Rain Day

Yesterday at about 5pm, Mary and I were watching Season 15 of Grey's Anatomy (Is it homesickness that makes me pay $2.99 per week to watch Grey's and another $2.99 per week to watch This is Us?  Or is it just that I like a good story and good break?  Or is the Thursday night ritual at home?  Or is it a simple lack of discipline?  It may be time to cancel Netflix because we watch it rarely, but I committed this week to season 15 of Grey's and season 3 of This is Us by paying for the whole seasons so I don't feel a bit guilty each week, debating whether to watch.  And there was that little note above the click spot that read, "Discount based on your previous purchase of episodes"...or something like that...sucker sucker sucker...), and then all the other kids squished next to and around us so we were cuddled in on a rainy Sunday afternoon watching Grey's.  (Appropriate for children?...no, some of the time, it's not.  We either tell them to go away or hope the inappropriate parts go over their heads.)

Daniel came in.  "Pat called.  He's picking you kids up in fifteen minutes to take you to see the olives get crushed."

"No!"
"I don't want to go!"
"We're so cozy."
"We want to stay in and watch Grey's with Mom."

I understood only too well.  I felt the same way the day before as I forced them all to go harvest olives at Pat's while I stayed home and got a few quiet hours to myself.  We're in Italy: they've got to go see the olives (some of which they harvested) get crushed.

There are so many things we say we won't do until we're actually in a situation, e.g. We'll never let our kids have plastic toys.  We'll never get too busy with activities.  We'll never let our kids eat as much sugar as so-and-so.  We'll never let our kids have temper tantrums...  We'll never bribe our kids.

"Name your bribe," I said to the kids.

I was thinking, We made them spend Saturday out, we dragged them to mass again today, they go to Italian Catholic school daily, and now they want a little down time.  This seems fair to me.  And yet.  I'm not letting Pat show up and them not go with him to see the olives crushed.  He's terribly generous, and they'll enjoy it.  (Mary arrived home from harvesting the olives on Saturday and said, "It was awesome!  I loved it!")

Not surprisingly, they requested screen time -- the boys to make and play Scratch games; Mary to watch videos; Hannah to play video games.

-------------------------------------------------------

While they were out watching olive-crushing, I reread Act 5 of Othello, worked on Connor's photobook for his upcoming birthday, and tried to read, i.e. translate, the 145 WhatsApp messages from the parents of grade 2 (Hannah's class).  The messages kept coming, so I was toggling between catching up and trying to stay up to date.  We owe 25 euro for the cash fund for baking ingredients and another birthday.  Then I started reading things with the words "Maltempo....scuola chiusa...domani..."  I wasn't getting everything, but it seemed to me that they were possibly calling off school for Monday because of the rainstorms and thunder and lightning.  (We had, after all, lost our power in the morning.  With Pat's guidance, Daniel got it back on in the afternoon, accessing the fuse box that I had incorrectly tried to reactivate in August when I blew a fuse.  Who knew that this time we were supposed to check the box that I had incorrectly checked in August?)

Within an hour, it was confirmed: no school for Paradiso, St. Thomas', and SYA.

Monday would be the down day that they kids had been requesting all weekend.

----------------------------------------------

Lunedi.

Here we are.

It's just like a snow day at home.  It reminds me of Superstorm Sandy, that East coast non-hurricane that was blustery and got us all a couple days off from school a few years ago.  We slept in.  I went for a thirty-five minute run (a recent minute record for me); walked and listened to a Fresh Air podcast interview with Terri Gross (she made a guest appearance on This is Us last week...) and John Green, author of YA novels, including The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down.  I took a long shower.  Worked on Con's photobook some more.  Shopped on amazon for a watch for Connor.

Mary baked cookies.  Connor and Hannah and Mary went to Tiger and then hid the candy they bought, thinking I didn't see them run by our room with big goofy smiles.  Sebastian's been sitting reading on his kindle when he's not eating Mary's cookies or fried eggs.  Daniel's reading the novel Holes to prepare for his sixth grade English class.

The down day we all needed.