Spring

Captain Kindergarten gets on the bus at 6:55 a.m.  I know - wrong, wrong, wrong.  But that's another story.  This morning since he got ready so fast, he got to watch a little Dino Squad before boarding the bus.  I sat out on our front porch by myself and watched for the bus to come.  And do you know what I heard? 

Chirp, chirp, warble, warble, ree-ree, ree-ree.  And then a little bit of muffled vroom, vroom.

It made my soul feel good.

The ree-ree is the frogs.  Did you know frogs sleep in the mud in the winter?  They're waking up in these parts already, along with my early blooming spring flowers.  I planted some bulbs in the late fall.  I might, just maybe have planted them a little bit on the shallow side, but still, there are three plants that I saw today holding their buds all wrapped up like offerings to the sky.  Maybe those three buds are peace offerings to mother nature.  My spring flowers might be pleading for no more frosts so they can live to show their white, papery bloom.  It might be a vain request what with it only being February 2 and what with the groundhog in Potawawhatever seeing his shadow.  But I still hope with a strong tug of heart, that their request is granted.

I took the non-school-aged ones on a walk this morning up the road.  At one particular house we passed, I thought the deep, brown furrows of a large garden looked anxious.  At least they made me anxious.  I wanted to till and dig and plant and get dirty.  While the kids napped I took out a shovel and removed two well-rooted perennials that I thought were too large for my front flower bed.  Then I scraped and pulled at the already pesky weeds that are stealthily trying to steal the nitrogen and phosphorus from the latent greenery of my front bed.

When Captain Kindergarten got home we saw the mailman go by.  Getting the mail is always a family affair.  As we nosily went the length of the driveway to get to the mailbox my neighbor across the street who was getting her mail said, "Oh are you coming to see us?"  So she and her blond little boy came over and played in the driveway with us.  We got out bikes, and scooters, and chalk, and altogether too long of sticks for socializing.  And then our next door neighbor and her brunette boy joined us.  And then my next door neighbor's babysitter and her babysitter's friend and her little girl joined us.  And then my next neighbor's dog was pulled out of his yard and made to chase baseballs.  And then some neighbors down the street, four black-haired beautiful girls, walked us over some cupcakes with white, swirly marshmallow frosting.  And then another gloriously round neighbor down the street paused on her walk to let all of us pet her dog and ask her how she was feeling (4 weeks until baby #1).  And then they dwindled away, family by family, as dinnertime came on.  We got to leap over our drainage ditch and have one last game of red-light green-light with the next door neighbor before we came inside too and had dinner with a pink-lined sunset over the cornfields painting the window behind our kitchen table.

I can hear the frogs still, even through the racket of helicopters grumbling overhead.  Isn't spring exhilarating?  Even if this is a fake spring, I feel so grateful to have had it today.  Spring is a season where you think about today anyway I guess, it's not a tomorrow or a yesterday season at all.  Thank you for today spring you beautiful thing!

P.S. - Eagles do land.  They land pretty darn late at night/early in the morning, but they land.  It's not too long 'til I see my very own eagle nose-to-beak.  I'm not going to deny it, it just might be part of the reason I'm all giddied up about spring right now.