And Let Life Happen
The robins arrived yesterday morning before dawn. Perched in the giant cottonwood tree outside our bedroom window, they woke us from our spring break slumber with their familiar robin's song. In the puff of breath between sleep and awake, I smiled. They were here! The birds had arrived! Of course they would time their arrival with ample time to scout out the perfect nesting site before the first day of spring. Such a robinly thing to do. When the landscape is still mostly brown, when the buds on trees are still tightly closed, when there may yet be snow heading our way, somehow it helps to know that summer's birds have begun making their appearance. Somehow, it seals the deal of spring.
The week was lovely. I set up the ironing board, pulled out the iron, set it on high. Unfolded the yardage of cotton and linen: one piece in green, one in gray. I pressed, measured, cut. Then I put it all away. On to dinner and evening and boys. On another day entirely, I pulled out the sewing machine, grabbed the pressed, cut-out fabric, and while boys went away with fishing poles and came back with fish, I sewed something new. The start of a fluff and refresh in the little house.
I read about flower gardening. I wrote "call the organic farm for manure" on the list. I noted the ad in the paper for the small mill that saws rough-cut wood. I decided on bush beans this year, instead of climbers. I said yes to the boys who wanted to use my hard-earned cedar boards in their bridge-building. I tried to decide if cold frames are for this year or next. I sprayed aphids, again.
I knitted, of course, and read books. The last words of A Man Called Ove came through the earbuds while driving on I-90, heading north, with tears threatening to spill. Then, on the Kindle in the evenings and on sleepy afternoons, were the first pages of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.
I made hummus and bread and a pot roast one day that turned into French dips the next. I rarely made breakfast or lunch (and sang silent hallelujahs that the boys can make their own). I vacuumed the floors but didn't mop. I deep-cleaned the kitchen, but not the bathroom.
I stepped off the train for a few days and let life happen.
P.S. Don't forget! The Spring Sale on the Shelter Collection is going on now! Through the month of March, all building plans are 25% off (that's a $500 savings, peeps!). Learn about the Shelter Collection right over here. Shop the collection here.
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