Headless Chicken Syndrome

We are leaving for our spring break vacation in the Smoky Mountains the day after tomorrow.

Are we packed? 

Nope.

Is the house a mess?

Absolutely.

Do I have a pile-up of work that absolutely must be done before I leave?

Yep.

Do kids have multiple activities that are happening all at once that require a complicated waltz of  driving/pickup/drop-off?

Absolutely.

Laundry? 

Piles and piles of it to do before the trip.

Am I running around in circles flapping my arms?

YES!

Weekend Report - Spring is Here

The daffodils are out! 

I found a few tulip leaves - they look chewed down. (Rabbits? Deer?)

Our apricot tree is blooming. (This makes me a bit nervous - there are still some below-freezing nights ahead).

Other fruit trees have buds that are about to burst open.

In the garden, I found exactly 2 stalks of asparagus poking out of the ground. We planted maybe 10 or 12 crowns last year? Not sure if this is it or if the other ones will be coming up later.

One of our apple trees (the only one that has been doing reasonably well over the last 5 years) is not looking so great. It got hit by a tree branch that came down during one of the winter storms  - we were hoping it would survive...

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We went to see my husband's family and stayed overnight. Kids had a blast with their cousins. I felt kind of out of it (it's the whole "in the slump" thing... like quick-sand and I just can't seem to get out...).

Maybe I can try and get myself out for a solo hike today... 

Slump

I haven't felt motivated to do anything lately.

It's an effort to get myself outside - even though the weather is beautiful, the daffodils are blooming, and the air smells like spring.

I need to get myself out of this slump. There is tons to do - the garden needs work, the house needs cleaning. 

Objectively, life on the small-scale is pretty good at the moment. I just need to force myself to enjoy it. 

Objectively, life on the bigger scale is a mess: Ukraine, Israel, US politics, upcoming presidential elections, ever-increasing antisemitism... Maybe it's not all that surprising I am having a hard time convincing myself that everything is peachy and let's smell the roses.

Or maybe I just need a kick-in-the-butt to gain the momentum needed to start DOING stuff.

Travel Buddies

The trip to Washington DC with my youngest child was absolutely amazing. It felt so special to be spending time together - just the two of us - and to be sharing experiences. We walked a lot, we talked, we went to museums, we took a ton of photos. 

Highlights:

• National Air and Space Museum - we spent close to 5 hours in there (I think the longest I've ever spent in a museum with a human under the age of 15). My personal favorites were Destination  Moon and the Exploring the Planets exhibits. C really liked the Early Flight exhibit and the Planetarium. There is so much information... and it's immersive, and spectacular, and just out of this world.
• National Portrait Gallery - we went the see the collection of the presidential portraits. Very interesting - and I didn't know that there were 4 actual assassinations... 
• Ducks hanging out in the Capitol Reflecting Pool.
• An elementary school we stumbled across thanks to my inability to follow a map - it was named after someone with the same last name as us!
• Butterfly exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History - C loved taking pictures of the butterflies.
• C also loved the rain forest in the Botanic Garden.

In other news: H joined track team. That's wonderful. Except the logistics of picking everybody up (at 3 different schools and usually - but not always -  around the same time)  and making it to (sometimes multiple) evening activities have gotten to a whole other level of complexity. Seriously, this is like Temporal Tetris on steroids.  

Well I Say Now

What a day.

Girls were off school today (because parent-teacher conferences).

I met with C's teacher in the morning (all good there) then worked like papa Karlo (as my father would have said). Meaning - it was a very intense day of work. Good news: I finished all my hot projects that need to go to clients tomorrow. I am done!

C and I will be going to Washington DC for our first overnight mom-and-kid trip! We are both so excited. She is all packed. I will be packing when I get home from rock climbing (no, I am not rock climbing - the pigs are not flying yet - but H has her weekly lesson and I am catching up on email and blogging while she climbs).

The weather is going to be iffy and I don't know what jacket to bring. Winter jacket might be too warm. Leather jacket is too heavy and bulky. Vest - not warm enough. Fleece - meh, but maybe. Definitely will bring a light rain jacket.

This was a bit of a rough week... I might have to sit down and write a post about our awful Monday evening (kid stuff, lot of tears and drama) and an even worse Tuesday afternoon (I was 40 minutes late to pick up one of the kids from track practice - the one who caused drama and stuff on Monday evening). Sigh. 

Weekend Categories

Movies and TV:

• My mom, daughter, and I went to see Dune II. It was well done but not satisfying - and I can't quite figure out why.
• An episode of Foyle's War - really liked it.

Reading:

• Finishing up Black Wind, White Snow - I am really curious if the author, Charles Clover, will be publishing any other books.
• Random audio books (thrillers) - ie, The Therapist (B.A. Paris) - that were meant to be listened to while doing boring exercise or chores - but sometimes take over my life because I can't stop listening.
• Article in the New Yorker about solar storms and how they can disrupt communications and electric grid - disturbing and interesting.

Adventure:

• Does going to the movie theater count? I think it should.
• I have a 1:1 trip with our youngest to Washington DC coming up

Community and Friends

• Organized a parent get-together during Hebrew School. 
• Went on a walk with my husband

Weirdness

• I feel weird. I mean, weirder than usual. Disconnected from reality. Disconnected from people. Usually, this is a signal that I need to make more of an effort to socialize and spend time with friends. Except that I have been doing a bunch of social stuff - and probably weirding people out because I am not quite 100% present. I can't explain it.