Thursday: 5 minutes

My schedule was packed today it it often felt like I was rushing from place to place with only five minutes to spare.  I made almost everything, and Dad picked up the slack the time I messed up the timing and he brought the kids back home after lunch at Hope.  I left the house at 7:30am this morning and while I was home several times, I wasn't home for good until 6:45pm.

Two things were even canceled today because of spring break.

I'm tired.

Wednesday: library

Today was not all that exciting.  We went to get some groceries and return pop cans and it was snowing.  Then we went to the library and happened to see Joshua's friend, who was there to watch a movie.  Joshua ended up staying with them while Isaac and I came home and played Dominion.

I did some chores.  Not enough to have a clean kitchen, but enough to stay on top of the important things.  Last night in bed I realized that 3 out of the 4 appointments that I (or the kids) have over the next two weeks have conflicts.  I resolved two of them today.  The groceries are put away and the laundry is all clean.

Monday: racquetball, furniture

Today's main activity was going to try racquetball with the kids.  It was actually a really good day, since Hope was still on Easter break.  We're debating about it being Joshua's main exercise during the summer.  It went a lot better than I expected...even though Joshua tweaked his wrist at the end.  They liked the echoes, could sometimes hit the ball, could serve the ball well enough, and overall had a pretty good time.

I won the actual game we played, 7-0-0.  Just to make sure they don't think they're doing too well.  We did cycle through twice, because Isaac had a really good return that I couldn't reach.

I also found a lot of instincts ingrained in me.  *Don't look backwards.  *Crouch down when you don't know what's going on behind you. *Serve to the corners.  *Move to the middle

The crouching one was the funniest, because the kids are not strong enough hitters to actually hurt me even if they did manage to hit the ball.  But otherwise my back tingled too much.

I completely enjoyed myself.  I miss racquetball.

The kids were bored on-and-off today, so they decided that we should move around the bedroom furniture today.  I wasn't about to argue, so that's what we did in the afternoon.  They were amazing helpers!  And strong.  The whole project took about an hour, and that included cleaning all the dust bunnies and putting the room mostly back to rights.  Ben was surprised when he got home.

Joshua is at a sleepover tonight.  We've tried doing this sleepover several times and it hasn't worked, but since it's now 10pm and he's been sleeping for over an hour I'm optimistic.  Last night when I reminded him it was a bit rough, but by the morning he seemed to have snapped out of it.  I also brought him over pretty late, hoping that if there wasn't too much time before bed to get wound it up would be easier.

Resurrection Sunday: He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed!  We opted for church at home today, partially so we could be with Ben, partially because churches are packed on this Sunday.  It meant we never got out of our comfy clothes, but we celebrated this wonderful day.

Joshua decided to make a bird house with some of his special Lego pieces.  Since I suggested that for him, I was put in charge of making the bird.  It isn't amazing, but it's cute.

 

We once again ended the day by all reading together on the couch and it was lovely.

Silent Saturday: egg things

 Today, in the day between the sadness and the rejoicing, we did our secular Easter things.  The kids dyed Easter eggs.  Now that they're older I came up with the great idea of having them do it one at a time...this prevented all the "you still have an egg in that cup and I want that color" that I deal with.  Hmm.  I usually get the kits on sale after Easter: I suppose I could get two.  Either way, it worked really nicely this year.

After dinner we did an egg hunt.  Stuffing the eggs I got rather grumpy.  I didn't prepare well and it really isn't a fun activity.  I ended up with some Christmas candy, spare change, and *lots* of little pieces of paper for 2 minutes of screen time.  I told them not to have very high expectations.

The hunt itself was pretty fun.  The kids enjoyed it and like the odd places we found.  

When they were opening their eggs I was rather proud of them.  There was just laughter over what was in the egg, even when an egg only had 3 pennies in it.  They thought all the slips of paper with screen time were fun.  I don't think they even realized the candy was from Christmas.

Friday: semi-busy

While the morning was rather laid-back, the afternoon was pretty full.  We started with an escape room, a gift from Christmas.  We solved it, but needed a few hints.  One we should have been able to figure out, one was dumb but understandable, and one was tricky.  Everyone had a good time though.

Then we went to Ben's work to pick up a car, since mine is at the shop.  He gave us a tour of the facility...I've been there, but it's been a really long time.  Joshua didn't remember it at all.  He's moved desks (at least once) since I was there last so it's nice to have a new picture in my head.

After a quick stop home, we went rock climbing.  It was the end of the month and we had an extra guest pass, so I was able to climb today too.  I'm pretty bad.

After a quick nap and dinner we went to church for the Good Friday service.

Thursday: pictures from school

 Third grade did animal reports and they looked at each other's.

Third graders also read to kindergarteners as part of March reading month.