Spring has been pretty dreary in my neck of the woods so far. I think the temperature got down to freezing last night, and the flowers are roughly 3 weeks behind last year’s blooming schedule. But I checked the weather forecast and the next week should finally launch the highs north of 60, hopefully for good.
My favorite part of spring, though, is probably the lengthening days. The workday is done, and it’s still light. Talk about a happy hour! Over at my CBS MoneyWatch blog, I write about some ways to take advantage of this extra time. You can take the last phone call or meeting of the day outside. You can play with the kids in the yard when you get home. You can take an outdoor table at a restaurant — or eat outdoors on your patio (or apartment balcony). You can skip the gym and run outside. All have a very good chance of bringing some happiness into these early evening hours.
My toddler, thankfully, continues to go to sleep around 7:30 p.m., something neither of my older two children ever did. So I’m looking forward to the days when it stays light until 8 or later. Then I can go play outside with the boys after she goes to bed, or read on our porch sofa while they entertain themselves.
What do you do with the extra hours of light?
In other news: I finished a very, very rough draft of my novel this morning. I had been putting off writing it, even though I had the plot pretty well worked out, but thanks to weekly check-ins with my accountability partner, I got it done. My lesson? If you want to make something happen, build an accountability system that works. Now, on to editing!
Photo courtesy my iPhone. The blooms are few and far between right now, but should erupt in the next week.
I vote for having an al fresco happy hour in your backyard, maybe on an early Saturday evening – some sangria, crostinis with jam and goat cheese, and fruit skewers. Not much actual cooking is involved, but very delicious but fun. And you get to feel like hostess extraordinaire. 🙂
In a town of outdoorsy people, I’ve learned just how indoorsy I actually am (also I have seasonal allergies, so a fun run outdoors during certain times of year will have me wheezing). My DH loves dining al fresco, so much so that we sometimes find ourselves negotiating about it. Give me the indoor table with the nice view any day.
Congrats on finishing a draft of your novel! That is very exciting.
I love eating outside, too. I can usually keep my allergies under control enough to enable it. We didn’t do it much for quite awhile, which is a shame given San Diego’s outdoor dining-friendly climate (and low population of annoying mosquitoes and such). What finally got us to do it more often was remembering that we have a big, sturdy tray to use for transporting food and plates in and out.