Salvaging Spring Break

This week is Spring Break but before this week rolled around, we made plans for things to do. But you know what they say: “Man plans and God laughs.” Well, I guess the Almighty got a good laugh when it was the first day of Spring Break, because … we were all sick!

That’s right. All four of us were sick. We actually started getting sick on Saturday but by Monday, Jen was the fourth and final victim of when sickness invaded our home. She and I both had a cold, Jesse had a bad cough and my husband has also come down with something. Things were pretty lousy for a while there. We were all feeling pretty yucky and also feeling pretty down that our plans for Spring Break were ruined. (Well, I like to say “compromised” instead of “ruined,” because I am too stubborn to throw in the towel so easily!) We were also too “out of it” for much of anything to do at home because we were all taking medicines. I barely got any writing or reading done, and the movies and TV shows I planned to watch were put on hold. I wasn’t on the Internet too much, either. I could hardly concentrate. It was a cycle of sleep, medicine, eat, sleep, medicine, eat. Wash, rinse, repeat!

Now I have said this before and I’ll say it again: DayQuil is good stuff! If it weren’t for DayQuil, I wouldn’t have survived attending my daughter’s basketball game some years ago when I had the flu. So when a cold hits – a cold, not the flu – I grab the DayQuil! Seriously, it’s the one medicine that helps me get back on my feet when a cold is kicking my butt. (And it really did!) Today is Day 5 of my cold and I was finally feeling human again. Jen has been surviving on chicken noodle soup, yogurt and water, and she too is starting to feel better.  Jesse was taking Delsym twice a day for his cough and he was also feeling better.

So since the kids and I were feeling functional again today, I decided, you know what? It’s STILL Spring Break! Let’s try to do SOME of the things we planned to do.

So today I took the kids to Skate World. They had fun rollerskating and playing Air Hockey. I took many pictures and here is one of them:

For most of the stay at Skate World, I was fine. But after a while, I was starting to cough and feeling a little sluggish. (I’d been hacking up a lot of gunk today. Ugh!) But at least that happened close to the time when we would leave. The kids were having so much fun, though, they asked to stay a little longer so they could skate some more, so we stayed for a half hour longer. After that, I took them to McDonald’s so they could get a McFlurry (a rare treat they love).

I am glad that I was well enough to take the kids somewhere for Spring Break and I’m also glad they had such a good time. I hope tomorrow and Friday we will be able to do the other things we hope to do, but it really depends on if my husband is well enough. But if not, we’ll come up with something else to do instead. I know I am at least well enough to drive somewhere (and it’s too bad I can’t drive to Salem!), so if Plan A is a bust, we’ll just go to Plan B and have some other kind of fun and adventure. We still have two days of Spring Break left, so we’re gonna make the most of it!

Texting while shopping

During the weekday mornings, I turn on the local news and leave it on that channel for Good Morning, America. This morning, as I was getting ready to leave to take Jesse to school, we happened to notice a “special report” on GMA about a rise in deaths or accidents among people who were texting and walking at the same time. It reminded me of this news story I read some time ago about a man who fell to his death because he was texting and walking and he walked right off of a mountain. Jesse and I watched the videos of several people who had accidents – they walked into walls, into traffic and even into a fountain – because they were texting and walking. I told Jesse this was why I never texted and walked at the same time. Of course, there was one time it was an emergency and I sort of had to text while walking/running but fortunately I made it out of that ok. But I usually never do it. Jesse agreed that it was a bad idea, especially after seeing the video. Later, I asked Jennifer if she does that, and she said sometimes but she’s able to watch where she’s going while texting.

Well, later today – this evening, actually – I got a good dose of just how much of a bad idea it was to text and walk, because I ended up texting while shopping!

After I got home from taking Jesse to gymnastics class, I was looking forward to getting dinner going, taking care of a couple of chores I had NOT gotten around to YET and being home for the day. But that didn’t happen! Right after I got home, Jennifer informed me that someone at her school had taken her fabric ribbon that she needed for a school project – and that project was due tomorrow! So of course she needed me to drive her to the craft store to get more fabric ribbon.

On any other occasion and if it was earlier in the day, I would have been happy to take her to the craft store. We go to Ben Franklin Crafts and it’s a pretty awesome craft store. But tonight, I was tired, had things to do and was NOT looking forward to more driving – especially to a store quite a distance from us. But, I was the only one to do it. It was up to me!

First, however, I texted my friend and asked her if she had any ribbon that Jen could use. She did, but not cloth ribbon. Which was what we needed. And instead of the conversation ending there, it actually continued on for a while! Not while I was driving, of course. No way would I ever text and drive! And while I was driving there, I was thinking, ‘I’m so glad I put gas in the van today!’ As well, as that old standby: ‘Why can’t there be two of me?’ 

After we arrived at the craft store, I resumed texting with my friend while the kids A: Got the ribbon and B: Checked out other craft projects in the store. (It’s a cool store!!)

But at one point, I got so caught up with texting, I finally looked up and noticed the kids WAITING for me to pay for the ribbon and the cashier trying not to laugh as she stared at me.

I was a 41-year-old woman doing what teenagers typically do: Text on my phone with one of my besties when I should be paying attention to my surroundings. I was texting while shopping! Oh nos!

I took care of that bidness. Then I was texting my friend again on the way out of the store and to the van. And after we got home, too. (It was a good conversation!)

I think it was silly I was texting while shopping because obvi I got distracted by it. Usually, if I text while I shop, it’s to ask about a brand or if we need something while I’m there at the store. Or it’s the kids asking me to get something for them! But usually not when it comes to checking out. I’m a little embarrassed that happened but it was funny too. At least nobody got hurt. And at least it’s not as bad as texting while driving!

Back on schedule...and...The Dr. Seuss Extravaganza

Back in January, Jesse hurt his hand and had to go to Urgent Care. It turned out he had a broken bone in his hand and a fracture in one of his fingers. He had to wear a cast for a while. It was a real challenge for him to do most things with one hand and learning to be more careful with his injured casted hand. And, for a while there, this interrupted a couple of things he had going on up until then: Gymnastics class and piano lessons. Both of those things were put on hold while his hand recovered. Recently, he had the cast removed, but he had to wait another week before he could go back to those things. (We did consider that he might continue piano lessons with one hand but Jesse didn’t like that idea.)

Finally, he was able to go back to gymnastics class and resume piano lessons. He did both of those things for the first time in over a month this week. So it looks like we’re back to the schedule that we were on before: Jesse with gymnastics class on one day then piano lessons on another day, and Jennifer still having her violin lesson each week but now also waiting patiently for her brother to finish his music lesson so that she could have hers. (We are trying to get Jennifer set up with a second activity – because I want my kids to be taking a music lesson as well as a physical activity – but haven’t got that set up just yet. She has definitely lost interest in sports.)

Jesse is glad to be back at his normal routines. I’ll have to get used to resuming that weekly schedule but I am also glad things are back to normal.

This week, Jesse’s school has been celebrating Dr. Seuss, with a themed day for every day of the week. Today was Silly Hat Day but also the Dr. Seuss Extravaganza. They have this “Dr. Seuss Week” every year during the week of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. I took Jesse to the Extravaganza this evening and here are the pictures I took from that event.

He had a lot of fun and it was nice to run into familiar faces. I was glad to be able to visit the Book Fair they were having at the event. We had a good time and glad we were there for such a fun event.