The Hope of Spring...

As I lazily scan through pictures of my friends whose cars and houses are covered, if not completely buried, in snow, I feel my heart filling with gratefulness. Like anyone, I enjoy a good snow day now and again, but usually by the second day I am ready for it to melt and be summer already. Lucky for me, we are not getting the snow so many of my Northern friends are experiencing today, but instead a lovely sunny and 46 degrees! This morning while Oliver, Aiden, and I waited for the temperature to rise to that comfortable number, we glued cut out shapes and colorful yarn to paper and scribbled with crayons. It's amazing how civil little boys can be when they are not busy tackling each other to the floor. They seemed quite content to share their crayons, and thought it was hilarious when the shapes stuck to their fingers instead of the paper. When one thinks something is funny, the other thinks it's even funnier.

Around 11:00 a.m. I stuck my head out the front door and deemed it safe to exit the house without more than a fleece for each of us. First we headed to the goats, bearing feed and fresh water. The boys helped me push the gate open and kept the goats preoccupied while I looked around for their food bowl that always somehow makes it's way somewhere hard to reach. With thrilled squeals from Aiden and Oliver and even more thrilled bleating from Earrings and Ellie, feeding commenced. The boys excitedly pet the goats' soft backs and pointed out all the poop as though it were the most amazing thing they'd ever witnessed. If they could count higher than single digits, I would not have been surprised if they had tried to count all the pellets they could find. Honestly, I don't know that I could count that high.

After visiting the goats we got out the dump trucks and the boys began their adventures in the mulch, slowly made their way to the rocks, and then finally to the mud. It has been so long since they've been able to play in the dirt that when Aiden caught a glimpse of his black hands he brought them to me to inspect, perhaps wondering what to do with them. I told him to keep playing and if they bothered him just wipe them on his pants. He liked that answer.

Now, I've been kind of in a slump this last week. The weather has been grey, cold, and wet, and my body more and more pregnant. I have felt exhausted, fat, and unmotivated to do anything but the least I can get away with doing. I needed this sunny and 46 degrees more than I could have imagined. Sitting there in the sun, my dogs at my feet soaking up the attention I was so freely giving them, watching my son and his best friend have the time of their lives in the left over muck of yesterday's rain, I could not help but feel excited about life. I started imagining plans of a garden. Both flowers and veggies. Ignoring the fact that I'll have a newborn come May and will probably not have a lot of free time, not to mention free hands. I looked to the trees, hoping for a glimpse of anything green and budlike. Nothing yet. But the sun was still warm, and that was all that mattered. I know it is not yet spring, but its hope has been planted and now I'll attempt to wait patiently for it to bloom.