With spring break upon us, travel plans cancelled and Executive Order No. 2020-21 in place for Michiganders, many who hoped to be somewhere else (i.e., a warm beach in Florida!) are wondering: “What do I do with my kids (and myself) now? So much has happened and so fast.

The recipe goes something like this: take a bit of roadside grime and a pair of shoes. Add a soggy dog. Mix with multiple pairs of mud-encrusted kids’ jeans. Let stand for one hour and grind into carpet. Repeat daily for one month. Voilà, the scent of April—in my house, anyway! But instead of dreading or escaping April and its mud-tinged scent, I like to celebrate it. Because April is wet. And wet is water. And as any Up-Norther knows, water is life.

The back-to-school routine is underway—lunch boxes, Trapper Keepers (yes, they’re making a comeback!), reading logs and spelling lists. You’d think after eight years, I’d have it down pat. But no—every Thursday morning, my daughter hollers: “It’s vocab day!” A harried scramble ensues—“Remember, you ‘hear’ with your ‘ear,’” I say, as I try to multi-task PB&Js with a half-crumpled practice test. A glop of jelly plops on the sheet. Maybe it’s a reminder that rote memorization isn’t the stickiest kind of learning.