Loves me? Loves me not?

This is what I think of spring this year.  Spring?  Winter? Spring?  no?  yes?  It is like the loves me, loves me not daisy.  Believe me.  I know winter.  I am from western New York.  I went to college in central New York.  I have lived in Chicago.  I know winter.  I am in Georgia now.  So, right now average temps are 66 degrees.  This is what I saw this week:

Loves me NOT....27????

Loves me not....frost on the car!

Loves me....the flowers on the entrance to our neighborhood. 

Love me....flowers blooming on my sister's tree.

 

There are some signs of spring, yes.  However, winter seems to be hanging around.  We have not seen 66 degrees yet this week.  Soccer practice and games have been cancelled more often than we have had them.  Enjoying some of the quiet/down time because of that but the kids are stir crazy.  So am I. I am ready to run outside without several layers.  I am ready to stand in car line in the morning without gloves and a hat.  I am ready to see green grass and smell flowers.  I am ready to plant my garden.  I will give spring a little more time.....

xo ~M

Ben's Day

I usually journal on what would have been Ben's birthday but I didn't even get my journal out.  I wore my blue and of lot of my friends did too, which I really appreciated.  It is like a silent army of support.  I can't see or hear them on that day but I know they are there.  I had a conference this year so being somewhat engaged kept my mind occupied.  The quiet times are the hard times.  I still have the box of Ben things.  I say every year  that I am going to go through it all.  There are reasons why I want to and reason's why I don't.  There are cards of congratulations and cards of sympathy.  There are small gifts for him and the clothes I wore when I found out we lost him.  Programs from Walks to Remember in both Atlanta and Buffalo with his name in the program.  Sometimes there are just more reasons not to go through the box.  But it is still there. 
Max and I were out in the yard this weekend and he brought a little sprig of a hyacinth to me.  I didn't know they had bloomed yet.  I usually don't pick them.  They are from a basket of bulbs I received from a friend in Buffalo to plant in memory of Ben. So when we moved I dug all the bulbs out and attempted to transplant them here.  The tulips didn't take, but every year I get the hyacinths.  Max led me over to them and then picked every flower off.  We brought them inside and put them in a tea light candle holder turned vase.  So now our memory flowers are inside the house with all of my family.  Max made a good choice. Remembering Bennett Galen  10-1-02 ~8~

xo~M