THis past week

Andrew's mom went home today.  I miss her already!  I so wished she lived closer, but then if she did she wouldn't need to stay here for long visits, and I love having her.  At the same time, I'm always ready to regain my space after her visit.

Andrew ended up being sick all week.  He has completely lost his voice.  There is absolutely nothing there.  This is day five, and part of him is panicking.  He went back to urgent care, but it seems to still be just a virus.  He feels so much better, but the voice is not returning at all.  As someone who totally relies on his voice for his job, he is growing concerned.  I suspect it he just needs some more time.  

Catherine has also been sick this weekend.  Everyone was going to come over for dinner, but we didn't want her to share her germs, and she didn't need to be exposed to Andrew's germs either.  Thomas and Lyndi did come over and spend the night.  We ordered some food and had a blast (pun!!) watching Artemis splash down.  I love sharing historical events with my kids, and especially Thomas.

We are down to 28 days of school to go.  Can't wait for summer!

Easter 2026

Today was a very nice day, in spite of Andrew being sick.  He started running a fever last night, and felt lousy.  I slept in a different room.  Today he has not had much of a fever, but his throat really hurts and he is achy.  The rapid test came back negative, so they are doing the throat culture but are treating it as just a virus and he'll have to ride it out.

My mom and the kids were here.  Fortunately, we were having a fairly simply meal, so Andrew being unavailable didn't really affect anything.  My cleaning is a different story, but I still got it done.  None of us slept overly well last night, and I suspect it will be an early night tonight.

It's a chilly day, and although cloudy earlier, the sun came out laster in the day.  It feels like the "official" beginning of spring now.  I'm so grateful that our family spent the day together, I'm so grateful I took lots of pictures, and I'm so grateful that the house is mostly cleaned up and put back together!  Tomorrow is another day off as well.  So grateful.

The Easter baskets are ready

Easter is happening here tomorrow.  If I'm totally honest, this holiday has always been a struggle for me.  We never particularly had set traditions as a kid, although as I became a teenager we always spent the holiday with my Dad's side.  Because my family wasn't religious, it was just more of a "whatever" holiday.

When I got married, it generally made more sense to spend the holiday with my in-laws.  After all, they are very religious.  At the same time, there were years when that caused resentment because sometimes I wanted to be with my family, or just not have to travel.  Now, my MIL, whom I adore, comes and spends a week or two with us each year for Easter.  It's still tough to balance my MIL's religious devotion with my mother's anti-religious feelings. 

And now our kids are on their own.  Thomas and Lyndi have her side to visit as well, and Catherine and Zeke just kind of "do" whatever.  I was never good about coloring eggs or doing egg hunts when the kids were little so it's not like we are missing any traditions in that regard, but I do still miss them being little.

Life feels really, really heavy right now, but I'm grateful for a few days of quiet and peace!

Listening to a Cincinnati legend

A couple of weeks ago, that Marty Brennaman, the very long-time announcer of the Cincinnati Reds, was doing a fundraiser and speaking at the high school in the next community over.  I find these kinds of events are normally way over-priced, but this was very reasonable.  Andrew agreed it sounded like fun so I purchased two tickets.  I was sure it would be packed, but there were only about 70 people in attendance.  He talked for nearly an hour and then answered questions for another 30 minutes.  We had such a good time!  He talked about how his favorite team was the 1990 Reds that went wire-to-wire (the first team in MLB history to do so), and he talked about his many, many years announcing with Joe Nuxhall, he talked about the Griffeys, and so many other wonderful things.  In some ways, being that close to him was a life-long dream come true.  I'm so grateful that Andrew is a big baseball fan, and I'm so very glad that he became a Reds fan.  It was such a great evening!

It's time to go back to work again

My week of being sick...I mean, my week off (hmph) has come to an end.  I didn't start functioning until Tuesday, and I didn't actually feel well until Thursday evening.  I'm trying to be grateful that I wasn't supposed to be working while I was so icky, but there is a small part of me that is a little bitter that my week wasn't as productive as I had hoped it would be.  Andrew's mom arrives on Tuesday, so I'll be spending tomorrow evening doing LOTS of housework.

One thing I did manage was to see my grandmother both on Tuesday and again this afternoon.  I'll be honest, it's really awful seeing her this way.  She isn't suffering greatly, but this is never how she would want to be living her life.  This isn't really her.  She will be much happier when she is reunited with my grandfather and my dad.

Only 36 more days of school.  We can do this!

Family FaceTime

For Christmas this year, we gave my MIL a gift card towards an iPad.  The plan was to get it for her before she left, but life ended up being busier than we had anticipated, and we found out things weren't as in stock as we would have liked.  We ended up ordering one and having it shipped to her, but it didn't arrive before Andrew came home.  Last weekend, Thomas and Lyndi went to visit her and they were able to get the iPad all set up for her.  Thomas texted today and wanted to do a family FaceTime with everyone.  Unfortunately, my MIL couldn't get it to work, but the rest of us (including Catherine) joined in.  I hadn't seen Catherine in about six weeks, and it had been three weeks since seeing Thomas and Lyndi.  I loved having the opportunity to see my kids and do a quick check-in.  I appreciate the technology to help keep us close.

The beginning of spring break

I have been on spring break for about 29 hours.  And I've felt lousy for about 26 of them.  Ugh!  I could tell I had some drainage earlier in the week, but as soon as I got home yesterday I had a scratchy throat.  I am fairly certain it has developed into a sinus infection.  Not how I wanted to spend this gorgeous day on the first day of my break.

It is what it is though.  I'm watching basketball, although I don't really care about the games at this point.  Andrew attended a memorial service this afternoon for a colleague's mother, and was able to stop in at the service for my co-worker's mother who was also our neighbor.  This evening he has gone to. Dayton to have dinner with friends.  I'm sure this wasn't exactly the day he had planned either.

Fingers crossed I feel better tomorrow after a good night of sleep!