After today, Slice of Life 2023 is over!

After today, my daily reading of different slices is over!

After today, the guilt of reading a slice, but not commenting will be over!

After today, a weekend remains before spring break is over!

After today, my spring break to-do list is over!

It now becomes my Summer to-do list!

Thank you to everyone that read and commented on my posts, and thank you to those that stopped to read but didn’t comment. I am you! Some nights I just enjoyed reading numerous slices after posting a handful of comments. Yet others I commented on almost every single post I read. This year it was a struggle to write for 31 days. We will see what March 2024 is like . . . I might see you again then!

The one thing I like about a break from school is the freedom of not being on a schedule for the majority of the day.

This spring break has been more scheduled than I had hoped since Monday and Tuesday consisted of two college visits for my high school senior. Yesterday was an unscheduled day. My sister coming over was on the schedule, but her arrival and departure times were open.

Today was another scheduled day, but I didn’t mind this one. I got up early enough to get to the donut shop early enough to have a choice in donuts, but not so early that I dreaded getting out of bed. I then had an appointment for a facial and met up with my friend for lunch.

Being on a schedule isn’t always a bad thing!

Spring break has the typical benefits that everyone is aware of like sleeping in, going to bathroom whenever you get the urge (and not having to wait for lunch or your planning period), eating out, going on a trip, and getting things accomplished that otherwise would have to wait until summer.

For my kids and me, spring break brings about the benefit of my sister coming over and making some Greek treats for us for lunch. My kids are rarely awake before 2 pm, but today they were awake by noon anticipating what Titi was going to make for us.

In walks Christina with Greek fries, her own frying pans, olive oil, Greek cheeses, tomatoes, fresh bread, eggs, and Motion (a fruit drink the kids love).

She made us French fries, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, saganaki, crushed tomatoes and burrata on Italian bread, and Greek pizza (pizza dough with olive oil and crumbled feta cheese. It was amazingly delicious!

A few hours later John called and asked if we did anything today. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that being away at college caused him to miss out on Titi’s Greek lunch. She is going to have to make another one once all the college kids are back home for the summer.

I don’t know why I can’t meet deadlines early. I have every intention on getting things done and over with, with plenty of time to breathe in a sigh of relief.

But that’s not me!

In January, I asked my sister, “How difficult is it to submit a claim for our Flex Spending account? I have $1200 I haven’t used yet, but I’ve paid more than that in doctor bills.”

“Not difficult at all. It should take you no more than 10 minutes, if that. You have to get it done by March 31st though.”

March 28th: I have to get that done by tomorrow.

My passport expired back in 2020. I thought, This is the perfect time to renew it. I’m home and no one is traveling so no one will be renewing their passport.

November 2022: “Pete, we need to go together to renew the kids’ passports.”

January 2023: “Mom, are we going to Greece this summer? Please! We haven’t gone in 4 years.”

January 2023: I need to renew my passport.

March 26th: To my brother-in-law (a photographer), “Bill, can I come over today so you can take pictures so I can renew my passport? But I want to come today.”

March 28th: I need to put my application and pictures in an envelope and take it to the post office tomorrow. (I fear I won’t get it back before May)

March 27th: Pete asks, “Do we have our paper work ready to go to the accountant to get our taxes filed?”

Me: “Seriously? I have so much going on and we have plenty of time before April 15th.”

I can foresee myself looking for all the papers on April 13th.

That’s just me!

I can’t think of any new topics to write about!

No one wants to read about me NOT being away on spring break, especially when I haven’t really done anything.

I don’t want to write (again) about:

• college visits
• planning my nephew’s wedding shower
• my “spring to-do” lists that most likely will become “summer to-do” lists
• my lack of energy

When I am at school there is always something that a kid will say, or something funny that will happen, or something that I don’t want to forget. Being home doesn’t open itself to all those things happening especially when my kids sleep in until 2 pm.

OMG! Something just happened! I realized my husband who is just one year older than me chronologically is actually about 30 years older than me in regards to his taste in shows/movies.

The reason this just came to me is because as I am typing this, he is watching “The Rockford Files” (1975) and next up is “Kojak” (1975). He will record shows during the day so he can watch them in the evening. Shows like “Highway Patrol”, “Hogan’s Heroes”, “Cannon”, “Barnaby Jones”, and “The Night Stalker”.

Sundays are his favorite though . . . Silent Sundays!

Today has been about catching up!

• I caught up on my sleep – I fell asleep at 2:00 am, up at 8:00 am, back asleep at 9:30 am, and then awake at 11:00 am

• I caught up on my games – I played Wordle, Quordle, Lexoula (Greek Wordle), Sedecordle, Duotrigordle, Word Hurdle (4 letter, 5 letter, 6 letter, and Phrazle), Globle, and Worldle – as well as Woodoku, Sort Em All, and Bongo Blitz

• I talked with my girlfriend for half an hour before she heads out on her spring break trip

• I went through all the mail on the counter

• I finally did all the steps to my skincare routine – that I haven’t done in over 6 months. I already can see the difference 😉

Hopefully the rest of my week can be this productive!

I’m not really one to watch regular season sports of any kind, but I do enjoy watching playoffs and championship games.

But I do enjoy watching the World Cup, World Baseball Classic, Tennis, Olympics, and March Madness. I think I enjoy that I have to invest very little time to get to the end result. No need to watch an entire season which lasts for months. A few weeks of my time, a few nights a week, and we have a winner.

March Madness always gives me a range of emotions. I feel so happy for the underdogs, coming from a place that might not even have a functioning gym for practices, a team that may make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in history, a coach that has coached for decades making it to March Madness for the first time as he wraps up his last year of coaching. When two teams like this play each other, my heart breaks for the team that doesn’t advance. My heart aches for the seniors that may have just played their last basketball game.

The one thing I love the most about sports is watching Pete and the boys watching the games together, whether at home or at a sports bar. Listening to them discuss the players, the teams, and their brackets makes my heart happy.

Spring Break started at 3:30 pm today. This is what has been accomplished so far:

• drove home
• attended my online meeting 4:00 – 5:00 pm
• discussed college choices with Andrew
• picked up Tessie from tennis practice
• ate dinner
• napped from 7:15 – 10:00 pm
• writing Slice of Life for Day 24

Just need to read the many Slices that will draw me in with their teasers.

Spring break is off to a great start. The only problem is I can’t remember if I have something I’m supposed to do tomorrow. I will prepare an I’m sorry text, just in case!

Taking my boys for college visits last year and this year, makes me wonder if I missed out by living at home.

The only options I had were the universities that were within driving distance from my house – Loyola University Chicago, DePaul University, and University of Illinois at Chicago. My older sister was attending Loyola, so as soon as I got the acceptance letter I knew that’s where I would be going come fall.

I wonder if I missed out on being independent. It makes me wonder if living at home caused me to miss out on learning how to cook, how to do laundry, how to live on my own. Because truth be told, I lived at home until I got married at 30 years old. Up until that time, my mom cooked the majority of the meals, with my younger sister cooking here and there since she enjoyed cooking and trying out new recipes. My laundry was done by my mom, and my sisters when my mom was visiting her parents in Greece. Living on my own? I’m still waiting to do that since I went from living with my parents and sister to living with my husband and then later my children.

I still learned to cook – at 30 years old when I got married – and even though it’s been a short 20 years of cooking, I’m already tired of thinking of what to cook!

I learned how to do laundry too. I do it so well that my family saves it all for me claiming, “I can’t do it like you do.” They must also refer to folding it and putting it away.

I’m still waiting to live on my own, but as my home is slowly emptying out I don’t want to learn how to live alone! So, I decided that I will be nice enough to allow my kids to go away to college, to experience what it’s like to not be able to enjoy a nice steak or Italian dinner; doing their own laundry so they can think twice about how quick they want to throw the outfit they wore for an hour into the laundry. But I won’t be nice enough to let them move out permanently after they graduate college. They will have to get married to escape living with me!

Today I have a heavy heart.

I took my son to visit Indiana University.

Four hours away.

He loved it.

I know I have to let him go. I let John go to University of Iowa which is 3 hours away. But it didn’t hurt as much because I still had Andrew and Tessie at home. August will come and I will have both boys gone and just Tessie at home. Then 2 years later, I will have to let her go.

The only thing that puts a smile on my face is knowing that I won’t be an empty nester because when Tessie starts college, John will be graduating college.

I will make him come back home to keep my heart from being lonely.