Spring Break

At least that’s what they’re calling this week off school. I haven’t seen a lot of evidence of spring. The temperatures are above freezing, at least, and we can all be grateful for that.

People keep asking, but we don’t have big plans for spring break. The boys already had an extended stay in Florida with Grandma. Another trip seems excessive and also would have to involve someone else’s credit card.

I’m trying to inject fun where I can, though. I worked full days on Monday and Tuesday, so it was Wednesday before I spent any real time with the boys. My sister, may her reward in heaven be great, kept them both days and even took care of the egg coloring thing. (That’s getting easier as they age a little, but I’m still very bad at the crafty mom stuff. I don’t see that changing any time soon.) Anyway, this morning Elias asked when Auntie would be coming, and was crushed to learn that I was the entertainment for the day.

Levi had an appointment at the CF center, but I figured we could work around it. We have a membership at the Akron zoo, within spitting distance of the doctor’s office. I’d been plotting this for a couple of weeks and I was disappointed to see the forecast, but I decided we were going anyway.

It never poured on us, but drizzled the entire time. The penguins were cheerful regardless.

I even got to see some primates practicing their climbing skills.

Actually, I can recommend the zoo in a dedicated drizzle. We had the place nearly to ourselves, and it was a lot of fun. The big cats were all napping someplace warm and dry, but the otters had no such qualms, and the ducks were out in force.

We got good news at Levi’s appointment; despite the junky cough he’s had lately, his lung function is up from a couple of months ago, and he gained back the few pounds he’d lost. We weren’t really worried about the weight — he has a little extra in his belly store at the moment — but if the trend continued, nobody at the CF center would be very happy. I have discussed calling my own doctor to see if we could do a goal swap in that one particular area, but no one is taking me seriously.

On release, we had lunch at the hospital cafeteria. Don’t look at me. They had options, and that’s what they picked. Then we ran a thousand (okay, fine, a few) errands. Target, where the rack of Pokemon cards lives, did not suck me in today. I bought one thing. One. Thing. Note this day in history, please. Next we bounced around Lowe’s trying to find the plumbing section, and rounded off the fun portion of the day with frozen yogurt.

A pharmacy, a grocery, and a gas station later, I slide back into the driver’s seat, and Levi said, “Mom? Can we go to the library today?”

Have mercy, child. No. We have already been to all the places. The only place we can go now is home. Besides, the library is tomorrow’s plan for fun. If you take that away from me, I’ll have only chores left, and I know how you feel about those.

They don’t know this yet, but we’re going to the used bookstore, too. They’ve been begging to go. The fact that they plead with me to go to the used bookstore is something I hang onto to remember in dark moments — I can’t be doing everything wrong — but I’m afraid if I let them know how much it pleases me it’ll ruin the whole thing.

If you see us and I’m sighing about being dragged in to buy MORE BOOKS … well, just don’t rat me out.