Tag / Spring Flowers

by clumpaday

Time and Tide

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Clump #192:  Save son’s note cards.

Today I have been acutely aware of the passage of time.  I found myself thinking how great it would be if the clock could stop when one sleeps. Time out?  No such luck.  Easter is quickly approaching and my to-do list is lengthening just as quickly.

I’m reposting the photo above of the beautiful band of spring crocuses I became infatuated with last week. This is what it looks like now:

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The beautiful flowers and their colors … are … Gone.

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All except one lonely daffodil, who seems to be saying, “Hey Guys, where’d you go?”

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I had trouble getting in touch with our son for a Skype decision-session. So I made an executive decision to put his note card collection in the “save” pile.  I gave him the Vincent Van Gogh ones.  I have been increasingly aware of an undercurrent of motherly nagging in the things I have given him.  “Clean your water bottle” (yesterday’s post), “Write thank you notes,”   “Read this book to better yourself.”

Parenthood is always a matter of treading a fine line.  The urge to nurture and make better can easily verge into the dangerous zone of : “who you are right now is not enough.”

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Even when all you want to do is give them is the sun, moon and stars.

by clumpaday

Time, Patience, and Compounding Clumps

Clump #183:  Clear four items from son’s bedroom.  Day eight of the 30-day, 30-post Bedroom Blast Challenge.

An easy clump, as clumps go.  I had to tell myself that the goal is not always quantity, but consistency — keeping the momentum going. The windshield protector went into a car, the weights into the basement with similar exercise equipment, and the toolbox with other things to save for our son’s collection … it will join the bag ‘o office supplies from yesterday’s clump.

Note to self: get in shape!  Those weights made my arms feel like rubber.

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Each clump seems so small individually …

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but joined with many more, they might really amount to something! (Taking another shot of the ribbon of crocuses today before it disappears.)

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We expect quick results in this super-charged world.  I opened a box of stationery to write an overdue note to a friend, and this quote was on the inside of the box.  It was just what I needed.

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by clumpaday

1 Day without an Accident

Clump #173: Finish “do” tasks; take down red outdoor decorations.

I might just have to post a running tally like the industrial “__ Days without an Accident” signs to keep track of the number of successive days I have checked the tickler files pictured yesterday.  I can crow that I checked my “Day Eleven” folder this morning.  One Day!

In it was an old bill causing creeping discomfort.  (Radioactive!)  One of those, “I’m-pretty-sure-we-paid-this…” bills, and it turns out we had, but in the onslaught of neglected paper, who could tell for sure?  Well, now I know.  It was a great comfort to speak to someone in the billing office and hear, “You’re all paid up.”  Phew.  I stared down and removed several similar items from the list.

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Driving through Lancaster County today, not only were the farm fields predominantly brown instead of the all-pervasive white, this was the vibrant scene of businesses opening again:

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And then this!  My first flower sighting of the season!

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Hallelujah!  Sunshine to the soul.

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I was inspired to take down our Valentine’s Day wreath featured in an earlier post:

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Also the red ribbon threaded through window boxes before Christmas:

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Soon enough will be spring pansy time here.

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I put up a wreath made of paper roses …

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which I found at a paper shop that was advertising half-off Valentine’s Day merchandise.

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So wonderful to be in an old-fashioned stationery shop.  I’ve noticed we no longer have “stationery” aisles in grocery stores; it’s now “office supplies.”  A significant cultural shift.  I marveled at the shop’s rainbow of snail mail products:

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I’m sure this wreath was meant to adorn an indoor setting, so I sprayed it with a water repellent before putting it out.

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It will proclaim to the world that a Paper Clutter Conquerer lives here!