We welcomed the warmth last week with our first bout of strep and the all encompassing need for a popsicle. Since then, they have become a daily standard - the popsicles, not the strep. Every year I greet the warm weather like an old friend I missed madly over the past four months. Sometimes I don't know how I get through the winter and to be honest, the last month has been a challenge. I forget each year and then I find myself in the lull of February and now craving the need for the outdoors as a play option. Then magically we set our clocks forward, the days grow longer with more hours spent outside and sticky drippings find their way to bare feet. Mud replaces snow, mostly, and we watch our grass green. Everything thaws out, including me.