(3/2016) Spring fever has invaded my home. The kids seem to be going stir crazy, my husband has ants in his pants and my youngest is going to lose her mind if it snows one more time. The dog on the other hand loves the snow and can’t wait for another storm. I am not sure we will all survive until spring actually arrives.

When you are sitting trying to write an article and keep hearing a thud, thud, thud, you must investigate, right? Imagine my surprise when I run down to the basement expecting to find the furnace acting up and what I find instead is a fourteen year old bouncing a ball against the wall. I, of course, was relieved to find out it wasn’t the furnace. However, I was less than thrilled to see a ball banging against my newly painted walls. It isn’t like I don’t understand him wanting to get outside, every time I see a picture of a flower in a magazine I start contemplating my garden.

Just as crazy, and quite a bit messier, is when I catch my daughters outside in full snow gear attempting to plant a stick in an old flower pot. As I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes I glanced out the window to see a muddy mess. Unfortunately for their clothes the girls had chosen a day when it was warm enough for the snow to melt and make a lovely mud puddle in my yard. The girls were so desperate to plant something that they put all of their hope into a stick (not even a green one, completely dried up), a lot of mud and a cracked flower pot. I think I will invest in some seedlings come spring.

My husband keeps announcing, in a rather theatrical way, that he is waiting for the snow to leave so he can mow. I have pointed out that the grass hasn’t grown and therefore there is nothing to mow. This falls on deaf ears and he just shrugs and walks away. It is actually kind of sad, he seems like a puppy without a bone. His solace is found on the lawn mower, so in the winter he always looks a little lost. When spring finally hits he will most likely have a smile on his face for a week. Then he will spend another week mowing the grass, even when there isn’t any more grass to mow. That is when he will be one happy camper.

Then there is my youngest and my mom. They are both so sick of the snow that one flake and the screaming commences. The younger of the two really enjoyed the big snow storm when she was building a snow man, a snow fort, four or five snow slides and an adorable snow baby. She loved the fact that she got to skip homeschooling and that her siblings were home and played with her. The hot chocolates with whipped cream were flowing like water from a faucet. Even with all of that when a few flakes fell the other day she started screaming at the top of her lungs, "NO MORE SNOW, NO MORE SNOW!!!!" The next day it was raining and she announced her love for the rain over snow. That ended when she landed in a puddle that soaked her up to the knees. She still didn’t want the snow back, just a little less rain.

My mom on the other hand HATES the snow and would be happy never seeing it again. She has been known not to leave her house if there is even one flake on the sidewalk. She will tell you when it is going to rain or snow based on how her arthritis is feeling and again not leave the house based on this prediction. So I guess you could say that her Spring Fever can start as early as late November of the previous year. In our family we don’t count her as having Spring Fever as much as despising the winter.

The dog is a completely different story. This was his first snow and he loved it. Truth be told, he more than loved it. He drove us crazy asking to go outside just to sniff around. He liked to sniff the snow, eat the snow, pee in the snow, but his favorite was to poop in the snow. The higher the mountain of snow the more likely he was to climb up and poop at the top. He would also search endlessly for a very specific piece of ice/snow to eat. He would find some snow that had melted and then froze into a tiny (it had to be tiny or he would drop it as fast as he picked it up) piece of ice and eat it like it was a four course steak dinner. None of his treats would make him drop this tiny piece of ice. Nothing would entice him to drop it, not treats, not cheese, not even peanut butter. He has been a crazy little dog this winter.

The dog being the exception to the rule, the rest of my family is more than ready for spring. They talk about it, dream about it, and even draw pictures about it. I don’t want to mislead you into thinking I don’t also have the fever. I most certainly am ready for spring. I am ready to tear out my weed garden and plant flowers, to go for bike rides and play pool football, and go on homeschool field trips to the Catoctin Zoo and Hershey Gardens. Come on Spring we are waiting impatiently for you!