Too Many "No School" Days

 Kids had half-day on Thursday, then they were off on Friday, and we were all off on Monday. In March, the kids are going to have a 5-day weekend (Thursday-Monday) - no idea what I'm going to do... I don't really want to take time off (because I am taking the whole week off for spring break, plus I have a bunch of medical appointments coming up that I'll have to take some half-days), we no longer have any childcare arrangements, there are no camps that we know of... Having 3 kids at home, with no scheduled activities, while working = not good. Why are they having a break just a couple of weeks before the spring break - that makes no sense.

What got done over the long weekend:

• We went ice skating again at the outdoor rink! It was mostly fun (except for some annoying kids who kept zooming around every which way, and some teenagers who were oblivious to everyone else and were cursing*).
• We went for a hike to a new (for us) state park. It was a beautiful day, the hike was very scenic, but we had to cut it a bit short because we needed to get back home in time for E's Hebrew lesson. Which then got cancelled. But the girls were happy to not have to hike for too long. And it was super muddy - there is only so much mud-squelching one can do. So, all-in-all, a good hike but I want to go back when it's not as muddy and do a longer hike there.
• H was sick for a couple of days but all better now.
• C had a sleepover with the grandparents (technically, it was H's turn, but she couldn't go because she was not feeling well.)
• We watched some more Olympics
• Our heater hasn't been working right for the last couple of weeks. So, on Saturday, husband took it apart... and one of the parts broke. So we lost all heat - while it was in the 20's F outside.
• We  had our 2 fireplaces going non-stop for over 24 hours. Two of the kids camped out in the attic, where there is electric heat, setting up camp and brining out the sleeping bags. H slept in her room, but in a sleeping bag and 2 blankets. Husband and I slept in the living room in front of the fire, which he had to take care of throughout the night.
• The house was chilly, but not totally frigid thanks to the fireplaces! We all enjoyed reading and playing board games within the 2 m radius of the fireplace. We did not enjoy stepping away from the fireplace...
• Husband managed to find the broken part on-line and had it shipped (I don't want to know how much he payed for next-day shipping). He was hoping that once he replaced that part, everything would work again.
• The replacement part did not fix the heater problem... The thing was going on and off every 5 second but no heat was produced. The problem actually got worse - before my husband started messing with the heater, it was not working well, but it was at least working some.
• After poking around on-line and poking around inside the heater parts, husband figured out that there was a rubber tube connecting A to B, and that rubber tube was not quite properly on. There was condensation inside the tube and some build-up of mysterious nature. After cleaning out and re-connecting the rubber tube, the heater started working!
• As of Monday morning, we have a warm house again! 
• Why we didn't call the experts first thing on Saturday, before husband took apart the heater in hopes of fixing it himself? Because we wanted to wait until weekday, because we did not consider the situation an emergency, because husband was hoping to fix the problem himself, because he likes saving money, because fixing things makes him so happy. Realistically, if we called someone on Saturday, we probably would not have the thing fixed by Monday morning. 
• There were also the usual chores - laundry, vacuuming, dishes...
• I baked Challah and it was a total disaster. I did not add enough yeast (misread the recipe), so it did not rise well and the whole thing turned out super-dense. We ate it all (some of it got made into french toast for Monday breakfast).

*Generally, I don't care if people are cursing. But it annoys me when they are cursing in a public place full of people, and not because something heavy fell on their foot but just to appear "cool".