A Walk in the Park

 In case you're wondering what kind of spring it has been, last Wednesday our tree looked like this...

...and this Wednesday we likely won't even need a jacket!  It's so crazy how up and down things have been, but I can't complain--temperatures have been mostly above average for a good chunk of the spring.  We've had a couple long, cool, rainy stretches lately, but we're getting closer to consistently better spring weather.  Saturday ended up being a really beautiful day--mid-60s and sunny--and Craig and Jacob wanted to do some basketball stuff, so I managed to convince Carter to come with me to my favorite spring spot, Highland Park.  I visited twice back in 2019 during two different phases of blooms but lost my nerve last year.  I wanted to go, and outside would have seemingly been fine, but I knew there would be crowds even without the Lilac Festival, and at that point we were still trying to stay home as much as possible.  It just felt like a lot of effort without knowing whether the flowers would be worth it.  And when the deer ate the tulips because there were so few people around for a while, that pretty much sealed the deal.  So this year, I really wanted to go back.  And since the lilacs aren't quite out yet but some other things were blooming, I thought this weekend would be a good spot.  I needed some beauty and outside time, so it worked out perfectly, and Carter was oddly okay about going--probably because he knew a good playground was in it for him!

As we arrived, we encountered some busy parking but eventually found a spot pretty easily in my second choice area.  The blooming trees were the first lovely sight...

This one is always gorgeous and it falls in a really pretty stretch of the path.

The magnolias were getting to be pretty spent, but I did manage to find a couple pretty ones.

I found this gorgeous patch of daffodils (near my favorite tree that has two colors of flowers--too bad my pictures didn't turn out this time), and this picture is the lock screen on my phone now because I can't get over its perfection.

Even with spent magnolias, it was still a pretty spot.

There was one small playground as we walked through the park and I gave Carter a little time to play.  Monkey bars, climbing a giant slide, flipping on the rings...all of his favorites!  After about 15 minutes, we moved on.  After all, a bigger playground awaited later!  I decided it might be fun to go into the Lamberton Conservatory, because I thought Carter might like the little quail, the turtles and tortoises, and the cacti. And you know what?  He did!

There were gorgeous tulips outside, freshly opened! 

Apparently they were closing at 4pm and we only had 20 minutes, but it also meant we got in for free!  Last time I was there, the first room was full of coleus, which I love, but the assortment of spring flowers was SO pretty!

As I had hoped, Carter was amused by the quail, but it is a little nerve wracking walking around them!

He also found the turtles in the fountain entertaining, and almost didn't believe they were real until he saw one move.  I'm pretty sure I thought the same thing my first time there.  It's so odd how they all pile on top of each other, but they did that in the tropical room pond, as well!

It was such a beautiful space!  Every flower was just stunning!

And this kid's pretty handsome himself!

The tropical room has these giant flowers that are bigger than my hand.  There were red ones and some wilting ones that went from yellow and white on the outer edges to pink and finally a deep purple in the middle.

Carter specifically noticed these leaves.  I don't think he'd ever seen leaves with this coloring!
 

He was interested in the cacti, and which ones were sharp and which ones weren't.  I was sort of obsessed with the giant plant in the back that looked a lot like aloe.  It was HUGE!

It's not every day you see a blooming cactus around here, and this one was pretty!  I looked back in my old pictures and happened to catch a different one blooming last time.

The tortoises are cool to watch, although there's one that hangs out on the ground.  He happened to be right near the sign explaining his situation.  He scared a woman that was walking through near us, as she didn't notice him at first and he was right near her feet!

This one crawled right toward us!  I actually have video of most of his crawl, but I'll spare you the exciting footage!

Out in the courtyard there was a pond with a bunch of really orange fish!  They were practically glowing!

I told Carter that his sign that we were getting close to playground time was when we saw the tulips.  The tulip beds are right next to the conservatory, and while not all were open yet, what was out was beautiful as always!

Glad the deer didn't get them this year!  After that it was a walk back through the main part of the park to get down to the big natural wooden playground.  But on the way we had to stop by this tree!

What you can't see is the bridal party just to our right.  It was a perfect day for a wedding, and while I can't say I'd want to drag my dress through a muddy park, they must have had wonderful photos!

At long last we arrived at the playground, the natural playground full of rocks and tree trunks.

It's definitely a challenge to walk some of the narrow tree walkways and jump from tree to rock to tree, but we made our rounds.  Carter really wanted to play tag or hide-and-seek, but I had to explain to him that tag involves going fast, which is not ideal on a playground like this, and hide-and-seek could be dangerous since it involves me "losing" him and it's my job to watch him like a hawk.  So we just walked, and eventually he found this apparatus, which he was pretty much obsessed with.

He walked across it countless times and tried to master going fast.  I did it myself and it was NOT easy!  Each swing moved a lot, and I had to hold on to the top.  Carter was opting for the chains, which was so much harder.  Eventually it got close to dinner time and we had to go.  But he had a good time and complained way less than I expected he would.  Maybe he's finally found an appreciation for his outings with mom?  Hahahaha.

On the way back to the car, I did try to keep an eye out for an open lilac, and this was about as close as it got.  The next couple weeks should get them out, which is actually still a bit early.

It felt so good to get out and walk in nice weather and see amazingly beautiful stuff.  It was interesting to see the mix of maskers and non-maskers in each different setting.  We kept ours on in crowds or on the playground, but otherwise we kept our distance and kept them off.  I can't say I want to battle crowds for the Lilac Festival, but this was a nice alternative.  I was thrilled with how cooperative Carter was, that he even humored some of my educational explanations.  It was one of our least-protested trips, and it was nice to just have that time with him.  

On Sunday, Jacob and Craig jetted off to Erie, PA.  Jacob's team wasn't playing, but an old coach of his who he trains with now invited him to play with his 16U (!) team.  He could have done it Saturday, too, but between the short notice, needing to get his Confirmation stuff completed, and the general unknowns of a long trip on a much older team, he opted out.  But after talking to the coach again, on Sunday we decided it might be worth it.  It helped that he made good progress on Confirmation Saturday.  He ended up playing in two games, scored three three-pointers in one and one in another, and the team won the championship.  He held his own against much older kids and got a lot of support from his teammates, which is cool considering they're big high school kids and he's just a skinny white 7th grader!  But he really seemed to impress them, which gave him a lot of confidence.  I spent most of Sunday putting together Craig's new dresser and thinking through more garage sale stuff.  That has been a crazy, exhausting process and I can't wait to get it done and out of the house.  I have a few VERY busy days ahead, between work, home, garage sale, Confirmation, hosting something after, and getting back to a very busy work week Monday-Wednesday and maybe beyond.  I wish like heck I could take more time off to handle the endless list I'm dealing with, but the one day Friday is likely all I can risk.  I'm not sure it will all get done, but I guess I have to try.  There's some good stuff in there (namely family time), so it should all be worth it, but I am officially nervous and hoping it all miraculously falls into place.  

News & Notes, Back to School Edition

After 13 months of weird school and/or extended home time, as of last Friday, Carter is now back in school every day except Wednesdays.  It's definitely a weight off of Craig's shoulders, to know he can just be dad 6 out of 7 days now, rather than dad and teacher.  I'm probably most thrilled that he'll be doing all of his "special" classes at school, including art class, which has been a bit of a challenge to keep up with since projects can take a couple hours each.  We actually have one more to catch up on, but knowing there won't be more piling on is a relief.  As fun as it was to see his finished products most of the time, it will be good for him to get more formal training and education on that stuff than I had the energy to provide and he had the patience to sit through.  While it's going to be a challenge for his teacher to manage twice as many kids each day, especially knowing all the extra direction Carter can need, I'm hoping that maybe seeing more kids hard at work will bring in some of the positive peer pressure he needs to realize that, yes, everyone else is doing the work and you need to suck it up and do it too.  He's shed a lot of tears almost every time we've talked about going back, which I think is definitely some anxiety.  The odd thing is that whenever you ask him how school was, he usually says it was okay, so why this is giving him so much worry, it's hard to say.  I understand it's less phone time, fewer breaks (at least, ones spent to his liking), and probably a bit more disciplining, but I keep reminding him that he should have been in school all this time so he should really just try to be grateful for all the home time he had over the past year.  I really hope he finds a friend in the new batch of kids.  I'm not sure if he's exaggerating his lack of friends or if his incessant YouTube-Fortnite-Roblox-Minecraft dissertations are turning kids off.  The first couple days seem to have gone fine, though no new friends just yet.  I do worry about cramming 20 kids in a classroom with these potent variants going around, but I'm trusting the schools and CDC that what they're saying will work will work.  The good news is that the other three of us have at least some protection at this point and he's probably the least at risk if he gets it.  

Speaking of which, my vaccine got pulled last week.  Here I was, all excited to have the one-dose vaccine, and then six reports (out of 7 million vaccinations) of blood clots came out so they put it on hold.  While it's not exactly a comforting development since I take birth control and have some odd family history (my grandma had a minor stroke in her 30s and my mom had weird things happening with her carotid arteries for a while, which I swear I might have on one side now based on frequent blood pumping thumps in my right ear like she used to have), I figure it's still less of a chance than clotting seems to be if you actually get COVID.  When we need to get boosters I will likely opt for Pfizer if I can, but I'll definitely be on high alert as I finish off the highest risk period over the next few days.  I give blood Friday so I'll be interested to see if anything crops up on my blood antibody test by then.  Cases continue to rise among young people here--even worse around Buffalo--which is concerning and frustrating.  It's hard to tell how much is the variants, how much is the open bars and restaurants, how much is people letting up because some in their group are vaccinated, how much is school (supposedly not much), or more likely school-related activities where people get lax with masking, or how much is people just plain giving up.  It's depressing. 

The weather has come back down to earth, which made for a tough week or two.  Last week was mostly in the 40s and 50s with pretty much all but one day of rain and clouds.  The last two days were better, but now there's accumulating snow in the forecast for Wednesday.  I knew this would happen when we had 70s in March, but it's still frustrating.  Oddly, it was so nice prior to this stretch that all of the trees and flowers are blooming like crazy.  So it looks like spring but doesn't feel like it.  

The good news is that the cold is likely preserving a lot of the blooms, but I noticed the other day that our pear tree was starting to lose petals despite half the buds not even being open yet.  It looked fuller after two sunny days, but today petals were really starting to blow off for real, and tomorrow they'll be weighed down by super heavy snow.  I will say that all of the flowers and leaves made it a little extra challenging to strip my hanging Easter eggs off the tree and bushes this year!  

Different kind of egg hunt!

Ironically, all of the spring flowers aren't perking me up like I thought they would, and I decided yesterday morning that maybe it's a bit of a carry-over from last year where spring seemed like such a welcome relief, but ended up giving way to a mediocre summer.  Yes, we got outside time, and yes, we were able to finally gather with family outside, but it was a far cry from what we usually do.  I looked at the trees yesterday and almost felt like they were bringing false hope for a better summer.  Sad, isn't it?

We're in the midst of what should be a busy stretch of weekends--although it turns out to be a little less busy than expected.  Two weeks ago when it was still super warm, Jacob had a local tournament (three games) and Carter and I got some playground time.  It was one we've passed by a few times not too far from home but never gone to.  We picked it because it was supposed to have two full playsets, but it turns out one had been removed to be replaced sometime soon.  But the one that was left was pretty good.

At one point he lost his grip on this one and gave himself quite the brushburn down his arm. :(

Monkey bar master!

Hard to see, but he's climbing in the middle there.  At least you can see more of the structure.

This past weekend we took a quick trip to Buffalo on Saturday.  Jacob got a couple community service hours at my parents' church packing lunches for homeless people and cleaning up the property (which helps Grandpa's landscaping work there), and then all of us went to the outlets (yes, it was a bribe).  Jacob still has some Confirmation work to do, but we've been trying to cram in community service hours in between nagging him to do the rest of the tasks.  He has one week to get one more big thing done.  

I spent the rest of last weekend getting things ready for my mom's garage sale.  She's been dying to have one to get rid of a lot of extra stuff she has sitting around--either her stuff, or stuff from my grandmas' houses, or now even stuff from my late uncle's house that just got cleaned out.  What might have seemed like a good idea to keep at the time might not have been, or might have just been too good to donate.  I am all for her cleaning out what she can before it's me doing it one day alone after she's gone.  I realized when she first mentioned it that I had a LOT of stuff around my house that I could try to sell, too.  The big stuff includes the small table and chairs that were once in the boys' rooms, and a whole slew of outdoor ride-on toys.  But there's also a lot of random toys and decor items, too.  Originally we thought the sale would be this coming weekend until Jacob's schedule changed, so I panicked two Sundays ago and gathered and priced a ton of it.  I did a ton more this past weekend, including a massive cleanout of our giant linen closet (on the heels of the life-changing cleaning of one super-cluttered shelf a few weeks ago).  Over the course of the day on Sunday I gathered up a full giant garbage bag of stuffed animals, set aside a ton of extra tote bags, and pulled out even more toys.  I have cleaned out entire drawers and bins, and now have a full office again despite taking a big box and bag to my parents' on Saturday.  It's crazy.  I still have more pricing to do but I feel like I've gotten into most nooks and crannies in the house now.  It will be nice to get rid of some things and make a bit more space here and there.  I wrote a Facebook post after we moved here saying that if I ever wanted a bigger house, just tell me to get rid of stuff!  While I have legitimate issues with the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom closet space, that still holds mostly true.  We packed a ton of stuff in here with one growing kid plus an extra kid that didn't exist when we moved here.  We each inherited stuff from our parents' houses, which filled up the crawl space even more.  The kids have gone through phase after phase.  We've gotten gifts, packed away older stuff just in case, and collected lots of extras.  We simply have too much stuff.  And I do believe it will be a more comfortable house if we can get some of that stuff under control.  This sale might not do it entirely, but it will help.  After 11 years here and knowing the kids have officially passed certain phases, I've actually gotten much better about making decisions to donate, sell, or toss things we simply won't use.  My hesitance to get rid of things for years was always a fear of wasting things or needing something later, but it turns out that most of the time it ends up not getting used, and it's probably worse to waste the space than waste the item.  The guilt from staring at something unused is far worse than the one-time guilt of just getting rid of it.  That was a big deal with the linen closet.  It's about 10 times the size of the one we had at our old house, and I couldn't imagine filling it when we moved here!  Yet it was completely overstuffed!  My quality of life is shockingly better now that things aren't falling out every time I open it.  

One of the tougher toys to prepare to part with was Carter's collection of LeapFrog electronics.  We had a hand-me-down Tag Reader and Leapster video game console, but also had his LeapPad, which was a surprise Christmas gift from a rogue family Secret Santa when he was very little.  That same Secret Santa was the one who got Jacob the reconditioned Wii, which while shocking when he received it has thankfully paid many dividends!  We got a number of games for the LeapPad over the years and Carter loved playing on it.  Before I did a factory reset, I took pictures of some of the random pics that ended up on it over the years. 

My baby!

On top of the garage sale stuff, I fully changed out Carter's clothes for summer and his growing body.  I filled nearly an entire bin with the stuff he's outgrown across all seasons.  I also took down the Easter decorations, which added a bit more chaos to all the other organizing I was doing.  Craig's new dresser arrived over the weekend, too, but I haven't had the time or energy to get it together yet.  I also ordered some new lamps for our living room (since one was partly broken for a long time and I wanted to sell the non-broken partner), and the first one arrived today.  Little by little we're sprucing this place up!  

This coming weekend was supposed to be our first big travel weekend for basketball, but after countless changes, they said tonight that we're not playing at all this weekend.  It's disappointing as one of the options was Erie, where Craig went to college, and it would have been nice to get a change of scenery.  But it's safer to wait a few more weeks until we're fully vaccinated, and admittedly Jacob and I could both use the time to get more stuff done.  

Next Thursday night I plan to drive to my parents' to help my mom set up for the sale, then sit with her on Friday and Saturday while it's running.  After the sale is over, I need to rush home and start prepping for the next day, which is Jacob's Confirmation.  The service is in the early afternoon and I figure whatever family comes for it can come back for a small gathering afterward.  Most of us will be vaccinated by then, so hopefully it will be safe enough.  I need to figure out food, but hopefully nothing too fancy since I won't have a lot of time.  I also want to make Carter's birthday cake so we can finally sing to him, but obviously that will take a bit of work, too.  I think with some good planning, between that evening and the morning (if we choose to do online church) I can probably get a lot done, but I have a lot of decisions to make in the meantime.  Oh, and then that Monday I go back to work full blast toward our big Day of Giving on Wednesday.  Usually it's a long but fun day in the "war room" but I can't say I want to work that same 12-hour day at home.  It'll probably involve a lot of checking in after hours, if nothing else.  I would gladly go sit masked in a room at the office if I could.  Work has been hard lately, in part because I think people are burned out and busy and less likely to do fun Slack chatter than in the past.  Those connections have frayed a bit and it takes some of the fun and camaraderie out of it, which makes it all just a little more isolating and boring.  Sigh. 

With some of our weekends ramping up, it shouldn't surprise me that we've begun to have busy weeks, too.  We had at least one appointment per day last week--community service, allergy shot, chiropractor, dentist, pediatrician, therapy, confirmation pre-meeting, plus two basketball practices.  It was a lot to keep track of under normal circumstances, let alone when we have been used to next to nothing for months.  This week we have more community service, Carter's first therapy appointment, another chiropractor appointment, our mortgage refinance closing, and a blood donation.  All of that is on top of Carter's first four day week.  Sometimes all of these appointments make me wonder how I will ever go back to the office, which will often necessitate an extra 40 minutes of driving back and forth for appointments.  It's all a far cry from leaving the house literally once or twice a week for months a year ago.  It's still pretty mind-boggling that this has been our life for so long.  On one hand I find our resilience admirable, but on the other it makes me grateful we had no idea this is what was coming.  Mentally I'd have never survived if I knew how long things would be weird.  Of course, unlike some people that want normalcy come hell or high water, I'm perfectly fine understanding that this is all a process and it's not some assault on my rights.  I'm happy to do what I can to protect others, let alone myself.  I actually almost think I need the gradual return because we have all of these new learned behaviors from a year of being extra careful, and going out into large crowds or having even more activities on a regular basis might be quite an assault on the senses after a full year.  It's funny how sometimes activities feel really good--energizing and the good version of normal--and sometimes they're harder than they were before.  It's such a weird time, but slowly but surely we'll readjust.  

I guess that's the bulk of the happenings for now.  I was looking forward to having a trip to write about, but apparently that will have to wait!  For now we brace for a day of snow tomorrow and look toward a weekend full of garage sale pricing, Confirmation tasks, cleaning and planning for next weekend!  Yay?

The Best Medicine

On Wednesday I got my COVID vaccine.  I was fortunate to get the single shot Johnson and Johnson version, which means I will be up to full immunity much more quickly than those getting the two-dose, who need the three weeks in between plus the time after to get up to full strength.  It may come at the price of slightly less effectiveness, based on what some say, but given that I'm not high risk I think it's worth getting protection sooner for now.  If I need to get another one in six months, we'll see.  With cases rising like crazy right now, the future seems a lot less clear than it did for a while.  Stupid variants.

The good news is that my side effects were minimal.  I got very lucky.  My cousin and her fiance got the same vaccine the day before I did and were basically down for the count the whole next day.  I only had a sore arm, a dull, pounding headache, and a low-grade fever I wouldn't have known I had unless I checked it out of curiosity.  It sat around 99-100 all day, but I never had any symptoms indicating it was there.  The headache was merely annoying--it made focusing on boring work a little tougher, but it wasn't terribly painful.  I didn't want to take any medicine since they question if that can interfere with whatever work the vaccine is doing, so I just dealt with it the best I could.  The funniest part is that I kept feeling like maybe I was getting some body aches, but no, I think it was mostly that my pulled upper back from last Friday was still a bit sore and the work the chiropractor did to it on Wednesday added a couple extra twinges (though overall it definitely helped--I can sleep in whatever position I want now!).  And sure enough, like most people, I woke up this morning feeling fine, with a temperature at 98.6 right on the dot!  

By last night, though, the headache was getting to me and I really just wanted to sit and relax.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside--mid-70s with every tree suddenly exploding!--so after dinner I headed out to the porch with my computer.  On Easter my dad gave me a flash drive with a whole collection of family videos.  My dad's younger brother put it together, and the majority of what's on the drive involves his three daughters, but there is a solid contingent of other family videos dating back as far as the 60s.  My dad had me watch the oldest one on Easter, which also included background music of my grandpa's organ playing.  My grandpa was an amazing organ player and their house was often filled with his music.  It definitely felt a little fuddy-duddy when I was a kid, but I still had my favorites, and hearing it for the first time in many years definitely brought back memories.  It was pretty outstanding to see my dad and his siblings as kids, too, not to mention a great-grandfather I never met and other relatives far younger than I had ever seen them in a moving image.  I knew there was a lot more to discover beyond that one and I felt like maybe hearing and seeing my grandparents (as I knew them, in particular) might be a nice distraction from my pounding head.

Oh, the treasures I found!  The video of my grandpa's exasperated reaction upon seeing the limo that his kids had rented for their 50th anniversary was pretty great, and even made me a little teary because it was a perfect representation of his personality.  Bits and pieces of that party were fun to see, too--again, keeping in mind that my parents are now inexplicably about the same ages as they were then.  There were so many glimpses of relatives who have passed away--my three uncles, an aunt, my great-grandma--and it simultaneously made me so happy to see them and so brokenhearted that they're gone, some for a very long time.  My Uncle Bink was the first to go back in 1997, which seems like an eternity now.  My grandpa went a couple years later.  My grandma has been gone for over 15 years.  The videos were a little peek into a different time, when everything was just as it should have been.  I'd almost forgotten how everyone looked back then, and it was shocking to realize I'm now older than (or within a year of two of) pretty much every aunt or uncle back then.  I think I definitely look younger and cooler (and I don't think that's just my imagination), but it's insane how things evolve like that--that I'm now not only the "uncool aunt", but my kids are in the older half of their generation and my younger cousins are the ones adding babies to the mix!  

My favorite video was from Christmas 1987.  The Christmas videos perfectly capture the complete chaos in that crowded living room, and I first came across 1988 and was hopeful that was the year I got what I consider my favorite Christmas gift ever.  I was disappointed to recall that it was actually the year before, but I was thrilled to discover that year shortly after.  I frantically scanned through it and found what I was looking for--the moment I opened my desperately-wanted Hot Looks doll!  As gawky and awkward as I was in most of the family videos (my late 80s were full of bad hair, awful clothes, and braces), you can see the complete and utter joy on my nine-year-old face!  It was great.  My uncle also happened to capture the spelling bee where I came in second place (while my parents were in Las Vegas, no less).  It was horrifying to see most of that, and I honestly couldn't watch myself lose!  There was a funny video from 1986 of my uncle hanging out in his oldest daughter's completed nursery before she was born, giving the tour and talking about her impending arrival.  Amazing.   

One of the more interesting discoveries was a number of lengthy videos of basketball games--first a couple games at the K-8 school my cousins and I attended, one of which featured my cousin Kim in 5th grade and the other that had my brother in 7th and my cousin Chris in 6th--and second, my cousin Todd playing in high school.  Later on there was a high school game with my brother, too.  Jacob had a field day critiquing, especially with my brother who was the same age in the first video that Jacob is now.  And yes, Jacob's level of play is much higher, but it was definitely a different time when play was a lot more casual, three-pointers were rare, and travel basketball wasn't as widespread.  Not to mention that my brother was also a good baseball player and golfer, so not all of his energy went into perfecting his basketball skills.  I have yet to find any footage of me a few years later as a cheerleader, so that's probably a good thing!

I have so many other videos to look through, too.  I keep finding myself looking for bits and pieces that capture the essence of those relatives who have passed, or that capture a certain forgotten period of time.  One had my youngest uncle and me playing a game of Simon at my great-grandma's birthday party.  Who does that anymore?  I was amused by one video that was primarily of my parents, aunt and uncle practicing their golf swings, but had 11ish-year-old me in the background playing on the tire swing of death on the playground at my school.  The playground there was a series of wood and metal monstrosities that had a tendency to break or otherwise cause injury.  I knocked the wind out of myself falling from the giant monkey bars in first grade, but that was my own fault.  The bridge on the main climbing structure, the connectors on the tire climb, and the connection at the top of the tire swings all had moments of complete failure over the years.  The tire swings were the worst offenders but they were giant and so fun when they were functional!  I spent many a post-lunch recess defying the rules of digestion by spinning myself silly, and it was entertaining to flash back to all of the ways I used to play on that swing as I watched the background of that video.  

It may not have taken away my headache, but it did make me smile to see some of these long lost family moments.  If nothing else, it's a good reminder to savor the moments we have now (as if the past year wasn't enough of a reminder) because all too quickly time is going to pass and things will change once again.  Even five or 10 years from now they will have an entirely different significance.  Looking back, I feel lucky to have lived those moments when I did, because they were great the first time around.  Some of the time I was aware of the amazingness, and some of the time I wasn't.  But even by the time I was a young teenager, riding my bike to my grandparents' house on random summer afternoons just to hang out, I was become more aware that those days wouldn't last forever.  And sure enough, they didn't--and they're getting further and further in the rear view mirror now.  Decades, in fact.  But it's nice to have another chance to see those moments again and savor their importance once again.  Family is everything.  And mine was pretty darn amazing.

Easter 2021: A Mixed Basket

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!

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.

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.