No school! No school! No school! Ahem. I may have mentioned this, but there's no school today. Somehow those administrators know just when we need a break. Noreen will understand this, I bet, and all the mamas and papas, but time speeds up un the spring. Like, seriously speeds up. Crazytown. Last week wore us all out, and now Neel and I both have colds, and I'm fighting my typical miserable cough. But whatever. Life marches on.

I want to march our weekend back a bit to last Thursday. That baseball picture was not taken last Thursday...it was taken the Tuesday prior where the field we played on had chickens wandering in the outfield. Loved that! Last Thursday however, was the Big Deal. Aside from a tournament loss very early in the season, our boys have only lost one game this season (when my dad was here of course), and we went back to play that team on Thursday. On their field. Despite some questionable calls (Ahem. Can middle school coaches get thrown out of games? Cause I thought for a minute ours was going to!), our boys got up and stayed up and won 10-4. A symbolic victory, but, we learned later, bigger than that. The team we beat has been undefeated for the last two seasons. We handed them their first loss. In fact, it was the first time any of our baseball teams have beat them in, get this, EIGHT YEARS. If you follow the MLB at all, you may know of BJ Upton of the Atlanta Braves. He graduated from that school. Drafted straight out of high school to the major leagues. And we beat them.

It was a bit of a thud to come back down to earth and have to do homework after that.

Who wasn't mesmerized by the events in Boston on Friday? No matter where I went, those images and that fear seemed to follow me, but what a relief to have such a stunning outcome. Seems so heartbreaking for everyone. And now come all the questions. More of those than answers, I guess.

Our quiet weekends have gone by the wayside. Cal had a hitting lesson on Saturday and we went to an amazing performance of Fiddler on the Roof that night. It was directed by our friend Mark Paladini and featured college and graduate school students at Regent University in the cast. They were ah-maz-ing. Blew us away. As our friend Tracy, Mark's wife, said, Fiddler's just a show that everyone should see at least once. You know what else is amazing? Our friend Mark, the very same Mark, was a finalist in the New Yorker cartoon caption contest this week! Looks like voting is closed, but we're anxiously awaiting the results. I'll keep you posted!

I took to my bath twice this week to try to kick my cold. To no avail, really, but it felt good at the time. I was astounded and inspired by an article in this month's Bon Apetit about home chefs that I'll chat about another time, I think, when I've had a moment to reflect on it more, and then I baked some cookies. They're pretty good. They made Neel very happy.

On Sunday we dashed outside at 5PM to peer into the heavens to see a rocket launched near(ish) our house. It was, I have to say, pretty flipping cool. There are two lines in the middle photo (#23), and you can barely see the first line. That's the rocket. How cool is that? Wings on the grill, eaten al fresco and prepared with the help of our trusty grilling sous chef. They remind us that despite the chill in the air, spring really is here.

Despite some appointments (back to the ortho and the passport office), Cal and I have a nice day planned. I have some work, and he has homework, but Neel has a dinner tonight, so my boy and I are headed out to see 42. Gonna try not to cough my way through.

Oh, and one other thing. Erin asked what wasn't working about my calendar, so I popped in a quick picture of it. Here's the deal. I like the fact that it has months and weeks, but I use my days of the week for to-do lists. So the fact that each day is divided into morning/afternoon/evening is, well, disconcerting to me. I try to ignore it, but it's still sitting there bugging me. Also, I just need more room. Apparently I write big. Hmmmm.

1. I think I never meant for you to think I was so despairing yesterday. You must have caught me at a weak moment. (wink) Truth is, it's been a rough week. Let's face it. In general, I believe in the inherent humanity of our fellow humans. I really believe that good and peace and right will prevail. When my mom and her friend Mike were here we were talking about (honestly, don't ask me why, I can't even remember how we got there) how people become terrorists and it's generally because they lack hope. Really, if you don't have hope, you don't have anything. Well, I'm full of hope. I have to be. We all do. And don't get me wrong. I love April too. As my dear friend Debbie pointed out, some people special to me were born this month! But I think Eliot was onto something. Real growth hurts. It's mucky and ugly and painful, but hopefully we really grow. I'm hoping that as much as we're in a mucky part of our history right now we're growing.

2. I think I need to figure out a schedule and stick to it. We were at sixes and sevens this week. (Side note, isn't that a great phrase?) And remember that planner I got? I think it's finally time to admit that I don't love it. It's not her, it's me. I just can't use it in the way it's meant to be used or I need it to do something different or something. Part of what I love about what I do is how varied my days are, but I'm slowly being driven mad by the lack of routine. Anybody have any suggestions for me? How do you keep your days screwed straight?

3. I think this is one of the most spectacular things I've seen in a long time.

4. I think two weekends of company and one out of town (and two to three baseball games a week) are a bit much for this mama to bear right now. My house is a wreck, I have my summer/winter clothes switch-over halfway done and spread across my bedroom (nice), our dinners have been impromptu and half-assed all week, I've missed loads of your blog posts. Seriously. Fail. Is it bad that I wish it would rain all weekend so I could hunker down and clear the decks around here?

5. I think I can't decide if I should go frugal and use something from my wardrobe or get something new to an event for Neel next month. These are the things I think about in the quiet spaces of the carpool line and the orthodontist's waiting room. Theresa, can you do a "Where in the World," Lauren Has to Leave the House Edition? I think I might need one.

weekend recap, april 22

five things, april 19 edition