It's been a weird week or so. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster, but the ups and downs are way less fun than most I've ridden. The weather has been up and down, the COVID news has been up and down, spring break was up and down, and even Easter weekend itself was a bit of a mixed bag (or basket, if you will).
Last week the weather literally went from 70 and sunny to snow in 48 hours, and is now working its way back to 60s (maybe 70) again this week. As enjoyable as it is, it's way too early for this so I fully expect an epically awful May or June. Trees are definitely going to bud hardcore this week, and forsythias are already blooming a couple weeks early. We had crazy winds up around 60 mph (and enough to rattle the house for days on end) for a good chunk of last week as well, which was stressful. We also had this amazing rainbow in the midst of a rainy day.
In my everlasting quest to be (or at least feel) productive, I finally changed up some artwork around the house. I hung a framed photo Jacob got for Christmas, moved a photo arrangement on the stairs to a blank wall in our living room, and moved a wall decal that's been over our basement door frame for years to above the TV since we were still missing the height a little bit there. We got Carter a new gaming-related tin sign for his room, so I switched some of his artwork around, too. Most importantly, I pulled out of the boys' rooms their respective birth announcements that had been hand-stitched by my friend Heather when each of them were born, as I figured neither boy would want anything flowery in their room for much longer. I bought matching frames for them, but I knew I might have a project on my hands since one had batting behind it and the other did not. I knew there was a chance one could be too thick for the frame but figured I'd make it work. It turned out that the style of the frame's back panel and its fasteners wasn't conducive to thicker pictures. One could sit flush, but the tabs couldn't tuck in, and the other was so thick that the back would have stuck out against the wall. After some internet consulting, I bought a $3 pack of fasteners with screws. They're similar to what secured the back on the frame, but these could be screwed on the frame itself instead of the back panel. I used three to secure the original back panel on the one, and used the rest to hold the one with batting into the frame without any backing. I also screwed a frame hanger I already had on the frame since the original hanger was on the now-absent back panel. About 20 minutes later, voila!
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Putting them here displaced some of the boys' artwork--one got moved to the opposite wall and the other ended up on my "gallery wall" in the office. This just ended up being the best place of the three I tried.
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Despite taking three days off last week while the boys were on break, I felt a bit scattered. Trying to decide on three different party food items for the weekend felt overwhelming since I hadn't needed party food in so long. I was thrilled to have family events to attend this year, but still felt oddly jealous of last year's me who just had to figure out how to make homebound Easter special. Nothing some donuts, ham, and cake couldn't fix, I suppose. But we were also challenged by scheduling this year since Jacob got pulled into a Saturday tournament. It ended up that I was the only one going to Good Friday in Buffalo, come back that night to be ready for Saturday, and then we'd all go to Buffalo on Sunday morning. Despite the extra travel I was happy to see Jacob play for the first time in months, but between trying to figure out church (since we have to RSVP) and food, it just felt like a lot. It worked out in the end, except for the fact we missed out on in-person church because our church filled up both different spaces in our time slot before I could RSVP. That was a blow, since that meant two years without in-person Easter church. And I usually LOVE in person church.
We had dentist appointments and a therapy appointment and a ton of basketball practices to fill the week, so I felt like I got almost nothing accomplished during my time off. I'm sure I did, but it just didn't seem that way. Carter and I also got to see our nephew play hockey in town early in the week, which was a nice change of pace--although it was odd to walk into a hockey rink in 70 degree weather! I'll admit that I wasn't feeling very Easter-y most of the week, and even my lovely Polish eggs weren't really getting me in the spirit.
You know it's a rough week when Carter's double Cheez-it was deemed exciting.
We did dye eggs on Thursday, ironically as it snowed outside.
It was my first time using a kit rather than plain old food coloring. After always wishing I could try a kit, I decided I needed a little extra spice this year so I bought one. The nine colors were interesting, but I think they were less potent than what we usually use, at least as far as how long something needed to be in the dye. The purple, pink, and greens were much different than our usual dyes, but it was fun to see what they would do. It also came with egg wraps, which always intrigued me when I used to arrange donated eggs on the tables at the church Easter breakfast, but it turns out I suck at doing them! The boys weren't that into it, but they all got done and I liked some of the results very much.
In addition to getting back to family prunes and noodles, Friday also marked the day that the baby clothes were finally getting out of the house! I loaded my trunk completely full, with two bags for my cousin Jamie, who's due with a boy in July, and three bags plus a bag of shoes and socks for Heather. I couldn't help but snap a pic of these perfect, tiny Nikes before they left the house. So cute!
I was able to visit with my godson Mason and his "entourage" as I got into town. He is such a sweet boy, even though he's just getting over his first ear infection and the antibiotics are wreaking havoc with his system. His little grin just melts your heart. Heather snapped this shot of us.
She sent me this on Sunday because I set aside the shirt he's wearing (it was a smaller size than most of what I gave her) just because he was the only baby who would have a chance of fitting in it properly on Easter. If you can't tell, it's a bunny wearing glasses and a sewn-on bowtie.
I can't get over how he's growing! I got a couple bonus minutes (and smiles) when we saw them at church later Friday night, too. Speaking of church, it was lovely. At least that service was an in-person one, though I did miss the Good Friday walk-through experience that my parents' church usually does. Maybe next year.
It was so nice to see much of my extended family for prunes and noodles Friday evening. I was the only one wearing a mask, but even with a lot of older relatives being vaccinated, I didn't feel comfortable going without. To be honest, with the new variants that are spiking cases all over, I didn't want to take a chance of getting or spreading anything. I don't have the time or patience to be quarantined, and I'd feel foolish if a mask would have helped and I didn't wear one just because I wanted to fit in. I was thrilled to see my two pregnant cousins for the first time since their respective baby announcements (one of whom is now less than a month from her due date), though unfortunately my cousin whose six-month-old I still have not met was visiting other family in Florida. But it was wonderful to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and my uncle (the host) was absolutely thrilled to have a full house again after Christmas didn't allow it. It definitely healed a little spot in my heart that had been broken since it had to be canceled last year. We were able to have a few gatherings outside last fall, but Good Friday and Christmas are really the two big ones. In many ways it didn't seem like two years since our last prunes and noodles, or nearly a year and a half since the last Christmas gathering--probably because those gatherings just feel like a natural way of life after all these years--but at the same time, it was really lovely to see everyone and catch up. I had a late-ish drive home with a very full belly, but I couldn't caffeinate because I had to sleep well in order to wake up bright and early!
We were off to Lyons by 8:30 Saturday morning. It's on the other side of Rochester, almost halfway to Syracuse. Jacob only had two games to play, but it was with a new team, so that's always exciting. It wasn't exactly the team he'll be playing with this spring, but it did have a lot of the same kids and was for the same organization. They basically combined for this tournament since people were vacationing. It was exciting to finally see him play in person for the first time in months. He has definitely refined his game with all the training he's been doing. He looked really good on both ends of the court. I told him later that if he moved like that in lacrosse, he'd probably still be playing that sport! In the first game he scored eight points, which itself was pretty exciting even though the team lost.
They dodged a bullet for game two, however. There were two other teams that they could have played. One was essentially a national championship team full of kids Jacob trains with but is just a few months too old to play on. They beat a team the previous night by 50. The other team...well, they beat the first team by 50 points. We're not quite sure what happened there, although they looked like men and someone even tried to dunk, so something seemed strange. That was actually the team we were supposed to play, but Jacob's coach knew his team wasn't ready for that (they likely would have lost by 70 points, no joke) so luckily he switched some things around so we could play the other team. It still meant a significant loss, but Jacob liked playing kids he knew. He scored 11 points and even got cheers from the other side since they've come to appreciate the show when his shooting is on target. Not bad to get 19 points in two games, but of course he's still not satisfied!
We ended up driving about 15 minutes to the quaint town of Geneva for a late lunch because there was an intriguing, mostly gluten-free place there. It was a fried chicken place, and three of us got chicken and waffles! They also had this crazy mac and cheese with Fritos, chili sauce, and fried hot dogs. It was all really good and we all had some leftovers to bring home. I'm hoping we can go back next month when we're only a few miles down the road again for another tournament. We had driven through Geneva last summer when we went to Watkins Glen, and we took a few minutes to do what we couldn't do that day--drive through the Hobart and William Smith College campus. It was cool to see, and of course catching a glimpse of Seneca Lake wasn't too bad either! We ate our leftovers for dinner, and I spent the rest of Saturday just trying to prepare for Sunday--food prep and Easter bunny prep!
Sunday didn't start off awesome. Online church never goes well, and Jacob was just in a generally foul mood. I got a picture of Carter once he found his Easter basket, but Jacob was being purposely frustrating so I don't have one of him. Jacob got some Lego minifigures we had stashed away as his special gift, and Carter got a Mario Kart t-shirt and another Treasure X bottle to unearth another character for his pirate ship. They both got plenty of candy, and added to it during our usual living room Easter egg hunt.
Then it was off to my parents' house for lunch--filet mignon, with brownies a la mode for dessert! Yum! My dad was very excited to show me the beginning of a set of family home movies that my uncle unearthed and compiled. I now have the full set on my computer waiting for a rainy day. Not only does the one set of videos have my grandpa's organ music, but another part of the collection has audio recordings of my grandpa's war stories. I am very much looking forward to hearing his voice again, for the first time in 22 years.
Then we headed off to Craig's family, where I probably ate my weight in food. I had missed the Easter treats very much last year! Once again, I was basically the only one masked other than Carter, but there were a few people who haven't had COVID (and some who had) and I just wanted to be careful. Carter made a phone buddy in the daughter of a friend of the family, which was sort of cute since he hardly ever acknowledges anyone else when he's buried in his phone. He also enjoyed an Easter egg hunt where he picked up even more candy. We had some good conversation and watched the NCAA women's basketball championship as we stuffed ourselves full of desserts! I was extremely full by the time we left, but mercifully the trip home went quickly. Jacob was my co-pilot, so maybe that helped since he didn't fall asleep like Craig would have! Oh, and my mother-in-law gave me this very cool flower!
I should mention that it's also been a bit up and down on the health front in the midst of everything else. First, I randomly hurt my upper back on Friday just drying my hair. I think I somehow pinched a nerve, and it's still bothering me. It's not like it was on Friday when I could barely turn my head, but it is sore in most sitting/laying positions and sometimes sends a couple surges of electricity through my shoulders. It is really frustrating and I ended up getting a chiropractor appointment for tomorrow after I woke up in agony today. No position was comfortable, even with a body pillow. Even sitting is awkward. It's just nagging most of the time unless I move the wrong way, but it's draining. We did get some good news last week that Craig and I were both eligible for the vaccine. COVID cases are steady-ish locally but technically on the rise considering the pool of people who aren't vaccinated is getting smaller. Younger people are getting it pretty rapidly right now, presumably due to some of these mutated strains that are extra contagious. Yesterday it came out that a local hockey tournament caused at least 27 cases (including a friend of mine and three members of her family, and it's been pretty miserable), so hockey has been put on hold locally. It's discouraging, especially because I wonder how it might impact school going back to four days, or even Jacob's basketball season. Ontario is back on another strict lockdown because their cases have been rising rapidly. Craig actually got his first shot today, and mine is tomorrow. So far just a sore arm and a blossoming headache for him. I would have been able to get appointments last week but didn't want to ruin my time off or my holiday if I had a reaction. So I got an appointment for early next week, with the hope I could get one this week as different appointments were released. Sure enough, yesterday morning I found one through work for this Wednesday, as I wanted to stagger a day or so from Craig's so we both weren't down and out at the same time if we had a reaction. Well, a couple hours after I made the second appointment, my doctor's office released their clinic info, and they were offering the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine! That sounded great--not just because it only meant one round of a sore arm, but also because it would leave me fully vaccinated before the bulk of our travel basketball schedule. Of course, it gave me pause knowing that I would be sentencing myself to a day or so of the blahs this week (rather than putting it off for three weeks with a two-dose shot), but I hope it will be worth it. We have a pretty quiet week anyway, so now seems as good a time as any. So, three appointments and two cancellations later, we'll see how it goes tomorrow.
Sometimes it feels like freedom is on the horizon, but the rise in cases is still concerning. Not to mention that a TON of people vacationed this past week during break, many to places that don't prioritize masks, so I can't help but wonder what they might bring back. I can't even tell you how many people in my Facebook feed alone went south, and even though I know a lot of them were vaccinated, I know their kids were not. It just brings back that meme that talks about this feeling like a group project where half the group is slacking and the other half is driving themselves nuts to do all the work. So many people have sacrificed everything this past year, and while I know everyone is beside themselves wanting to get on vacation, it's still hard to see so many people taking the risk now as cases are back on the rise. That said, we'll be doing some short distance traveling over the coming weeks for basketball, and further in June and July, so I guess we'll be no better--though I tend to chalk basketball up to maintaining Jacob's mental health and investing in his athletic future. But we'll be vaccinated by then, and hopefully Jacob's antibodies are holding out. We will be masking regardless so hopefully that helps Carter until we figure out if he can get vaccinated. But it's been difficult seeing so many vacation pictures and going between wanting to be happy for them and having hope for the future, and being so worried about how all these trips are going to impact things over the next couple weeks. It almost makes me wish the in-person school was one week later, if nothing else.
But at least for these couple days, we're taking big steps forward to protecting ourselves and getting back to normal life. Easter was so much more than last year just because we had family again, but we still have a little ways to go. I'm thankful for so much these days as we near the end of the worst, but I really hope the anticipation translates into some real improvement in the days ahead.
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