Mid-Winter Weekend

#0353- Hockey was on our agenda last Sunday. We watched two of our nephews skating for a team from up north take on a Bemidji team. Unfortunately, the family members didn’t go home with a win.



Mid-Winter Weekend
By Allan Olson
I announced to my family on Friday evening, “I don’t want to leave the house tomorrow,” and I had mentioned it more than once prior to that. Then my wife informed me that she had to go to a couple of stores in Bemidji on Saturday. I protested that I had expressed my desire to not leave the house, so we compromised and headed out Friday evening. We visited four stores in the short time that we were in Bemidji, and then we headed back home. We also picked up some movie supplies (candy) while we were there.
I got my way on Saturday – I didn’t leave the house, even to just go out in the yard. The kids spent the day terrorizing each other, trashing the house and stopping only occasionally for a bite to eat. I think I snuck in a nap during the day and watched a movie. That evening we made popcorn and added some candy to the popcorn dishes, and enjoyed the movie Cars II. It truly was a lazy day – we even started the movie so early it was done by 6:30 p.m.
We did have plans on Sunday, including cleaning up the mess from Saturday and going to my nephews’ hockey games in Bemidji. That morning I made Malt O’ Meal – the breakfast of champions – for everyone, and then the cleaning started. We worked on dishes, sweeping, laundry and all-around cleaning before heading off to the hockey game in the afternoon. Watching the game was fun for me – the kids were bored, but entertained themselves by messing around just enough to stay out of trouble. Once back home, it was cleaning time again; the kids’ bedrooms were a disaster, and they needed to work on them. Of course, that resulted in more fighting and arguing, and for the girls it meant heading to bed early since they didn’t make adequate progress in their room. The boys were allowed to stay up until their normal bed times, since their rooms were significantly improved.
Since Monday was another school holiday, the kids had to finish cleaning their rooms and were not allowed television or computer privileges. They finally finished in the late afternoon, and were given a break before being assigned more duties. A couple of them did venture outside to play in the wind and cold for a short time, but only lasted a short while before coming back in – frozen.
For the most part this was a lazy, mid-winter weekend – which was nice. We probably should’ve been really ambitious and started some more in-depth cleaning of the kids’ stuff (and maybe some of ours), but that can wait for another day.
As for this coming weekend, it appears I will be leaving the house on Saturday – at least if I want to go fishing. My brother wants me to go fishing, and my wife said I need to do something fun, so guess I better go fishing. Hopefully the fish will be biting – but even if they’re not, as the old saying goes, “Even a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.”
Please be safe while ice fishing this season, and remember to take a picture to preserve a lifetime of memories. Also please watch out for the buses that are transporting our children. And remember to drive safely this winter season. Thanks for reading, and have a great week and Happy New Year! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.



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