BUCKING THE SYSTEM: SPRING HAS BUCKS BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER

Spring has finally sprung, and my family couldn't be happier.

OK, I admit it, we are not cold-weather people. Like all kids, Jerry and PJ enjoy the occasional snow day, but like their parents, they don't really care for the cold.

During the winter months we'd rather be wrapped up in heavy, homemade quilts and thick white socks while we eat bowls of my mother's stew with large triangles of hot cornbread slathered with butter.

Did I mention I didn't like winter?

At any rate, the worse part of winter for people who don't like to be cold is being cooped up in the house. That's the way it's been for nearly all of the past six months: Just me, my husband, and our two sons stuck in an old house that's not nearly large enough for all of us and our attitudes.

Patrick and I tried to prepare for the long winter by stockpiling televisions, Disney movies, toys, computer games and books. Almost weekly we changed our location and visited my parents, hoping that adding a Granny or Pawpaw or TiTi to the entertainment mix would make the winter more palatable.

Variety may be the spice of life, but it did nothing for our attitudes.

Even so, we have survived. And with the onset of warmer temperatures this week, we were even able to venture outside. It took Jerry, my versatile athlete, no time at all to dig out his baseball, bat, basketball and a golf set in anticipation of long days spent playing outside.

And PJ, not to be outdone, recently removed all the clothes from the suitcase I packed for a weekend at my parents so that he'd have plenty of room for both of his footballs and a soccer ball.

We have been intoxicated by springtime this week, taking every moment we could to head outdoors. When it rained, my boys and I would sit in my sunroom, our heads wedged together as we watched the rain fall and talked about the wisdom of riding bikes and trikes through mud puddles.

And when the ground dried, we headed outside to ride assorted vehicles, play on swingsets, play chase and investigate the bugs that already are beginning to set up their summer homes.

Oh, what a glorious feeling to see sunlight after 6 p.m. and to smell soil that has been freshly turned by the neighboring farmer's combine. And some of my on-the-ball neighbors have already performed their first lawn mowings of the year, producing smells that can only be topped by the aroma of Esicar's bacon being oven-cooked on a Sunday morning or my mother's caramel cake baking on a Saturday night.

And, judging from the handfuls of dandelions my sons have so thoughtfully given me this week, a beautiful bloom is a beautiful bloom, even when it's on a weed masquerading as a flower.

Oh, Spring, how we have missed thee!

Welcome home!