No not the kind that talking heads use to describe tiny contrary metrics in a sagging economy. I’m talking real, living green things shooting up from the ground or budding on branches, any day now. This weekend it’s going to get into the mid-40’s in Chicago, and the Spring equinox is weeks away. We’re going to start seeing green shoots soon.

Ramona had an appointment with her cardiologist today. It was the follow up to the cath she had in November. Her oxygen saturation in the cardiologist’s office got up to 91, the highest reading we’ve ever seen there. They said she’s doing so well that we should just come back in August for another check up. That is great news! Normally what we see after a cath is that Ramona gets a lot of improvement right away, but then as time goes on her sats drift lower. These follow ups usually double as cath-scheduling appointments. Not this time. I feel like I can forget about all this junk for a while, and that feels good.

Anyway, we’re going to need our energy for other things, as Jane is due with our 3rd child in late May. Finding out last summer that we were expecting again was quite the shock, and pretty scary for a while as our fears of what another child might bring into our lives took hold. We’re beyond that for the time being. Simon and Ramona are very excited to meet their new baby sister in a couple months time.

So you see, we’ve got our own green shoots popping up around here. Spring is just around the corner.