It’s February Vacation up here—a week off for public school kids. Or, as my sister calls it, “The Week The School Cleans Everything With Bleach Because Every Kid Has Been Sick”.
I love when my kids’ school friends hear that we “do school” this week. They look at them in horror. But, really, what am I going to do this week? Visit a museum? Hell no! The crowds! We do all those field trips when everyone else is in school!
I also fail to mention to them that when we “do school” this week, it takes us about an hour to hit the major subjects. And we stay in our PJ’s until about 10. Or 11.
Unfortunately, our week has been even less productive than planned because my oldest got hit with the stomach bug Tuesday night. The rest of us feel fine but it’s been an excellent reason to curl up on the couch with a movie, order grocery delivery service, and drink lots of ginger ale.
And we wait to see if anyone else catches it. I just hope we aren’t sick next week. I feel like going to a museum.
School Break
FollowGoing Downton
Just before Valentine’s Day, I tweeted that I had never seen Downton Abbey. To which some smart-alec I know tweeted this to about 200k followers:
As you can imagine, I heard from a “few” devotees who pretty much begged me to tune in for “at least the first season.”
So a few days later, with John by my side, we watched the first episode of the first season. Afterward, I tweeted, “t’was ok“.
My husband wanted to know why we didn’t look like these women while we watched it.
But now, four episodes in, I’m starting to get the hang of it. You just have to step into that time and embrace their world view to truly experience those “WHOA!” moments with more oomph. Then, scenes like the Dowager Countess of Grantham’s first experience with a swivel chair really is hilarious. And Lady Mary’s acceptance of a male suitor to her bedroom makes your palms sweat in fear for her honor.
And so, I was truly immersed in the spirit of the day when we watched Lady Sybil proudly marched into the room in her new outfit and face her family.
“PANTS!“, I stage-whispered to my husband in a mixture of shock and awe. And then giggled uncontrollably at how completely scandalous this had been to me.
Yes, Downton Abbey, you’ve got me hooked. I think my husband would still rather be watching The Walking Dead though.
Next year? I think we’re skipping Valentine’s Day
Our Valentine’s Day was a day of fighting, frustration and sugar crashes. By bedtime, my husband was done with it all, as were the kids. So he took to Facebook, and I discovered that we were definitely not alone:
