Clover Lane

I needed to look at some old photos of spring, just to reassure myself that it does come year after year.  What a winter we've had once again.   One of the boys went up to change after school yesterday and came down in shorts and t-shirt-because it was a balmy forty degrees out and the snow had finally melted off the driveway.  I sent him back up but he protested so adamantly I just asked him to put a jacket on so I don't look completely negligent.

I'm counting the days!!!  Spring, please save the mothers of boys everywhere, and come quickly!








Meanwhile, I have been doing my best to get a few final projects done around the house.  It seems like it takes me forever to do one thing anymore.  I think because I have so much to do around here anyways, without adding an additional project on, but because I also just want to "get it right the first time".  It has taken me months to decide on a window treatment for Janey's room, or to choose long-lasting quality furniture (which I researched way too thoroughly) for our living room, or just decide on frames I want for the stairway baby pics.  Because I NEVER WANT TO DO IT AGAIN.  Right the first time, live with it forever is my motto now.  I have slowly but surely crossed out my list and have two or three things to complete-curtains for Janey's room which I will end up making myself, end tables and lamps for the living room, a dresser to paint and I then the outside gardening work (which I almost always love) will be ready to begin.




I also spent some of this winter catching up on scrapbooks-three years to be exact since I have only printed out the pages at the end of the year, but never did any assembly, since Janey was born.  My January goal was to get caught up, and I just did two weeks ago.  Oh, how I swear at those things before I tackle them (why did I ever start?) but when they are all completed I love them and the kids do also.

On a side note, our wi-fi was down for (only!) four days, and it was a welcome and much needed reset button for myself.  I have a friend that has compared the internet and its constant opportunities to a leaky faucet with a slow drip.  You don't really notice that little drip that seems trivial but are shocked when after a day it can fill a bucket.  Drips are seconds checking an email, or answering a text, or looking at the myriad of other things that quickly become habits.  All these little distractions, seconds really, add up and most days, I just don't have time for it, or don't have any intention of spending my time this way, and the thing about time is, you can't get it back.  I found myself thinking, "I'll just pull up a recipe for dinner tonight", and then had to stop short.  Or "I'll just check to see if that guy emailed me back about Patrick's baseball sign up".  It's like when the electricity is out and we keep hitting those light switches out of habit.

I was thinking just ten years ago, I really never ever used the internet.  We had a big old computer in a cabinet and the door was hardly ever opened.  My mom showed me how to upload pictures when I bought my first digital camera, and also how to send emails-it just had no appeal to me, and seemed unnecessary to learn.  And guess what?  I could function, probably, if honest, better than I am now!  I used recipes from books, I sent letters, or talked on the phone to friends and relatives, I had creative ideas generated from my own brain, I could diagnosis an illness or injury in a child from a handy dandy medical index.  I could decorate my house without looking at 20,000 photos from Houzz first, and I could paint furniture without looking at five tutorials.  Imagine that!  I was better off for it, I'm sure of it.  Isn't it crazy how things can change so quickly and we all just are swept along-maybe not at first, maybe with some resistance, or caution, but there we are.  I have always contemplated -it is impossible with teenagers not to- the draw of technology, how it effects our brain and our time and our children-our family life.-even just a tiny bit of it!  If I am really honest myself, the ONLY thing necessary about the internet is checking school/extra-curricular emails for my children and I can do that in two seconds once a day.

My point is-I welcomed the wi-fi disconnection because it made me conscious of that little drip of time and stop to think about the intention of my days.

So I'm off to make some oatmeal raisin cookies, from my grandmother's recipe, found in my mother's recipe box, copied down on a piece of paper.  :)

Happy (almost, please!) Spring!

I enjoy Downton so much it's almost embarrassing to admit, but hopefully there our some other embarrassed "I look forward to it all week and can get giddy on Sunday mornings just thinking about it" fans out there also.  It is truly a treasure during these winter days that can get quite doldrum-ey, and the only show that is worth a minute of my time on the awful telly.  (Call the Midwife starts March 29th, that's worthy also.)

I love every character.  Yes, that means Mary also.  If I don't at first, they grow on me.  Rose, for instance, annoyed me in the beginning, a little too flighty and excitable, and now, how can one not love her?   I love Edith, and always have, even with the constant distress and tears.

OK, I just remembered one obnoxious character I didn't like-Sarah Bunting.  I was so glad that she left and Tom said goodbye.

My favorites will always be Mrs. Patmore and Mr. Carson.  Mrs. Patmore with her sensible no-nonsense demeanor and hard working spirit.  But tenderness.  And Mr. Carson with his respect for tradition and civility and manners and wisdom enough to know that just because change is the result of something new and different doesn't mean it's always better.  I like his experienced wariness.

I was so happy that Daisy decided to stay at Downton in spite of being tempted towards the shiny glamorous world of London.  People are more important, I think at that age we all learn that in some way, shape or form.

I can't get enough when they film outside and show the landscapes-a garden setting, a little jaunt through the town, the rolling hills of the country side, the castles and quaint houses.  So so beautiful.

Alas, it's over.  I didn't even know it-I was unprepared, till I noticed today that the DVR had recorded two hours worth-and that must be the end.  And it was such a good ending (tissues!), such a good season.