spring has officially sprung seattle style...

Three different people randomly, and in situations completely unrelated to each other, mentioned to me over the last week how lucky they felt lately when they looked at their lives and by the third mention, while I was glad people were feeling good, I also started to wonder what was up.

Things have been hectic lately, as really they always are. Getting ready for Pesach was a pain the way it always is, the kids were home from school on the longest spring break ever as we were getting ready for Pesach, and somehow I am STILL getting over this cold and am still coughing (is there such a thing as Walking TB?).

Our first two seders were really nice, though, and it was wonderful, as always to get together with family and friends. The kids were engaged in ways that they've never been before. Samuel led his siblings, cousins, and friends in a skit he wrote about the story of Passover and the kids worked for days on masks they created for Chad Gadya. And Naomi even managed to hang in there through her mortal fear that someone actually would come through the door when we opened it for Elijah. Granted, we had to um, lie to her and tell her that nobody actually opened the door, but she did stop screaming.

And somehow Spring got it together to show up and it was sunny and warm and even... hot. Just for a second, though, and then we were back to warm. But that was okay.

But the holiday was also exhausting and I've been finding myself crawling into bed soon after the kids are tucked into theirs.

And then on Friday night, after the girls got to sleep and Boaz, Samuel, and I got in our bed with our books (our usual Friday night routine), I found myself thinking, "How did I get so lucky?"

We'd had the nicest Shabbat dinner with just the five of us. We all sat and ate and talked through dinner and nobody fought or kicked each other under the table, or melted down. And even though my vegetarian daughters are practically starving during this Pesach because they refuse to eat anything besides matzah and butter, they managed to munch happily and not complain about their dinners.

Afterwards, we all helped clean up, we read a couple chapters of Little House in the Big Woods from the very same book my sister gave me for my eight birthday (Tali has to read the inscription each time we open it) and exhausted, they girls went to bed without getting up two billion times to pee, get another drink of water, or make sure we're not doing anything too fun without them.

But lying there in bed, reading with my family, I realized how lucky I was to be doing something I love to do with people I love, celebrating meaningful holidays together and really, it wasn't much of an accident that those other people in my life were commenting on how lucky they felt themselves. There's something to be said about a season of life reemerging after the winter and appreciating your lot. There's a lot to be said about stopping to appreciate your family and friends and the perspective between big and little things that fill our lives. And really, there's a lot to be said for simply stopping the everyday grind and taking on a new routine for a holiday break.

Of course, the next day it started rained and it hasn't stopped since and now we're all totally waterlogged, half asleep from lack of sun, and back to wearing our coats and boots again. But I have to say that the spirit of the holiday is still hanging on strong (could be that matzah...). Everyone just seems to be in a bit of a lighter mood.

And even Naomi said that next year she'd be ready for Elijah. Or maybe the next year after that. Or after that...