We’ve got the fever and the cure

I had been ignoring the symptoms for days.

Ignoring the symptoms was becoming more difficult each day.

Then one morning, as the birds’ choir song wafted through my open window on a warm breeze, I opened my eyes, then shut them just as quickly.

Nope. Not opening ’em. Opening them felt like I was going to yaaark. I recognized the pain, it was one of the first signs that spring was really, truly here: sinus headache from allergies. All I wanted to do was lie in bed and doze with the sun on my face and a bird choir in my ears.

That’s how the day when I faced the fact that I had a case of spring fever began.

As fevers, go this one is low on the scale. It’s not really contagious, but it was spreading rampantly through my house. The reason I woke up in the first place? My sixth-grader, Noah, had presented me with his symptoms via a soft whisper directly into my ear.

“Mom, can I take a skip day today?”

My eyes opened; my eyes shut and with them closed I whispered back, “You want a mental health day today? I can’t even open my eyes. This is not the day to stay home unless you want to be my nurse.”

The fever must have been strong with him because he contemplated it for a minute but Noah is a smart kid, and he knew defeat when he saw it. He got me an icepack and Tylenol and left me alone with only the soft sounds of an avian aria for company.

Once I could stand without revisiting the contents of my stomach, I padded downstairs sans slippers. When was the last time I went without slippers in the morning? October? The smooth wood floors reminded me of summertime — how they were always refreshingly cool under my feet, not the stinging cold floors of winter.

The smell of my nasal allergy medicine reminded me of chrysanthemums and rushed images of gardens into my head. I looked out the kitchen window and saw the former flower bulbs/current flowers that I had planted last fall with dreams of that very moment! Yellow daffodils and orange tulips all blooming exactly where I had planted them. (Funny how that happens.)

I wanted to race outside, ignore everything I had to do that morning and clear away the weeds that were cluttering up my lovely kitchen window view. But I couldn’t.

Or could I?

I set my own schedule, I’m a known seat-of-my-pants day planner — surely these two qualities could meet on that beautiful day and get me outside…

I couldn’t. I’m also an adult and had responsibilities. When spring fever hits, admitting that being an adult with responsibilities feels even worse than it does in the winter.

I did manage to dart outside throughout the day. I knew the mail came at noon, so I went to check it first at 11.

I knew that we could sit on the porch chairs as they were, but they sure were prettier with the blue seat cushions I dug out of storage and tied onto the chairs.

I knew I had to make dinner…but it was still light outside! And warm! And taking myself for a walk was a responsible, adult thing to do, right?

Right.

Over the next few days I gardened, my husband mowed the yard and played baseball with Noah; my teen son skipped the gym and jogged outside; my daughter went on her first, 2017 four-leaf clover hunt.

As the weekend wrapped up we were all a little sore with pink, sunburned noses but we had cooled our spring fevers the best way we could.

By giving in to them.

This story was originally published April 18, 2017 at 11:56 AM with the headline "We’ve got the fever and the cure."