Here's where I've been: Boiler room.

One of my dearest friends is in Costa Rica. She is a genius Spanish-speaking high school teacher with two young kiddos, and she and her husband (also a teacher) are chaperoning a high school trip over spring break. The perk of chaperoning? They can bring their two boys along for free. This chick is amazing, and she has been to Costa Rica before on multiple occasions. (She is another example of someone that I am consistently in awe of and want to emulate; I am secretly surprised that she is my friend but don't want to question it too much in case she comes to her senses).

I'm a geriatric millennial but managed to successfully download WhatsApp so we could communicate during her travels. Her latest message informed me that the group is currently in Tortuguero National Park. I googled it and apparently this is the hang-out for endangered sea turtles. I hope my friend takes lots of pictures. She has shared a few thus far, and I've reciprocated with photos of us walking on the local beach here in 24-degree weather. I'm sure she's jealous.

The juxtaposition of her trip and my family's local field trips during this winter break remind me of one of my favorite children's books, Eloise at the Plaza. (Nb: I was surprised to learn that Eloise was originally intended as a satire for adults. I don't even think the author cared that much for children when she penned the words. In any event, the book is delightful.) One of the scenes shows 6-year-old Eloise visiting her friend Bill, a busboy at the Plaza. She states: Here's where he's been / Madrid / Here's where I've been / Boiler Room. The lovely thing about this book is that Eloise is TOTALLY DELIGHTED to have been to the boiler room. It's every bit as exciting to her as Madrid.

Eloise explores the halls of the Plaza because that's her bedizened playground. Similarly, the pandemic taught me to take pleasure in exploring our little quarter-acre plot of land. I had to homeschool my children that first pandemic spring, and since they were 3 and 5 at the time, I made the executive decision that the majority of our "schooling" would be playing outside, reading, and doing art and science projects. Even if I did a crappy job, I figured they would eventually learn to read and write before they graduated. We had an absolutely delightful time charting the growth of the Sweet Pea and looking at butterflies using the microscope setting on my camera.

We are having a beautifully pedestrian winter break. We are mostly healthy, and we are together, and I have learned not to take those two things for granted. Today my daughter B and I practiced the song she wants to sing for the upcoming auditions of our local "Camp Rock" musical. Jesus, Demi Levato is now 30 years old. I was in law school when this movie came out! I may not have the muscle memory for Chopin, but I can plink out the accompaniment for "This is Me," and my 8-year-old is thrilled. In other news, I bought $10 croc knock-offs at Target today for our upcoming two-day sojourn to a chain hotel 45 minutes away. The hotel is dog-friendly (poor Alice will have to pretend she is 75-lbs; after many stolen pb sandwiches, she is no longer svelte), has a pool, and is close to the Children's Museum and planetarium. It will be LIT. I am going to bring boxed wine and our family will eat popcorn and watch movies, getting crumbs in the hotel beds. I don't even care about the skeevy hotel carpet floor because of my aforementioned sandals. The children are stoked. They got new sandals, too.

My husband is also living his best life, carving wooden spoons out of some birch limbs we salvaged from the side of the road. Just call him the Ox Cart Man. (OMG he just shared that he does in fact own a Barlow knife.) He has a new job lined up, one that promises to be less stressful and more secure, and I can see the effects of the anticipated stability in his posture. It feels important to have this quiet winter break to gel together as a family and take stock of our blessings. I will read many Victorian novels. And when my friends come back from their vacations, I will soak up their pictures and stories and start planning a girls' trip to far-away places in a few years.