Ah – February vacatioh. It’s my least favorite of the vacations – the winter one is lovely. It comes at the end of a busy holiday season, everyone’s got fun, new stuff to do, read and play with after Christmas and Hanukkah. The April vacation comes just as spring is starting, the snow is melting and we can get outside and run around. But the one in February is just silly. It’s especially silly this year, because Massachusetts is having the snowiest month. Ever. Zillions of snow days, and the kids have missed a bunch of extra days because we live on the hill from hell. At this point, I no longer remember what it’s like to have them in school five days a week.
But February vacation it is – and it’s been chaotic, loud, and messy. We weren’t able to get Glennys until Wednesday because of yet another blizzard (and it’s still unclear if we’ll be able to get her home because we’ve got another weekend storm coming). So the beginning of the week was quiet and calm. Recovering from the last storm for Monday and Tuesday, we were still stuck in the house, but it was relaxing and fun. Then Wednesday, we picked up Glennys, Sarah came over that night and hasn’t left. It’s been a non-stop slumber party at my house for the past several nights, and I’m so tired, I could fall asleep right now.
It’s interesting to me how much things have changed. I’ve had these six kids here for vacations since before Jessie started school, and there are some things that are as true now as it was seven years ago. The house will always be a mess. I’ll never be caught up on dishes or laundry. Dollhouses, army guys, and barbies will be everywhere. But now they mix in making their own board games, and working on the Pikenesian society they made up a few years ago. They drink coffee sometimes, but also keep using Julie’s sippie cups. They stay up a LOT later – it’s close to midnight most nights before I can coax them into laying down.
My favorite part is that what they seem to enjoy the most is just telling stories. Remembering back to when they were little, and they all talk over one another and laugh and yell. Because even when it seemed like all we were doing was just hanging on and hoping to survive their respective childhoods, what we were really doing was building memories. Building a family. These people really, really like each other. Not all the time, and sometimes they do try and kill each other, but mostly – they’re all really good friends as well as brothers and sisters, and I love that.
In other news – we’re still settling into Marc’s new job, having two cars, and living life like normal people. Marc gets up at five every morning and is out of the house by five thirty. I’m still adjusting to the fact that he’s going to bed so much earlier, he’s conking out around the same time the kids are. But he’s got two glorious days off on the weekends, and I’m still not used to it. Being able to make plans, and know that he’ll be here for them – it’s fabulous.
There are still a lot of things that we need to figure out – I don’t know what I’m going to do in the fall (and there’s a Pampers commercial that features a little baby in a bathtub – every time it comes on, I swear to God my uterus ACHES). We need to start looking for a new place to live this spring/summer. I need figure out what kind of activities we’re going to be doing this summer, I’m leaning away from structured summer camp, and maybe looking at a class or two for each of them instead. I’m looking forward to Marc’s next step at his new job, when he’ll be based out of Worcester and not forty five minutes away in Westford. And both of our computers are broken – which is why I’m not blogging as much. I had borrow Jessie’s laptop to get this post done.
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