Spring Break Day One

Quiet times here at the Brown household, and that's just how I like it.

Not much happened today. We slept in, ate breakfast, did some laundry and dishes, watched The Emperor's New Groove (more Parker than us), took the older two to music lessons, and came home to a tasty dinner of pork stir fry. As I write, Maryn and Avery are playing Wii downstairs and Parker is laughing at her Leap Pad game. Like I said, quiet. Moments like this are both rare and short-lived. In a bit, it's going to be bath and bed time. There will be yowls and whines about who's going first and arguments about the actual necessity of bathing. One daughter will bait the other about it being her turn to go first. The younger one will run like a wide receiver and hide like a deposed dictator in order to avoid being put in the bath. Yes, the quiet, everybody-gets-along times are treasure because, like treasure, they don't just drop into your lap.

I can't imagine what life is like for people with six, seven, eight or more kids. I grew up with four of us kids in the house. Suzy has five siblings, and I have a tough time wrapping my head around what that was like - for her and for her parents. It seems like there's so much noise, chaos, dashing about, and tension with just three kids, the idea of having more than that just boggles my mind. The cost, the time, the anxiety, the running around - madness. If you can do it, more power to you. I'm barely hanging in there with three.

There's been some non-committal talk about possibly painting over spring break. We'll see if that comes to pass. I'm sure you all know my feelings about painting and understand that I'd pretty much rather give myself an appendectomy with a fork than paint. My students did turn in an essay just before break began so I could spend my days grading them if I wanted to. Suzy and I may take a day trip to Bloomington or Peoria on Thursday just to get out of town. The girls have their regular stuff - school, music, girl scouts, church activities, etc. so it's not like we just have oodles of time to do nothing. We'll stay pretty busy, I'm sure, despite my best efforts to do otherwise.

I watched Stranger Than Fiction over the weekend and was struck by how underrated and under appreciated film it is. It's lovely in every way, and I like it very much.

Other things I like very much?

Office supplies. Seriously, that's one of my favorite aisles at the store. All the notebooks and pens and envelopes and big bags of rubber bands. I don't know why, but I really like them.

Things that are fresh - vegetables, chocolate chip cookies, bread. It just makes a world of difference when they're just out of the field, oven, etc.

Sleeping. I'm a night owl and I teach in the mornings so it isn't very often that I get a really good sleep. On those days that I actually get to sleep in, it's a heavenly kind of feeling.

 Books about sheds. It's my dream to one day own a little shed in the backyard where I can go to read and write. I've written here before about my clubhouse obsession. Having my own shed is nowhere on the horizon, so I indulge myself with books about sheds instead.

The Harlem Shake.

Just kidding.