Whistle while you work.

Many kinds of tea!  And granola bars which are NOT MINE.

OMG, it's totally spring in my kitchen.

So, I hate the winter.  It's cold and snowy and dark and just downright depressing to me.  I don't ski.  I don't do anything that makes winter "fun."  Except hot tubbing.  I love hot tubbing and, wouldn't you know it, I just so happen to own one:

Hey, baby.  I'll see YOU later.

I also am not super fond of cooking or of cleaning the kitchen.  Or of being hungry.  So right about now, things are kind of bleak in my world what with all the excessive cooking, cleaning and hungriness.  Except not really...my energy is great, I'm at the gym constantly (a happy place!), I am in this challenge with my husband and some friends (hi, Megan!), etc.  It snowed last night but the snow gods decided to have it start at 6pm and end by 11pm so school was ON like Donkey Kong today.  And, well, I decide to be proactive by force-starting spring in my kitchen.  While at Trader Joe's yesterday stocking up on delectable (cough) items such as shredded cabbage, I tossed four bouquets of flowers into my cart.  I just couldn't help it...I knew they would look awesome together and make me happy.  Yellow tulips and purple hyacinth were both at my wedding, which was in early April (almost 9 years ago).  It was a hard winter that year and the snow had melted just two weeks before, so I wanted people to walk in and feel like spring had just totally sprung on them. Sort of a forced "you shall be happy and feel springy."  Nothing like imposing one's own feelings onto others.

And then there was the tea.  I had wanted to get some from Teavana at the mall...you know, the place where you go in intending to buy whatever is in the delicious sample out front and you leave scratching your head wondering how in f&%$ you just spent $80 on tea?  And it TOTALLY would have gone down that way had my kid (the strawberry thief one) not spilled a sample down her dress and started screaming at the top of her lungs right there in the middle of the damn Natick Mall, thus forcing me to put on my "Its all ok!  We are ok!" face and exit the mall as quickly as possible.  So I bought a bunch of boxes at TJ's instead and though not as tasty, I'm still digging them. 

But I still kind of want to sneak back to the mall to spend $80 on tea.