Spring??

My thoughts have wandered today to the coming of spring. What does this mean? My eldest boy keeps asking me "is it spring yet?" and I have to keep answering "No, but it's coming soon". That's at least what the calendar says, and my crocuses are blooming. So I hope so. For me as a child spring meant Easter morning. The sun shining, our nicest dresses (and a picture if we weren't late for church), and that smell of wet dirt that has been sitting under the snow all winter. It also meant baby calves, rafting in our very dirty pond made from the runoff of the melting snow, catching tadpoles and hoping we could raise some frogs but they always died first, Easter vacation (yes, it was called that, not the modern "spring break") spent with cousins either at our place or theirs. Hmm. We have none of that stuff here. The temperature just warms up a couple degrees, if we're lucky the sun shines more, and eventually the leaves will appear on the trees (the indicator I used to tell my boy he'll know it's spring). And...this year our new baby will be here (spring better get here by then, April 23). I'm thankful for winter and the coziness it brings, but come this time of year, I think we all are ready for warmth and that refreshing word - Spring!!