Today was my first day back at work after having the week off for Spring Break. Thanks to furloughs and the César Chávez holiday, this is the first Spring Break I’ve had since being a college student many years ago. And let me say, it was SO nice to have the time off.
What made it so great is that the entire office/department that I’m a part of closed for Spring Break. This made it possible for everyone in my area to enjoy the week off while the work didn’t pile up at the office. As many of you know, when you take vacation, the work doesn’t stop and you come back from a restful break even more stressed than when you left. But with us being closed for the furlough, we all came back to an office that was closed for the week. It was a great feeling.
Bryan, who also is affected by furloughs since we work at the same place, also had the week off for Spring Break. And we decided to keep Sophie home with us as well in order to spend quality family time together.
Although this is not one of my traditional blog posts, I felt like journaling all the things I did during Spring Break. Here it goes…
- Cooked the following dinners that we ate during the week: Cheddar corn chowder; Grilled chicken, sautéed zucchini and matzo mall soup; Lemon cream pasta; Potato leek soup; Southwestern turkey burgers; Beef briscuit and mashed potatoes.
- Attended Saturday morning music class with Sophie (this is done on a weekly basis).
- Wrote two blog posts.
- Created the “Bookshelf” page on my blog and updated the “About Leah” page.
- Walked the dogs three times.
- Went to the park twice with Bryan, Sophie and the dogs.
- Attended the first night Passover seder dinner with my family.
- Prepared the second night Passover seder dinner for Bryan, Sophie and me.
- Bought a variety of fresh green vegetables at our community Farmer’s Market – broccoli, three heads of lettuce, asparagus, zucchinis and leeks for only $10!
- Browsed two bookstores.
- Went on a date with Bryan to Fleming’s restaurant.
- Took Sophie to an Easter egg hunt and cupcake decorating at a local children’s boutique.
- Finished reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle; started reading The Shadow of the Wind; and finished four magazines.
- Completed our April menu (i.e. determined all the April dinners I would cook), and did our big monthly shopping trips at Trader Joe’s and Costco.
- Prepared and froze ten Cycle C Once-a-Month Cooking dinners.
- Enjoyed dinner at Claim Jumper with family friends and the kids.
- Did three loads of laundry.
- Completed two Cardio Blast/Pilates sessions. Subsequently was sore the day after the first session.
- Totaled up our March expenses and paid April bills.
- Filed (and paid) 2009 federal and state taxes.
- Uploaded and ordered March photographs.
- Taught Sophie to finger paint.
- Baked sugar cookies with Sophie.
- Had a doctor’s appointment.
- Baked peanut butter chocolate bars.
- Made salad croutons out of wheat Chex cereal.
- Watched way too much of PBS Kids and Disney movies.
- Watched It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown and had to explain to Sophie that the Easter bunny was not, in fact, a beagle.
- Watched Sherlock Holmes.
- Got (somewhat) caught up on DVR television shows.
- Did quite a bit of reading and research into the blog-o-sphere.
- Updated my Facebook status a total of 12 times.
- Took a few naps.
- Vacuumed the downstairs of the house. The vacuum is still upstairs waiting for me.
- Cheered on Bryan doing yard work (I don’t do yard work).
- Felt the house shake around me during the 7.2 Baja California earthquake.
So overall, guess I had a good week.
I also did a lot of thinking as to what it would be like if I were at SAHM (stay-at-home mom). While I could not picture being a SAHM at all when Sophie was a baby, I can see it more now that she’s older and interacting with her is more enjoyable. If I were a SAHM, I think the ideal set-up would be three days of half-day preschool. That gives Sophie the stimulation and interaction she needs and would allow me to have some free time to accomplish tasks and errands. That also leaves two full Sophie days to do all the activities children’s activities and errands.
It was tough going back to work today. But as someone who enjoys her routines, I must admit the thought of going back to “normalcy” was nice. And being able to sit for more than 10 minutes without needing to fix a snack or check on the munchkin was also nice. I was not, however, fond of waking up to the alarm clock.
I think Sophie was pretty bored by the end of our time together. She was a bit defiant in a nutty way, laughing every time she decided not to listen to mommy. And judging by the way she ran into her daycare this morning to see her friends and play with the toys, it’s safe to say that she, too, was ready for Spring Break to end.