Signs of Spring

*Mud, mud everywhere, as far as the eye can see
*Smoke and steam rising from the sugar shack at our community farm
*Kevin's complaints about wanting to be able to start working in the yard
*Baby animals - chicks, piglets, lambs...all brand new and so darn cute!
*College basketball on the TV a couple times a week.  Aaron helps me chant "Let's Go Tar Heels!"
*Sap buckets hanging from the maple trees.  We check them every time we walk home from school.
*Birthday parties!  It seems most of the boys' friends were born in March.
*Baseball.  The facility where the boys take baseball class is jam-packed these days.  Little league clinics have begun.
*More sunshine, with the days about to get even longer as we push the clocks forward next weekend
*The seedling order form on my counter.  Time to choose what to plant this year.

I gotta say, early spring is not my favorite.  (And yes I realize it's not technically spring yet, but once skiing ends and the mud begins, winter is over.)  The slushy mud and cold winds seem to overwhelm everything else.  But I will find the beauty in the season.  It's the beginning of all the beauty that is to come.  The promise of beautiful things.  By the end of spring, we'll have flowers, seedlings in the ground, baseball games outside, Kevin working in the yard, and even longer days.  Happy Spring!