Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Un-Spring Break


I would like to acknowledge that I have a murmuring problem. Not all the time, and not about everything, but there is one area of my life where I find myself endlessly complaining. So this year, I made a concious effort to overcome this fault. Oh the times I longed to grumble! But I just bit my tongue until it bled. I think I did pretty well...until Spring break...because my old nemesis decided to taunt me mercilessly. That's right...you know what I'm talking about...SNOW! It's one thing to be cheerful and accepting about winter while it's winter...but in April?

My kids had a short Spring Break...they got out the Thursday before Easter and went back the following Tuesday.

On Thursday it snowed.

They really needed to go outside and run off some energy. Seriously. For their own health. Or I was going to hurt them. But instead, I took them to an afternoon matinee of "How to Train Your Dragon." Cute. Fun. But zero energy burned.

Friday it snowed again.

Four children trapped indoors...day two.

Good times.

So attempt number two to get the devil out was to drive over to the local aquarium to see the brand new penguin exhibit. We found ourselves in line with every other child on Spring Break in the valley. Then we waited in lines to see everything from penguins to jellyfish. Fun? Yes. Crowded? Absolutely. A chance to de-ants the pants? Alas, no.

Friday night, my sister-in-law and her family came to spend the night, increasing the grand total of kids stuck indoors to 7.

Saturday...no snow.

Just really, really cold.

I love General Conference weekend, and it really was wonderful. However, Conference means we don't go anywhere all day, and my stir-crazy kids begin to implode. Callee wisely departed with her family early to return home south where the sun is more than just a mythical anomaly.

Sunday. Easter Sunday. Snow. Not just a light dust, but 6 heavy, icy, drifting inches. The kids woke up thrilled to find their Easter baskets, looked out the window and wondered if maybe they should be looking for Santa-filled stockings instead. I didn't even take a picture because I was too depressed. And I was trying to hold firm to my no murmuring resolution. Ha!

We still had a pleasant day with an egg hunt, Conference, and a nice holiday dinner. Of course, now we had 4 stir-crazy children with about 14 pounds of sugary candy inside of them.

Monday. You guessed it. It snowed.

I decided to run errands. I had become so snow-addled that this was an exercise in futility. I drove all the way to Costco where I waited in line to get gas. Finally, after 15 minutes it was my turn. I stepped out with my purse and noticed I had left my wallet at home. After driving back home, I now no longer had enough time to go back to Costco because I had to get kids to piano lessons. So instead, I decided to do the grocery store. Where I promptly forgot the 3 most important things on my list. I scurried home where I got my kids to lessons...late. I then needed to go pick up something I had ordered online that morning. It was that online ordering that had caused the wallet-less Costco episode. I drove over to pick it up, and discovered that somehow I had not ordered from the store closest to me, but from one all the way across the valley. So you know what I did? I started laughing...long...and hard. Maybe there's hope for this murmuring trouble after all.

Tuesday it snowed. The kids went back to school.

Finally, it warmed up this weekend. My trees are budding. The annuals are poking their heads out of the soil. We cleaned up the yard and cleaned out the garage. We pulled out our bikes and our sandals.

Today?

Snow.

And if you can't say anything nice, then you better not say anything at all

1 comment:

Charlotte said...

Sounds like quite the torture, uh, adventure. I hope you recover from the "break" quickly!