Spring weather makes everything better

I mostly lost my voice over the weekend — I couldn’t sing on Sunday — but the weather was lovely. In the low 60s both days. So we got outside a lot. There was an extensive TOAD (Time Outside After Dinner) session on Saturday evening, and the 12-year-old and 9-year-old rode their bikes up and down the street Sunday evening. The forsythia, daffodils, and plum trees are blooming. I hear that the cherry blossoms in Washington DC are hitting their peak this week (if not already) but I’m not sure I will make it down for that this year. Anyway I was thinking with the kids that it was a lot easier to get them off their screens when there was an appealing outdoor option! Same for adults, really. Whenever we’re trying to spend less time on something, it helps to have something else really pulling us away, rather than just relying on discipline.

I tried running again. I ran a half-mile lap around a nearby school, then walked that lap, then ran it again, then did another short walk/run alternation. I went pretty slowly. It was fine from a back perspective though my lungs were a little less happy (given whatever I had that made me lose my voice, ugh). Spring is a nice time to be able to go out for a run, so I’m hoping that I can resume that painlessly.

I took the 12-year-old shopping at Old Navy on Saturday and she was getting frustrated in the changing rooms because the girls’ sizes don’t really fit anymore, and there wasn’t a huge selection in the larger sizes. So I brought her various shorts in women’s XS or S sizes and these turned out to fit, so then we were able to find the various spring/summer clothes we needed, and with a lot more options. Phew! My husband took her and two friends to the middle school musical on Saturday night, which turned out to be quite the hot ticket — it sold out for every show! Good thing I had bought four tickets several days earlier. The 14-year-old ran sound for the show so we shuttled him back and forth to the school a fair amount this weekend too. It sounds like it went well.

The kids made a leprechaun trap, but failed to catch him (again!) He left a lot of candy this time around. We also had green pancakes shaped (sort of) like 4-leaf clovers on Sunday morning.

We have spring break the last week of March, so I am racing to get through various things before then. This will also close out Q1, so I took a few minutes to reflect on the past three months over the weekend. I’ve stuck with my Bach listening and sonnet writing. My book proposal is closing in on finished. I am doing my back exercises…but from a physical therapy perspective since I feel like a ridiculous amount of the past few months have been centered on dealing with the fall out from my back+leg pain incident in mid-January. Here’s hoping that Q2 will feel more normal!