Mary Angel

(5/2019) It is finally spring! Don’t get me wrong, I love snow and wearing sweaters, but after a certain amount of snow I am ready for flowers and showers. I have never been so surrounded by Spring Fever as I have this year. Between basketball, long walks, a little stir craziness and "love" being in the air Spring Fever is everywhere!

Every year we all look forward to spring. Let’s face facts; even the kids are a little tired of snow by the time March rolls around. This year is somehow more intense with a desire for spring and all it entails. All of the kids have been shooting hoops any chance they can. The basketball net has been lowered and raised (depending on who is playing) so many times it resembles and elevator. They even got my husband in on a game or two. Weren’t they surprised to find out the old man still has skills. It won’t be long until the games of whiffle ball and badminton and corn hole begin. Luckily they haven’t started nagging for the pool to be opened, yet.

Just before spring rolled around the girls started taking the dog for extra-long walks. They would circle the house many times before allowing the exhausted pup to return to his sleeping position on the floor in the living room. Amazingly enough, my shy, introverted, afraid of the world girl has even started playing amateur explorer. On her last trek into the yard she discovered the rather thick bottom of a brown bottle made in the 1960’s. She is so excited to go exploring again and find the rest of the bottle so she can trace its origin. Needless to say she is considering a job in a science field when she grows up.

My older daughter goes on walks to contemplate life and love and listen to her music (while also walking her dog). She has her first big crush and it turns out he likes her too, so it is a fun filled time of giggles, notes (given and received) and playlists, which in my day would have been a mixed tape. It is super sweet to watch and makes spring that much more bright and hopeful. The oldest has joined in on the romance part of spring as he finally asked out a girl in one of his college classes. He donned his best spring shirt, mustered up the nerve and just went for it…and she said "yes"! He is beaming at the thought of getting to know her better. The second oldest son also recently started dating a very sweet girl, now that I think about it; "love" really is in the air this spring.

I am just glad it is here because I really was going a little stir crazy. As I stated earlier I love winter when it first starts. It is when it has been cold for months that I start to wonder if any of this will get any quality time outside again. Not that I am a great gardener (I actually do have a black thumb), but I start to plan gardens and which herbs I will plant this year and how I will fill in the dead flower bed from last year. I dream of the days when homeschool PE will involve a nice bike ride or a long walk. More importantly my homeschooler and I start to plan spring fieldtrips to places like the zoo, Land of the Little Horses, or a topiary garden. We absolutely love the outdoor fieldtrips because it gets us out of the house and breaks up some of the monotony of the same old same old. Now that the youngest has expressed an interest in the history of Gettysburg I think we will probably take many trips to the battlefields.

For my second son, and senior in high school, the change of the season means he is one step closer to graduation. After all, he actually graduates in the spring. I am hoping that spring and a little more outside time will help him with his senioritis. It is too soon to tell as we have still been having some pretty cold weather, but I am still hopeful. As a senior, spring also signals the time for registering for community college and picking his first semester of college classes (which I might not be ready for).

My husband grills intermittently all winter long; however, once spring hit he is the grill master. We can count on a grilled meal at least three or four times in a week. Grilled pork, grilled chicken, grilled bread, you name it and he grills it. One time he made grilled pasta, although not one of the kid’s favorite but I have never met pasta I didn’t like. This may be one of my favorite signs of spring and definitely the tastiest sign of spring. When it comes to food there are a lot of things that signal the arrival of spring. A good fire pit on a chilly evening is amazing. It gets even better when everyone is roasting hotdogs and marshmallows (not together of course) to their liking.

Even the first rain of spring was spectacular, maybe because a few degrees colder and it would have been snow, or maybe because it was a sign of all the flowers that would soon be blooming. In any case it was funny to be excited about something, that last fall we were all cursing because it seemed like it would never stop. At the moment I am looking forward to all of the colors of the rainbow that will shortly be blooming from the ground all around us.

Whether your kids are getting outside for spring sports, or spring hikes, or to see the spring flowers make sure you join them. This really is a beautiful time of the year to go outside and enjoy the weather with your family.

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