The camelia in front of the kitchen window is blooming. This is something that always makes me so happy. The hydragenas I planted out front are coming back, even after I'd been afraid they might have died this winter. The front flower beds are weeded, the kiwi got trimmed, and I emailed the landlords about rebuilding the arbor during this spring. I also have some ideas about relocating the chicken coop and trying them again. I love seeing new blossoms on the neighborhood trees as each spring day unfolds.

The last few days I've felt round two of processing sitting, waiting. Dealing with it has been added to today's list, but I had Mom here for a couple nights before the guest room is filled so I didn't want to deal with it while she was here. Putting it off and focusing on cleaning the interior of my car and cleaning the house has been so much more convenient. ;) Mom's visit was well timed however and she was a gem and brought some toys up for lil A to play with while he's here. Yep, folks, the time has arrived.....Housemate M's lil guy A and A's Taiwanese grandma will be arriving on Wednesday. The house will be more than full with three adults, two dogs, two cats, and a 16 month old :) Oh man. But I'm not going to lie, in theory, it's feeling fun and seeing the toys stacked in an open bench in the living room for him, makes me eager for his arrival. The house was baby-proofed (for the most part) last week, the guest room is ready, and now I'm just thinking of all the fun things to do with a lil tyke. I've already put in a request with his dad to be able to take him to the zoo, have him "help me" ready the garden, and I'm thinking that getting chicks might be pretty entertaining for him too.

Mom's visit went well and was an equal mix of relaxation and going. I got in an easy jog while M and her chatted as he's great at interacting with my parents (and they got to Skype with lil A). I also practiced my massage skills giving her a Swedish massage with a little bit of deep tissue treatment for her back and right leg mixed in. (Lately I've had three family members as deep tissue treatment cases and all have been reporting improvements--perhaps this will be a direction to head in then...) Mom needed to run to Nordstrom's and I had a friend in town from California, so I dropped her off before meeting up with my gal and her babe for an afternoon cup of decaf coffee. Together we weeded the front of the house and then a dinner of Thai food pretty much wrapped up our night. She headed off late morning after M and loaded the ol' treadmill back into her vehicle.

I'm definitely looking forward to a bit of vacation even if it's going to be in spurts of days. I'm heading to the family beach house for a weekend of volunteering, studying, and catching up with a high school friend and then after my teaching term starts, I plan on heading for a long weekend to my parents for my mom's birthday. I've been longing to just read...just to read and get lost in a book for the last several weeks, so I'm hopeful I can motivate myself to prep spring term early and get most things situated so that I can truly spend some moments just vegging.

The other big thing in this March of restoration is that I had my first appointment with a new naturopath last week and will have a follow-up this week. This gal was recommended by a colleague of mine and so far I'm more impressed with her than the prior gal I worked with. She has lots of ideas (although I don't know that I'm ready and willing to change everything) but some things I've started implementing. I also might do some acupuncture with her to try to open things up a bit more and purge some of the toxins...we'll see. She talked to me a lot about my exhaustion though...and I think she hit it right on the money with that. I've been on antibiotics for the last nine days after a medical issue surfaced and I've only become more tired during the last week....not really looking forward to a 9 mile Shamrock Run at 7:40am tomorrow I'll tell ya that much :) But I know I'll make it through and then I'm hoping to continue in this movement of being gentle with myself....

So far...March seems to be progressing just as I had expected it might....hiccups within much beauty.