Gray in Missoula today. But we've had sun: a week of intermittent glory, great blue shadows on Mount Sentinel (rather than winter's gray ones dribbling down the canyon) and songbirds shaking dust out of their calls. It is all welcome. Though this winter has been mild and almost snow-less, my thoughts still turn,when the clouds break, to spring . Sunshine recalls me to myself. It's odd, when the sun comes out, I invariably feel half myself has been missing and suddenly I've found it again. Life takes on a richer cast when punctuated with bright lit patches and deep blue shadows. But, the gray Missoula winters do serve their purpose in making me more aware of the rare full-spectrum days.

Things here are in pleasant routine. Other than the hiccup of strep throat from which Tim and I are both recovering, our weeks are passing with a nice rhythmic normalcy. Between school days and tae kwan do, lego building and drawing, the boys are mostly occupied. Corin's class recently had their 100th day party, celebrating, of course, 100 days of Kindergarten. He came home with a crown and a smile.

"I am 100 days smarter."

For his birthday, Seth was gifted a new hockey goal and sticks - a very fitting present for our athletaphilic child (Thanks Jeff and Elsie!). He has turned the house into an iceless rink and presses us all into service as his opponent. Seth's team, the Deers, has a roster of two, consisting of Seth and his imaginary friend, Gopher. Quite fortunately, Gopher is always willing to play goalie. The opposing team (usually me or Tim or my cousin Kara) is invariably the Spiders. Corin, necessarily, roots for the Spiders.

The Deers Offensive Line

Tim went to Ecuador in January, a trip with some of his favorite people in the world, a trip and landscape which filled him right up. He returned to a busy season at work: lots of new production, some staff changes, and the search for a new work space. Botanie has outgrown its shell. He just settled on a new location and now the work of moving (gently!) twenty thousand bars of curing soap commences. Did I mention how proud I am of him? This business used to be housed in our basement in Arlee and I melted oils on our kitchen stove. Now Botanie needs 5000 sqft of workspace, several employees, and kettles that hold hundreds of gallons. As if growing the soap empire isn't enough to keep him busy, Tim and a friend just launched another business, Northside Software. Northside has a brilliant product for tracking your laptop and locking down files in case its lifted. Check it out at www.nsidetrack.com.

As for me, I'm happy and well, working on some writing projects, taking some runs in the north hills and generally enjoying watching the days get longer. I've been thinking about Annie Dillard's perceptive little sentence: How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. And I am, as no doubt you are, trying to be aware of these days, as they come, wonderfully, one by one by one.