But it's also kind of hard to get much done when the little folks are buzzing around me, making noise & asking for stuff 24/7. Just having Mattie buzzing around and asking for stuff constantly is kind of a relief, I have to admit. But I am still counting the days until Summer break!
This weekend was basically spent trying to get re-acclimated to everyday life after escaping to Florida for a week. Although I admit there is still a big fat bulging suitcase in my living room and a cooler in my kitchen! This is the hardest part of vacations for me...the getting back to reality, and putting everything away.
After a marathon driving session last Thursday night, we arrived back in Michigan at about 10:30 Friday morning. Having been in the car all night, it was kind of disconcerting to be home with the rest of the day ahead of us. We did a lot of vegging and showering our dog with affection. The rest is a blur. It was just that kind of day. We missed Florida, but were happy to be home at the same time.
My mom had been dog-sitting and was at our house when we got home. She was in the middle of cleaning out my fridge. I mean like taking the shelves and drawers out and everything. That was a nice surprise, especially because it was over-due for a thorough deep cleaning. Somehow those leftovers get piled up and before we know it, they start to take over! Chris's mom came over for dinner and we got Chinese. Not having to think too hard about dinner was pretty much a necessity that first night back!
Saturday I had to kind of get with the program because Connor had a birthday party to attend. Which meant I had to shower and make myself semi presentable to be seen in public. Bethany was chomping at the bit to spend some time with friends, so my in-laws offered to take her and a few friends to a gymnastics/trampoline place where the kids like to hang out on Saturday nights. Trampolines are so de rigueur these days, that it's common practice for kids to want to practice their back flips and stuff to get ready for summer. One of Bethany's friends came back to spend the night afterward, and when the girls were searching for a comedy to watch, I gently led them toward one of my all-time favorites, Raising Arizona. Introducing our kids to classic films of my youth is such a joy and pleasure! Somewhere along the line, my mom stopped by with pizza and dessert from two of my favorite places in Greektown. Night #2 of not having to think about dinner - thank goodness!
Sunday morning I struggled to make breakfast out of the non-contents of my fridge and pantry. But I couldn't feed a guest cheese slices and granola bars, I just couldn't do it! I debated making a fast food run, but in the end I managed to scrape together some makeshift ingredients for an oven pancake. My kids love oven pancakes, they are popular weekend fare in our home. I had no eggs, but I did have a carton of egg whites. Score. I had very little milk, but I managed to make do with a half cup of regular milk and a half cup of almond milk that my mom had left behind. And my oven pancake was bigger and fluffier than ever before! I am sticking to egg whites from now on. The thing was majestic! I just wish it would stay all puffed up for longer than a minute once it comes out of the oven.
Connor was invited to a friend's house, which meant I once again had to get myself semi presentable to face the parents with minimal shame. Plus I thought it might be a good idea to hit up the grocery store after I dropped him off. The grocery store on Sunday afternoons is bad news. Note to self: don't do that again.
While I was out, I realized it was an absolutely gorgeous spring day, so as soon as I got home I kicked the girls outside to play. Mathilda protested loudly. She actually loves to play outside, she just enjoys a good argument. Once she was out, she only came in for bathroom breaks for the next two or three hours. I went out with them and did the spring thaw poop scoop clean up. Bethany was anxious for me to help her put the trampoline back together, as a big wind storm had knocked a couple legs off a few months back. Because she doesn't like to wait, she put it back together by herself. She is self-sufficient like that. When I was done with dog poop, I cleaned off the slide and then went inside to get dressed to go for a run. And I couldn't find my headphones. I've already determined that running without music is a rare form of self-torture, so I opted to do 35 minutes on my exercise bike instead. Note to self: buy new headphones, asap!
We're die hard procrastinators, so Sunday was also spent catching up with homework. Do you know that older siblings are great at helping younger siblings with homework while mom is making dinner? Yep, they are. We sat down and had a real dinner together, and resigned ourselves to the fact that Spring Break was officially over. Sniff, sniff.
Throughout the weekend I also read a great compilation of short stories called Survival Skills, by Jean Ryan. It was a perfect book for my post-vacation attention span. I wrote a review for it that should be published on Luxury Reading soon. Short stories are great for when you just don't have it in you to commit to a whole complicated story line and hundreds of pages of keeping characters straight.
What did you do this weekend? If your kids are back to school today, are you relieved to be back in your routine? Or wishing for a few more days of Spring Break?
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