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Top 10 Reasons Spring Needs to Arrive Immediately if Not Sooner

Top 10 Reasons Spring Needs to Arrive Immediately if Not Sooner

This time of year, every Midwesterner is itching for spring. Here are a few reasons to look forward to warmer weather.This time of year, most Midwesterners are itching for spring, and I’m one of them. Here are ten reasons spring can’t come soon enough.

10. Mom’s It’s-too-cold-to-go-out-to-eat-why-don’t-you-go-pick-something-up-and-bring-it-here excuse will no longer hold water.

9.  The storm sewers need a good rain to wash away the top hats, frozen carrots, old scarves, and coal buttons and eyes that once adorned many a jaunty snowman.

8.  I want to walk outside again while the birds are singing again.

7.  Parents have completed the list of 101-fun-indoor-winter-activities-for-young-children. Three times. Or more.

6.  A hamburger grilled over apple wood and served on a toasted bun sounds really good right now.

5.  Kids need to get outside to blow the stink off.

4.  Every parent of young children and every elementary teacher in the Midwest has a wild look in the eye that will only go away when kids have a chance to get outside and run off several months’ worth of pent up energy.

3.  Children around the country have outgrown their mittens, boots, and winter coats. The sled’s broken, too.

2.  The robins are back, and if spring doesn’t come soon, they will need tiny, knitted sweaters to keep them warm. Who’s going to chase them down and convince them to wear the darn things?

1.  The Man of Steel’s birthday heralds the arrival of the new season. This year he’ll celebrate the big 6-0. I’m eagerly anticipating the few short months of spring and summer when he’s 60 and I’m not.

Why are you looking forward to spring? Leave a comment.

Cold Snap

Cold Snap

My plan for the day was to postpone my walk and whine about the weather – 9 degrees when I got up this morning, and the temperature hasn’t moved up since – as much as possible, at least until I looked out the kitchen window and saw a flock of robins in the crab apple tree.

Hiram and the kids gave me a short Charlie Brown tree for Mother’s Day a few years back. Like today’s temperature, it hasn’t moved upward since they planted it. However, it blossomed beautifully last spring, and tiny fruit hung from the branches all winter long.

The sight of the birds brings back an old saying Mom used whenever I got whiny about her supper menu, and I got whiny plenty often. “Hunger is the best seasoning.” Apparently, calorie loss due to today’s cold snap improved the fruit’s flavor because the birds are all picking the branches clean.

Which reminds me, I shouldn’t postpone my walk any longer. Waiting for the temperature to improve is futile so it’s time to bundle up and be grateful that the wind died down and the sun is shining. Maybe the cold is a blessing in disguise, and I’ll burn off a few of my extra California calories – if I can keep my hands off the teeny, tiny crab apples. After I walk four miles in the cold, they’ll look delicious.

I’m Not Complaining

I’m Not Complaining

I’m not complaining about the weather. For one thing, a few months back I took a solemn vow to cease complaining about winter. At the time, I didn’t expect winter to last until mid-April. Still, I won’t complain for a variety of reasons. Here they are:

  • With a photo like the one above, taken on my morning walk last Saturday (April 12), there’s no need to complain. A picture is worth a thousand words.
  • I’m not a robin.
  • The sun is shining again.
  • Though the low this morning was in the twenties, it’s supposed to get into the fifties today. And since I work at home, I can take my walk whenever I want. I’m holding out until it hits fifty!
  • For the rest of the week, the highs are to be in the fifties and sixties.
  • Tomorrow I leave for Savannah for a week’s vacation with my mom and sister. The temperatures there are in the seventies.
  • My husband says he’ll miss me while I’m gone.
  • I already cleaned the bathrooms and the kitchen.
  • The laundry is almost done.
  • I know where my children are, and they are safe – physically and spiritually.
  • Tonight is book club and we’re discussing a very good book, Water for Elephants. If you’ve ever wanted to run away to the circus or have elderly parents (the two don’t seem to go together, but in this book they do) you should read it. Click on the link to read some reviews.

If you have more reasons for not complaining about the weather today, or any other day, please leave a comment and add to the list. I’d love to hear from you.

The Birds Think It’s Spring

The Birds Think It’s Spring

We had another dusting of snow the night before Easter. And the day itself was cold, overcast and gray. After church we drove to my brother and sister-in-law’s house, for the afternoon. Our gathering was much brighter than the weather, full of fun and food and laughter.

In the evening when I was home again, a flurry of movement outside the living room window caught my eye. A flock of robins, forty or fifty at least, carpeted our east lawn and part of our neighbor’s. I watched the birds for a few minutes, heartened by this sure sign that no matter how chilly the weather gets, spring is on its way.

A look out the same window this morning revealed a lawn carpeted with frost, sharp and glittering and cruel. For a moment I lost hope, sure that winter would never lose its grip on my corner of the world, convinced that spring would never arrive. But peace returned as I thought about yesterday’s flock of birds. The robins are back. Spring is almost here. Don’t give up.

It’s enough to keep me going today.