Did you know that this week is National Bullying Awareness Prevention week? Even if your child hasn't reported any bullying problems at school, I think this week is still a great time to talk with your children about friendship, kindness, and the importance of reporting bullying of any kind to teachers, staff and parents. So often we aren't motivated into action until something affects us personally; I'm guilty of this as a parent myself.

It felt like a LONG week last week--and I'm sure it felt even longer to L., and to T., who found herself alone for most of the day with her parents for an entire week. If truth be told, it also felt a little long for me, because while I love spending time with T., there are only so many hours of the day I can devote to playing ponies, or sick fairies, or tea party before I feel like locking myself in the bathroom for five minutes of me time.

I had a pretty brutal weekend grading papers all weekend long (and weekend nights), with the exception of a few glimmering moments here and there--our Derby Day celebration, a fun play-date at our house on Sunday with a new friend, some gardening with T. But most of the weekend was spent grading. I wore out a path from the kitchen table to the office because every five seconds I had to pop up, rush over to the computer, and run google searches to catch plagiarists in action.

The kids and I are hitting the road on Saturday--well, hitting the train tracks, actually. We're headed to the D.C. area to visit with my family. Yet again, Scott's Spring Break didn't coincide with ours, so he'll stay home with the pets and his pile of grading. I'll take mine with me (the grading, not the pets), and I'm looking forward to a stretch of a few days to sit, visit with my family, and watch my kids play with their cousins.

Ever since Scott and I got married, we have traveled back home for the Christmas holiday. We used to travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but once we became parents, traveling for two back-to-back holidays became pretty unmanageable. In the old, pre-kid days, and even in the days when L. was very small, we used to travel home at Christmas for a long block of days, and spread ourselves thin over family visits (both our families live in the same area--and for those of you who think this might make things easier, trust me, it does NOT).