Tag Archives: spring break

First Day of Spring Break

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Bowling with all my kids and our friends was a great way to start our staycation this week. 

I am thankful that all the moms and all the kids were able to connect our schedules for a couple hours today and to play together. I love that the kids still want to hang out with us, even the oldest one.

The moms and I became friends in 2001 and we have enjoyed sharing stories and experiences and watching our kids grow up together for 15 years now. I think that’s pretty amazing!  

Bowling is a fun group outing for all ages, getting us moving and laughing and cheering for each other.

What do you like to do on spring break? Do you have fun staycation ideas?

xo

Day 5 – Santa Cruz

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My happy place! I love the beach and just being there makes me happy.  

  

My favorite part today was people watching with my BFF and enjoying the kids just playing. It was sunny and windy so I was a bit cold and wore a sweatshirt the entire day.

Today I saw the beach as a place to build and create and connect. There are free, unlimited building materials everywhere and mixing sand and water is magical. I’ve never thought of it this before this way but today, watching the kids from 0-60 build and play and run and laugh made me smile. There was unlimited entertainment.

Our kids loved bringing big shovels and digging deep holes, making a man cave and a place to sit and hide. 

  

An older gentleman spent hours building a sand bridge. He was like the pied piper, with people coming around to see what he was doing.

Teens were jumping in the waves and then resting and digging for sand crabs, all together in a row. 

Our kids were making soccer fields and soccer hole goals and boundary lines and then playing a game together. They used their boogie boards for the back of the soccer goals and played and ran and shot and laughed and then went in the water to cool off.

They boogie boarded and enjoyed the cold water. They were brave and stayed together, laughing and jumping and riding the waves over and over again.

  

There were women flying kites and naked babies and little toddlers coming over to see what our kids were doing. There was kindness and teamwork and big boys sharing with little boys. There were little ones rolling over and over in the sand because they could.

There were seagulls stealing chip bags and protecting their territory, defending their loot from the other birds. This was so funny to watch.

We watched boats come in and out of the harbor and waves crashing on the rocks. We watched a police boat jet off and jet skiers following them as well and another boat that pulled a broken down boat back into the harbor.

There were volleyball players and football throwers and little ones running back and forth.

The beach is a beautiful place, filled with life and joy and movement.

  

  

This is my happy place!  Where is yours?

Tired Out!!

nAMaste

Fake Break

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We’re on spring break, but we’re not really taking a break, except for a break in our normal routine. This is really hard for me. I want to travel and go, go, go.  I’m not good at slow mo.  I mean I can slow down and appreciate the art of nothingness and doing less and all that good stuff, but it’s really hard for me.  I do like it, don’t get me wrong, but if there were 6 options to choose from, this would be my 6th choice.

I love that the kids are sleeping in and don’t have to rush anywhere. This is really cool. I am enjoying not making lunches and getting out of bed at 6 am, but I naturally wake up early anyway, so this isn’t a huge benefit for me, but definitely for the kids.

I did enjoy getting up and drinking a hot cup of coffee while the house is still and quiet, reading FaceBook updates, looking at magazines and watching the Today show, without any rush. This is cool.

I decided to celebrate spring break by not cooking this week. I’m pretending that we’re at a hotel and we can’t cook. This is making staying at home much more fun! It feels weird to NOT cook, but does make me feel a little less busy and does provide for a break from my normal routine. I told the boys that they were in charge of dinner this week.  I love to cook, but thinking about what to make and pleasing everyone takes work, and we’re on break, remember?  Me too.

Last night, this meant they ordered pizza. Really? I guess they don’t want to cook either.

Tonight, I left out sausages for them to grill and skipped dinner myself as I had to run to a meeting. When I came home, I heated up some left over steak bites and made mini lox bagel bites with capers. I don’t call this cooking, but it was definitely fun.

How do you create a break in your routine? How do you change things up when you can’t do something big? I’d love to hear your ideas. Go ahead. Inspire me.  😉

nAMaste.

Spring Break

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Spring break falls at different weeks all across California.  This week my kids are off from school and we are staying close to home for several reasons.

We spent the day at swim practice, spring cleaning and hanging with friends outdoors.

  

   

  

 

My kids are happy to not have a rigid schedule and having time to relax. It’s been a chill kinda day with work and play.  I loved the slower pace and the afternoon felt remarkably long with “nothing” to do! They had time to go for a walk, eat a leisurely lunch, play basketball and darts, and even watch a movie.  I also loved having time to sit with my friend and not having to rush anywhere. There’s something really good about just being home this week.


Life is good.

Small Infinities

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It’s the little things in life that bring me joy, yet sometimes I get stuck thinking we need to be doing bigger things, having shared experiences and seeing the world while we can.  I want to do it all.

I want to flow and I want to create opportunities and sometimes the yin and yang of this is confusing. 

I’m talking about spring break.  I wanted to plan a family trip together but my family had other plans.  They wanted to stay close to home for various reasons. I always want to go places, but I’m the one who is home the most so this makes sense. I want to go and they want to stay.

We were generously offered a week in Tahoe and we regretfully decided to decline. This was a hard decision for me, yet it was best for my family, and so it was. 

I love spending time with my favorite people, yet sometimes what they want to do is just to do nothing. They are happy to be home and relaxing doing what they do.  This is okay with me for a little while and then it drives me crazy. Except for today. 

Today I was thankful that they just wanted to chill. I decided to chill along with them, which means I did the dishes, and cleaned up the clutter again. I went through the stack of papers on my desk and made an updated to do list, and filed and shredded papers. While we were sitting together, Juliana FaceTimed from Japan and we all sat on the couch and shared stories. 

  

This made me incredibly happy and finally I could appreciate what Jeff likes to call the small infinities, those little things that mean everything. If we were busy running around, we may have missed the opportunity to all be together.

I was finally content to be at home and was happy that my paper stack dwindled.

I then began working on my photo backlog and Jeff helped me solve a problem, while we sat on the couch and watched Charlie play outside. This made me very happy!  This was another small infinity, that I would not have experienced if we were driving in a car some place or on vacation some where. 

The last little thing that made me happy just going with the flow, was when we decided to walk over to April’s house to pickup Charlie. It felt good to feel the sunshine on my face and the cool afternoon air, walking hand in hand. 

Love wins. Small infinities are sometimes just as good as big infinities. 

nAMaste – live it up – big or small and enjoy what is.

With love,

Adriana