For the last three years, I have been pregnant or nursing a baby during Lent, so traditional fasting hasn't been practical. Instead, I have fasted from social media, and I have to say that returning to Facebook and Instagram has been somewhat painful this Easter because...Easter pictures. It seems that everyone I follow who does not live within an hour's drive of me took hundreds of pictures of their children hunting Easter eggs in sun hats and short sleeves, enjoying the spring weather. With the exception of yesterday's 55 degrees with sun, we are still waiting for our spring weather to arrive. We very optimistically took the kids to a nearby state park on Saturday since our outdoor thermometer said that it was 50 degrees in the sun. It apparently didn't account for the 30 degree windchill.
On the bright side, we learned that our double jogger handles small amounts of snow marvelously.
Mr. Husband and I love spending time outside with the kids. We are fortunate to live in a town surrounded by nature reserves with walking and hiking trails and playgrounds, and during the warmer months we spend a lot of our weekends outdoors. This winter we've spent most of our weekends in our small apartment or at the mall, so Sir Toddler was ecstatic playing on the "side" and the "sing" even though his hands were practically blue when we left.
Running around in excitement.
"IDGAF, Mom."
It was nice to be outside but honestly I was reminded that we have a long way to go until spring truly arrives. I used to say that I preferred cold weather to hot weather because you can always bundle up more, but being a stay-at-home mom has completely changed my tune. Being able to take Sir Toddler out for a jaunt in the stroller, even if it's just to drop something off in the mailbox around the corner, really helps with the cabin fever for both of us. (Lady Infant still doesn't care as long as she's being held.) I was hoping to get a nice family picture with us dressed up in our Easter finery, but Easter Sunday dawned with blustery cold winds (and snow in some places) and I ran upstairs as soon as we got home to get some pants and warm socks on.
This is the springiest picture we got this weekend.
I suppose the lesson to be learned is that social media can be a dangerous purveyor of envy, and that I need to be grateful for the good things that we have, even if the weather isn't one of them. We enjoyed four glorious days together since Mr. Husband took Good Friday and Easter Monday off; we took both kids to Holy Thursday Mass and they were surprisingly good; we had a nice Easter spent with family, and we actually had an enjoyable walk outside yesterday.
But I'll *even more* grateful when sun and warm weather arrive in New England. Really, truly.
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