Yesterday was Easter Sunday, the second day of General Conference, and the last day of my three-week vacation. With a heavily overcast, steel-grey sky and an aggressive case of the Sunday Scaries that kept threatening to take over, I struggled to appreciate the time that I’ve had and the fact that so much is good in my life. But we did the best we could.

First with a visit to the University of Washington campus, where the cherry blossoms are in peak fanfare.

Followed by a drive up north to the wide flat bulb fields of Mount Vernon and the charming village of La Conner. We were too early for tulips but the daffodils were in fine form and a striking offset against the blue of the mountains. E

Even better than the flowers? Sun! The clouds that sat so heavily on Seattle thinned out as we drove north and left us drenched in golden sunshine.

Then back to Seattle to squeeze in a few last weekend/vacation projects before making dinner and an early bedtime.

This morning I logged in to more than 2,200 unread emails and a warm, full-body wash of stress.

I’ll get through it and will feel better once I feel like I’m back into a more normal flow (fingers crossed!). And until then I’ll hang on to the memories and perspective of a good vacation for as long as I can.