Snow covered grounds on Christmas Day. Cookouts in your bathing suit by the lake for the Fourth of July. Colored leaves everywhere while walking the streets on Halloween. Family pictures made by the colorful, blooming flowers on Easter.
Each holiday has its own stereotypical weather. And North Carolina’s weather usually is spot on. Notice I did say usually. Eighty degrees in March like it was before I left is not what I would call usual.
I’ve lived in Florida where our family Christmas picture was made with everyone in shorts and short-sleeves on a “cold” sixty-five-degree day. And I’ve lived in Missouri where I had to cover up my carefully planned Halloween costume with a puffy winter jacket because it was snowing.
But for the most part, I have lived in North Carolina where there are usually (again, I stress usually) four distinct seasons.
And snow on Easter is NOT something that has ever crossed my mind. As I scrolled Facebook this past Sunday, I saw so many friends and family posting their family Easter pictures. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best and most everyone was carefully posed in front of a gorgeous flowering bush squinting into the sun. And if a flowering bush was not found they were standing on some bright green grass. And for those who just couldn’t get a family picture together, it was because they were enjoying their nice Spring Break on a BEACH and posting selfies with the sand and ocean!
Then I looked outside to saw the melting snow outside my door and the fluffy, warm socks on my feet. I was thankful that there was no snow currently falling from the sky and that all the ice from the day before had melted away.
Just yesterday I looked down at my car thermometer where it read 61 and I smiled. And then I laughed. 61 used to make me frown and pray for the warm weather to hurry up. I’d complain about the jacket I had to wear. Now, just three weeks in, I am smiling at 61!!
God knew what he was doing when he didn’t allow our house to sell until winter was over. I truly believe that. While being apart from Matt for four months was not ideal I have no doubt that God decided to give me a break and let me experience a chilly spring and then summer and fall before throwing me into a Montana winter.
But while all my North Carolina friends are so miserably hot with what I can only imagine is going to be one of the hottest summers on record and are probably forced to stay inside in the air conditioning most of the summer, I am excited about the things that we’ll be doing and discovering out here!
And while the weather is now ‘warming up’ here in Montana and I no longer feel the need to put on my big winter jacket or make Liam constantly wear a hat, I am ready for my week at the beach this summer. I am ready to stick my feet in sand so hot that I practically blister my toes. I’m ready to stick my chair in the ocean and let the waves curl around me. I’m ready to be covered in sand and enjoy the free exfoliation a day at the beach brings. I’m ready to bear my white (very white!) legs and give them some much-deserved color. And I’m ready to sweat!
Though a day at the beach has never made me sweat as much as just an hour of hot yoga that I did last week and will do again tonight. But more about that later…!