When I was living in California, I never gave much thought to the arrival of spring. An Orange County winter is pretty mild, so the weather transition from February to March was not significant, and the foliage in our manicured suburbs didn’t change much from season to season. It wasn’t until moving to Texas in 2016 that I experienced my first “real” spring. We landed in our new home state during the final days of February, and within a month of our arrival, the Texas landscape had completely transformed in front of our eyes. Barren trees budded snowy white before bursting into lush, leafy canopies. Brown fields greened up overnight and were suddenly ribboned with undulating layers of purple and orange and pink. Suddenly, spring had moved from afterthought to HIGHLIGHT.
I’ve called Texas home for nine years now, and I am still enamored with the beauty of a Texas spring. Some years, when winter has been especially harsh, I’m desperate for the warmth and color I know will come with the change of seasons. This past winter was more tolerable than most, and I wasn’t aching for spring as I sometimes have. But I WAS excited for the start of the season, and I got a little concerned when the much-anticipated bluebonnets did not arrive as early as expected. I needn’t have worried: the bluebonnets decided to make their appearance last week, joining the now-leafy trees and verdant lawns for the grand celebration of yet another lovely Texas spring.
|| READING LATELY ||
March was a lackluster reading month, with a sea of 3- and 4-star books—which isn’t terrible, but after multiple excellent reads in January and February, this was disappointing. Celebrities were a theme in my nonfiction, with two celebrity memoirs (audiobooks) and a celebrity cookbook that I read cover to cover (though a skimming would have sufficed, as the images were more impressive than the written content and recipes). In fiction, I read a few novels with very different premises but an odd number of similarities that made them feel sort of the same. This mystery was my favorite of the bunch, and this quirky office story got off to a rocky start but ended well and touched on a surprising number of important themes. We finished just one book as a family this month—this one—and I enjoyed it far less with this reread than when I read it on my own a few years ago (such a bummer). I’ll be sharing reviews of all of this month’s books in a Quick Lit post next week.
|| LISTENING LATELY ||
A few podcasts that informed and inspired this month:
BOOKS & READING:
The Honest Authors Podcast—S8E02 – With Special Guest Liane Moriarty
KIDS & PARENTING:
Foundation Worldview—When Kids Start Doubting Faith: How to Respond
What Have You—Messing Around | (Ep. 238)
CULTURE:
FAITH:
Focus on the Family with Jim Daley—What Does the Bible Say about the Supernatural?
The Alisa Childers Podcast—#296: Anti-intellectualism Is a Discernment Killer!
Mama Bear Apologetics—124. When Church Accountability Becomes Church Bashing
|| MONTHLY KID-ISMS ||
CHARLIE-ISMS:
+ “You’re only turning 41? That’s a lot younger than you seem. I mean, a lot of people live to be 100 and you’re not even half way there.”
+ When his Good and Beautiful math app was glitchy: “It’s always disappointing when the best apps—the ones with the good messages—aren’t very good. I guess that’s just how life isn’t always fair.”
+ After reading a quote from Harry Potter (“Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth.”) Me: “What do you think this means?” Charleston: “It means I’m smarter than you.
KALI-ISMS:
+ To me on my birthday: “How much more until you’re an adult?”
+ “When people take your heart, do they sometimes break it?” (Referring to the song lyric, “here’s my heart but please don’t break it.”) Me: “That just means sometimes we love somebody but they do things that make us sad, and they don’t love us back.” Kali: “Is that why [my friend] invited me to her birthday and then didn’t play with me?”
+ “I made a picture of me and a heart on your birthday card. Because I make love to you.”
+ “Can we have a picnic soon?” Me: “Sure, maybe tomorrow we can have a picnic in the living room.” Kali: “That’s not called a picnic. It’s just called inside eating.”
+ How she ends every meal: “May I please be mex-cused?” (I can’t bring myself to correct her, it’s too cute.)
SULLY-ISMS:
+ After he’d recounted the story of Jesus telling the disciples to become fishers of men and I asked what that meant for us: “It means God wants us to eat.”
+ “They call them corn dogs because they kill dogs and put doggies inside of them. They’re dead doggies, that’s what we’re eating.”
+ Sully: “How long will we be at the play place?” Me: “We will play for an hour.” Sully: “An hour? I love hours! Hours are the best!”
+ To Charleston, who said he felt bored on the drive home from his extracurricular program: “Charlie, how could you be bored, you were just at school all day. That would be SO embarrassing if you were bored at school!”
|| HAPPENINGS & HIGHLIGHTS ||
I turned 41 on March 2, and the day was lovely. In the past my birthday has felt fraught, but this year I experienced none of the negative emotions I often feel around getting older. The morning began with sweet notes posted around our house, written by Charleston and thanking me for various things I do for our family. (He even wrote jokes on the back of each note.) It was a Sunday, so we all attended church, and afterwards Luke watched the kids so I could get a pedicure. That afternoon we did presents (Kendra Scott!) and cards (the kids made me some very sweet ones, Sully was excited he spelled out “For Mom” himself, and Kali told me she drew hearts because “I make love to you, Mama”). We ended the day with some games and birthday Menchie’s with so many candles, I needed to borrow Luke’s fro-yo cup to hold the extras (though thankfully we did not have a repeat of the smoke detector incident from Luke’s birthday!).
We continued the birthday festivities the following day with a trip to Sweet Eats Farm for the tulip festival. Tulips are my favorite flowers, and they happened to be in peek bloom on my birthday week, so Luke knew the trip was meant to be. The day was just perfect, with great weather and no crowds! Besides the flowers (which were gorgeous), some highlights included face painting, digging for treasure, petting the most adorable baby animals (including a newborn alpaca and a goat named Sully), and meeting another baby born the same day as Nico, in the same hospital, with a very similar name and being worn in the same baby carrier. Talk about a coincidence!
|| ICYMI: MARCH ON THE BLOG ||
BOOK CORNER
Bookish Considerations: End Game
FAITH & FAMILY
Nickelson Ryan || Seven Months
Good & Gracious! “My outsides might be a little shinier than my behind-the-scenes, but it’s possible that the reality isn’t as dire as I sometimes make it out to be. Perhaps none of us is as polished as the face we put forward.“
LENT SERIES
Lenten Reflections (Part One) “This year, I’m honoring Lent through an intentional meditation on the words of Jesus. I want to spend more time with HIM this season through a study of the words He spoke in His time on earth.“
Lenten Reflections (Part Two): “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” “Our worship may (or may not!) look a little different from the poetic psalms of David, but the God we worship remains unchanged. He is still deserving of our praise and adoration. And He asks to be the treasure that captivates our hearts.“
Lenten Reflections (Part Three): “Let the little children come to me.” “Lately, I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ words and His approach as it pertains to my time with my kids. And I’ve been asking myself: am I doing all that I can to let my children come to Jesus?“
Lenten Reflections (Part Four): “Tomorrow will worry about itself.” “Creation does not need to concern itself with worrying about the future, because God will meet those needs when they arise. And what He does for the birds and the flowers He will do for us; our primary focus needs to be on seeking and glorifying the Lord, and He will care for the rest.“
How was your March? Do you have any highlights or lowlights to share? Any big hopes or plans for the spring? I’d love to hear about them!
