have sun, will travel

so, this week is spring break for francis, and i'm trying hard to make it "spring breaky", even though we didn't leave the city. today marks the second day in a row of sun, and he's at a friend's house, so i'd say today's a good day! as was yesterday! yesterday was sunny, and we hit the zoo, and then met august, hazel, jennifer, and tank (their jack russell terrier) at the park for some high energy play time(them, not us), then came back to our place for tea-time. tea for jen and me(the necessary 4pm pick-me-up), and the kids got ben & jerry's single-serving cookie-dough ice-cream, the kind with the little plastic spoons (so cute!) they remind me of those childhood days of scraping water-ice with a wooden spoon, and how the ice and that horrible scraping sound, could bring on goosebumps in the middle of a heatwave.

we are nowhere near a heat wave though. we are nowhere near summer. i really want it to be. these sunny days make me yearn for it, but when i walk outside, it's freezing! we're still in the 40's out here, and on monday, we got a flash hail storm that lasted for about 5 minutes. crazy!

on sunday, tho the gray skies loomed, we had friends that were going sailing on lake union, who invited us along. i was nervous it was going to dump on us as soon as we got to the middle of the lake, and we had no umbrellas. but i was excited for francis to have this experience, because we've never taken him sailing before. because: we don't know how to sail. the gray cleared to blue as we were over the water, but it was still bitterly cold. that didn't stop francis from trying to drag his hands in the water, and, as no one relished the idea of going in after him (kid overboard!) we had to make the rule: keep your seat in your seat! greg took tons of photos, and i hedged in on his territory: me and my cell-phone! hahaha! it was quite a sight! here are a few, with many more on my flickr.









i feel a bit like this blog has become "the life and times of sir francis". not really my intent, but so you have it. maybe it will be fun for him to read when he's older, documents of his childhood. i remember when francis was a baby, of being appalled by mothers who only ever talked about their children or their husbands, what they did or what they said, and i vowed i would never be like that. now i realize i was probably being overly critical and quick to judge, and it really is a slippery slope. i'm finding lately that given "free time", i'm at a loss for what to do! greg and francis will go out for baseball practice, and i'll say "have fun!" and they'll say: "you have fun too!" hmmm. what are the things i used to do for fun? oh yeah. go out to dinner with friends. go to movies. GO places. and these days, more often than not, if i have some minutes to myself, i curl up with a blanket and a book. i know that sounds boring, but at night, i'm usually so tired that curling up on the couch sounds just about right. but tonight, while the boys are away, i have a date with danajill and joy; we're going out for ethiopian! ta da! you caught me: out of the house! and last week, i went out with jen and a friend to see rosie at the triple door! good company, good food, good music! these things we used to do all the time take so much effort now. organizing your free-time to coincide with someone else's, or usually, making sure your husband can be home with the kid(s)so you can go out with some friends, these are hard things to juggle. even a "girl's night out" for a dinner and a movie once a month is a little miracle. but we gotta keep it up. get together. make the time. it's for your own good. (and theirs!) don't worry. i'm saying this especially to my homebody self...