Spring is on its way when...

The morning alarm becomes thunderstorms punctuated with lightning strikes.

Flowers begin peeking out from the mulch that was laid last fall.

The shelves in Wal-Mart's seasonal aisle are filled with sidewalk chalk, jumpropes and hula-hoops.

You are washing fewer socks because the kids are wearing flip flops or going bare foot.

You stock up on Shout and Oxyclean to get the mud stains out of the children's clothes.

The mailman delivers more garden and seed catalogs than bills.

Your carpet becomes a new color...muddy taupe.

Your little ones come running in the house with a fist full of the first flowers of spring...dandelions.

You hear the distant whack of baseballs at the neighborhood ball diamond.

Windows are thrown open at the first sign of temperatures above 60 degrees and fresh air fills the house.

You start visiting all the "organizing" websites for spring cleaning ideas.

Spring cleaning lasts about a day as the kids and the dog drag half of the garden over your freshly washed kitchen floors.