Today was Tessie’s Birthday Party! She has been called “EXTRA” by my nieces because she always goes above and beyond, and today was no exception!

Since this was her Golden Birthday she wanted gold decorations. Gold fringe to cover the entrance to the sunroom from the family room, gold tassels hanging on the fireplace, a gold banner that says “Celebrate” hanging in the foyer, balloons with gold dots, gold silverware, and even a string of gold lights on the staircase.

We had some unfortunate things to deal with . . . the cake said “Happy Birthday Pessie” so we had to change the P to T without ruining the cake or the frosting, my mom had a runny nose (she was 98% sure it’s just allergies but didn’t want to take the chance that it was something more and she would get the kids sick), some of our guests couldn’t make it because the kids had an upset stomach and another had a fever, but we plan on getting together once everyone is feeling better and social distancing is no longer necessary.

A wonderful day celebrating my sweet girl!

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The email came today and within an hour I started writing my checklist of what will get accomplished in the next 3 weeks.

To Be Completed by April 6th

• clean out dresser drawers
• clean out closets
• redo office
• clean out basement
• grade papers
• make appointments for annual physicals in June
• complete lesson plans for first week back
• donate clothes
• get sticker renewed for car
• take John out for driving practice

And that was what popped into my head the first 10 minutes. I am REALLY HOPING that something will be crossed off the list!

If not, there is another checklist that will be written on April 5th:

To Be Completed by August 10th

Tessie is 12! On the 12th! It is her Golden Birthday! Last night we discussed what we should do for her birthday since we are having a party in Saturday. I suggested we go next week Monday or Tuesday. Tessie said, “Well my birthday is tomorrow, not Monday or Tuesday.” So tonight we went to Wildfire for Tessie’s birthday!

Bison meatballs for appetizers, blue cheese crusted filet medallions for dinner, and a Chocolate molten lava cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert! She told me how her friends decorated her locker and bought her gifts.

The smile on her face put a smile on my face! Wishing you a hundred more happy and healthy birthdays my girl!

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I am sitting next to Tessie as she is working on her social studies homework. Her homework is about her thinking she is 18, an adult, and living on her own. Where will she live? How much will that cost? What monthly expenses will she have? What will you do for food? What kind of budget do you need for your groceries and going out? What form of transportation will you use/need? How much will that cost?

I told her I had a Toyota Camry and i loved it, so that is the car she will have also. “OK. How much will that cost?”

“I will buy it for you.”

“How much will my monthly bills cost?”

“Tessie, tell Mrs. Thill that you are Greek and you will either live with me until you get married or I will pay everything for you. “

Seriously, isn’t 6th grade too young to give kids the stress of thinking about how they are going to support themselves?

Pete texts me asking what time I plan on coming home from work. he obviously forgot I was going to his cousin’s for a hair appointment. I reminded him of my appointment, “I will text you when I am close.”

I text him when I am about 10 minutes away to warm up the leftover pizza for me. As I am eating he is looking at me. “So, what did you do? Get a haircut?”

“Yes, Pete. I cut off about 2 inches. It used to be below my shoulders and now it’s above my shoulders.”

“Oh. OK. It looks nice. Did you do anything else?”

“Well, it used to be dark brown and now it’s got some blond color throughout my entire head.”

“Oh. OK. Yeah, it looks good.”

Boys walk by and notice nothing! Tessie walks by and notices nothing!

I can’t blame them though because I don’t notice the details either.

Tessie turns 12 on Thursday, March 12th. It’s her Golden Birthday. So of course she wants a party. At home. So coming off of the flu, a weekend away to see my niece, and a full work-week, I am not quite sure how all the party prep will get done.

As she plans out the menu, searches for the perfect decorations, prepared the goody bags, and picks out her outfit, I am stressing over having the house clean enough for guests, grocery shopping and cooking for 45 people, as well as getting paperwork done, lesson planning, grading papers, laundry, and booking some needed appointments.

I feel awful that right now I am no where near as excited as Tessie is for this party, but as she shows me the decorations she bought today, and explains where she will put each one, I smile and nod. I want to be excited. . . . but I just know it won’t happen until everything is done and people start arriving on Saturday!

Many people hate the time change. In the fall, although we gain an hour, it is dark when we wake up and dark when we leave work to head home. In the spring, we lose an hour of sleep, but we gain an hour of sunshine.

Looking at it from a selfish point of view, I don’t mind either one. I love gaining the hour of sleep on that Sunday morning in November. Right when I want to beat myself up for sleeping until 11:00 am, I realize it is only 10:00 am, but I then sit in bed reading a book or playing on my phone . . . wasting away that extra hour. Lost just as fast as it was found! In March, I love the extra hour of sunshine. Still daylight out at 6:30 pm! An extra hour of sunshine, is an extra hour of happiness, an extra hour before darkness and the stress of Monday morning start to settle into my mind.

But looking at this from a mom, I don’t like time changes. The kids stay up too late because although the clocks all say midnight, it only feels like 11! Tomorrow morning when I am trying to get my boys out of bed by 6:30, they will moan and whine, and complain that they are tired and “Why do we have to wake up so early?” Add in that one small hour also throws Tessie’s blood sugar numbers all out of whack. Last night her numbers stayed in the low 300s (as opposed to the much coveted low 100s). I am hoping within a few days her numbers and our bodies will adjust to the time change . . . . until we change the clocks again!

Today Tessie and I came to visit my niece at University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. I have never been here so on my way I depended solely on Google Maps. I followed it closely, but questioned it when it wanted me to get off of the expressway only 30 minutes into the two hour trip. I stayed on and saw “REROUTING”. I held my breath as I waited for the updated directions.

While driving I thought what did I do for directions before Google Maps. Well I would look it up on Mapquest. But even with Mapquest and Google Maps, I would always call my dad and tell him where I had to go and the directions the computer gave me. “OK. You can go that way, but why? You are going all the way around.” He always knew which way I should go with just the address of the destination. I was always in awe that my dad, an immigrant that spoke broken English, always knew the way to direct me to get to where I needed to go.

Not having him with me for the last year has been difficult. Driving such a far distance today made me really miss him giving me directions for my drive, but also in life. I knew I could ask him his thoughts and opinion on any decisions I contemplated and he would steer me in the right direction.

Thanks dad for putting me on the correct path in life, not only while driving!

Friday nights are for relaxing! The boys are playing their video games, Tessie is drawing in her journal, Pete is cooking, and I am laying on the couch under my electric blanket watching TV.

The best Friday nights are the ones that don’t hold any plans. Catching up on relaxing. Catching up on family time. Allowing our minds and bodies to relax is needed and necessary.

So tonight we relax before the busyness of Saturday and Sunday take over. We relax before the next work and school week start up again.

My sweet Tessie loves to bake cookies and cupcakes, make hot chocolate, and decorate cakes. She loves to craft and make hand-painted signs for my friend’s daughter after back surgery or for her cousin’s college dorm room. She loves to make slime and sell it to her classmates at school.

My sweet Tessie makes dinner for her brothers, cleans the house to make me happy, and rubs her dad’s feet after a long day at the restaurant. She scratches her brother’s scalp when it’s itchy because of his eczema and blows a small fan on him when the creams he applies “burn”.

My sweet Tessie makes homemade picture frames for Yiayia Nancy for Christmas and one for her cousin/bestie Franny for Valentine’s Day. She carefully chooses gifts for everyone in our family for Christmas and their birthdays.

My sweet Tessie loves to watch The Masked Singer, Cake Boss, Kids’ Baking Championship, and Girl Scout Cookie Championship.

My sweet Tessie also loves to watch SWAMP PEOPLE! She loves watching them searching for alligators, hooking them, shooting them, and lifting them onto their boats. I am not sure how my sweet Tessie got hooked onto Swamp People, but she doesn’t miss an episode. That’s what we are watching now!