Is Spring on it's way?

I sure hope so.

I spent a good portion of the time this winter actually being disappointed that the huge snow storms didn't get us. Not to say that we didn't get snow, but they were always predicting feet of snow, when all we ever got were inches. I seriously wanted a foot of snow.

I wanted the world to stop, or at least slow down.
I wanted a world of white mountains and drifts, and fires in the fireplace.
I wanted days of soup and stew and chili.
I wanted to hunker down, wherever that phrase came from.

So now, we've had our usual early March warm up, just enough of a tease, to remind us that Spring is kind of around the corner. I'm sure we'll have our usual cold snap and hopefully one last snow.

But, for now, we've got blue skies, melty snow, squishy yards.

And brown. Yucky brown grass. What snow is left is grey and brown and ugly.

So, for me, spring can't get her soon enough now that it's brown. And ugly.

Yes, I know, we need the yucky brown days so we can better appreciate the beauty of spring, but I don't have to like it. It's part of our lovely weather pattern in this part of the country, the weather pattern I've been a part of for 35 years now ... and I still don't like this time of year, after the snow melts but before the green flies.

Here's hoping for a quick greening up when it happens.

Hmm ...

Perhaps I underestimate things, but they just cancelled afternoon kindergarten for today.

Snow day #2 for us.

Evidently there are going to be dangerous white out conditions once the storm hits.

This should be fun.

Oh the weather outside is frightful ...

And something else is so delightful ... something about a place to go ...

Let it snow
Let it snow
Let it snow

Well, Chicago has been singing that song for weeks now ... it's like we're stuck in some weird Groundhog Day type of loop ... cold, snow, warm up a bit, open the windows (I did, anyway), melt some, make some slush, freeze so everything is a sheet of ice, warm up again, snow again, rain, get really windy, snow some more. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

And to top it off, people are acting like we need to bring out the chains for our tires.

It's Chicago, people. This should not be anything new to anybody that has been living here for more than a couple of years.

You don't need to drive 12 mph, but you also don't need to drive 80 mph (you, in the supersize SUV, I'm talking about you!).

Driving in the tire tracks is a good idea. However, you cannot take the right most tire track from the left lane and the left most tire track from the right lane and drive down the center of two lanes. Nope. Choose one. Stay there.

Granted, I say this, and I will likely be the one to slide into someone or a ditch. It happened a couple of years ago when I was pregnant with The Bee and had Q in the car ... somehow I managed to miss the metal road signs indicating a curve and I missed sixteen trees. I was 150 feet off the road in somebody's very large front yard. I consider myself a very lucky gal.

So, off to bundle up again, get out the shovels and head back outside.

I will say that after all of this, I am really starting to look forward to spring. I'm not completely tired of winter, but the thought of playing in the dirt is much more fun than playing in the snow.