Every spring I like to take my own walk, by myself so that I can look for my own particular favorite signs of spring.  Although I can see and smell that spring is indeed here by many other indicators, somehow these little tokens tell me that the season is here and taken good hold on the land.

The presence of the blue violet growing in the fields is a special favorite of mine.  These are my favorite flowers and they have a special meaning to me because my husband used to take the time to pick me a nosegay of them when he was fixing fence when we were first married.  That takes a lot of love and dedication to pick enough of those little stems to make a bouquet of violets.

The first dandelion of the season.  Granted by mid-summer I will have had enough of pulling these mules out of my garden but the make me smile in the spring.  When my boys and daughter were little they brought me countless fistsfull of these sticky tokens of their undying love for their mother.

The red trillium.  There aren't as many of these in the woods as there are white ones, maybe that is why I like them so much.  Common name "stinking Benjamin" Trilliums are protected in New York State.

Veronica, I love the presence of veronica in the grass on the side of the road and in the lawn.  There are people who pay money to have it irradicated from their lawns but this beautiful delicate flower reminds me of fairies.  When I was a young girl I was sure that wherever there was veronica on the lawn that the fairies has slept there the night before.

The carpets of trout lilies also are a sure sign that spring is thoroughly entrenched around here.  When the breeze blows I like to watch the way the flower heads nod as if they hear a music that we cannot and they are agreeing with every note.

Rain has been the order of the day for several weeks now in this part of the country.  I haven't put the guage out yet but I am willing to bet the rent that we have gotten upward of 5 inches in the past three weeks.  That much rain has made getting on the fields to plow and disc next to impossible unless you are a big farm with those knuckle bender tractors that have duels in the front and back and four-wheel drive.  We are not such a farm.

Nevertheless there is always plenty to do and the weather is not going to stop my men from getting the work done.  Yesterday was too wet for Doug's boss to get on the fields so he sent Doug home early from work.  In our book home early doesn't translate into play time.  Ian and Doug took advantage of having two strong backs at home at the same time and decided to load up and spread a couple of loads of manure from the back of the pig barn.  It was a bit dicey getting the tractor and spreader in there because of the wet but they figured that if they got stuck there was always another tractor in the barn to pull them out.

Melissa, Layn and I stood on the hill above them and chatted while they forked the manure into the spreader.  Hard work you may be thinking but those two managed to talk as fast as they were forking so it can't be too hard. (I can say that since I have been on the working end of a dung fork myself plenty of times.)

Slow going and plenty of ruts later off Ian went to spread that lot on last year's corn ground. 

More than half of my life has been spent in this house, loving one man.

when you have sisters around?  Yesterday we went to a friend's house for Easter and to celebrate Brett's birthday.  During the festivities the kids (and I use that term loosely) partook of an Easter egg hunt.  I won't even bother posting pictures of the girl's half of the hunt since it was not that exciting and went along rather quickly.  The fun happened after the girls hid the eggs for Matthew and Brett to find.

Don't be fooled by the number of eggs in Matthew's box.  You may be misled into thinking that he was an egg finding extraordinaire.  This is just not true.  They walked past so many eggs that were in plain sight that it was killing the girls to keep it a secret.

Believe it or not Brett is hunting eggs not laying down on the job.  Remember girls, think like men when you hide them, oh, and boys, think like girls when you search.

Layn found that one!  They finally had to concede and let the girls show them were the final eggs were hidden.  I think the chocolate cake was calling too loud.

Some kids were born to stay on terra firma others were born to spend the better part of their lives off the ground.  Matthew is one of those kids.  When he was about 2 I heard him calling me from the kitchen.  I went in to discover him hanging by his finger-tips from the shelves that used to be way above our island (shelves that I had to stand on a stool to get onto the island in order to get anything off of them).  That kind of thing never phased Matthew.  When I got there that day his only statement was, "I was just hanging here waiting for you to come."

Several months later I was summoned to the bathroom by his screams of pain.  There was something on the top shelf over the toilet.  This time however, he had slipped and fallen and hit his mouth on the toilet seat on the way down.  He knocked out his two front teeth.  I put them back in, held an ice pack in until the bleeding stopped and tried to pray that this incident would be the one that taught him that climbing was not a good idea.  Silly me!

In the past few weeks we have been experiencing some serious wind.  Because of that wind one of the big doors on the back of the shop came off the track last week.  Ian mentioned that it needed to be fixed before that night fell since more high winds were being forecast.  Matthew was changed and out there before his father could even get a plan in his head about how to accomplish the task.

Of course Matthew was out there, climbing was involved!

He scaled the inside wall of the shop.

He perched half in and half out of the window at the top and pried up on the roller of the big door while his father lifted from the bottom and muscled it into place.

Once it was on the track again it was no trouble to slide it along and fix it so that it wouldn't come off the track again. 

My desk is in the front room of our house right under the largest window in the house.  It sits there for a very good reason, I like to look out and see the wild life that goes by.  Right across the road from the house is a pasture which holds beef animals.  Most of the time when I look out the only "wild life" that I can see are the beefers placidly eating grass and swatting flys with their tails.

This morning I looked up and spied this big boy strutting his stuff on the other side of the pasture on the edge of the cornfield.  I didn't happen to see any lady turkeys around to appreciate his display but I would like to thank him for the show that he put on.  I really enjoyed it!

Outside my window....it is wet and a bit nippy.  We should be welcoming a whole fleet of Mayflowers considering the plethora of April showers that have been realized around here this past weekend.

I am thinking...that the trees outside my window are going to burst into leaf any second now they are that close. 

I am thankful for....the Crucified Christ and the Risen Christ.  I am particularly thankful for the Lent that has just past.  I think that I have learned more this past season than in any of the years of my life.

From the schoolroom....Mary-Kate and Matthew are winding down.  Most days are less than half-days for them while I am anticipating the start of a new semester next Monday.  I love the rhythmn that our lives rise and fall on.

From the kitchen....pork chops and chicken in the crock pots.  I think I will do some risotto to go along with them and maybe some broccoli and a nice fresh salad.

I am wearing....sweats.

I am creating....wedding gowns for 18" dolls.  I was shuffling through a box of fabric on the weekend and found a whole bunch of remnants that were suitable just for this purpose. 

I am going....nowhere for awhile.  My car has to have major surgery this week.  A tune up has turned into a head job and the patient isn't going down without a fight.

I am reading...Happy Are You Poor by Fr. Thomas Dubay

I am hoping....to get a lot done this week before school starts on Monday. 

I am hearing...the sounds that the house makes on a Monday morning overlaid with the beautiful and hopeful sounds of spring-time coming in the open door by my desk.

Around the house....Mary-Kate got everything pretty much picked up and organized before she went out to do her chores this morning.  All that is left for me is to do my own room and laundry.  Matthew is upstairs saying his morning prayers and Layn is napping.  This is a lovely Monday morning house.

One of my favorite things...is listening.  I love to listen to the birds and try to name the ones that I hear by their calls.  I like to listen to the men working and try to figure out who is doing what by the sounds of their voices.  I like to listen to Layn playing and imagine what he is thinking as he drives he tractor along the floor or flips the door of his ark open and closed over and over.

A few plans for the rest of the week...there are projects to be finished, family to feed and love, a car to nurse back to life, and a whole world around me to enjoy and appreciate.  Thank you God for the life I live and the family that you have blessed me with.

Here is a picture thought that I am sharing with you...

Finding Easter eggs in the trees.

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!

Exult, all creation around God's throne!

Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!

Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,

radiant in the brightness of your King!

Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!

Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!

The risen Savior shines upon you!

Let this place resound with joy,

echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and voices we shoul dpraise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father,

and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For christ has ransomed us with his blood, and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal father!

This is our passover feast, when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain, whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is th enight when first you saved our fathers: you freed the people of Israel from their slavery and led them dry-shod through the sea.

this is the night when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin!

This is the night when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace and grow together in hoiliness.

This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us, had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights, chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!

Of this night scripture says; "The night will be as clear as day: it will become my light, my joy."

The power of this holy night dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy; it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth and man is reconciled with God.

Therefore, heavenly Father, in the joy of this night, receive our evening sacrifice of praise, your Church's solemn offering.

Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided but undimmed, a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven and continue bravely burning to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning: Christ, that Morning Star, who came back fromt he dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever.  AMEN.