We are under the spell of redbud winter. A cold spell in Spring that is based on the tree bloom. These are the cold days where you're glad you didn't get overly excited during the warmth of the early spring days - and plant your Spring and Summer garden.

I remember a couple of weeks ago when we were enveloped in snow, I said to Jon - I cannot wait for the warmth of Spring - and those wonderful Spring thunderstorms! Mother Nature got a good giggle as she sent our first Spring thunderstorm at 6am in the morning...after a very late and long night of teething in our little household. It was the night Jon and I climbed in to bed for an early retirement to the day. A rarity for us. We had just turned off the night, wiggled into that perfect spot...enjoying the cool comfort of the sheets...just settling in nicely, when suddenly the monitor light comes alive - the sound of a crying baby pierces the night...and your first thought "for real?..." and you wait for bubs to settle back into her sleep and it does not come. Instead you spend the next 2 hours rocking and comforting...when you finally make it back to bed, you clock a max of 4 hours sleep before Mother Nature sends a loud clap of thunder that rocks the house, followed by lightening and ... the all time favorite - hail. For a solid 45 minutes we were deafened by our first Spring thunderstorm.

The evening before the storm we did drag the tiller out of hiding. We tilled the land in preparation for Spring planting. Seedlings will go in soon. I captured this, as well as other regular moments in our days that I froze in time. Here they are :-

 There was one particular lunch hour when I came home and basked in the warmth of the sunshine. As I lay in the sun I had an urge to grab my camera and take some macro photography of the blooming bradford pears in our back garden. I stood at the base of the tree, bees swarming after the sweet nectar and I looked up...

Spring is a beautiful sight. So much life. We just have to take the time to look around...to look up. There are moments when I feel I might cave from the sheer stress of my job, other moments when I get wrapped up in worry, or consumed with a particular detail in our lives....but when I stop...pause..and appreciate what God has placed right under my nose, it is better for that moment. The last 3 weeks I've had to put a lot more effort in pausing myself to appreciate the beauty around me.

It's important to pause. We all need this.