Sacrifice of Love: The promise of spring

"The world is charged with the grandeur of God." ~Gerard Manly Hopkins, "God's Grandeur"

Springtime has finally arrived to stay (I think! I hope!) and I am extremely grateful. We've been soaking up gorgeous weather, peaceful, leisurely days, and some very fun outings. Initially, it felt odd to me that life feels so "normal" right now when across the world, a tragic and horrific war is causing so much havoc and destruction (and when death and destruction affect our own country in so many ways)...but I'm trying to remember that God is calling us to live in the present with peace, and that we can (and should!!!) pray and offer sacrifices for those in Eastern Europe while still freely embracing the joys that come our way.

This exhibit was so cool! There were pictures all around the buffalo with
names for the different organs and bones, with a short explanation of how Native Americans
would use those parts.

We've been continuing our "unschooling"/"eclectic homeschooling" approach to life, and it's been really lovely. Within the past few months, my kindergartener's reading has started to really take off, he continues to love exploring math (on his own initiative...I am not as enamored with math as he is!), and we all love to dive into daily life with curiosity and wonder. We recently took a day trip to a museum that centered around the history of Oklahoma and the Great Plains, and while none of us liked the drive (that felt like it took forever), we had a blast exploring! The grassy area at the parking lot featured several wild prairie dogs that would intermittently dive into their burrows, there were historical interpreters inside a "trading post," and everything was very hands-on.

We went while there was a temporary dinosaur exhibit, and the baby was a little terrified initially (massive dinosaurs that moved and roared would startle any eighteen-month-old, I think), but the boys were fascinated.

We've continued to enjoy our routine of attending a daily Mass each week, and it's always nice to participate in the Liturgy, see our priest and fellow parishioners, and let the kids run off some energy afterwards if the weather is nice! A couple weeks ago when we went, the sun was shining and it was pretty warm, but there were still scattered piles of snow lying around. Because the weather in Oklahoma can never seem to decide when it wants to be winter and when it wants to be spring.

Soaking up the sunshine after Mass! And thinking
that I really need to chop my hair, but I'm super indecisive about it.

For St. Patrick's Day, we headed to a park in downtown OKC that was having a free celebration with music, Irish dancing, and festive cheer. All of the water at that park was dyed green, which was fun, but I do wonder what the ducks and koi fish thought of it.

My kids had never seen a live dance performance, and they were intrigued to watch the Irish dancing-and then were excited to hear that I used to Irish dance when I was a kid! When we got home after a full day at the park, they watched the CCC cartoon of St. Patrick (so much nostalgia-I used to watch it as a kid!) and then I pulled out my hardshoes and showed them some steps. I hadn't really Irish danced in years, and I've forgotten a lot, but I was happy to see that I still remembered some of the steps fairly well!

The daffodils have begun blooming all over the place, and it's always such a welcome sign to me each year at this time-that there is hope and beauty bursting forth in springtime, no matter what hard things may be happening in our lives or the lives of others. We are deep into Lent now, and for the most part, it's been pretty uneventful, peaceful, and prayerful. We just celebrated the Solemnity of St. Joseph with Mass and cinnamon rolls, and we are looking forward to the Solemnity of the Annunciation in the coming week!