Anyway, we've had three days of Spring Break so far, and I think we've used them well. Saturday, Rocket Boy had do something with the Democrats, so I had the kids to myself. They had computer time from 7 to 9 am. After breakfast, we spent one hour cleaning their room -- which is to say, *I* spent one hour cleaning their room. But it's OK. I spent the time cleaning off the top of their desk (formerly my desk) and when I was done it looked like this. I rebuilt my Playmobil dollhouse so it would take up less space, giving Kid A a fairly sizable space to play with Legos (Kid B has two shelves for Legos, plus their old blue table in the living room.We also went to two libraries and the grocery store and a park. And I spent two hours working on my classes, did two loads of laundry, and a load of dishes. I was quite tired at the end of the day.
Sunday, we decided to have an adventure. After kicking around some ideas, Rocket Boy and I chose the Paint Mines Interpretive Park, east of Colorado Springs. We didn't exactly tell the kids what we were doing until we were in the car, and they predictably threw a fit (it's over 100 miles from us). But they always throw fits anyway, so we mostly ignored them. We ate lunch at the Village Inn in Castle Rock, which is about halfway, and then continued on to the little town of Calhan, which is just a mile or two from the park.The wind was blowing something awful when we got there (at 3 pm, late as always!) and Kid A in particular threw an even worse fit when he found out we were going to have to walk to the scenery. "We drove 100 miles to go on a HIKE?" He was furious. They both were, although Kid B was too busy avoiding me and his sneakers that I was holding to make too much of a scene (he wanted to wear his flip flops on the hike).
I wasn't very excited about a hike in the awful wind either, but I didn't say that. Rocket Boy changed into hiking boots, Kid B ran away from me in his flip flops, and we all started trudging along. But after a mile or so we started seeing things that looked interesting. And then it got very interesting indeed. The place is actually totally cool. It's a little Badlands, with all these funny rocks sticking up all over the place, and they're all sorts of pretty colors -- pink, purple, and gold, as though someone had come along and spray-painted them.
After we'd climbed around for an hour, we decided to head back to the car, but Kid B wanted to do one more little climb in a very colorful area. So in his stupid flip flops, he headed down into a tricky little canyon, and promptly got stuck. Adults on the other side and below got involved, trying to help him down, but he takes after his father -- mountain goats, both of them. All three of them, really. No assistance required. A moment later he'd gotten himself out of trouble and was running off down the path. Little fink. (I'm just jealous.)The drive home was almost as bad as the drive there, even though we stopped in Calhan for $15 worth of icky drinks and snacks, and the boys said they don't want to go back. But it really was fun, for about an hour. Maybe 220 miles of driving is too much for one hour of pleasure.
Today, Monday, the special treat was a movie in a theatre. The twins wanted to see "Sherlock Gnomes," and although I didn't want to see that, I agreed. It started out kind of meh, but got better further on. Not nearly as bad as "The Emoji Movie," which is my current standard for Worst Kids Film Ever. The most interesting thing that happened was the projector switched itself off about 15 minutes before the end, and of course they don't have people sitting in the little booths anymore, so the audience just sat there in the dark until someone finally got up and went and told the management about the problem. Everyone chatted while this was going on, and since it was all parents and kids, and no one wanted to scare the kids, it was very pleasant.
Also accomplished today: another hour of cleaning their room. This time I tackled the big box in the middle of the floor (you can see it in the first photo above) and now their floor looks like this, which is an improvement.They also had 1 hour of computer time, during which I graded 21 short assignments. I made dinner (corn & bean & feta tacos, everyone's favorite) and we washed Kid B's hair with the de-lousing shampoo again. Oh, maybe I forgot to mention that? We have a lice problem. Kid B's hair is full of it. The fancy fine-tooth comb I ordered isn't supposed to arrive until Wednesday, so in the meantime Rocket Boy and I are taking turns going through Kid B's hair and cutting out any nits we find. We make him sit on towels, and then we forget to change the towels. He snuggles up to everyone with his long hair.
I'm afraid I have lice too -- I can't stop itching -- but I itch everywhere, not just my head. And I only itch when I think about having lice. So is it psychosomatic, or do I really have reason to itch? We've washed my hair with the delousing shampoo just once so far, and of course they say it doesn't work anyway. I'm waiting until the special comb comes and then I want Rocket Boy to fine-comb my hair all the way through and LOOK CAREFULLY for nits. It's horrible thinking you have lice and not being able to see your own hair.
Anyway, three days down and six to go -- I'm already wishing the break could be so much longer. Careful what you wish for -- summer is coming and nobody's in summer school this year (the fact that Kid A goes halftime to private school must have made him ineligible). We're going to go Out of Our Minds unless I can find a new job and then only Rocket Boy will go out of his mind, ha ha. I'll leave you with a rather dark photo of the snow that is currently falling down around us, and I do mean falling -- it's such wet snow that it's already falling off all the trees, even though it's still coming down. Happy March!
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