Spring break was a BLAST! But also, super exhausting. I was still recovering from some chest cold that ended up taking root and needed antibiotics to irradiate, but I didn’t start on the meds till the end of spring break and pushed through (sounds like me doesn’t it?). Before I go into the what we did during the break, I want to share a book that I listened to recently. It’s called, “The Power of Vulnerability.” It’s by Brene Brown. It was really inspiring and honestly as I listened to it and then discussed it at book club, I realized it had me unpacking a lot of shame and vulnerabilities that I have maybe harbored, but above that it made me recognize things about myself that maybe I should work on and also how to handle meltdowns/breakdowns from those that have me in their circle of trust. One of my favorite quotes goes something like this (sorry it can’t be an exact quote, I listened to it rather than read it), “We get down in the trenches with those who are struggling. We don’t turn on the lights, but sit with them in the darkness. We don’t walk past them and say “good luck with that,” nor do we climb down until we know the way out and we sit down and allow them to feel, then when they’re ready, we show them the way out.”
We don’t fix their problems for them, rather, help guide them to figure out how to solve their own problems. My amazing therapist during residency did that for me. I told her about a struggle I was having. She asked me when it happened and why. As I talked through the chaos of juggling a newborn, helping two other children with homework, and helping my toddler with all of the things she needed while making dinner and preparing for sports while my husband was working 13-14 hour days 6 days a week. She said to me, “Anyone in your situation would be overwhelmed. That is a lot.” Then she asked me what I typically made for dinner. When I explained to her that I made a meat, a side, and a veggie, her response was, “Every night?!”
I replied, “I want them to be healthy eaters.”
Then she talked me through what healthy eating meant for a kid and asked, “Will they die from a few nights of Mac and Cheese.”
I laughed because that was absurd. Of course they wouldn’t. She continued. “Perhaps you need to lower the bar and make sure they’re fed, but realize that being fed IS enough.”
That hit my heart so hard. Getting validation and then a way to survive. It seemed so simple. Just simplify and maybe I wouldn’t lose my mind every night? And guess what. It worked. I also used a small dose of beta blockers to help me think more logically instead of getting caught up in my emotions. I added meditation, focused on breathing, reached out to those who were able to climb down in the trenches with me without getting stuck down there too. But her ability to be there with me in the darkness till I saw the light was one of the reasons I was able to climb out of that hole.
Brene Brown also talked about how she had to be hospitalized when she was pregnant with her daughter. She said that while she was sitting in the hospital bed she tried to keep working until her husband basically banned her from doing any work. It killed her, because she had been taught through example and maybe through expectations of others that to be sick was a weakness. To take time to heal was a weakness. How many times have I been guilty of “pushing through” instead of getting the help I need? True weakness is NOT asking for help. It took me so long to get over this dang cold because I didn’t want to take a day to rest. I kept working out, cleaning, cooking, running all over town for my family. But then I took a day. I rested. I slept. And guess what? I began to feel better. But it was too late. The possible virus had turned into an infection and I needed additional help to get better– thank goodness for Andy and his ability to prescribe me antibiotics. Imagine if I had listened to my body in the first place and taken time to rest from the get go? Maybe, just maybe I wouldn’t have needed nearly three weeks to feel better and a round of antibiotics. Why do we do this? Oh man. There are so many reasons. But we’ll unpack that another time. Let me share with you the craziness that was spring break. The kids had so much fun, but they were disappointed when I just didn’t have it in me to take them to the lake on the last day. Despite that, by sharing with them that I wasn’t able to because I still wasn’t feeling better, they learned that it’s ok to not do everything. It’s ok to allow people to have time to recover from being sick.
I’ll tell the week in pictures, so for the story, read the captions.
Harvey has been resisting a hair cut for quite sometime, but I finally convinced him by telling him I’d give him a “Mario” haircut. His babysitter said she missed his curls, but when he gets sweaty, they pop right back up. 
Since he was Mario with his new haircut he had his dad dress up as Luigi and now we have the Mario Brothers 
Beverly and Afton created this list over spring break. (This was Afton’s handwriting) This list was the bad list. 
Beverly was the scribe for the good list. 
Monday
I took Afton, Beverly’s friend because her brothers are “over” the zoo and she is NOT. 
I have a lot of random pictures on my phone from our trip to the zoo, because the kids kept borrowing my phone to capture what was important to them. Here’s one of them. I think they did a good job! 
The male lion came out and roared, we all thought that was pretty cool. It sounded a little bit like the kids’ dads when they wake up in the morning. 
Going earlier in the day brings hungrier birds. They were all over us. 
Max opted to NOT join in on the bird front. He said it was because he got attacked by our parrot when he was a baby, but the only memory he has of that is from the story I told about it. 
Beverly is pretty good at rock climbing. 
Maverick made it all the way to the top. 
Of course we had to do a couple of rounds on the merry go round. 
And feed the giraffe, a family favorite. 
This photo was captured by my sister in law in Texas 
We didn’t have a complete eclipse, but it was fun to watch the sun change through the colander, our pinned paper, and the leaves in the tree. 
We didn’t prepare for the eclipse. Lindsay hunted down four solar glasses at a sketch gas station and let us all take a look. We were a little bummed we weren’t with the full eclipse, but it was still a pretty cool experience.
Tuesday
I didn’t take any pictures on Tuesday aside from some organizing I had done at home. While I was organizing, the kids were playing. I allowed them all to invite a friend. Shocker, Beverly invited Afton over. Max invited his best friend from school, Maverick picked a friend from church, and of course we had the Durrant twins over. It was a mad house filled with fart noises, nerf bullets, popcorn scattered across the floor, and lots of fun. I didn’t let Harvey invite a friend, because they’re still kind of the parallel play and I didn’t need to manage another three year old. So instead of joining his siblings in on the madness, he decided to follow me around the house while I took care of various chores. That’s his go to even when it isn’t spring break.
Wednesday
We joined the Durrants for strawberry picking (after I got a good workout at the gym). It was muddy, but we got three full baskets of juicy strawberries and I made to containers of homemade jam, which Beverly and Harvey are thoroughly enjoying. I had planned on taking them to the lake with different friends after the strawberries, but I had zero energy after all of that, so instead we went home and they had quiet time while I put away groceries.
Thursday
Thursday was my jam. Andy graciously planned Thursday to be my day “off.” I did get an hour long pedicure and workout, but I spent most of my day off running errands and cleaning the kitchen without children under foot. It was a rejuvenating day for me and the kids came home exhilarated from spending such a fun day with their dad.
Friday
Friday was family fun day. We started off with a family walk, then we went to the movie, Kung Fu Panda 4. After that we headed straight Dave and Busters. We played to our heart’s content then ate dinner there, played some more, then headed home.
Saturday
Saturday was a day to deep clean the house. I went through two of the three kid bedrooms and we were able to find one bag of trash and one back to donate. It took all day, so I was pretty wiped out by the end, but it was satisfying to see the fruits of our labor… even if it was wrecked by the next day.
