Blooming Energy: Seasonal Living In Spring
Photo Credit: Ales Krivec / unsplash.com
In This Article You Will Find.
Spring is the season of rebirth, when nature awakens from winter lethargy. This season arrives as an enchantment, melting the ice and unfolding tree buds and flowers that dance to the rhythm of the wind.
For me, spring is the season of colour, fragrance, and sound. The birds, orchestrated by an invisible conductor, sing melodies that awaken not only nature but also us humans. The sun, with its golden flashes, illuminates every corner, awakening hibernating animals and guiding migratory birds to their places of origin.
On the first day of spring, the sun rises exactly in the East and moves across the sky for 12 hours. This is when the spring equinox occurs, balancing day and night and prompting us to cultivate the same sense of balance with nature. The daylight exposure gives us more time to explore the world outside and invites us to begin a new cycle, just as nature does.
This blooming season makes the whole world look alive again. Ideas seem to flourish, and communities are revitalised with the energy of the eternal youth that spring brings. This period is full of energy and optimism, opening up new perspectives and encouraging action, communication, and positivity.
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Spring Mindset
For many, embracing spring means enjoying the good weather and begin to see spring as a window of opportunities. This is the time when all of my New Year’s resolutions, plans, and hesitations come into action. Whether taking on new job opportunities, starting something fresh, or experimenting with new hobbies, this is when I take risks and feel most empowered by the energy spring gives me. My enthusiasm and positivity levels are high, and I strive to do my best. I have learnt that it is best to keep expectations for a reward low and to be patient, as the harvest season is yet to come.
Springtime Daily Rhythms
In an attempt to hear nature’s spring voice clearer, you can experimented with new ways of accepting the rhythm of the spring to guide you through a new routine.
Morning: You can start your day by opening windows and letting the sunshine in. Enjoying your morning coffee outside in the garden or during a gentle walk in nature while you absorb the fresh spring energy and express gratitude to nature.
Midday: You can feel spring by making your productivity and creativity surge. And engage in any kind of work that needs to be done, whether that’s crafts, tending your garden, writing, cooking new spring recipes, or reorganising your home.
Evening: Finishing up the day with some quiet family time. Like colouring or drawing pictures of nature or telling stories about the animals that your kids love.
Spring Kid-Friendly Activities
It’s no secret that my kids LOVE spring. After the gloomy winter days, the sun shines brighter, and there is a greater chance for them to have fun outside. This is how we try to embrace springtime.
Forest strolls while observing nature have become a regular. We sometimes bring a ball to play there, experiment with barefoot walking on sunny days, and explore the signs of spring.
Spending time in the garden is a typical spring thing: we plant flowers or start our little vegetable garden. We let the kids do the digging when planting the seeds and water them every day.
We go cycling in the park and enjoy the spring sun.
Letting creativity bloom through seasonal crafts is another thing you can do with your kids in spring. We make flower crowns, create pictures of nature in spring, colour butterflies, etc.
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Spring Seasonal Cooking
When it comes to seasonal food, spring is for green. It’s the perfect time to welcome fresh fruits like cherries, strawberries, and rhubarb, along with leafy green vegetables such as arugula, spinach, and spring onions. All of these fresh, seasonal ingredients provide the nutrients that will replenish our energy levels and align them with the lively character of spring.
Check out my all-embracing seasonal food guide to discover everything about seasonal eating.
However, this is how I like to seize the spirit of spring when it comes to seasonal food preparation and presentation:
Foraging: In spring, I take Voss (my son) on our little foraging adventures to collect edible food, herbs, and flowers, which we later use as ingredients for cooking.
Cooking together: I like inviting my kids into the kitchen to help me with the preparation while we cook. I do the cutting, while they do the whisking, mixing, sprinkling, or even kneading.
Spring food board: Whenever I have guests coming over, I love creating seasonal food boards that burst with taste and colour. In spring, my food board is adorned with quail eggs, fresh cheeses with honey, crackers, strawberries, currants, arugula bruschetta glazed with balsamic cream, and edible flowers like a cherry on top.
Spring Home Activities
Springtime calls for deep cleaning and reorganising our homes. Just as nature renews the outer world, we can also do the same with our inner space. It is time for a change of colours, fabrics, refinement, and any kind of household action.
Now, it’s the right moment to clean your home thoroughly, empty all the drawers and shelves, and put everything back again. This is when I clean my carpets, curtains, and mattresses, and start the season afresh.
Once you start with spring cleaning, you will come across so many things you don’t actually need. Throw them away if they are unusable, or donate them to someone who needs them more than you do.
Springtime makes me reorganise my home entirely.
I always do closet reorganisation in spring to move away our winter clothes and make room for lighter wear. Knits and coats go to the back, and cotton shirts and lighter sweaters come to the front. Spring is also the best time to pack up the clothes that my kids no longer fit into and donate them.
Now that frosty days are over, we once again put out all of the plants we brought indoors to save them from freezing outside during the winter.
Photo Credit: Svitlana / unsplash.com
Spring Crafts
As nature starts to wake up from its deep winter sleep, so does our imagination. I started embracing spring with some creative, cheerful crafts and worked on improving my skills.
Seasonal tables: This is something I started doing with my kids to welcome the upcoming season. For spring, we unveil a green sheet, create paper flowers, and place tiny wooden animal figures. We collect interesting-looking stones, fallen branches, and flowers from our forest strolls and use them as decoration. Before Easter, our spring seasonal table is embellished with painted colourful eggs, eggshell candles, and felt-made rabbits, butterflies, and flowers. The whole table looks fresh and vibrant.
Colouring Easter eggs: We use natural dyes like turmeric for yellow, beets for pink, red cabbage for blue, spinach for green, and onion peel for orange, etc. Before dyeing, we place leaves on the egg, wrap them in stockings, and then put the wrapped egg in the natural dye.
Making a spring table centerpiece: Fresh vivid flowers are always part of my centerpiece in spring. I sometimes use an egg carton for decoration as well. I fill it with some verdure, place small dry flowers, put eggshell candles, and add feathers. Sometimes, the centrepiece is made out of differently shaped and coloured glass bottles that I use as vases. Whatever I do, I aim to create something radiant that portrays the excitement spring brings.
Planting and growing wheatgrass: Instead of buying artificial plastic greenery for decoration, I learned how to grow my own. I buy wheatgrass seeds, soak them, and plant them in a large tray to get the most beautiful green grass. I sometimes plant it in small pots for my seasonal table, use it as a basket for my Easter eggs, or include it in the table centrepiece.
Spring Rest
Don’t let the cheerful energy of spring trick you into skipping your daytime nap. Even though the sunlight will be present for more hours compared to winter, your body might still need extra minutes of sleep, even if that means closing your eyes for half an hour after lunch.
Spring Vacationing
Springtime is ideal for travelling. The weather is mild and pleasant, and the season is flaunting its charm in every corner. If you have botanical gardens, national parks, and natural attractions on your list of travel sites, now is the time to explore them. Visit flower festivals or backwoods locations and marvel at the springtime landscapes.
I'm a nature-loving mom from the Netherlands, sharing my journey of reconnecting with nature and embracing a simpler, more natural life.
Let’s explore this path together!
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