I am making this list against my better judgment.  As I sit down to draft the post, it’s the second day of spring and the eighth day of social distancing due to COVID-19.  Even just a couple of weeks ago, this was all unthinkable – I don’t need to tell you that, you know that – and now I am seeing posts on Facebook and Instagram about “our new normal” and all I can think is crap, I hope this isn’t the new normal.  For all my introverted tendencies, I am not a homebody, not at all, and this being tied to one place, unable to access most of my usual stomping grounds or to explore new spots… I’m climbing the walls.  And while I would woman up and adjust, I’m also trying to work from home while homeschooling two strong-willed children and keeping them from murdering each other in a small townhouse.  I’m overwhelmed and I hate this and it better not be my new normal.

So – it feels like something of a leap of faith to make this list.  And I am putting some things on here that just might not be possible.  But if I don’t keep hope alive that things will get back to normal, then I’ll fall into gloom and I don’t want to do that.  So here are the things I’m hoping and dreaming and some of them may not happen.

• Go to New York and see my beautiful cousin, Jocelyn, as a bride – maybe; it’s looking increasingly like the wedding will be postponed but I’m still putting it out there in an abundance of hope.  (Peanut and Nugget will be in the wedding – as a flower girl and ring bearer, respectively – and I can’t wait to see them walk down the aisle, too.  Peanut’s an old pro, since she scattered rose petals for my best friend, and her godmother, back in 2017.  I’m sure she will show her little brother the wedding ropes.)
• Related: while in New York, spend time with my grandmother (hopefully her skilled nursing facility will be allowing visitors again) and meet my cousin Jaime’s baby boy, who will be born by then.
• On a different note: hold and cuddle my dear friend Connie’s baby boy.
• Get in our annual tradition of hiking through the stunning Virginia bluebells.  (Can’t miss this!)
• Read A Shropshire Lad, by A.E. Housman.
• Help my sweet neighbor, Zoya, with her project of planting native Virginia species along the roadsides in Old Town.
• Make actual progress on cleaning the basement.  For real, this time!  It’s zero hour, because…
• Move to a new house.  (We were planning to move out to Fairfax County in July, but it looks like it will be June, instead.  I’m a little sad about missing summer in Old Town, but we’ll still be here all the time.)
• Read the Elizabeth trilogy by Elizabeth von Arnim.  I’ve read Elizabeth and Her German Garden before, but it’s time for a re-read and then I need to finally get to The Solitary Summer and The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen.
• Watch Nugget play Little League – maybe.  The season was postponed until May, because of COVID-19.  But I’m still hopeful – I’ve been dreaming of being a baseball mom since the moment I found out he was a boy, when I was eleven weeks pregnant.  It’s been a long time coming.
• Read some Beverly Nichols.  (Lots of books on this list – at least I know there is nothing to prevent those happening, unless it’s my lack of self-control at the library.)

Well, there it is.  Some things are possible – the books, especially.  Some things are going to happen whether I like the idea or not – the move.  (I like the idea.  It’s time.  But I will be sad to leave my favorite neighborhood and this little townhouse, which I’ve grown to love, even if the schools are terrible and our landlords are antisocial weirdos with no boundaries.)  And some things, I am just crossing my fingers extra hard and hoping against hope for, like the trip to NYS and time with family.  It’s precious.

What’s on your spring agenda?