The buds are creeping out and the bulb flowers are growing up. It’s spring, and I’m ready to wave the cold winter days goodbye to usher in the new season. Let’s celebrate!

Did you know that spring equinox and fall equinox are the two days in the year when the hours of daylight and darkness are exactly equal. There are 12 hours of each.

One way in which I celebrate is to get my kids excited about gardening. Having boys, I feel that exposing them to cooking and food is a valuable skill that could flourish into an enjoyable hobby. In early spring, we make a list of he vegetables we would like to grow and draw a map of the garden with details as to where each crop will grow. We plan a schedule for who’s watering which days and weeding on other days. Rules are set, for example, no picking and eating without permission (just to make sure it’ ready and clean). We’ve started composting this year and look forward to using our healthy compost to help our garden grow into a veggie wonderland.

There’s so much you can do to get excited about spring, how about a scavenger hunt? When we go for simple walks around the neighborhood, we sometimes make a list beforehand of the things we want to look for our walk. We bring a pen to check off our list and a bag to collect whatever finds we collect. Sometimes we look to simply see an animal, then we’ll check it off our list, other times, we are collecting things such as pine cones. Sometimes we just clean up as we walk and pick up any remnants of winter debris.

Fishing is another wonderful family activity that marks spring. The chance to hang out, to learn patience and to exercise quiet time…hey, it works for me.

Another way we like to celebrate spring is to go to our favorite ice cream shop. We drive past it all winter long, looking at the closed up building, longingly…until finally we can rejoice by indulging in what we think is the best ice cream in town.

My boys love to paint and to do anything crafty. I’m not a bug fan of cleaning up a big mess. When spring arrives, I set up the easels outside and we paint things in nature on paper or canvas. I’ve also set up a white bed sheet for them to paint on and of course, we love to paint on rocks too. We like to paint the rocks to look like bugs or interesting colors and shapes, then we place the pretty rocks in pots we have filled with flowers scattered on the patio.

Finally, we camp. Sometimes it might be in our backyard, or at my parent’s house or we’ll plan a real camping trip. We enjoy looking at the universe through our telescope or sitting together by a campfire. Pitching a tent and sleeping under the stars on a cool spring night with your children is magnificent.

BIO
As the mother of four boys (ages 8, 5, 3 and 9 months), Renee Martinez has an interest in providing women information on how to raise responsible, respectful and confident members of society that mothers could be proud of.

Renee’s blog, Mothers Raising Boys (http://www.mothersraisingboys.com/) grew out of constantly being bombarded with comments from random people like, “Wow. Four boys. You must be busy!” or “Four boys! You’re life must be crazy! How can you handle it?!”. The comments made her crazy. “My boys are the least of my troubles. They are really a joy. I wanted to create a forum for people with boys who need help as well as for people who really want a community of moms with similar experiences. A place where we can gather and share information that might in someway help create a voice for moms struggling with issues associated with raising boys.”

Renee worked in marketing before venturing into motherhood, but decided to try to work as a marketing communications consultant after the birth of her first son. One thing led to another and nearly 10 years later, she’s still trying to blend the two worlds of work and family. She’s worked on some great projects for clients nationwide, from designing and writing websites, newsletters, email campaigns, logos, marketing plans, public relations campaigns, brochures to developing marketing strategies and ad campaigns. For business marketing services, her business is called Ruby Communication (http://www.rubycommunication.com/). For consumer communication products, such as invitations and announcements, her business is called Ruby Printcess (http://www.rubyprintcess.com/).

Renee has also written several articles on Internet marketing.