Spring Break

Ten to fifteen years ago, if you said spring break, it would conjure up images of iced drinks, tanning on the beach all day in a bikini and partying till the wee hours at night. To quote Max from Where the Wild Things Are, “Let the wild rumpus begin.”

It may be apparent by my choice of whom to quote, but things are a little different these days.

Our spring break is going to be marked this year by spring-cleaning projects. Sounds thrilling, no? It has to be done. Our house needs the weeding out. We have now lived here for four years (longest we’ve every lived anywhere!) and it is apparent by the amount of stuff we’ve accumulated.

The closets are bursting at the seams. What can I say? These children keep growing and needing new clothes every season. So, I am behind on my runs to drop off the outgrown to the local charity, boxing up those worth keeping for memories sake and passing on a few items to my niece. The clothing situation-quite a pain in the you know what.

The basement needs to be organized again. Our crafts area is out of control. My husband jokes that instead of Joanne’s or Michael’s, we have Laura’s. I really shouldn’t have to purchase anything until we use up everything we have. It’s a good philosophy that I think I’ll run with. And we so happen to have to turn those First Communion banners in at the end of this week. Yet another way I’ll be spending spring break. Gluing felt and beads onto a religious banner. My twenty something self could never have predicted that one.

The refrigerators have gotten cleaned out. Scrubbed from top to bottom. My china cabinet will be completely emptied and each piece washed and dusted. My mother terms this cleaning the breakfront. I have despised it since I was a child. But, now that I have my own, I realize that it gets dusty in there. Uggh. So, that will be conquered one afternoon.

A more pleasant spring task will be filling my flowerpots with some pansies and forsythia branches. What can I say? Flowers make me happy! They truly do symbolize the first signs of spring and the winter that we need the break from. So, we’ll end the to do list on a positive note. One of my favorite things is to take the kids to the garden center. They love it and so do I. Bring on the spring.

Spring Fever

Short sleeves. Zip up sweatshirts. Playing outside. Bike rides. Sunshine. The sunroof is open in the car. The tulips and the daffodils are two inches out of the soil.

It’s official; we have spring fever around here.

The past few days in the Chicago area have been full of blue skies, sunshine and 60 degrees. After close to four months of nothing but gray, freezing cold and snow, we couldn’t be happier.

The children are naive enough to think that this is it. Spring has officially arrived.

Suckers.

This is Chicago after all. That is why the weatherman has predicted snow and sleet for Sunday and Monday. But, I can’t bear to tell them what March is really all about. That lion and lamb nonsense. That they haven’t seen the last of the yuck yet. It’s still out there, on the horizon.

Just in time for outdoor soccer to begin. They’ll slosh through torrential rains. They’ll be covered in wet, goopy mud. At the same time, it’ll be freezing cold.

However, the air will smell different. Perhaps, it’s the trees blooming or the grass coming in. The rain will make everything green. It will wash away the drudgery of winter and usher in the true spring for which we are all longing.

What will this breath of fresh air carry with it?

The change that is eminent.

An end to the itch of winter.

The beginning of something.

I hope so. This fever is hot. Send in the rain of renewal.