Sit-rep

 Not much to report as we're in various stages of "my throat is getting scratchy" and "I can't breathe out of the right side of my head" and "I didn't sleep well last night." Germs are making their rounds, again, and I'm slated to be in preschool next week so I'm trying to get everyone healthy here before bringing home fresh, new germs. Dada's been in town, which is always nice, and the sun is attempting to shine more brightly, which is definitely welcome. It's not supposed to be above freezing here at night for at least the next week, so we'll take our wins where we can get them. I can't WAIT to rescue my sundresses from winter storage, but I know we have a ways to go yet. Some of us are counting down the days until spring break, which don't align this year, so I'll be up early every morning anyway. It's all good. Thankful for heat and sunshine and spring flowers and hot, running water and friends who send funny texts and that we have lots of boxes of tissues. And for cheese. 

Throwback hair and you weren't even there.

This kid. We were listening to the 80's in the car last night and he said, "oh wait, I can do 80's hair!" I turn around and promptly burst into laughter. His brother quips, dry as an old tea bag, "looks like someone blew your hair dry with a leaf blower."

 

Has spring sprung?

I know officially Spring has begun according to the calendar. I know unofficially the migratory birds are showing up and the earliest flowers are putting on a show. Above, a few days ago, we had a bunch of red winged blackbirds carrying on in our neighbors' tree. I wondered what they were making such a racket about and then saw one of our local red tailed hawks swooping around. 

Below, one of the male bluebirds (I've seen two pairs- wahoo!) was eyeing me curiously from outside while I was on the treadmill inside. That has to be confusing. "I see that she's moving, but she's clearly not any good at this because she isn't getting anywhere! Must be because she doesn't have wings." 

We had a few warm days last week and the dogs were thrilled to be outside in the sun and not the wet for a few hours at a time. It makes me happy to see Honey feeling secure enough to snooze in the fresh air. She is such a big scaredy-chicken, poor old thing. Still has a young heart, even if her back end can't keep up with her front's exuberance. Especially going up stairs. 

Below, three of those four clumps are squirrel nests, but the big green one on the left is actually .... da da da DA.... the nest of the red tailed hawks! I knew they were local, but I had no idea they were here! So exciting! They're pretty much just outside our front door and straight up. Yay for new neighbors! Maybe they will eat Bosley. Kidding. 

I think.

We've also had some really pretty skies lately. I love it when sunrises and sunsets are colorful instead of just... dark. Being someone who despises Daylight Savings Time, I'm trying to embrace the opportunity for seeing more sunrises. Forget about the fact that it had already BEEN light outside at the bus stop for over a month and now it's dark again. *sigh* This photo below was taken this morning, and Thing Two remarked that he thought the photo shows off the fun clouds even more than it looked in person.

 

I have a blog!

 Sorry, everybody, about not blogging for awhile. The reasons are twofold. 

One, I kinda forgot I had a blog. Thing Three's been on the computer a lot and I have books to read and seeds to think about (not that I've started any yet- eep!) and there's been some fun things on Netflix I've been checking out. 

Two, I've been subbing a lot. Our teachers have been out with GI issues and sinus infections and covid, so I spent at least some of every day last week in preschool and am slated to spend some time in Kindergarten this week. Wash your hands. It's germy out there! By some miracle we have stayed healthy but I probably shouldn't speak that out into the universe. Time to open the windows and get some fresh air and sunshine!

Probably gonna jinx it all...

At this point, I should know better than to publicly celebrate springtime-ish weather because it always leads to another snowfall or two and I get grumpy. It's bad enough we're back on stupid Daylight Savings Time which I can't believe became a thing and can't for the life of me figure out why it is STILL a thing! Anyway, here goes nothing and I will take all the blame for any upcoming horrendous weather which is sure to show up because this is Ohio.

IT IS SO NICE OUT!!!! I'm picking up sticks in a Tshirt! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Anybody need any pine cones or pine needles? We have a few.

And a few more.

And there's water in the creek/ditch.

I found a solitary Virginia Springbeauty!

The lilies are coming up on the left and the slightly taller ones on the right are our purple irises.

A brave new mullein by the pond:

And oh, to talk about jobs I am NOT looking forward to. *huge sigh* Now that I have a wheelbarrow that works, I have zero excuses to not clean this out. It used to have frogs and even a few fish and was lovely but it is completely choked with dead leaves and it going to smell righteously bad once I start baling all of that out of there. We didn't even have any frogs last year. I think they figured out how disgusting it was. That is not a job for today, but someday soon I'll have to put on my big girl pants and boots and get busy. You'll know when I'm doing it because of the stench and the black cloud of piratey talk!

On the flip side is the cool, downed owl tree. It's so full of holes and busted bark- it really is fascinating!

I'm wondering if anyone has been playing in this hole... or if anyone will move in!