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!

We made more awesome memories!

This was our "accidental trip" weekend, where I had thrown out a request to hang out in a group chat that included our friend in KC.  We were all checked into our motel in IL by mid-afternoon, and we headed out to begin our fun!  We hit two wineries, a Mexican restaurant, and a wine bar.  This morning we got up and had breakfast before we left.  We are so grateful that Catherine and her boyfriend (we'll call him Zeke) were willing to come and stay with Janey this weekend.  To say that we laughed is an understatement.  We also talked about our summer plans for our trip in July, and after about 15 suggestions and two hours of planning, we decided to stick to our original plan and stay with our friend.

I'm so glad that our friends enjoy these times as much as we do and are willing and able to share these weekends.  It was so wonderful to get away and not worry about being responsible for a bit.  And now, only one week until spring break!