I realize that as I am typing this that not everyone's Spring Break requires a survival plan.
Some of you are going on vacation, and that requires an entirely different type of survival plan.
At our house, Spring Break usually ushers in a week of single parenting on my part and Mission-trip leading on Brandon's part. The day will come when I will have the opportunity to join my husband on these mission trips, but today, with the four small children and the relatively recent "Chinese import" is not that day. For me, Spring Break 2011 involves four little ones, a boy with a broken arm, and a few 12-hour shifts thrown in for good measure.
Some survival measures I plan to implement:
1. Manicure for Mommy before Daddy leaves town. I snuck out this morning, gift card in tow, hands looking like this:
Have grace on my ragged looking dried out hands. When I am working at my beloved ER where I have been for the better part of the last five years, these hands are subjected to a vigorous scrubbing many many many times a day. Did I say many times a day? I meant many times an hour. Like, every time I touch a patient I leave the room and wash my hands. At the hospital, I see patients all day every day, and the hands take a beating. For the next several weeks, my beloved hospital ER will have to make do without me because I will be working at a lovely stand-alone ER while one of their nurses is on maternity leave. I will see patients and give medication and start IVs, and of course, wash my hands, but on a much smaller scale than I do at the hospital ER.
So my hands decided to throw themselves a little anticipatory celebration, and found themselves at the mercy of a tiny Vietnamese woman for an hour or so this morning, and came out looking like this:
Then my hands started to think about Spring Break, and they went "EEK!!"
So sorry. A little sign language humor for my hearing impaired readers.
2. A trip to the library, hopefully tomorrow.
Did I mention the boy with the broken arm? Yeah, a trip to the library is definitely in order before this week gets rolling. I love seeing what kinds of books Dane is drawn to. Once at Half Price Books he picked out western-themed historical books about cowboys and Indians and Davy Crockett. Other days it's stories about the Titanic and different types of whales.
3. A little "single-mom menu planning". What I mean by this of course, is that I (and by "I", I mean "Brandon") am going to make a big batch of my favorite soup, and grill up some chicken to use on salads for the week. I'm much less tempted to eat out if I have yummy stuff at home to eat other than sandwiches.
4. Lots of help from the grandparents. At press time, the details were still being ironed out, but the next several days will find my boys taking a little road trip with their Pappy, likely ending up back home on Wednesday. My mom is coming down on Sunday for a few days to help out with the girls so I can work. When my mom comes down, she likes to keep busy, so we find lots of little projects to do that never seem to get done when she's not here: the refrigerator miraculously gets cleaned, childrens' closets are organized, touch-up paint is applied to banged up walls. It's a glorious thing.
5. Instituting cocktail hour. My place, 8:30pm. I am kidding, of course. Maybe. We'll see how things are going by Tuesday.
How are you spending Spring Break this year?
3 comments:
My mom used to take us to the Baldwin Boettcher library next to Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens when we were home for the summer, and we got to pick a book and then take a walk through the Botanic Gardens. We went at least once a week, if not more often. They have a butterfly house, but I'm not sure if you have to go at a special time. It was one of our favorite outings. : )
Also, your nails look great! Where did you have them done?
Love it! Glad you got to spend some time on yourself and that your mom is coming. My kitchen seems to stay cleaner when my mom is at my house!
Not much of a break for me....I had a week off from my online classes at Liberty, but Dillan doesn't get out until the week of Easter. But it was nice not to have homework last week!
Sometimes working full time and trying to finish my degree along with being wife & mama is almost more than I can handle. But God gives me the strength to get through!
Yes, before you know it, you will be joining your husband on those mission trips. Kids grow up so fast! And I think it's great that you are willing to stay behind and take care of them :)
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