I Want to Remember This: March 2026

In March my husband got his military orders for his next assignment in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We knew they were coming, but it was so nice once the orders arrived and our move became official. My daughter and I spent some time Wisconsin with my family helping my mom make maple syrup and visiting with my brother and his family. We were supposed to be gone for five nights but ended up staying for seven because a blizzard dumped two feet of snow on us!

Here's what we were up to this month to get ready!

1. With orders in hand we were able to reserve a U-Haul, purchase some plane tickets for move-related travel, and start planning out lodging for June and July when we will be back and forth between locations. 

2. I tried to clean out my craft closet and an overflowing bin of keepsakes. I failed. I got all nostalgic, wanting to keep everything, and barely had a plastic shopping bag of things to throw and give away when was I done. I am going to have to try again another day when I am in a different mood. I know it is OK to keep things, but I also know that I rarely if ever regret getting rid of things that I am just keeping piled up in the basement. 

3. My daughter and I grew our plant collection! I think I am most excited about having my own space to garden. I might be going a bit overboard when I consider that my house in the UP is still covered with feet of snow. 

4. The majority of my time is still focused on homeschool, supporting my husband in his job here, dog walks, softball practices, and getting ready for Easter. April will bring more of the same, but I also have plans to start boxing things up! And trying again with sorting through the craft closet...

Cooking down syrup!

My daughter loves helping care for my parents' animals.

That's a lot of snow!

Dog walks!

Homeschool science. These beans have been 
in my pantry for years!

Overflowing plants!

My neighbor in the UP sent us this photo of the road in front of 
our house on March 19th. Our driveway is supposed to be through
that wall of snow!

My daughter and I have slowly been adding to 
our Easter decorations over the years!

Time is a Gift

I have been reflecting on time a lot lately. It's probably no surprise that I am thinking about it. All of a sudden I am sitting in the passenger seat while my daughter drives! The move that seemed like it would never come is mere months away. I realized recently that if my son were still alive, we would be touring colleges right now. My sister's birthday is in a few days. She passed when she was 33 but would be turning 41. It seems impossible that so much time has passed.

It can be tempting to think of time as a thief. However, I try to remember that time is a gift. If time has stolen anything from me, it has given it back to me more. Memories, moments, second chances, one day built upon another until I am here. Today. With so much to be thankful for.

In the book One Thousand Gifts, author Ann Voskamp spends a chapter on time, concluding that: "Giving thanks for one thousand things is ultimately an invitation to slow time down with weight of full attention...Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: When I fully enter time's swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here. I can slow the torrent by being all here. I only live the full life when I live fully in the moment. And when I'm always looking for the next glimpse of glory, I slow and enter. And time slows." (p 69-70)

This theme is found throughout the Bible, with the Psalmist praying "teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). I am also reminded of the study I am participating in this year on the Isrealites during and after the Babylonian exile. I shared earlier in the year how I was surprised to find that their exile ended. Now as we near the end of the study, I am also realizing how far they still had to go after the end of the exile and how much time all of the rebuilding took. It took two years for the first wave of returning exiles to rebuild the foundation of the temple, about twenty-three years to rebuild the temple, and approximately ninety-four years to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Even after these ninety some years, Jerusalem remained sparsely populated and the Isrealites continued to be ruled by foreigners. Rebuilding was slowed by sin and opposition, but rebuilding also takes time. God was working in the hearts and lives of His people, leading them, guiding them, and preparing them. God uses time in our own lives too, more concerned about our sanctification and the growth of our faith than slowing down or speeding up time to fit our desires. Time in God's hands is a gift.

As I continue to mourn what was and what might have been, as I stand in awe of God's continued work in my life, as both my mourning and my awe remind me our days here on earth pass both too quickly and too slowly, I take comfort in the fact that God is everlasting. He holds our lives in His hands. And He invites us to spend eternity with Him. I'll end this reflection on time with a final quote from Ann Voskamp: "In Christ, don't we have everlasting existence? Don't Christians have all the time in eternity, life everlasting?" (p 64).

My daughter is taking a cake decorating class!

Waiting for my husband to get home!

My daughter and I have been adding Easter crafts to our collection
for the last 8 years or so.