Friday Five: Signs of Hope

I'm at my usual sermon-writing coffee house, but not quite ready to continue just yet.  I'm still "on break" from devotions, but I liked this week's FF and thought maybe I should play.  

Sez Songbird over at RevGals: 

In the late, late winter, as the snow begins to recede here in Maine, we begin to look almost desperately for signs of spring, signs of hope that the weather has turned and a new day is on the horizon.  For those of us in the northern hemisphere, Easter and spring twine inextricably, the crocuses and daffodils peeking through the Earth as we await the risen Christ.  

Share with us five signs of hope that you can see today or have experienced in the past.

1.  The Color Green.  The weather has been fine enough this week to allow us to go out and play with the girls, and when we first ventured out on Tuesday night, we saw that some of the perennials are already breaking through the mulch we spread last fall from the dead leaves in the backyard.  Soon I'll be back outside splitting hostas, planting annuals, adding flower boxes and playing in the dirt, which is always a source of joy for me.  There's something spiritual about this as well, about which Rich Mullins sang particularly well.

2.  Intermittent Internet  We recently switched media providers, and the new one uses DSL instead of cable, so we ran a line from our DSL modem to the wireless router we used in Minnesota.  For some reason, our desktop is having a snit about the change - it can see the network, says the signal strength is excellent, but for the past two weeks has been running incredibly slow.  Today, of all days, we had normal access for a short time, then slow, then normal again.  I'm not sure what's happening, but it's good because I can't finish up our taxes without internet access for both our money software and our bank's website.  So, apparently we're having electronic rebirth around here also.

3.  Helpful Handyman Husbandry.  I've spent a good amount of time this week working in and around the house (Iowa State is on Spring Break and our service trip fell apart last minute).  On Monday I finally figured out why our soffit vent was 'weeping;' the numbnuts who lived here before us vented the bathroom exhuast fan into the attic, and all that moisture had been condensing up there all winter.  So I spent the day crawling around in our insulation and finally got the rotted soffit replaced, with a new vent and, most importantly, a properly vented bathroom exhaust fan.  Yesterday I put a new shelf in the computer area and reorganized our "bills" system - maybe I'll actually get a few of them paid on time now.  Today I continued work in our garage, putting up shelves and turning it into a somewhat functional workshop in addition to car storage.  Tomorrow I hope to continue working on a stepstool for Ainsley.  There's nothing like playing with wood and power tools to make me feel better, and using my new jigsaw as much as I have this week has brought peace to my heart, as well as a somewhat-justified feeling to my wallet.  

4.  Fantastic Fresh Flowing Air.  There's nothing like the first day you can open up the storm windows and let fresh spring air flow into the house.  We got that earlier this week and it's like we live in a new place.

5.  Carnivores Chewing Charred, umm, Cheeseburgers.  Okay, so I can't partake of this one just yet, since I gave up all meat save fish for Lent.  But tonight I'm firing up the grill for the first time this year, making salmon for Beloved and a few friends.  LOVE grilling season.

Happy Spring, everyone!