Springtime

I love Easter weekend, especially in Alberta when you have a virtual guarantee that the sun will shine and your spirits will rise. Yesterday Jason took the kids out for an adventure so I could work on my home business tax preparation, a job I'd been putting off for too long and found I couldn't do with the kids buzzing around. He gave me a few hours to myself, to scratch pencil against paper, work the calculator, and watch the job move toward completion.

I felt the sort of reasonless happiness that you feel as a child and rarely as an adult; that sense of peace and optimism which knows no bounds. Part of it was the sunshine and warmth in the air. I dug out a pair of capri's from last fall to wear along with a t-shirt and (gasp!) no sweatshirt. I'm sure it was also related to finishing a task I dreaded annually, but I didn't want to put a reason on it. I just wanted to soak in the moment, to enjoy the happiness, and revel in gratitude for my many blessings.

The Kid's Swap Meet is coming up on May 1st, an event I started last fall for our local Mom's group as a place to buy and sell items for kids under 12. I went into William's room yesterday with 2 huge bags (1 to sell, 1 to throw out) and began to work my decluttering magic. That lifts the spirits like nothing else. We don't need all of the stuff that we own. Most of it slows us down and clogs up the wheels of our life. Everything we buy must be maintained, cleaned and moved around on a regular basis. It feels so good to thin out our stuff and give us more room to live in our house.

I really needed this 3 day weekend. It has energized me, given me a new outlook on my life, and helps me balance work with leisure. Ava is off for spring break next week, and I'm planning to adopt some of that relaxation into my life. I've started Jodi Piccoult's most recent book, I'm almost finished my tax work and can ship it off to my father-in-law, our esteemed accountant, and Easter is a suitable time to reflect on the wonderful things in our lives. I'm going to look for ways to cultivate that type of reasonless happiness on an ongoing basis in my life. We get one shot at living in this time and this place, and I want to worry less and enjoy myself more.