Spring has sprung...and we're tired!

Moving the clocks forward in those delicate days as Spring approaches is like an opening salvo in the face of desperately clinging Winter.  It is invigorating to have the extra sunlight in the evening, and even more delightful when those first days are warm and bright.  Buds on the trees, bulbs peeking from the ground, the absence of a chill in the air.  I love the amazing energy and feeling of newness.  Even more so than the first day of the year, when winter is its deepest and the revelry of the holidays is waning in the face of diets and deprivation, these first days of Spring hold promise and sunshine.  It's hard not to be joyful as the laughter of children mingles with the bright songs of robins.

For us, adjusting the clocks is like exhaling after holding your breath all winter.  It's a first step towards the glory days of summer, where after-dinner family walks, baseball games, swimming pools, sprinklers, and barbecues reign.  The part the Little Badgers notice most of all is that it is still light out when Daddy gets home.  There's more time for playing.  Period.  Everything else is gravy.

The only problem with Springing Forward! is that when the mind leaps, the body is sometimes slower to follow.  We leap, we jump, we play, and at the end of the day, we're tired.  One day we're closing out with dinner, and the next day the warmth has encouraged us to indulge the daylight to the fullest.  Daddy River Badger and I have both been heading dutifully to the gym for the past two-and-a-half months trying to get in shape, and even with that, we're both drooling on our pillows in the morning, too exhausted to get up.

I love this time of year, as much for the sense of anticipation as for the change of season.  I look forward to running outside, to drinking beer on the deck, to long walks down to the lake with the Little Badgers, and to running out the door without struggling into coats, hats, and gloves.  I'm excited to start my garden, to dress Baby in her summer dresses, to help the Boy Badgers master riding their bikes, and to wear bright colors.  I've been anticipating hearing the bugs "singing" at night since last fall, when the cold won out.

We throw ourselves into Spring full-throttle, eager to play, eager to dream, and eager to burst on through into summer.  So, it's natural we're a little tired.  Especially early in the morning, when it used to be even earlier just a couple days ago.