes Loose!" by Peter Hermann; "The Dinky Donkey" by Craig Smith; and "Forty Winks" by Kelly DePucchio. 

We also MADE a lot of books today. Aidan made one that was kind of a twist on "This is a Ball" only he titled his, "This is a Block" and did a good job of making a silly story. Erin and I worked on another little book about Paco and Ramone and their friend, Bunny. Bunny wanted to go to the toy store, but Ramone said it was Saturday and so he couldn't go (the only day Ramone works--he is an editor downtown and works hard at his computer). So only Paco and Bunny went to the toy store. 

I took very few pictures today because I completely forgot ... so I just snapped a few while they were eating a snack of sweet cereal and milk ...

I totally have Brendan out of focus here ... but it is the only picture I snapped of him all day!

Our five hours almost flew by today. Brendan read a LOT of library books. We drew a LOT of pictures. So thankful for a good day.
 

March 17 At Lamoreaux Park

Thursday Evening:  We left the Gardens and drove to my house to eat and play for awhile, which we did; but since it was STILL so beautiful outside (and in the 50's!) we left my house and played over at Lamoreaux Park for a little while. Since I had been here earlier in the day, I didn't take many pictures--just of my Kaity-Girl!

This is such a cool climbing apparatus! Kaity loves to monkey around on it!

If I were younger and better fit (!!), I would climb it all the way to the tippy top!

I had such a nice time with Kaity today--thanks so much, Lord! She really loves the outdoors and is totally happy climbing, jumping, and using her body. I love her to pieces. 

March 17 At the Gardens with KT

Thursday Afternoon:  This is Jesse's house ... well, it's not exactly his house--but he does live here. He is hoping to purchase it someday--but that is very complicated and may or may not happen. Jesse very much would like to own this little place. It's really quite perfectly suited for him. I am praying it will work out for him, asking God to show Jesse just what to do.

As Kaity came off the bus, I invited her to come to Meijer Gardens to check out the butterflies with me. She was very willing. Here's the thing: I knew we would only have 45 minutes at the Gardens (because they close at 5pm), but I also knew that would be just about the duration that Kaity would tolerate being there ... so we went!

I have hundreds of really nice butterfly pictures from prior years of shooting pictures at the "Butterflies are Bloomin" exhibit, so I wasn't overly concerned about getting a bunch more today--especially because there were really no unusual butterflies or moths flying about. The Blue Morpho IS one of my favorites though--so I am always glad to get another picture or two of one of them ...

The exhibit is super warm and humid inside (my very favorite kind of weather) and we made the circuit three times in about 15 minutes (Kaity is quick!) ... she didn't stand still for many pictures, but that was OK.

Kaity was excited to check out the Children's Garden outside, so we did that too. We could see all the preparations being made to plant the beautiful flowers that adorn this place from spring to fall. I can't wait to see it in it's glory.

We were outside for about 20 minutes but since we also wanted to have a look-see inside the Gift Shop, we went back inside ...

Can you believe we actually walked out of the Gift Shop without a single purchase? Wow. That's probably a first. The main reason, probably, was because they were closing and hurried us out. No problem! It's always fun just to look at all the neat stuff they have in there. I already have a butterfly finger puppet, so I wasn't too disappointed about not getting anything else. Kaity did alright with it too.