March is when Spring begins, right???

 Dear blog readers, 

I have gotten caught up in the frenzy of preparing for spring to come, which means I've had spring fever, and posting here makes me look thru recent photos I could post, which makes me realize that it's still winter, which makes me slightly sad.  So THAT'S my reason for not posting in awhile.  Forgive me.  

I'm feeling excited now however, because although this post will not have many photos, it will be fun to write.  First, we enjoyed two visits from family members in February.  My sister and her family came up for a weekend so that my brother-in-law could go skiing in Vermont.  It was nice to have chats with and spend time with them and show them around the frozen tundra.  

Then Dan's sister and her family came and visited our tundra to do some winter activities.  They stayed for a week and we enjoyed doing a lot of sledding, and Dan did some hiking with them as well.  They came when it was very cold, so the girls and I didn't do any hiking or much exploring beyond the sledding at a nearby hill.  We enjoyed their visit and got to go to the Vermont Country Store again and visit a pottery place where we were given a short tour of the kilnes and got to see the pottery in its different stages of production.  

Since the end of December though, we hadn't seen weather above freezing, so it got sort of depressing needing to be indoors so much.  We went thru all of January and much of Feb without really even seeing the sun much, and having such short daytime hours.  With March though, things have really changed.  This week has been the absolute prettiest week I've seen in awhile.  Each day the weather has been about 40 degrees at least, and yesterday was 56!  We still have some ice and snow on the ground under trees and in shady places, but its mostly gone! 

I took the opportunity yesterday to seriously prune our lilac bushes.  They were beginning to die because its been so long since they had a pruning.  I also cleaned the garage out.  

Yesterday morning I had a midwife appointment in Saratoga Springs in the morning.  I took the girls along with me and afterward, we went to a large playground where the girls had soooo much fun.  Since the weather has started warming up I've started trying to take the girls to at least one playground per week.  It gives them something fun to do, and it gives me a break from trying to figure out something new for them to do. These photos were taken at our local playground before the warm weather really came this week.

I also went for bloodwork this week to find out if I have Gestational diabetes, or am anemic.  I have neither, which is a blessing. 

We've started something new at the church.  I have begun teaching a ladies bible study on Wednesday afternoons.  We have had two lessons so far and I'm enjoying it immensely!  I'm already planning the study we will work on after completing this first 6-week study.      

I am finally in the 3rd trimester of my pregnancy, and couldn't be happier.  You know you've made it this far when the winter coat won't zip or stay buttoned anymore.  

If you've read this far, can you help me with something?  Would you mind leaving a comment and letting me know if you still read/check this blog?  I know I've been sporadic (at best) to updating it and posting, so I've probably lost some readers due to that.  But I kind of want to know if it's something folks still read or if I'm simply posting for nobody to see it.  So please leave a comment and let me know if it's something you still check occasionally or read and that would be soooooo helpful (since I have no clue if anybody even reads posts haha).  

Hope you all are enjoying this same spring-like weather as I am!  I EVEN turned the furnace off and opened windows yesterday....that's big! 

I'm not getting my hopes too high: I'm certain a few more winter storms will show their faces before March is thru, but now that I've seen Spring, I'm thinking about gardens, transplanting raspberries, building a treehouse for the girls, and pruning any and all bushes and hedges.  haha. Until next time!