Dry Run

My three-week stretch of having kids on Spring Break is coming to a close.

The practice of enrolling our children in the "right school for them," has, in our case, resulted in our children never attending the same single school: they're always spread out among two or three schools in any given year. This practice has yielded academic advantages for the kids, as they each receive the education that suits their learning style, needs, interests, etc. The drawback, of course, is that they rarely have the same days off! With some exceptions, like Winter Break and some federal holidays (Memorial Day & Labor Day come to mind), the rest (teacher in-service days, conference days, Spring Break, and we-couldn't-think-of-a-good-reason-so-we-made-one-up days) are different among the schools.

For Spring Break, my son had two weeks off, and my daughters had one week off immediately following his.

Some might be tempted to complain about having kids home on break for three consecutive weeks. {Who me? Okay, maybe I've succumbed to that temptation a couple times in the past... But not these days.} We made the choice to put them in different schools, and for good reasons other than when their breaks occur. And although having different breaks precludes us from going away as a family, it allows me to spend time with the children separately.

Over my son's break, we took a four-day trip to New York City. Another day, we drove to Georgetown, Kentucky, to tour the Toyota plant there. Both are trips that my daughters would not have appreciated. When we weren't traveling, and he wasn't hanging out with friends, we enjoyed our time together.

Over my daughters' break, we didn't go far, but we took a day trip to Columbus, Ohio, to visit COSI. We went shopping. We saw some friends we hadn't seen in a while. We enjoyed our girl time together.

In both cases, we spent so much concentrated time together, with few outside obligations and lots of fun activities, that we seem to have renewed our relationships. We're happy and relaxed, and that's so important for a family.

BUT - and there had to be a but somewhere - as fun as the last three weeks have been, I have not been oblivious to that critter, named To Do List, that lurks quietly in the background and grows a little more each day.

Instead of being frustrated by my reduced productivity these last weeks, I simply consider it a dry run for summertime. We'll have twelve weeks in which my time is not only my own: it's theirs, too. That means that some of my projects and priorities will simmer on the back burner until the end of August.

And that's okay. For those twelve weeks, my priorities will once again be the three little people we brought into this world many years ago and who will be with us for only a few more.

But in the meantime, come 8:00 a.m. Monday, I'd better get crackin'. April and May will fly by faster than I realize. Then my dry run will be but a fond memory - and I'd better be ready for the real thing, starting June 2!