I try not to limit my madness to March. ~Maxine

March 1

Watch out, crabgrass. He’s coming for you.

March 3

Ella art

March 4

Light at the end of the tunnel

Good times at Dogwood Park

March 6

Knox zooming by on his Hoverboard

Ella just learned how to ride a bike and got the hang of it pretty quickly

March 8

A tiny almost-Spring bouquet

from Ella

March 10

Time for some backyard T-ball

March 11 ...

…. we were wondering if it would snow on the buttercups …

… March 12

Of course it did

"Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer." - Anita Krizzan.

And here, once again using the deck furniture standard of measuring snowfall,

I’d say that’s a good four inches. Or five.

Snow day is a good day for pizza at Mamma Rosa’s with family and friends

Sunshine made for some truly epic icicles

We couldn’t get enough pictures of them knowing they’d be gone by tomorrow

And they were

Donut run

We don’t discriminate when it comes to local tasty pastries

But first, comfort food on a cold snowy evening

March 17

Rock Island State Park is about an hour’s drive from our house

Ready for hiking a trail on this beautiful Spring Break Day

Moi, Holly, Elijah, Neil, and Knox

This was our first visit to Rock Island

I could’ve stood there watching the waterfalls and rapids all day

Let the trek begin

The only difficult part of the hike was being on constant alert

for trip hazards — roots, rocks, and hidden holes on the trail

Neil was in no hurry and brought up the rear. When he and Knox hike, they like to stop

and take in their surroundings. I was too busy trying not to face plant. I did look up now and then.

Holly and Elijah enjoyed time away from work and school

Knox wore an actual St. Patrick’s Day T shirt

I was clueless about the date. My T just happened to be green

It did protect me from unwanted pinches, though

Taking a break down by the river

We all enjoyed our three mile hike but, tired and footsore, were glad to reach the end of the trail

Great Falls Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Caney Fork, straddling the county line between White County and Warren County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the only dam outside the Tennessee River watershed owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Wikipedia

Don’t say I never taught ya nothin'

March 24

First time in more than two years we’ve had the opportunity to target practice

Had to show off my bullseye

I’m consistently inconsistent 

Neil consistently hits the center

March 25

Must be Friday

Micky D’s with Kelly, Knox, and Ella plus special guests Elsa and Anna

Elsa is here for the McFlurry

March 26

We travelled to Greenbrier to meet our 4 month old great nephew and cousin for the first time

He’s a cutie. Ella treated him like a real live baby doll which he seemed okay with

From there we went to visit Shelby at her college and got to see where she lives while she

studies for her degree in marine biology

Enjoyed a yummy meal together at Cheddar's

Holly and Shelby

Mom and daughter don’t get to see each other much these day

Hooray for Face Time though

March 28

March 30

Crabapple blooms

Hope these ferocious winds don’t strip them off the tree

before we’ve had a chance to enjoy them

March 31

Ella had the best time painting characters from the movie Frozen this afternoon

Neil found the paint with water book at Sam’s, and it was a winner.

We had to convince her to leave the book here and save some pages for later

It was a hard sell, but we hit on a compromise to leave the book but take a couple

of pages home to paint.

It’s all good, right?

“Every cold and dark phase ends and hence begins a beautiful phase of warmth and vibrance. Don't believe? Just notice March” 
― Anamika Mishra

"In February there is everything to hope for and nothing to regret." ―Patience Strong

February 1

Snow day!

Turns out, this was only the first of many snow days ahead this month.

February 3

Happy birthday dinner to me!

February 6

This was one of the most beautiful snowfalls I’ve ever seen

The flakes were huge and seemed to fall in slow motion

It started just before eleven p.m.

February 7

We stayed up until nearly one a.m. watching it fall

By this time even the tree limbs were white

So beautiful!

Kelly shared this pic of Knox and Ella playing in the snow

She said they were having so much fun that they didn’t want to go in

February 8

Knox made this tiny snowman out of what was left of the snow

It melted pretty quickly

February 12

Stuff like this wore thin a long time ago

It’s been a year and counting

I don’t put any stock in horoscopes or fortunes inside cookies

so I guess I shouldn’t put any stock in an empty fortune cookie

Or in the second one I opened right after this one

February 14

Me and my Valentine

February 15

Jousting at icicles

This was the week of ice/snow and power outages

Some outages lasted well into the next weekend

Beautiful but dangerous

We were very blessed not to have lost power during the week

A tree limb did fall in our backyard and brought down our cable wire

No TV, no Wi-Fi was a mild inconvenience

So we used our iPhones for internet for two days

and kept an eye on data usage as we don’t have unlimited

February 16

Cardinals Kung Fu Fighting

More snow on top of the ice

February 17

The Spectrum guys showed up Wednesday morning right when they said they would

and got us back online.

February 18

Digging out

Big O donut run

The icicles were golden in the street light

February 19

February 20

And then the sun appeared and turned the tree branches into glittering diamonds

Knox had spent the night with us. We watched Thor: Ragnarok and stayed up late.

I snapped a lot of pics but they just don’t do this awesome spectacle justice

As beautiful as it was, I think it’s safe to say everybody was happy to see it melt

February 21

What snow?

Neil has worked a lot of hard hours on our bathroom make-over

Removed wallpaper and all the adhesive left behind

Sanded and primed and painted I don’t know how many coats of paint

It’s a work in progress and just getting started

February 23

Kerry, Neil, and Knox played some after school croquet

Ella wanted to hit the ball but ended up hitting herself in the nose

with the handle of the croquet mallet. Ouch.

Shelby and Elijah dropped in for an after school visit

Warm in the sun, chilly in the shade kind of day

February 24

SGDD

Same grandkids, different day (well, minus Ella)

February 25

65 and older lined up for the virus shot

The whole process was quick and efficient

Kudos to our county health department

This was round one. Second round in three weeks.

February 26

Snow Moon

February’s full Snow Moon reaches peak illumination at 3:19 A.M. EST on Saturday, February 27. For the best view of this Moon, look for it on the night of Friday, February 26

The explanation behind February’s full Moon name is a fairly straightforward one: it’s known as the Snow Moon due to the typically heavy snowfall that occurs in February. On average, February is the United States’ snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service.

 https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-february
 This Snow Moon has definitely lived up to its name

February 28

Hubby Neil hit the Big 7-0 today

Happy Birthday to my one and only—the best hubby, dad, and grandpa ever!

The crown suits him. I think he should wear it all the time, don’t you?

“While it is February one can taste the full joys of anticipation. 

Spring stands at the gate with her finger on the latch.” 

― Patience Strong