Our First day in Alaska (again, metaphorically)

It's a true testament to the length and bitterness of this past winter that has hopefully come to an absolute close when the third day in a row of doing yard work is about to come to a sweet silent end and I feel as though I've just had possibly the best day of my life. After raking in our own yard these past two days my little buddy and I drove 35 minutes south to my mom's house to rake the leaves and debris left in her yard from old man winter. We may have only gotten 2/3 of the front yard raked but we absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.

Today was the first t-shirt day of the year. It was the kind of day where all the neighbors depart their front doors almost in unison like in a musical, imagine if you will poppy theme music beginning to play right about now, everyone working side by side up and down every street in town; each happy neighbor smiling at all the fresh air, their muscles remembering for the first time in months how it feels to be of use outside in the warmth, with the sun beaming down ever so brightly. It was the kind of day where the birds dance through the still leafless tree branches in the hundreds singing songs of freedom, rejoicing, and delight as loud as any angelic choir; the wind blows, puffed up proudly with the bird songs floating within it. Today was the kind of day where the sky could not possibly be any more perfectly blue, the temperature could not possibly be any more perfectly comfortable and the sight of few mosquitoes fluttering through the warm blue air brings about the most delightful giggles instead of those old much more familiar "not another darn mosquito" groans.

After an hour of raking with everyone else in my mom's neighborhood (I'm telling you is was surreal (nothing like my neighborhood that's for sure)) I laid on my back in the just starting to return to green grass and gazed through the budding branches at the noble sky overhead. My son swang close beside me with his tummy placed on a yellow swing "weeing" with each kick of his toes on the ground. After only so many swings my greatest joy in life would hop from the swing and jump on top of me. We'd laugh and giggle and tickle each other as our gleeful noises rose upwards to mingle with bird songs overhead in the glorious spring wind. Occasionally rolling into various small dirt patches beside us was honestly a welcomed part of the festivities; to be gently scratched by the waking lawn and then feel the tiny grains of dirt on the skin of our arms and cheeks and in between our fingers, it was the subtlest of reminders, "this is living!"

We left my mom's re-energized, revitalized, re-fueled to overflowing with the very nectar of life and absolutely on top of the world. The sun was settling in for the night as we began to drive back home. Fabulous reds, delicious oranges, and memorizing yellows melted into lake Michigan the entire way.
The moon was waiting at our house to greet us goodnight and a few twinkling stars dotted the sky. I asked my kiddo if he could find the moon and pretended not to see it as he tried to show me it's bright glowing spot in the sky. He laughed at my silliness, took my hand and said, "Mom let's stand here for a little while and not go in. Let's just look together." It's amazing what a little fresh air can do for the soul.