4 Miles

We’re still a grumpy, tired bunch…trying to get caught up on sleep. At this point it’s not from DST, but too many late nights. Monday night the boys were awake the whole drive home (10-11 pm)–Will had never gone to bed because he’d napped that afternoon. Then I needed some time to unwinde and it took me a while to fall asleep. Last night we worked Date Night, so the boys were up until 9:30. Will had taken another nap, so that helped him. Alex took a normal length nap and was a mess this morning. Today he took a longer nap (2 1/2 hours), but Will did not, and HE was a mess this evening. So Will was in bed by 6:30.

We did have a great afternoon exploring and going for a walk to the playground. We warmed up to 50!!! Coming home I didn’t even need my jacket! But, I had to think of a friend from college at the playground…we saw a girl in a tank top and I couldn’t help but think “I think she’s rushing the season a bit”–a quote from a girl on my wing named Donna Reed. The boys are excited it’s supposed to be even warmer tomorrow! Will saw a boy bring cars that he raced down the slide, so I think we’ll be trying that tomorrow.

One thing I’m finding intersting, or something to adjust to is teaching while having a family. When I taught before, it was all pre-kids. When I had the kids I stopped, and it was all them (Yes, I’ve worked for the office, but that was just filler stuff during nap time or in the evenings). It’s odd to be teaching one day, then building trains the next. I’ve discovered I don’t prep well at home. When I worked full time, I had my classroom and time each day set aside for preparing. Now I’m trying to do it in the evenings or nap time and it’s harder for me to work. I’m discovering I do well to spend an evening or Sat. afternoon at a coffee shop or Panera’s.

Monday I picked up Will from preschool early (on our way up to Grandma’s house & teaching). We were walking towards the door when one of the teachers who had Will last year stopped me to tell me something funny. She said they had a visit from a dentist that day and she was asking the kids for healthy snacks. Kids were naming apples, bananas, and Will raised his hand and said “My brother likes to eat belly-button lint.” We laughed but I was puzzled. How in the heck had Will heard of belly button lint? It’s not a topic that comes up at the house, really! As we were walking again, Will said, “I was saying my brother likes to eat belly-button oranges”. Ah–lightbulb! We call navel oranges “belly-button oranges”. (anything to make food fun, right?) I went back to tell the teacher what he meant…they laughed even harder. Not quite sure how they heard oranges as lint! By that time the director had joined us and she said “You’ll need to put that in the baby book!” I thought “Nope, but I’ll blog it!”

For the second year, Indiana joined the rest of the country in spinging forward. I thought we were doing a good job, we moved all the clocks up and then went to bed about the same time we normally would (but according to the new time, so we were really going to bed early). But, I didn’t sleep well, I just had lots of weird dreams. And then I was woken up out of a deep sleep by Alex around 4 am. He wanted a drink. I guess Will had woken him up fussing because he tried to restart his night-time music and he couldn’t hear it (the volume had gotten turned down somehow). So I stumbled around, getting both drinks of water, fixed the sound, and could hear them chatting back and forth as I went back to bed. I have no idea how long they stayed up, I just know I felt like I’d JUST fallen back asleep when the alarm went off. It was my turn to work in the Toddler room at 9 am, so we HAD to get up and get to church on time…well, actually early! The boys woke up as usual, seemingly unaffected by the night. Needless to say, I enjoyed my long nap this afternoon. Alex took a long one as well. Will just went to bed really early.

In other events, another big storm went right by us, giving us only an inch or snow. Ohio got hit pretty hard by it. We were hoping it’d swing by us–we had no plans for the weekend, it was a great time to get snowed in! Instead we’re left with the spotty snow piles that only remain in the shade and more gray days.

We’re looking forward to longer days, warmer days and celebrating James’ birthday next week (a bit early).

Learned Tonight:
(He’s says “Here go” and then “bonk” while he’s showing his moves)

We saw our first two robins today…hopping around in the melting snow/sleet mix. I wonder if they're confused.

Despite the quarter inch of ice covered by about an inch of sleet and snow (just enough to cover the grass), schools went on as scheduled today and Will had preschool. By mid morning the sun had been out and melted most everything off the roads.  Will enjoyed preschool. Alex and I kept up our Wednesday morning tradation of enjoying a free breakfast entree at Chick-fil-a and he loved playing in the play area.  I graded about half of the test corrections while watching him.  What a win-win morning!

This weekend was a touch of grace in (what feels to be) a long winter. I'm sure it's no longer than any other year, it just seems we've had storm after storm (and lately most are Mondays/Tuesdays when I'm driving an hour away to teach!). So to have sunshine and temperatures in the 50s on Friday–oh what a treat! We pulled out the big wheel and car and went for a walk.

It was cold enough that winter coats were still needed (but no hoods or mittens!) and there was still snow in some places, but it was wonderful to enjoy the fresh air. And nice to celebrate our "Leap Day". Saturday, it was nice to welcome in March! And then Sunday….Sunday gave me hope that spring is close! Sunday it was in the 60s and we only needed jackets! And then it even got too warm for jackets!!! We went for another walk, this time with James, to the playground.  I was excited to see green tips starting to come up (yes, they're only an inch high, but the flowers are starting to come up!).

Monday I taught Class #5 (out of 12) for the General Biology class I'm teaching. It went better than the last class I taught (two weeks, and I'm looking forward to next week–because we're doing topics I enjoy and taught a lot. DNA Transcription & Translation! The Cell Cycle! Meiosis! Ok, I'll stop now! :-D 

Today, well…we're back to winter. After raining for about 12 hours, it got cold enough to turn to ice. This afternoon we've had freezing rain mixed with sleet. I can't believe I'm happy that it's finally cold enough to turn to snow (the ice plus the high winds have been making me nervous). My MOPS group got canceled so it's nice to cozy up at home with a cup of tea and relax and watch an exciting basket ball game (Purdue v. Ohio State).  But, I have test corrections to grade, so I need to get back to that.