Spring Break

This is my first spring break since I graduated from college many years ago. Teaching Spanish has been a legitimate challenge for me. I truly enjoy the classes, but preparing the lessons has been a lot. I am more thankful than ever that I didn't try to work full-time while trying to care for my family. It is hard and I don't enjoy having to compromise our time as a family to do school work. However, the first year is the worst and now we have come to spring break! Adrian and I had a list of things that we wanted to accomplish. I wondered prior to this week how much would actually get done. Now that the week is closing, I have my answer--not much. :)

As expected things often don't go according to plan. Easter Sunday was lovely. I LOVE Easter. It is such a joy to celebrate the victory of the Lamb. And to add a hilarious note to the day...Adrian made a scavenger hunt for the girls to find their baskets. So I as put the baskets together he made up the clues. We ultimately hid the baskets in their car seats in the van. However, when all was completed Saturday night I unintentionally--really--left some empty baskets downstairs in a laundry baskets full of clothes waiting to go upstairs. Sunday morning I told the girls not to play with any of the plastic Easter eggs that they saw. So a few minutes later I went downstairs and Avril came up to me with one of the empty baskets in her hand, "We didn't get ANYTHING for Easter?" Maia: "There's a plastic bag in my basket." Eowyn: "My basket is empty." They all had the saddest looks of disbelief on their faces. They weren't angry at all, just stunned that all their excitement that had been building for weeks now had come to naught. When I realized that accidentally leaving the extra baskets downstairs had created a foil I was in hysterics. It would never have worked out so well if I'd planned it. Avril just sat at the kitchen table completely dejected, "We didn't get anything for Easter." Finally, Adrian came down and told them to open the first egg--which they did to humor us but with no actual enthusiasm. It directed them to a table in the living room that held another egg with more instructions. By now they figured it out and were tearing up and down the steps finding each egg. The last one led them to the van to check their car seats. Easter baskets filled with candy!!!! They were very happy and I have laughed all week remembering it.

So Easter Sunday was wonderful. I wasn't feeling fabulous, but not sick. However by Monday I definitely had the flu. It's been years since I was that sick. I didn't do much but sleep for two days. We'd planned a family date to Jumpin' Monkey (a place with lots of blow-up toys for kids to jump on) and I really didn't want to miss it. So I went and sat there, but was really glad to sleep for the rest of the day after we got home. Jumpin' Monkey was a great success and the girls had a wonderful time.

The rest of my spring break has been spent recovering from the flu. Thursday was the first day I had my energy back. I got my haircut. Yay! Adrian did a lot with the baseball team. He was able to plant the flowers in the front yard. It looks wonderful and the girls had a lot of fun helping him. We went out to dinner at Red Robin for another family date on Wednesday. The girls again thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Now we come to Saturday night. My house is not clean, let alone cleaned well, and I've done no school work-also on my list. So I didn't get to cross any of that off, but in all I really enjoyed the week with my family. I look forward to summer. It will be my first summer break in many years too. And I'm very hopeful that the flu will not bother me at all.

Pics: 1-5) The girls at Jumpin' Monkey; 6-8) Planting the flowers with dad. Get a good look at Eowyn's hat. :) 7) My new haircut--you get the idea.