A Day in My Supposed to be Spring Break Life:

12:10 A.M. 

    I met my cousin and grandma at the emergency room at ten. I have been here for two hours when Chris calls the third time. He already knows she’s fine, just an infection, so I know why he’s calling.

    It’s midnight. He hates going to sleep without me.

    “What’s the scoop?”

    "Well, it takes an hour for this stuff to get into her system.”

    “So ahhh are you coming home? Is Belinda taking her home?”

    “Yes, but . . .”

    He doesn’t know my grandma refused to lay back and sleep. That she turned down the TV and focused on my cousin and I. That at some point I realized, I was the entertainment.

    “ . . .I mean what does this mean for you and me?” he asks. He's smiling on the other end of the phone, I can tell.
    “It means I’ll leave in an hour.”

    "OK,” He pouts. “Tell her I love her.”

    I tell her. She grins. “Tell him I love him, too.”

    I hang up.

    “I wouldn’t want to live with him, but I love him.” 

    She grins harder. I make a mental note to change a scene in a short film I'm writing where I have borrowed heavily from my cousin and grandmother's real life.

2:00: 

     I make it back to Rockwall where we are house sitting and sit in the borrowed mini-van inside the garage and talk to my cousin about some OCD issues my grandmother is having and then turn the mirror on her by reminding her about some issues I had a few years back and know she is having now.

    “Make an appointment,“ I tell her. “I’ll go with you.”

    I go in the house and am greeted by four boys who are not even trying to hide the fact that they’ve eaten an unimaginable amount of frozen food. I never have that much frozen food because my bus fridge is the size of two lockers.

    I feel wide awake, so, I check on Craigslist for some used cars, wash dishes, then go to bed. Mmmmm, warm bodies.

3:35 

    The boys are loud. I can usually sleep through anything, but maybe I’m hopped up on diet coke and chili cheese Fritos. Who knows?

7:35 

    I hop up. I have to drive into Garland with Chris so I can get our car. I make coffee. Clean up more dishes from the late, late, late night snack and hop in the mini-van.

8:10 

    Water cup seeds. Look longingly at the ground where they will be planted, hoping I’ll have time to till today.

8:20 

    Grocery store run to replace all our friend’s food we’ve eaten this week and to buy breakfast foods.

9:05 

    Drive back to Rockwall

9:30: 

    Unload groceries.

9:40 

    I make sausage with scrambled eggs, sausage and gravy, and sausage and biscuits.

10: 25 

    Repeat everything I want Caleb to do when he wakes up three times.

10:30 

    Chloe and I drive back to Garland.

11:10

    Eat cookies, sing songs, change diapers, play with fake food and generally enjoy some cute babies at the church.

2:00 PM

    Wait for boys to come with Josh’s truck so we can get compost from Rachel’s back yard.

3:00 

    Load dirt into the bed of the truck. Load stones into Kara’s van. Love some more cute babies.

4:30 

    Refried bean and cheese and grape and cheese and crackers and cheese and wine and cheese break. Sense the theme. (I babysit for Diet Coke and cheese, except for at Mimi’s where I babysit for Texas Pecans:)

5:00 

    Realize I can’t find my phone. Call Chris on Caleb’s. Our friend is coming home in the wee hours of the night. Must get back there soon to clean.

6:00 

    Head back to the church, where our bus is parked and ground is waiting for some good dirt. Unload.

7:00 

    Marvel at how much time we thought we had, but now do not. Place stones in four by four squares.

8:00 

    Chris shows up from a LONG day cleaning, leans over the fence and flirts.

8:10 

    We all drive back to Rockwall. Curiel clean up crew to the rescue!

8:35 

    Wash and clean and spray and fold and sweep the Self household. Our kids rock the clean!

10:55

    Fall asleep waiting for sheets to dry.

11:30

    Chris wakes me up. We make the bed.

11:40 

    Drive back to Garland. I make and announce the executive decision to have a do over spring break next week. Cheers abound. Another nod to home schooling aside from  the fact that my eighth grader son went from not wanting to read last year to reading The Lightening Thief seres in August to currently reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Pigrim's Progress, Blink, The Prince all of his own accord. I can't keep up and I'm glad.

12:10 AM

    On Jubilee, we snuggle in. We laugh at how much we love sleeping in our own bed. Skin, warmth, sleep, love, home.