This post isn’t about how I can’t wait for spring break to come (I am ready for it, though).

This post isn’t about how the kids are going stir crazy (I can’t say they are – they were perfectly behaved for both of my subs Friday and today).

This post isn’t about packing for a trip (not really going anywhere except for one college visit).

This post is about creating my To-Do List for spring break. My first list is a list of what I want to get done at school before Friday 3:30 pm. Papers to grade, lessons to plan, a room to organize, leftover copies to recycle, desks to straighten, book shelves and counters to organize.

My second list is a list of things I want to get done for my mom. Clean out the spare bedroom closets, move the office stuff to a spare bedroom upstairs, turn the office into a bedroom for her, clean the house from some construction work that was completed, call companies for estimates on redoing her driveway.

Then there is my third list that I have for my house, myself, and the kids. Cleaning the house, cleaning out closets and drawers, making appointments for dentists and physicals and dermatologists, ordering blinds, looking into new phones, taking time to go for a spa treatment, make some exchanges at the mall, meet up with a friend or two, organize the office which is the kids’ gaming area, cousins sleepover.

The things NOT on the list: go out to lunch and dinner most nights, order takeout for the nights we want to stay in, sit on the couch, play games on my phone, read books, take naps. In all honesty, I should put these on a fourth list because THESE are the things that will get accomplished and I will have to wait for summer break to mark off anything off the other three lists!

Four years ago, 9 days after her 10th birthday, Tessie was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. She spent three days in the hospital and I didn’t leave for even a minute. The doctors wouldn’t release her until Pete and I had the proper education so we can care for her on our own. I joined a Touched by Type 1 page on Facebook that was recommended to me by one of Tessie’s teammate’s mom (the younger brother was T1D).

Three years ago, one of the moms posted about celebrating her daughter’s Diaversary – the anniversary of being diagnosed. I didn’t understand why anyone celebrated the day you are diagnosed with a lifelong condition that needs constant care, but she then explained that they celebrate years of being strong, brave, resilient, and healthy. I mentioned this to Tessie, told her I can take a personal day, take her out of school, and we can do whatever she wants for the day. She was all about it! She planned a day of shopping in the city and lunch and dinner at her favorite places.

Two years ago we were on “lockdown” so we spent the day at home, learning remotely.

One year ago we acknowledged it and she got to pick out dinner and dessert for that night.

Today I had to remind her at dinner. Tessie said, “Oh you should have told me. I didn’t remember that. Um, do you think John could go get us ice cream from Dairy Queen? I’ll change my pump while he goes so that way I won’t go too high when I eat my Oreo cheesecake blizzard.”

In some ways, this is a lifelong burden she will have to deal with every second of every day of her life, but in other ways, this is just her new normal.

While watching the championship games being played for the tournament weekend my phone dings. A text from Tessie: “$80 is an absurd amount for a pair of straight leg jeans from Abercrombie righttt?”

“YES!!!”

“OK. Just checking.”

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As soon as I walked into the door at 10:30 pm Tessie ran to hug me and kiss me and tell me she missed me.

“I missed you, mama. I’m sure you’re tired.”

“I am. We were up early to pack up and check out, then we were at games from 1:00 – 6:20 and then we had a 5 hour drive.”

“Oh OK. It’s just that I went shopping with Yiayia so I wanted to show you what we bought.”

“Sure. Let me see what you really needed.”

Tessie proceeds to not only show me what she bought, but also explain how these jeans are different then the other ones she has, why these gym shoes are necessary because her other ones are more for winter and she doesn’t have spring ones, and then the final question, “So, do you think that I could keep all of it or does something have to go back?”

“It’s fine. You can keep it all.”

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Andrew comes in to my room to say goodnight. His goodnight is a recap of the weekend – his practices, what they ate, and what they did. He also caught me up with his grades, emails I need to answer, and things I need to print out and sign. “Even though sometimes you annoy me, I miss you when you’re not home.”

I’m glad I’m back home and all caught up on what I missed!

Getting away this weekend was just what I needed . . . time with my boy before he goes away to college at the end of summer.

When this basketball tournament comes around each year, we usually go as a family of 5. With Pete being short help at work, he couldn’t leave for a whole weekend. Andrew knew there were already a lot of players going and knew he wasn’t going to get a lot of playing time, so he decided that it wasn’t worth missing Friday’s classes. Tessie didn’t feel like spending her days watching basketball games and her nights hearing about basketball. So it turned out being just John and me. As soon as we headed out he turned to me and said, “It’ll be fun this weekend, just the two of us, Mom. We haven’t done this in a long time.” He’s right. It’s usually the boys with Pete and Tessie with me, or the boys with me and Tessie with her dad, but rarely is it me with just one of the boys.

Today has been about doing whatever he wants. He decided that we could go with his cousins to have a late breakfast before his Saturday games, but he chose to go with the team for dinner. Sometime during the day the boys on the team decided they didn’t want to join the parents for dinner and they would rather order pizza and hang out at the hotel lobby watching March Madness games. I asked John if he would like to join the team and I go with the parents or if he would like to come with to the dinner or if he would like us to go out with the cousins or go somewhere just the two of us. He decided to go ahead with the planned team dinner. He didn’t mind if the guys weren’t there because “I hang out with them throughout the day, so I’d like to go with you. Um, I can order a steak, can’t I?”

I love that he makes decisions based on the food being offered. I love that he loves spending time with me. I love that he loves me. I love the boy that made me a mom. I love my John Boy 💙

The talk today has been about all these NCAA March Madness basketball games and the upsets of everyone’s brackets. My cousin is on some website that tells him there are only 166 perfect brackets as of now. OMG! It’s down to 67 now. The latest update was there were 2 perfect brackets left, but those brackets had each chosen a different winner for the current game. Obviously, once that game was finished, there would only be one perfect bracket left. And this is only Day 2 of March Madness!

The only bracket I’m following is the Pan Orthodox Tournament in Detroit. John played at 7:00 pm tonight. His team won 65-37! Game 2 is tomorrow at 2:30 pm. I can’t wait to see my boy do what he loves. Good luck to John and his team!

St. Patrick’s Day is the day everyone pulls out anything and everything green they have and wear it proudly all day and all night. I am not one of those people. I tend to stick to black, gray, and a few maroon tops (bought for me from my daughter). I have two army green color shirts, but one is summery and the other I wear around the house. So, of course everyone was asking, “Where is your green?”

Thankfully, none of my students asked. I think they already know that I don’t wear green and I don’t dress up for the dress up days. But teaching 6th grade, I didn’t have too many dress in green either. Maybe they think We’re too old for that– so I’m going to go along with that thinking. I’m too old for that!

Last night was a late night. My niece and my nephew are in town for spring break and they came to hang out with my kids. My nephew invited us to join the family for dinner. The kids wanted to and my husband and I can’t ever pass up Greek Islands (Greek restaurant). We didn’t get to the restaurant until 8:45, which means we didn’t get back home until 10:30 pm.

John comes into my room and we’re talking about his basketball tournament this weekend and talk turns to my job.

John: Do you feel stressed going to work?

Me: Not really. It’s not like I jump out of bed excited to go to work every morning, but that’s because I’m not a morning person.

John: But you don’t stress over being at work?

Me: No. Not really.

John: That’s what I want. I want to go to work, make money, and not be stressed or annoyed.

Andrew walks in.

Andrew: John IS annoying.

Me: That’s not what we were talking about. YOU are annoying.

Andrew: You know what’s annoying about you, mom?

Me: My lectures?

Andrew: No, I actually don’t mind those because they make sense and

Me: Let me read my blog to you.

Andrew: You’re doing it mom! That’s what’s so annoying about you.

Me: What? Interrupting you? I don’t mean to, but if I don’t say what’s on my mind then I will forget.

Andrew: No. It’s annoying when you explain your thinking for Wordle and when you want to read your blog to us.

Me: But it’s a short one.

Andrew: Good night, Mom.

Me: You’re so rude! John, let me read this one to you.

John: Good night, Mom.

These past few weeks, but especially this week, my students think they are on spring break. Not much work is getting done in class. No work is getting done at home. They are not being kind to each other, but they chalk it up to “we’re just kidding”. But they’re expecting recess for most of the day because “it’s nice out”.

They definitely don’t like when I remind them, “We are working all the way until the Friday of spring break, and if the work isn’t done by then, then you will work throughout spring break.” I saw a little more work completion today and I had 9 kids stay for study hall as opposed to my usual 1.

I’m sure under their breath they are counting down the days (along with some choice words for me).

Positive – It is still daylight when I leave school at 5:30 pm.

Negative – I’m staying later than I have because the daylight is fooling me to think that it’s not that late.

Positive – The sunlight cheers me up.

Negative – The sunlight makes me feel like I should be outside enjoying it, but I just want to take a nap.

Positive – I feel like I will get so much done because there is so much more day time hours.’

Negative – I feel guilty because nothing gets done during those daylight hours.

Positive – It is still light out when we barbecue.

Negative – We start dinner at 8:30 pm because the daylight is confusing us.

Positive – I lose track of time thinking it’s still early.

Negative – I look at the time and see that it’s almost 10:30 and I haven’t even started my Slice.

I LOVE the extra daylight from the last day of school until the first day of school when I don’t have to follow a schedule, but during the school year could we please keep the daylight hours consistent? Thank you!

This is how I Slice and why:

I usually don’t write until the evening because I don’t want to write about something and then something even better comes up. I do not have “saved” slices that I started for future dates nor do I save something that happened a day or two before and slice about it at a later date. For example, I watched the boys play basketball yesterday but I knew I was going to slice about Tessie since it was her birthday, so that story won’t be told.

Once I post my link, the page reloads and brings me back to the top with the latest posts showing. Well, I scroll ALL the way to the bottom (as if I were entering another comment) and start to scroll to the top – it wouldn’t make sense to read the evening posts before I read the morning posts.

I stop and read any and all posts that catch my attention either because of the title of the post, the teaser, or because I “know” that person from previous posts or they are from my district. Sometimes I leave a comment, but sometimes I don’t. But this got me thinking that if I don’t leave a comment the person wouldn’t know that I read their post, BUT leaving a comment on all the posts each day would take me an extra hour or two (yes, I read that many – at least 30-40 slices a day). It just hit me last night . . . I might not leave a comment, but it doesn’t take much time to hit LIKE so the author knows it has been read by me.

Once I reach all the way to the top, I then refresh the page so it can reload and I can now see any posts made since I last refreshed the page. This time I stay at the top of the page and scroll down until I get to the stories I have already seen.

Slicing from start to finish takes me about 2-3 hours, but I have been enjoying all the different writing styles and stories and the glimpses into other people’s worlds.