Happy in spring

I'll do a quick post before bed, since it's been a while. I'm really enjoying spring this year. We're having lovely weather. Our big dump of snow in late March








turned into this a few days later,

and it has been mostly warm and mostly sunny ever since. I mean, this is Colorado, so it's also been violently windy and we have had some cold weather. And we could still have a lot more. But in general it's been very pleasant.

One of my classes asked permission to meet outdoors earlier this week -- I said yes -- and we had a very enjoyable meeting that day. Today we stayed indoors, but I got them to do a fun improvisational bit of oral presentation practice. Everyone seems to be in a good mood, despite the fact that we have so much work left to do, or rather they do. Well, I do too, I guess. All that grading. Bleah.

Baseball season started this week (both adult and our Little League), and Kid A agreed to play again. At first he was pretty lukewarm about it, but then he realized one of his best friends from school was going to be on the team too. Now he's thrilled about baseball and keeps asking me when the next game is.

At one of the games this past week I heard some of the other moms talking about a running program for kids that's held after school a few days a week, and so I went home and signed both boys up for it. (It's quite cheap -- cheaper than baseball or any other sport.) I did briefly mention it to them before doing so, and Kid A expressed enthusiasm while Kid B... didn't. He does not want to do anything athletic. But I signed him up anyway. I told them I'd done this yesterday afternoon as I was parking the car in the grocery store lot. Not sure why I chose that moment, but probably it was as good or bad as any. Kid B threw A FIT, but I spoke calmly to him, let him run around the grocery store in fury, talked to him some more as we made our way through the aisles, hugged him when he cried, and gradually he started to calm down. Today he asked me about it again and seemed less freaked out. He asked me if by any chance there would be skipping involved, since he is a good skipper. I said there certainly might be, as he skipped away from me.

We really want Kid B to have an athletic activity he enjoys, and this sounded both low-key and fun, with little coordination required. It's supposedly non-competitive -- there are some weekend races, but they're optional. We'll see. I'll try to talk to the coach about going really easy on him. And maybe there will be skipping.

Tonight was the kids' school's annual fundraising dinner, where the 5th graders act as waiters and all the parents bid on various donated items to raise money for the school. I carefully balanced the checkbook before we left, to be sure I had any money to spend on this. Fortunately I only won one thing, so we'll be able to eat this week. (Rocket Boy has missed out on TWO unemployment checks because he "forgets" to apply for them. They don't just send them, you have to go onto the website every two weeks and request them. Which he doesn't do. Sigh. We don't have Clifford's house ready to rent either. Not even close. Instead, RB has been spending his time working on a new website. I know he's depressed, I know working on computer stuff relaxes him -- it's like me doing puzzles -- but if he would just get his frigging act together... OK, I'll stop.)

Anyway, after the dinner and the bidding and all that, I went outside to the playground and watched the kids play. I talked to one kid's grandma and said hi to various people we know slightly. It was in the 60s, no wind, so very pleasant. I felt really good. I was remembering how two years ago at this dinner (our first -- the boys were in Kindergarten) I felt really good too. Only that night the good feeling was surprising and unexpected, because I hadn't been feeling good for a long time. Such a hard year, with moving and the flood and working for the dreadful IRS and all that. I realized tonight that although I did feel very good, it's not an unusual feeling for me anymore. I have good days and bad days, high days and low days, but it's not that constant miserable slog. I'm happy enough -- even with the money problems and feeling frustrated with Rocket Boy -- that it's a comfortable, familiar feeling. So that's something. Go with that. Happy spring!