More often than not, I find that I already hold all the ideas from which my enchantment is made. The deliberate pursuit of attention, ritual, or reflection does not mystically draw in anything external to me. Instead, it creates experiences that rearrange what I know to find the insights I need today.

Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

*sigh* I read and loved those words a few weeks back, especially for the agency they acknowledge and encourage. I … I …. I. and (which may the most impactful of all my OLWs) much happens that is outside my control, although I can choose (clear second place OLW) my response. yep, I planned to write this post Monday evening to share with y’all on Tuesday. and now I’m writing it Wednesday evening and I’ll share it as soon as I finish. I’ve also missed connecting with many of you; fingers crossed for making that happen soon.

I’m also reminded that a few unplanned things don’t necessarily define a season. and sometimes they do (and sometimes they shift things in big ways). When Uvalde happened last May, I joined Moms Demand Action; I’ve learned so much! I’ve also been working to become a certified BeSMART presenter and now I’m ready to make my first “training wheels” presentation. A few of the connections I made Monday and Tuesday were with, about, or on behalf of Moms; it was empowering (and it felt good).

Noticing … and loving the longer days. We made it to 12 hours of daylight on March 17 and today sunrise was before 7:30am.

Seeing … repeat items on my weekly to-do lists. and (mostly) being ok with it.

Hearing … the crack of bats hitting balls, and encouraging parents cheering on boys learning to play baseball.

Feeling … hopeful. I listened to Pantsuit Politics’ latest episode this morning (it was recorded Monday, before the Nashville shooting news) and the early segment about “hate” felt even more appropriate today. I was tempted to add “angry” in here, because of course. and it’s just not a helpful emotion for me. I do better with feeling hope. feeling energized. feeling connected.

Eating … grilled chicken and vegetables. apples and cheddar cheese. pretzels and almonds. extra crunchy peanut butter. popcorn.

Drinking … coffee (loving Nespresso’s flavored coffee, even something as ridiculous as “hazelino muffin” in the afternoon), red wine, and water.

Wearing … makeup again – y’all I LOVE my new Westman-Atelier! I might skip Mondays (with the boys here after school, sometimes I don’t shower until the evening, so makeup doesn’t happen), but otherwise it’s a thing I now do EVERY morning.

Exercising … walking Lucy 2-3 miles each day (a one-mile walk 2-3 times), knee strengthening 4-5 times a week, and shoulder strengthening 2-3 times a week. My knee feels the best it’s felt in months and I dropped the morning ice last week (yay!); I also dropped one knee exercise session. It still feels weird to not be doing those strengthening sessions every day.

Reading … The Morning Gift. Up next When We Were Sisters. (a little dip into the Carol Shields Prize Longlist before a deep dive into the Womens’ Prize).

Knitting … Miromesnil (I’m on the first sleeve and don’t even have a Ravelry project page for it). Up next TBD. (yep, that’s a new thing for me, for sure!)

Going … every week to my mom’s. and a few times each week to church and the ballpark. Lucy LOVES “to go”. When she sees me putting on shoes, she knows I’m going somewhere and she wants to go with. She runs to the mudroom door and scratches (gah, it would be better if she just sat!) and it’s great when I can tell her she’s going too. I snap on her leash and she runs to the car and waits impatiently for me to open the door to let her in. It’s not so great when she’s not (which doesn’t happen very often) and I hear her crying as I leave. She goes to my mom’s, sometimes to church, and most of the time to the ballpark.

Shifting … the time from Standard to Daylight has been relatively ok. I felt like I needed to reset my clock and the time change helped. It still took about two weeks to settle in, but now I’m going to bed a little later and waking up a little later (whew!)

Looking forward to … TWO girls’ weekends away in April.

Dreading … Lucy’s first heat (still!). on my list to do this week is “order supplies” … one of those girls’ weekends away, she’ll be staying home with Marc and I need to leave them both “prepared”.

Noted today: sunrise/sunset (EDT) – 7:27am/7:55pm. low/high temps (F) – 42/65 (colder than last month!).

Again, more beginnings than endings. I realized this month that I was OK to start “looking forward”, which feels … different, and freeing. Many thanks to Carolyn for hosting this monthly check-in, and to all of you for being here with me.

and to parallel those two selfies I opened with, here are two photos from our afternoon walks to close.