March Break

This week the kids are off school for March Break. I love March Break....it comes at just the right time, as the combination of weather and routine have pummelled me into a defenseless mass of acquiescence. I am just about at the point of throwing in the towel and saying "okay, Winter, you win.". And then along comes the March Break, when we get a week to do whatever we like and make no apologies for it.

This year, the March Break dovetailed neatly with the onset of Daylight Savings Time. It has meant that we can get up as late as we want for days after having lost an hour of sleep. Whoever came up with that idea should get a medal.

There is some entertaining of children during this week, but the Things are getting old enough to be in charge of their own social lives, plus they are fairly easy to please. There was a time when I had several other children to look after for the week, and sometimes finding one activity that would keep everyone happy could present a challenge. They were troopers, though, all of them, and never groaned once when we went out to the sugar bush yet again. (For those of you not familiar with a sugar bush, it is where they make maple syrup. You get to eat pancakes and syrup and bacon and sausages, but for this you have to pay the price of hearing the god-awful presentation of how the maple syrup is made. For reasons unknown, the presenters are hell-bent on you hearing the story of The Evolution of the Syrup, from it's aboriginal origins, to the pioneers to the present day outfit. The speech never varies, from presenter to presenter, and it's given in an unenthusiastic, dirge-like fashion. It's only just worth the bacon and sausages.)

Yesterday we took the girls up to the lake where we rent a cottage every year. They've never seen the lake in the winter, and we thought they'd enjoy the contrast.

This is the point where we bike to most evenings to catch the sunset over Lake Huron.

It was considerably chillier yesterday than when the picture on the right was taken.

March Break is a welcome reprieve from the routine, and I'm enjoying it very much. Now, if we could get another week to sleep in, that would be great.