If Nature Could Say "April Fools!"

It was warm this morning. My tired eyes looked around and blinked with hope. No frost on the ground. No biting wind and angry gusts. My blood hummed. Spring. Finally.

​I hopped back into my kitchen and began the circus the popping kids out of bed and stirring up a pot of spicy sausage gravy that would be poured over fluffy biscuits. Hope. Hope. Hope. Spring is here. Jovani and I sipped our coffee and enjoyed our breakfast as we talked. The girls played.

​Later, I slopped soapy water over dirty dishes. My mind whirled with plans. I could go running outside more easily now without the wind and frigid weather. Perhaps our two surviving tomato plants would start to thrive.  Jovani finished his coffee and began preparing for his day. I called to him not to worry about bundling up. It was a nice day. He left to go outside and feed the animals.

​Ten minutes later he shuffled back inside, stomping his feet. I clapped Micaela's tiny hands together, "Papa is back."

​I could almost hear his pause. I stilled, waiting for whatever he needed to say.

​"Honey," he called out, "Did you know it is snowing outside?"

​I raised my eyebrows. "Ha. Ha." I replied. "As if!" I was not going to fall for jokes this morning.

​It was quiet for a brief second. "No, really. Come and look." I sighed and picked myself off the floor, moving Micaela to my hip as I walked to the window.

​I glanced out to the pines and my mouth fell open. Tiny little flakes danced down to the ground in flouncing waves of winter. It really was snowing.

​I didn't know what to think. When was the last time it had snowed? One month? Two? But there it was. Just enough of it filling the air that it commanded notice. The pines set a backdrop to the cheeky storm so that each flake could be seen as it fell.

​The chuckle that I gave in to could not be held back.

Good one, Nature. April Fools it is.  ​

“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
​Genesis 8:22 NIV