Well, the second half of our spring break was a lot more low key than I had hoped because of Caden’s double pink eyes. We started giving him Shepard’s prescription antibiotic drops on Saturday night, but they didn’t seem to be helping much. Monday I decided to start giving him zyrtec in hopes it would take away some of the swelling. Then we tried Shepard’s other prescription eye drops (both from a week and a half ago with the whole allergy fiasco, neither drops Shepard actually used), and those finally took away some of the red. But because of how awful he looked, I didn’t want to take him anywhere where other kids would be around. Or places like Ponderosa where he’d be getting his own food while looking highly contagious. So we had to get creative in our adventures.
Monday
In lieu of Caden both looking and feeling miserable, yet still behaving really well, I decided to give them their video games back. So we had a lazy morning of them gaming while I was trying to take care of a bunch of odds and ends, trying to get my life back on track. We made plans to go “hiking,” and couldn’t decide if we should bring Annie or not. I really just wanted to have the time with my actual children, so we brought Annie to the dog park for a little while first to wear off some energy before we left her in the kennel. As always, she had a great time! She also managed to find a gigantic puddle somewhere and soak half her body in muddy water.
Ready to hike. We found the other end of the Yahara River Trail and planned on walking to the point where we turned around from the other trail’s end last time. This portion of trail was a mix of residential backyards and farm fields. Not a lot of woods to explore.
Chatting away. š They were discussing what kind of Pokemon could be found in the landscapes around us.
Playing with a weird vertical branch. Some lady walked by and scolded me for letting my kids play in the irrigation garden, or whatever that flat area Caden’s standing in was called.
Caden never complained, but it was pretty obvious he did not feel well. He kept stopping at every bench and sitting down. And he looked like this. So we didn’t make it to the point where we stopped before, but I think we were close! Overall we hiked about two miles. I love that trail, though! Someday I really hope to walk the whole thing at once.
After the walk, we went out of our way to find the Popeye’s I saw was in Deforest. I always think their fast food is pretty good and it’s rare around here. But we should have skipped it. The guy taking my order was impossible to understand, he didn’t ring me up for what I asked for, they were out of fries (fries!), and the whole thing was just bad. I wish we could have gone to Ponderosa like the boys wanted. I’m hoping to make it up to them sometime in the next few weeks.
Monday afternoon I crashed again while the boys played more games. Then when Greg got home I left him in charge of a leftover dinner while I went to run some errands. My main goal was to find gardening supplies. I’m feeling very ambitious with all our garden goals this year! It’s sure to be more than I can handle, but I’m going to try anyway. I just need to do as much as possible before allergies kick in full force!
Tuesday
After another lazy morning for the boys and catch up morning for myself, I made everyone come outside to help me on the garden projects. My first priority was the little strip we have between our driveway and house. Last year we totally couldn’t keep up with all the weeds and it looked pretty horrible. So today I dug out all the weeds, raked up all the leaves that settled over winter, and started covering the area with black mulch. I could only fit three bags in my cart last night, so that obviously wasn’t nearly enough for the project! But I think it’ll look really nice when it’s done! There are two rose bushes in that area, but I’m hoping to use nice potted flowers to fill in the gaps this year.
Second order of business is our vegetable garden. I started digging up the edges of the three sides. I plan on fencing it in because the bunnies kept eating it all last year. But I can’t make up my mind if the fence should be on the inside or outside of the clothesline poles. We don’t really use the clothesline other than to put pool towels out in summer. But they’re cemented in, so they’re not going anywhere! Anyway, the garden is feeling really, really big. But we’re also planning to plant a lot of stuff! I’m hoping we can get the sod dug up and everything fenced in and ready to go in the next couple of weeks.
That’s all I managed to do today, but I’m also thinking about a small flower garden along the edge of the garage in the backyard. I thought it would be a good place for the boys to plant sunflowers with some other bright flowers in front of them. But that’s also where Annie’s tie chain is going to constantly be pulled through, so I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. Maybe I can get a smaller more decorative fence to put in front of it.
We also have our potted plant gardens figured out too. I bought four matching teal pots for the front steps which I’m going to fill with pink geraniums. And we’re going to line all the back steps with pots filled with herbs. Those are Caden’s specialty. We are also planning on planting two apple trees somewhere in the back yard and a lemon tree for in the house. Lots to do!! I’ve never considered myself ANY good at gardening, but it’s an ongoing project that the boys are actually interested in, so we’re going to run with it!
After lunch we drove to Shopko and True Value to try and find more black mulch without needing to leave town, but didn’t have any luck. So it was another quiet afternoon at home. In between games and everything, we were also checking out all the things from their Easter baskets. They were having a ton of fun with those water beads. I’m not quite sure what you’re supposed to do with them, but we were putting them in balloons to make squishy balls.
We had dinner, which I actually made, and then Caden and I took Annie to the dog park for our final spring break activity.
Overall, it was an even quieter spring break than I was expecting. I mean, my kids really do seem to appreciate low key, minimal effort activities. All they really want to do is play video games or play outside. Preferably at parks or playgrounds where they’re the only kids around. They both seem to love the dog park and watching all the dogs interact in between finding new trees to climb and holes to dig and sticks to fight with. So they probably did everything they wanted to do this break. I’m just disappointed, as always, that we didn’t do more. I really tried to give them a lot of my attention, avoided work, and tried to make the most of it. But I am actually sad to send them back to school tomorrow. Though that sadness gives me hope for summer! I’ve been in a bit of a panic realizing that school is done in a month and a half. But it’ll be okay. Chaotic, but okay. š
Moving On
Well, I’m not writing a Sunday Intentions post this week, since it’s already Tuesday night. But catching up on some of the topics from my last few posts…
Soccer starts tomorrow. We decided to leave Caden in with the first and second grade group. It seemed like the right decision. But then this afternoon the director emailed me to tell me she moved Caden to the third and fourth grade group so he could be with his friends. At this point it seemed like I would be super obnoxious to tell her no, move him back, so I guess that’s what we’re doing. It will surely be more challenging for him, but hopefully more fun since he will be with his friends. It also means a third night a week of soccer, including actual games. But only a six week time frame, so hopefully we can all handle it! Even though those six weeks fall into the busiest six weeks of our year!!
Today marks our third full week of having Annie. Even though those first two weeks were very rough on me emotionally, this past week everything has seemed to really settle down. She’s part of the family. We all love her. The boys have SO much fun playing with her every day. I’m still mildly stressed about leaving her in the kennel when I’m going to be gone for longer periods of time, but…that’s life. Now that she’s destroyed everything that was within reach, I’m hopeful that she’s actually settling down for a bit. She does go in there occasionally to sleep during the day, so it’s not like she’s scared of it. The morning we were going to go the egg hunt and didn’t, I already had her in the kennel, so I just left her in there for awhile and she was snoozing away. So hopefully she just needs to get used to the idea herself. Overall, all my hesitancy about her is gone. She really adds a lot of love to our family!
As for the rest of the week ahead…I need to get back on track! I seriously need to sit down and get to work. That’s my goal for tomorrow. I’d like to get the mulch bought and laid out too, so ONE of many gardening projects is done. I also want to get Easter decorations put away and the house cleaned up again. I keep daydreaming about having clean countertops. Maybe I can make that happen. Or maybe I should just schedule a party because that’s the only time the house ever gets truly clean!! I’m also looking forward to hopefully going to the Dane County Farmer’s Market this Saturday. It’s been a long winter without that bit of weekly fun!
And that’s it!
