#Celebratelu Spring is Coming!

It's been a bitter cold week and I could bemoan my cold, stiff fingers or the inflated heating bills

that will be billowing in, there is a lot to celebrate! 

One: Monday, was Martin Luther King's birthday, a day "off" from school making a delicious long weekend.  (even if it was snow covered, filled with shoveling, and bitter cold)!
Two: Tuesday was, an "early dismissal" amid a blanket of snow descending on the area.  (While it still took me 2 hours to get home, I know I was among the lucky ones as those who left their businesses later that evening had far longer, much colder, and more harrowing trips home.)   
Three: Wednesday, we had a delayed opening to school and we knew about it the night before so I did not set the alarm!  Yes, there was shoveling and yes the commute including some drifting snow, but still!
Four: With all that "extra" time, I was able to make a local HS basketball game and watch my niece "whoop up" on a team that beat them earlier this season. It made for a late night, but it was still a bit of "extra" fun that all the snow, cold, and "extra time" gave me! 

Five: Spring is coming! There is evidence that moments of daylight are increasing!  At first I thought it was just the time "off" from school; however, even after a full day, even after leaving school late, there was "some brightness" to the sky!  The last lines of Oliver Herford's poem, remind me that "We are nearer to Spring, than we were in September.”  (yes, I realize the poem is about December!)

I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford I heard a bird sing In the dark of December. A magical thing And sweet to remember. "We are nearer to Spring Than we were in September,” I heard a bird sing In the dark of December. From Welcome Christmas! A Garland of Poems (Viking Press, 1955).