Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. ~Doug Larson

March has gone by in a flash. Busy times and yet at times not busy enough.

Rachel has been so busy with the pageant, the last few months of high school, preparing for college, and two simultaneous plays. One play she is up at the crack of dawn for practice, the other staying a few hours after school to direct and produce.

The middle of February, we attended a funeral. A tough time for my children. I wrote a post about a visit with my ex's mother ( my children's grandmother) last October. She had been battling a horrible debilitating disability for over ten years. Slowly declining in health. She lost her battle on February 18th of this year.

I assumed that the funeral would be to say the least, awkward. My ex has been married twice after me. The other two wives were planning to attend. One being the current wife and the other with children who are his. But this was not about me, it was about my children and a woman we loved.

The funeral actually went rather smoothly. My ex acted if anything, a little but too cozy. Reminiscing with me over old photos and old times. But I think it was good for my kids to see that. That there is life on the other side of pain and divorce.

To save money, we stayed with my parents who live approximately one hours drive from the funeral site. Not a bad drive, plenty of time for discussions about emotions and feelings.

Until, the night after the burial. We ended up staying a little later than we had planned, talking to the kids family and eating. So we didn't head back to my parents until after dark. Some rain and snow flurries had begun earlier that day at the cemetery and as the evening moved in the snowfall came down harder. We didn't realize just how hard until we were walking out.

The drive was a white knuckle one and it took us a lot longer than we had planned to get back to our beds at my parents, but the next morning it was beautiful! The sky was clear and blue and the sun a golden orange overhead for our drive back home.

I am so glad that the kids got to see their grandmother one more time before her passing.

The rest of the month here has been status-quo. Job hunting, clearing out storage and deep cleaning here at home. The weather has given a few nicer days when the sunshine poured on the vitamin D and I was able to get out and get this body moving.

And now we are back to snow and cold. I could really use some more sunshine in my life right now. In more ways than one.

One bright light in this time is that my youngest received an acceptance letter from the college of her choice and will be attending in the Fall. She is so excited! But a little overly ambitious. She has a way of jumping into too much too fast. Trying to convince her that she does not need, nor can she afford her own apartment off campus is proving difficult. I may be able to talk her into student housing as long as she has her 'own room'. I certainly hope this has nothing to do with the time I tried to get her to clean up her room by pointing out how hard it would be for a roommate to live with her lackadaisical ways....

We have a lot to do before she heads south this fall. It is an exciting time for sure, but bittersweet. Boy eighteen years has come and gone in a flash!

I thought I would be in a different place at this time in my life for sure. I didn't think I would be alone, jobless or near this grey when my youngest went away to school.

But I also never dreamed that I would be this happy either.

This silly weather has kept me inside so I have busied myself with some projects.

Yesterday I baked my mothers delicious banana cake (recipe to follow soon) which I am at this moment enjoying with my morning coffee.
I have been refurbishing a coffee table we received a few years ago at a yard sale. We actually got it for free at the end of one day when they were tired of looking at their 'stuff' all day. I wish I had taken some before pictures because the transformation is fabulous. It is gratifying work, if only I could make a living at it.

Hopefully in the next few days the sun will come out so we can get started on the yard cleanup outside and get our sprouts in the earth.

I love spring, but love summer so much more.

Hope you are all getting a little bit of sunshine. Any projects in the works with you?