Week 27 Spring Break

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Everyone in green! I have set out an impossibly green outfit for Mac that includes a green striped oxford shirt, a green striped polo shirt (“My Blues Clues shirt” he calls it), green corduroys (why he has these I am not quite certain) and green socks. Sailor doesn’t get to wear as many green things, but he does have Mac’s Old Navy St. Patrick’s Day t-shirt from two years ago and green socks, and we improvise with army green pants. He tops the outfit with a tall Dr. Seuss-like St. Patrick’s Day hat.

First day of spring break and Sailor comes to ask me if he and Mac can play StarWars. “No,” I say clearly, tho still asleep. He stomps out of my room. I get up soon after and am still peeing when he pops his cute little head into the bathroom to ask again if he and Mac can play StarWars. “No,” I repeat. He starts whining. “We talked about this yesterday and we agreed that StarWars is going on vacation. That’s the end of this discussion.” He storms out of the bathroom saying things about me that I hope he does not mean.

I am busy in the kitchen whipping up green milk and green cream cheese and green scrambled eggs – evidence that the leprechaun was indeed here messing around and playing tricks on us while we slept. “Mommy, I gave Sailor three choices for what to play and one of the choices was StarWars.” I look at Mac. At least he is honest. “Both of you, go to your rooms.” I am calm, I am rational, I am pissed off.

When the boys are back in the kitchen Mac starts in about how the leprechaun didn’t leave any green milk or green pee pee (in other words, the toilet water wasn’t green). I invite them to blow bubbles in their milk using their straws and lo and behold the milk turns green. Sailor doesn’t want the bluish-greyish green cream cheese on his bagel. The two get going on how there is no leprechaun. How Mommy must have done all of this. I can’t win.
I walk out of the room and call a friend. This has been a bad start to spring break. There is definitely room for improvement. We leave late and shop at a fruit market, each boy getting to choose some green vegetables and fruits to eat this week. Mac is all over the place and I realize how much easier my days are when he is in school. He has a lot of energy. This is not to say that I prefer to have him in school. It is just a statement of fact. Three grocery stores later we have a car full of fixings for our annual St. Patrick’s Day Irish Stew. Including $7 worth of hormone free, cage free, antibiotic free beef that you could not pay me to eat. But you can’t make a stew without meat. So the guests will eat the meat and I will eat the veggies.

Next stop: $1 bowling. Great idea. In fact, so great the entire population of some other part of our city has the same idea. The bowling alley is packed and we are on the waitlist for a lane. Friends meet us at the alley and after 30 minutes waiting we decide to reconvene at my house. I set out a healthy share-all version of lunch and put away groceries. The boys play with my friend’s 8-year-old niece while she and I and her college daughter work on a newsletter in the kitchen. When they leave I start cooking and cleaning for dinner. Guests are set to arrive at 5:00. It’s 3:00. Sailor goes down for his nap with such a fuss I nearly have to cancel our plans. Dinner is simmering in a pot. Soda bread is baking in the oven. Wine has been poured. Sailor is napping. Mac and my dad are in the kitchen working on math. And I retreat to the bathroom to fix my make-up and brush my hair. At this point I take time out of my busy schedule to teach myself an important lesson: Do not squeeze a zit on your forehead moments before guests are set to arrive, as doing so will result in a big red monster bite in your forehead for the remainder of the evening.

My friend’s little boys, who are roughly the same age as mine (a few months older), are afraid of the little loaner dog my sister has brought over, very loud, and they won’t even try a bite of anything I have served them. But they are polite and very cute so all is forgiven and the evening is boisterous and lovely.

So far our plans are going so-so for this week. Let’s see how the remainder of the week plays out. Oh, and did I mention that it started to snow while I was cooking dinner?

It’s Friday, March 21, 2008. The first day of spring. Or was that officially yesterday? Either way, Sailor has a terrible cold and it is snowing so hard I had to re-shovel before I had finished shoveling. Welcome to spring break, Chicago style! Oh, and Easter is in two days.

Most of our plans this week have been thwarted by one thing or another. First the bowling alley was too crowded, and yesterday I was planning to take the kids to one of those indoor inflatable jumpy places. But Sailor woke up with the cold and wanted to stay home. We discussed it and after a lot of leg wiggling from a disgruntled Mac and a lot of crying from Sailor I left the boys to decide on their own how to handle this unfair situation. I was much too tired to do it myself after having dragged my Spring Break self out of bed early to get them ready to be at said indoor inflatable jumpy place by 9:15 am. We spend the morning watching old Flintstones – whom Sailor has alternately referred to as the Thumpstumps, the Footstones, the Footstumps, the Flipstumps, and finally settling on the Thumps -- cartoons on DVD. The kids think they are hilarious and I love listening to them giggling. Sailor napps in the afternoon and Mac and I watch Les Miserables on DVD. The “talking one” as opposed to the “singing one.” A friend whom I have recently re-connected with and her twins came for dinner early just after Sailor wakes from his nap. So that has been our week. Just a lot of regular days and plans going south.

6:25pm Mac is making popcorn and Sailor is jumping up and down in the living room trying to reach the Thumps movie. We are heading to bed. I have had to shovel once again and as I am finishing up a storm of little white hail/snow balls dumps on our heads. “I just finished!” I shout at the sky. The kids climb up onto my car and together we launch snowballs across the street. Mine go far and I know I will have a sore right arm tomorrow. For now, hot chocolate is gone – a sure sign it should be spring and not mid-winter -- and dinner is over and Mac has filled my DVD player with the Thumpstones DVD and the popcorn is going crazy, abandoned in the kitchen, and while it doesn’t feel like it’s been a long day, I am very tired and so we retreat to bed.