Not a Wasted Word

{Posting this at work, where the internet is back up! – Also, I realized I never thanked everyone for their comments of support, and advice, on my post about my husband struggling. I REALLY appreciated all of them. They helped me feel less alone, and gave me some ideas for how to proceed. Things are still rough, but this past week was better than previous weeks. Just wanted to put some gratitude out there, before this super down post. ::face palm::}

I’m writing this in a Word document! Because the internet it out at our house. At least we have power.

Remember how it was sunny yesterday afternoon? Well, that was short lived. Today it poured all day. And then the wind picked up. We lost power at work again. It came back within an hour, but the internet didn’t. The internet probably won’t be up again tomorrow. At least this time we can make photocopies if we can’t use the computers.

The wind was really brutal today. By the time I was driving home there were trees down all over the place. I counted 11 while I was driving to and from my kids’ activities.

So much driving today. So much traffic. I guess a big rig blew over on the Bay Bridge which meant traffic from that was spilling over into downtown. I got into my car at work at 3:11 and did not pull into my garage until 6:42. I spent all but 15 minutes of that driving (and 10 of those 15 minutes I spent waiting in the car).

Most of that 3+ hours of driving in the rain, wind, and gridlock traffic, I was fuming about work. I found out today, from one of my students, that the high school we feed into is having a Spanish 2 entrance assessment NEXT WEEK. On Wednesday. They have never administered an assessment in the spring like that. Not in the 19 years I’ve been teaching at the school. This year they are, and they didn’t bother to reach out to one of the two middle schools that provides most of their students. I even reached out to them in September, expressing concerns about their ever-shifting Spanish 2 enrollment processes, and they assured me I knew everything I needed to know. I’m so furious at myself for not double checking a couple months ago. They’ve never afforded me the courtesy of an update when they change their process. They’ve never reached out to me one time, about anything. And when I reach out to them, they make it clear that I’m a nuisance they just want to make go away.  

I’m going to look like such an incompetent asshole when I tell parents about this. I JUST sent home recommendation letters explaining how students would be assessed in the fall (this is what they did to students who enrolled in Spanish 2 last year). Now their students will have less than a week to review for a test that I know nothing about. I’m so upset. I feel like no one gives a fuck about me or my program. I feel like I’m left to fend for myself. I feel like a fool for thinking I could manage all this, when no one is willing to support me.

So yeah. Today sucked.

All day, I looked forward to watching something on the elliptical when I got home, but instead I’m writing about my shitty day in a Word document. Sounds about right.

I can’t believe it’s already mid-March. Next week my kids have spring break! And after that it’s two months until their summer break starts. (My spring and summer breaks start two weeks after theirs.)

And we’re talking about summer break a lot these days. Saturday was Rec and Park’s camp sign up. We got all five camps we wanted for our son! And the one we wanted for our daughter! Last summer we got NO camps, so it was a very pleasant surprise to get all of them this year. Especially after we got an error message on the check-out page and assumed we had to start over.

We also bought our tickets to Hawaii, using the $150 a person vouchers we got last year because of the debacle getting home. Our friends are hoping to make Hawaii a yearly event and as long as we’re invited we will be going!

I still haven’t nailed down St. Louis travel yet. The tickets for that are crazy expensive ($600 a flight!?) because of where July 4th falls and the fact that I’m not interested in stretching that trip out over two weeks anymore. We’re also trying to stop in Charleston, South Carolina on the way home, to visit my cousin and her kids. But we have the kids in camp on either side of those two weeks, so I’m sure I’ll be spending more than normal for those flights.

I think one reason I’m surprised it’s mid-March is that the days are still pretty chilly around here. Usually by mid-March we are reliably in the mid-60s, but this week it’s all mid-50s again. We had some mid-60s days last week and I was reminded just how cold (relatively) it’s been all winter here, and how much the weather affects me. It’s just such a relief to not be cold all the time, to go into a part of the house that isn’t heated and not feel frigid air.

And of course it’s still raining a lot. I know we need the rain, desperately, but I wish we could space it out over the years, instead of suffering through droughts and then months of non-stop rain. I could definitely use some sun.

{It was sunny this afternoon and I took a walk with my son and it felt amazing. So, so needed a little sun on my face, especially since it rained all Sunday and is supposed to rain all Tuesday.}

But it’s also a bit of a relief that it’s still been so grey out, because my back is still jacked and it would hurt my heart to see sun and not be able to run. Today my back feels a smidge better, so maybe I’m on the mend? I’m really over whatever this is. The original pain was in my mid- to lower-back, but now it’s spread across my shoulder blades (probably because I was holding myself weirdly, and sleeping weirdly). I’m so impatient when I’m hurting and healing. And it happens more and more now that I’m solidly in my 40s.

Going to post this now because a poorly concluded post is better than a never-published post!

After a brief reprieve from the inclement weather earlier this week (I felt the sun on my face), we got pummeled by a gnarly storm on Tuesday. It rained hard all morning and then the gale force winds picked up. A giant branch broke off the tree in front of my classroom. And then the power went out.

Without power I had to completely retool my plans. The kids were of course totally out of their minds. Of all the classes I’d prefer to weather storms with (ha!) my last two are the last on my list, and yet 5th and 6th period is always when this kind of stuff happens.

I honestly assumed the power would be back on Wednesday. Or that they’d cancel school if it wasn’t. But when I drove up Wednesday at 7:30am it was clear that neither was true. There was no power, but parents had been assured that school was on!

It sucked. I don’t really understand how it’s okay to have school without lines of communication open (many of us had cell services that were completely down because of the power outage – I couldn’t even send text messages), or working fire alarms. None of the bathrooms have windows, so they are all pitch black. And because of our reversed block schedule we started Wednesday with 6th period, the same period we ended the day before with (also in the dark). It was also really cold that day, and the classrooms were frigid without heat. I did not dress warmly enough and I felt like it took me all evening to finally feel warm again.

Some teachers were really, really pissed. It’s going to be something we’re working through for a while.

The power did eventually go on Wednesday afternoon, so today was fine. I’m just really ready for tomorrow, which is Friday! I’m always so, so ready for Friday these days.

My back is feeling better, though the hour plus in the car every afternoon is brutal. Driving is definitely the most painful; sometimes I kind of want to cry. I’m starting to worry that, while my back is not as acutely painful, the current situation might linger for a long time. If that is the case, I’m going to be very grumpy.

Some positive notes:

Both my classes got their video skits filmed this week, despite the power outage (one of them was 6th period! I’m so impressed we powered through!)

I LOVED the two-classes-doing-video-skits-and-two-not set up. I’m definitely going to continue that at least for the next one. The only downside is that we do them every three weeks, so if I’m switching off who does them, I’ll only have one week in every three that I’m not doing them at all. But it might be okay since I don’t feel so frazzled when it’s only two classes doing them at a time.

The weather today was GORGEOUS. Sunny and in some instances it actually felt warm. I am so ready for warmer, sunnier weather.

Lockwood & Co 2 because available and we’re going to make an event of starting it tonight. Popcorn with candy in it!

My girlfriends and I are getting together for a movie this Saturday.

And I should post this now or I never will. Not the best reason to, but reason enough.

This weekend required a series of unforeseen tweaks. Plans changed, but we tried to make the best of everything.

The biggest unforeseen tweak was that I tweaked my back. Kind of badly. It was feeling twingy on Friday, but I wasn’t worried about it. Saturday morning it was so bad that I couldn’t ignore it. In fact, I couldn’t do a lot of things, especially movements that required I bend forward or put out my arms.

Luckily the crap weather meant we weren’t planning on doing much. I obviously didn’t go to the dojo like I planned (I’m actually pretty sure that I did this to myself at the dojo on Thursday night). I didn’t work out at all actually. I spent a fair amount of time lying on the floor or on the firm couch. I did some stretching. I took a lot of Advil.

Sunday it felt better right when I woke up but felt worse fast. After making pancakes for my son and his friend (my son’s illness turned out to be food poising because he was fine after he threw up on Thursday night), and cleaning up the kitchen, I had to lie down for a while.

The good news is I don’t think this is just “lower back pain” flaring up. I think I was tight before martial arts on Thursday and then I compensated in weird ways when we did high knee jumps during warm up, which led to a pulled muscle on my right side. I actually was able to find the spot with my little massager and I think that is why it felt better Sunday morning. I have a few little gadgets that help with back pain and I’m using them all to help release the muscle and the area in general. I think that if I give it some time to rest, and keep taking anti-inflammatories, it will be better soon.

But it sucks to lose this training time for my test. Sometimes it feels like the world is telling me to quite martial arts.

Right now I’m on the elliptical, plugging along at a very low resistance, just trying to move my hips a little. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow.

Remember that mug with the text, “Woman foolishly thinks she just needs to get through this week,” that I posted about? Well, I found myself banking hard on “next week will be better” until I realized I had way too much planned at work and I had to make some changes. So instead of doing a really fun, but super tine consuming thing in all four of my 7/8 classes, I’ll only be doing it in two of the classes. The other two classes will be doing what I planned for the next week, and then the next week we’ll switch. I may do this for the remainder of the year, because creating stories with them, and then making video skits of each story is super fun, but also incredibly time consuming and a massive energy suck. I just don’t think I have the bandwidth to do them all in the same week, and I’m proud of myself for recognizing that and taking steps to do remedy the situation.

The weather continues to be awful. My husband said that weather.com showed a full TWO WEEKS of nothing but rain cloud and storm icons. It’s starting to weigh on all of us. I especially hate it because I have to open my door on rainy day lunch with means I lose that time to work, and also add time I need to be managing discipline and making kids clean up their own messes. (Because it’s usually nice here most of the year, the majority of our eating spaces are outside, and uncovered, so when it rains teachers have to open their classrooms so kids have enough places to eat). It’s amazing how trashed they will leave my room if I’m not watching them like a hawk. On Thursday, I was trying to be on a zoom with the tech guy, who was showing me how to post the grades for my semester classes that switched during trimester 2, while also managing some dumb shit 7th grade boy behavior. It was super exhausting. The idea of two more weeks of that is demoralizing.

And of course we sprang forward this weekend. Springing forward is really hard for me. I already struggle to fall asleep at a reasonable hour when my body doesn’t think it’s an hour earlier than it is. I’m definitely breaking out the melatonin tonight.

Yesterday sucked. It sucked at work and it sucked at home. I went to the dojo and it felt like I shouldn’t be there. My husband is struggling with some very real mood stuff. We’re trying strategies to help him manage it, but I don’t think I can handle providing those supports at home, my regular shit at home, and work, and training for my test. And if I don’t train for my test, and everyone in my cohort moves up and I don’t, I think I’ll be done at the dojo.

It just sucks. It sucks to see my husband suffer. It sucks to have to do more, and have it not be enough. It’s sucks for my son to get sick on a Thursday night (yes this also happened). It sucks that I can’t easily take a day off, which means my husband has to which means I’ll owe him time over the weekend so he can get caught up at work.

It just sucks. And yes, some of this is weird and a one off, but there is always weird, one-off shit complicating things. That is life.

I slept horribly last night. I maybe got four hours of sleep. I’m sure my son will have me up multiple times tonight. I should probably go to sleep.

I guess I’ll go do that.

Boo. Sorry for this super downer post. Things have been rough, maybe rougher than I realized, and it sucks to feel like maybe I can’t have some things that are important to me. That maybe the timing just doesn’t work for something in the short term, which can affect things in the long term. It’s just a bummer.

If you have any advice for dealing with a spouse who is trying hard to pull himself out a dark place, who is already doing everything he supposed to be doing – exercising, eating well, not drinking, trying to get enough sleep – I would appreciate it. I’ve been in dark places myself, but I don’t know what else he can do to turn this bull shit around. Mental health stuff is so hard.

This week my daughter gets out early for conferences, so she has been taking the bus to swimming. Not having to drive her has been a gift – a gift of three extra hours, during a week when I really needed them.

I haven’t had to rush out of work once this week. I’ve gotten quite a bit done – including my Spanish 2 recommendation letters, which are a monumental task.

Today I even got to run. And despite the closure of the trail I planned to visit, I still found a spot that wasn’t too muddy, and allowed me to enjoy the sun! A few times I even felt warm! Outside! It’s been so long since I’ve felt warm outside.

And I’m glad I made it out because the weather is going to be dreadful for quite a while.

Only two more days until the weekend.

I’m in an irritable head space right now. I find myself being judgy, towards others and towards myself. I find myself muttering “it must be nice” a lot. So many people have it easier than I do! Except I know that’s not the case. (98% of the world has it much harder – so, so much harder!) than I do, at least). I know that when I start to feel this way, it means some part of me is not happy with some part of my life. Now I just have to figure out what that part is.

I’ve been feeling down about this space too. Or, better said, unsure about it. It’s hard to articulate to myself why I keep writing here. What does this place have to offer? To myself or others? I’m really not very sure. And I suppose I never am, it’s just sometimes I care than I’m not, and sometimes I don’t.

And… I wrote those two paragraphs over a week ago, but never added anything or posted. It’s still true, but maybe less so. I think part of my issue is that the few blogs I still read are not really “working through life” blogs, but are instead “here is what I have to offer” blogs. And they have a lot to offer! And I do not. And I do find myself wishing I could afford more of what other people have. Even just a house cleaner would be amazing, but that feels out of reach. Even my friends, all of whom are struggling in some way or another to get by, have house cleaners. Some of them also carry credit card debt, so we clearly have different ways of managing money. And that is okay! I’m sure if I started having one, I would do all kinds of financial gymnastics to keep one. Maybe that is why I’ve never had one come regularly, because I know I’d quickly feel like it was a necessity.

But I do read some blogs and I never read about how they manage chores. Work. Kids. Exercise. Passions. Child care. Sure! All of that is there. But laundry? Grocery shopping? Driving kids around? Vacuuming? Dusting? Cleaning toilets? Changing bed sheets? None of that is mentioned. But maybe it’s just too boring so they don’t write about it. It feels like those tasks take up my entire life (especially the driving kids around). How does one not mention that stuff?

But maybe I feel overwhelmed by that stuff because of who I am (someone who struggles mightily with executive functioning), and for other people it just gets done.

I think I just need to read some different blogs, ones that don’t make me feel like my life is lacking. Except where does one find new blogs these days? Pretty much impossible.

Things are really busy right now, and I’ve become the family chauffeur. It’s gotten so complicated that my husband and I create a weekly spreadsheet with everyone’s activities and who is taking and picking up. My daughter is swimming three times a week downtown, near where my husband works. I drive her there and he takes her home on BART. It’s only like 2.5 miles away, but because of traffic it takes as long to get there as it does to drive to work every day (30 minutes one way). Many days I get in my car at 3:15 and I don’t pull into the garage until after 6:30pm. It SUCKS.

I’ve tried to see if anyone wants to carpool, but so far I haven’t found anyone. I even lost my carpool to the dojo (for my son), because the kid quit martial arts. So now it’s back to me taking him all the time.

There is one day a week we can’t make the activity Tetris work without my in-laws taking my son one way. It’s that crazy. ‘

And sometimes, even if we spend 30 minutes planning everything on Friday, it doesn’t work out anyway. This week is parent-teacher conferences at my kids’ schools, so they get out early. It shouldn’t matter, because we pay (exorbitant amounts of money) for aftercare, but there are some “field trips” taking place that our son suddenly can’t bare to miss, which means we have to move everything else around. So now, after I write this, I have to sit down with my husband for another 15 minutes to retool the next three afternoons. Boo.

Sorry to be such a downer. I know this is part of life. But it sucks. I hate spending hours and hours in the car. It’s just not how I want to live my life.

But I do want my kids to participate in just ONE ACTIVITY EACH! Especially activities that are beneficial to them physically and mentally.

But there have been some highlights lately too. This weekend our son was invited to a friends’ house last minute and our daughter was at her grandparents’ house so my husband and I went out to lunch together. We walked 3 miles into the Mission and then walked 3 miles home, with our nine year old! And the sun was out! We’ve had some much rain and cold weather (for us), that an afternoon outside was GREATELY appreciated.

My son and I watched Godzilla vs. Kong, which was super fun (he loves that stuff, and it’s a treat to watch movies like that through the eyes of a here-for-it kid). We finished Lockwood & Co Book 1, and we all loved it. Sitting quietly in the living room in the evenings, listening to a book together, is amazing, and I can’t wait for the next book to be available on the library lending apps (the kids are super stoked to keep going too!). After we read the second book we’re going to watch the show on Netflix (it includes both books in the eight episodes).

Speaking of books, RF Kuang’s Babel finally came available after a two month wait at the library. My son and I went to get it on Sunday. I read it for over an hour that night and am so excited to have something I really want to read on my nightstand. I’m also 3/4 of the way through Robert Bolaño’s 2666, which is long and, uh, a little hard to tackle. I’m reading it in Spanish. This is my third attempt. The books is all over the place, but this time I stuck with it and I think I’m finally going to finish it. It’s been on my list for over a decade and I’ve very excited to have finally conquered the 1200 page (45 hour) tome (I have both the hard cover and audio book copies, but I’ve been mostly listening to it on audio book at 1.1x speed). It’s a lot.

(Let’s not talk about the fact that RF Kuang is a bad ass, 26 years old, multilingual woman and has written a trilogy and this book. Nope, not going there.)

Hey, but I worked out today (while I was writing this). And I do think the driving this week is going to work. And I may even get to enjoy happy hour with a fledgling friend this Friday! I have to take the little wins when I can.

Well, my mid-winter break is over. I pretty pleased by how it went. Some highlights:

• We had a fun, family trip that wasn’t even ruined by one of us having Covid!
• Nobody else seems to have gotten Covid!
• I saw my friend quite a few times and she even got to see my kids once (we met her in Chinatown yesterday for a quick visit).
• I bolted my son’s bookshelf to the wall, which absolutely should have been done when he was toddler (because he could have pulled it over onto himself) or anytime after that (earthquake preparedness), but that I was only motivated to finally do because of KITTENS! They like to climb up to the highest shelves and they would absolutely knock it over eventually, so I finally got that done. Feels good too – it always filled me with a little dread when I looked at it.
• I relearned my last form in martial arts, which means I can start learning the new form I need to test.
• I prepped work for my possible absence (though it looks like I won’t need to be out!? Fingers crossed!)
• My kids both got to see friends this weekend (because my daughter started testing negative Thursday night! Might have even been early – I didn’t think to test her before that. It took us so long to stop testing negative in May, but this time she tested negative less than a week after symptoms started.).
• We got some free Covid tests (4 each from Kaiser, plus 4 from the feds) which means I can take back one of the five-packs I bought at Costco.
• I washed a repacked all the snow clothes.
• I graded two sets of quizzes and one test.
• I finished all of the forms I need for Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

Things I didn’t get done:

• I didn’t organize my daughter’s desk with her (though that might happen this afternoon – UPDATE, it did!)
• I didn’t categorize February spending (though I copied my credit card purchases to the spreadsheet).
• I didn’t do any bigger organizing projects around the house, like the contain drawers, or the hall closet.
• I didn’t get the bags put away, or the snow clothes and boot boxes back into the shed (hoping to do that this afternoon – UPDATE, I did NOT because it didn’t stop raining until it was dark).
• I didn’t do any work in my grade books (our second trimester ends this Friday, 3/3).

All in all, it was a pretty good break. A couple people mentioned how well I was taking my daughter getting Covid (“She finally found her zen!”) which I was a little annoyed by because of course it’s not that stressful to have a kid home from school all week, or to wonder if I’m going to get Covid and have to stay home myself, when I’m not coordinating who will stay home with my kid, or wondering if I need to leave work every day prepared for a sub. I’m usually stressed by shit like that because being out when you’re a teacher is a giant PITA! I really do not think people who can work from home regardless understand how hard it is to be out when you teach K-12. It turns out I’m not just a stress case, my job makes me one (or a much bigger one).

I still can’t believe none of us got Covid from the 12-year-old, because we were all together SO MUCH, not just at the cabin, but in the car with all the driving to the cabin, and then to and from the Sno Parks every day. It I didn’t believe that who gets Covid and who doesn’t is a total crap shoot, I do now!

I also wonder when we’re going to move into the next phase of Covid-positive protocols. We obviously can’t ask people to stay home when they test positive forever. At some point that guidance will have to change. At this point, it feels like a bit of a fool’s errand. How many people have symptoms and never test? How many people have symptoms, and test a ton, and never get a positive? I think next (school) year we should be asking people to mask if they have symptoms (lingering cough or runny nose) and let them carry on with their lives. That has been my strategy (I also test, but I don’t think asking people to test is fair, unless they have access to free tests). Of course a lot of people don’t wear masks correctly, so maybe even asking for that is ineffective. I know you can wear a mask well, so that it effectively protects yourself and others, but I know very few people actually wear the right kind in the right way, for the right amount of time. I can’t tell you how many times our own principal has pulled her mask away from her face to talk to us. She was doing that back during the mask mandates! I wanted to scream at her! Yes, it sucks to talk to a big group with a mask on – WELCOME TO OUR WORLDS! But if we have to do it right, so do you!

If only we had invested in effective air purification! But we didn’t! At all! Oh well!

(((ALL THE FACE PALMS)))

Okay, rant over.

Back to the grind. Let’s do this.

*I had my last post titled “When all goes according to plan” (because it really felt like that trip was doing just that) but I changed it at the last minute. If I hadn’t today’s title would have been so much catchier. 😉

We made it home Tuesday with no issues. Actually, the entirety of our trip did go according to plan. I was quite pleased. I realized once we got up there that I hadn’t adequately packed for cold weather, but luckily it wasn’t that cold so what I brought up worked just fine. This week the lows are supposed to be around 20, and we would have suffered if it had been that cold while we were there.

But we didn’t and it was all fine. Everything went according to plan. Except weirdly, that is didn’t…

Because then we got bone and tested our daughter, who’d been coughing all weekend, and sure enough, she had COVID.

Honestly, I hadn’t been worried about it at all. Her cough sounded like my cough. She otherwise felt fine. I never once worried she might have COVID. But she did. She had. The whole time. And we didn’t even know.

I’m honestly glad we didn’t know. And I can say that because we were so isolated all weekend – we didn’t even eat at In-n-Out either time. Besides a two minute dip into a gas station store we were never inside anywhere. Or at least she wasn’t. So we don’t have to feel bad about exposing anyone. And we got our fun family trip, without wondering the whole time if we were all going to catch it.

Of course now we’re wondering. My son and I tested negative this morning. Neither of us have any symptoms. My son went to school (with a mask on) and I ran errands and briefly saw my friend (whose has family members that are also testing positive right now). My husband started feeling bad today. We haven’t tested him yet because he hasn’t needed to go anywhere and tests are expensive. We’ll probably test him in the morning if he feels worse.

Honestly, the timing of this is pretty decent. I don’t have work so I am not stressed wondering every day if I’ll start to feel bad, or test positive. I don’t have to go to work each day wondering if I’ll be there the next day. That is so stressful. Hopefully by next Monday I’ll either have it or I won’t and I’ll feel sure about that. And yes it would suck to miss a week of work, and burn through all those sick days, but next week wouldn’t be an awful week to be out. I could make it work.

So we’ll wait and see. We spent so much time together in such close quarters that we aren’t isolating our daughter now. I guess we’ll see what happens. I spent one of the nights at the cabin sleeping between my children, during which time my daughter coughed all over me. If I’m going to get it, it should be relatively soon.

I have to admit, even with all the notices and close contact emails, I’m surprised we’re back here again. I know I shouldn’t be but I am. I’m just glad we don’t have to worry about giving it to anyone else.

SATURDAY

Saturday went pretty darn well. We made it out of the house by 10:15 (my dream departure time was 9:30am). We didn’t hit too much traffic leaving the Bay Area. We got In-n-Out near Srockton and then were at our cabin 80 minutes after eating. We unpacked, put on our snow clothes and headed up to the Sno Park.

The cabin we are staying at is actually a little below the snow line, but there is some snow on the porch and around the house. The kids are very happy about that.

We got to play in the snow (at the Sno Park) for about 90 minutes, which was all our kids could handle. We also learned how many layers we need.

We got home and made dinner. We packed breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days and I am pleased by how well we did. It was a TIGHT fit in the trunk so we didn’t feel like we had space for anything extra and that forced us to be pretty discerning.

We watched The Rise of Gru as a family on Netflix (the only service on the cabin’s TV). The kids and I had seen it, but my husband hadn’t. He loves dumb humor so he was laughing the whole time.

The kids passed out easily, and my husband followed their lead not long after. I stayed up too late and finished a Spanish series I had been watching.

SUNDAY

Sunday went even better than Saturday. We left the cabin around 11am and made it to the farther away Sno Parks by noon. We found a great bill to sled and just ran it for 90 minutes. It had a couple little jumps, which felt great in our weird inflatable sled (which somehow is still going strong 5+ years later).

We ate lunch in the car and then drove across the freeway to the other Sno Park. We found another great place to sled, but this one required a lot more trudging through deep snow. We were all pretty tired but the sun was out and we ended up staying there for another two hours.

We left the Sno Parks around 4pm. My husband had put a hold on the first audiobook of the Lockwood series (now a series on Netflix) and the kids (and adults!) were super into it on the hour up to the parks, so everyone was eager for the drive home. Having that to listen to for the remaining drives of the trip will definitely add to the joy of the experience.

At home we made dinner again. The kids played games on their devices while we took turns (and spaced out) showers and baths. I got to enjoy a drink in the big bathtub, which was fun.

TODAY

Sleeping was a little bit challenging last night – my daughter has a cough and my husband snores – but a futon bed downstairs (and melatonin) saved the day for my son and me.

Today we’re planning on heading to the closer Sno Park and then trying out a sledding hill we’ve seen people parked at off the highway. We’re not in a hurry to leave this morning. We’ll pack our lunches and then make dinner when we come back. Hopefully we’ll watch something as a family.

(The AieBnB wasn’t super cheap, but everything else about this trip has been very economical. Besides the two meals at In-n-Out we’ve made all our own food and brought all our own snacks. We only spent $10 at the gas station store on stuff the first night).

TOMORROW (AND THIS WEEK)

Tomorrow we’ll pack up and head home. We’ll probably get In-n-Out on the way back. We’ll definitely keep listening to the first book in the Lockwood series (The Screaming Staircase).

Hopefully I’ll post again later in the week. I have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. A friend is in town so I hope to hang out with her at some point. There will be lots of laundry to do and some papers to grade. The kids’ rooms could use some work. It probably won’t feel like a break, but it will provide the ample margins needed to maintain my sanity after last week. And this has been a real break! It’s been really fun.