Spring Fever

It's another day of brilliant spring colors. The sky is so intensely blue it almost hurts my eyes to look at it. Fluffy white clouds dance by, pushed on by the refreshing spring wind. Flowering trees drip pink and white blossoms all over the new green grass. We open the windows and let the fresh air in, breathing deeply and enjoying the new scents it brings us--flowers, newly cut grass, and hamburgers grilling from blocks away.

We have less than two months of school left, but the kids are getting antsy to be finished. So am I. Motivation is running low and the beautiful days implore us to spend more time outside and less time inside.

We are only halfway through our schoolwork for the day, but I've had enough for now. I shoo all the kids outside, sending them to the baseball field with kites and instructing them to fly them for awhile. Later I supply them with sidewalk chalk and suggest that they create works of art on the driveway.

I've been concerned lately that our family spends too much time with our computers, phones, iPods, the TV and the Wii. I like technology as much as anyone, but sometimes I am afraid we are missing out on real life because we are spending so much time online. When I was a kid we used to make forts, dig giant holes in the garden, ride all over the countryside on our bikes and get lost (and worry our parents to death), mix up mud and paint the lawn furniture with it, flood the sidewalk with water and float ants down it on leaves, and sell lemonade door-to-door. We didn't even have a TV until I was ten, and we didn't have Internet until the year before I got married. The Internet was really slow, back then, too. YouTube wasn't even intevented yet, and even if it was, we wouldn't have been able to watch it. Just loading one page took several minutes.

Times have changed so much since then. While I'm still amazed at how much the Internet offers now, I'm afraid that my kids are going to miss out on learning how to simply play if I'm not careful. I don't want that to happen. This spring and summer our family is going to make an effort to spend more time together. We are going to plant a garden. We are going to go swimming more often and maybe even actually camp out this year. We are going to fish more, roast s'mores over a camp fire more, and ride bikes more. We are going to re-side the house together and maybe put up a new garage. We are going to turn off the TV and the computer and enjoy life together.

Life rushes by so quickly. I don't want to miss out on it. I only have a few short years left with my children, and I want to make every moment count. I'm looking forward to the end of school. It's going to be a summer to remember.