Well, we bought less at Christmas.  And we’ve tightened our belts to get through the costly heating season.  I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a little belt-loosening.  For me it will coincide with the return of Spring, when I can get some new perennials, plant some seeds in my vegetable garden,

and cut armloads of daffodils from the driveway borders for the kitchen table.

“The return of good times is not wholly a matter of money.  There is a prosperity of living which is quite as important as the pocketbook.” (…from the  October, 1932 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal.) Finding out what really matters.  Seeking the beauty in small things.  Enjoying life’s simple pleasures– feeling the wind on your face, tasting fresh vegetables warm from the sun, watching a cat groom herself as though that is all she has to do that day.

We’ll be seeding down flowers and vegetables soon.  (We’re as impatient for the smell of warm, moist soil as you are.) We can make it until Spring, and so can you! Hang in there!