Since it was 50 degrees and sunny here last week, natives will joyfully tell you spring has arrived in Minnesota!

But transplants like me think this “spring” looks more like a warm winter day anywhere else. The grass is matted and brown. The lakes and ponds are still covered with chunks and sheets of ice. Big piles of muddy, sandy, black snow litter the parking lots. And folks from most any other state would still be wearing jackets on days like this.

No. This is not true spring. For me, true spring — the kind with green grass and budding leaves and blooming flowers and 70-degree weather — usually seems to arrive here in 

v-e-r-y

 s-l-o-w

m-o-t-i-o-n

coming to a full and complete spring sometime in May and often lasting only three days before summer arrives. Sad but true.

So meanwhile, as I await the days of true spring/summer — days of frolicking in flowers and fresh-cut green grass — I’ll finish some writing assignments and keep my nose in a few books. I’m doing this Spring Reading Thing going on at callapidderdays.com.

Here’s a list of my personal reading goals for this spring. (I’m not including any of the home school-related books, except one.)

The books I plan to finish reading this spring are:

• Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey
• So Long Insecurity by Beth Moore
• On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (aloud to Laurel and Linnea)
• The Bobbsey Twins Adventures in the Country by Laura Lee Hope (aloud to Laurel)
• Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp
• Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart by Joni Eareakson Tada (this includes listening to the music CD)

The books I plan to begin reading this spring are:

• The Excellent Wife by Marth Peace
• Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson (coming out in April)
• Feathers From My Nest by Beth Moore

I’ll report my results right here sometime in June, and I may even include some book reviews.

Please do tell, what books are on your nightstand this spring?