Helicopters and School Don’t Mix

I wasn’t planning to observe the ritual of taking a week off from school every spring.  I’m a non-conformist, so I am actually MORE likely to get school done if someone tells me I have to take a week off.  “Week off-Schmeek off,” I’ll say in rebellion.  I thought we would get a lot of work done while our friend frittered away the week.

But for some unknown reason I have only gotten minimal school done (translation…almost none).  I’ve been thinking back over the past 4 days and for the life of me I can’t figure out what has kept me from educating my offspring.

I’ve decided to put 90% of the blame on the accident that happened in front of our house this evening.  We heard sirens so we all poured out of the house like the circus act that we are and watched as 2 fire trucks, 3 police cars, an ambulance and eventually a helicopter gathered in our yard.  A pickup truck had hit a motorcycle and the motorcycle rider was badly injured.

I had my phone in my hand so I took some distant photos.

One of the firefighters asked James if the helicopter could land in our yard.  It would have been more exciting if the reason weren’t so sad.  It was hard to think about much besides the injured man.

I did think it was cute that Elijah had run into the house and gotten his little camera….9 year old budding photographer.

And since this all happened in our yard it stands to reason that I couldn’t get much school done.  Seriously, even the public school stops everything if there’s a helicopter landing 50 feet from the students.  While it was landing I had flashes of being on M*A*S*H and running to put an injured soldier into an army chopper.  The wind blowing down from above and the grass parting for the landing.  Oh how I miss Radar and his teddy bear.

So what, you might wonder, happened to the rest of the day?  Well this morning I had to answer a distress call from a friend.  She needed my help and I am nothing if not devoted to taking my friends to lunch when they are having a hard day.  I gave the kids their assignments and left for a few hours.  I planned to do a little more school when I got home, but how was I to know that the late afternoon would be filled with flashing lights and sirens?

Tomorrow I am taking Noah out for some much needed Mommy/Noah time.  We’ll pick up some shoes for his ever growing feet and have a Sonic drink and talk.  Maybe I’ll drive him over to the hospital so he can see where the helicopter came from.  Full circle.  Plus I can count it as educational which technically is school so I will feel better about myself as a homeschool mother.

It’s not justifying, it’s creative thinking.

Thus bringing our non-spring break to a close.  Next week, if someone tells me I have to do school I will feel more free to relax.