Spring? Day 2

In just a few hours Spring arrives here in the upper Midwest of the Northern hemisphere! It has been such a long winter!!!

THAT was how I was going to start this post. But I was also going to post this a lot sooner than now, however it was circumvented by Blogger’s / Google’s own little bots somehow concluding that it might be something automated doing this blog instead of it being someONE! Namely, ME! LOL So it was a bit disconcerting to get noticed like this BUT at the same time it is quite reassuring that the people behind this site (Blogger and/or Google) somewhere care enough to protect us bloggers and readers from such unwanted content. Having said this…

SPRING IS HERE!!! Yes indeedy! I am so glad too! (but as I write this – we are under yet another winter storm warning anticipating another 4-8 inches of the white stuff today!) Our first day of Spring was fabulous!!! It was sunny and beautiful and warm… and lots of snow melted!!! It’s all white again now – but soon, very soon it will be gone again!

In my locale we have had at least an inch of snow on the ground for 111 consecutive days! The all-time record is 122 days straight! We are now in fifth place with this winter AND there is still snow on the ground AND another round of snowfall due Friday! My neighbors, especially the older ones, tell me that THIS is what winters used to be like all the time. They tell tales of snow deeper than most adults are tall. They speak of digging tunnels to the driveways and roads. (so what about clearing out those driveways? Where did they put all that snow? And how’d they get all that snow off the roads?) Some of these old guys really make me laugh!

Still, if this winter is any indication of what winters here were like 15 or 20 years ago or longer, then I am very glad we moved here after that. Let me tell you, if my first winter here was like this one, I never would have spent the next 13 winters up here!!!

But on the other hand, it does make one appreciate the coming of Spring that much more! Never in my life have I looked so forward to a new season!

We have some great plans for this springtime as well. The whole family is taking on a backyard garden! Mostly it will be a vegetable garden, but there will be other plants too, like lots of herbs, some flowers, and perhaps some sort of low ground cover to replace the remaining grass so we don’t need to mow in back at all maybe. :) We are starting to see patches of grassy areas out there, so soon we can start digging up things and making plots ready for planting. We’re already starting some seeds, but plan on buying young plants soon too. Though I’m sure we still have a good month, maybe two, to go before that last danger of frost is gone.

We will also be working on a new organization plan to set in place. We’ve tried the Flylady program but haven’t done so well in sticking to it, though a few things have stuck and everyone loves to use my Flylady Feather Duster. I will still keep my Flylady cling where I can see her – there’s power in her purple image! :) This new program does have a few points in common with Flylady. This new plan of mine comes from my latest reading. The book is called Organic Housekeeping. It was printed in 2006 but I just heard about it a few days ago! What I’ve read so far fits right in line with my goals for the immediate future.

Those goals also include building up my [former business] to the point where it’s bringing in enough to care for all our expenses (and then some) BUT what’s even better is sharing all that I’m learning with others who will come to share with me in using their nontoxic products and working toward making a “carbon-neutral” footprint on this earth!

I can’t help but think that if I’d stayed with this company way back when perhaps my body would not now be so broken down, so chronically ill, so constantly in pain and without those challenges so many more positive things could have been accomplished by now! Starting now however, is still far better than never starting at all. It is so important, I think, for people to realize the danger the world is in now and take steps personally to change their futures!

This is now DAY TWO into my new plan... going pretty good so far. Next post will update you in more detail of what steps I've managed to take so far and how the family is accepting them. ;-)