Greetings!
Welcome to the first of the daily recaps here on the blog. I’ve been doing these on my personal Facebook page since March as a way to say: “Wooooow, what in the actual fork is going on?! We’re still here and things are still nuttier than squirrel poop!” These are daily ramblings. There are no big takeaways, usually. Sometimes I get really mad and rant. It’s good times. It’s me oversharing our day-to-day and the contents of my mushed up brain. Enjoy!
Today I balanced myself on an exercise ball in the schoolroom at Margaret’s desk, positioned between her and Niels so I could help Margaret with her computer coding assignment and help Niels with his directed drawing activity. I was working on a deadline, but my concentration, comfort, and general work-life balance is a thing of the past, right? I multitask on an exercise ball because it makes me more agile while doing all the things! Plus, exercise! I rolled over to Margaret when she hollered, “Mommy, what does this say?!” I rolled over to Niels, who was sitting at the little kid table, when he hollered, “Mommy, pause the video please!” I said, “Niels, you just hit the spacebar. That’ll pause the video.” To which he said, “But I’m drawing!” I mean, I’m not doing anything else. Not working or anything. Just sitting on this exercise ball, waiting to be summoned to tap a spacebar. In between reading big words and pressing keys on my Mac Book, I plugged my ears and tried to concentrate on editing a short document on my work laptop. Nailed it, if I so say so myself. And I do.
Henning’s been dealing with work stuff that’s not so fun, including we’re in a self-imposed quarantine because of possible COVID exposure. He’s still working from home 98% of the time, but has to go into work for meetings sometimes. The virus is everywhere, y’all. We’ve been soooooo careful and this is our second known exposure. I feel a pandemic rant coming…maybe this weekend. They tend to brew a bit before I can pour them out.
Margaret and Niels have taken a huge leap in being little people. Niels, who I still think of as our baby and probably still treat as our little toddler, is doing simple math now and is getting frustrated that he can’t read. HE’S FIVE. I love seeing him grow up, but I can barely pick him up anymore. This afternoon he came up to me while I was trying to meet my deadline and said, “Mommy, I’m hungry!” I said, “OK, Nielsy, just give me second….” He came back a little later and said, “I finished up the waffle you made me earlier, but could I make myself a snack, please?” I mean, the manners. And who replaced my baby with a full-grown person?! Yes, my child, go get yourself some Cheetos.
Margaret’s been wearing a kickball under her shirt for several days. She said she’s going to have a baby. But she takes the ball out when it gets in the way or she wants to go outside and play. I think she’s onto something. She’s also read three whole books in the past month and a half. I’ve read zero books in 2020, unless you count what I’ve read to the kids. You know what? I’m counting those. I’ve read MANY books.
Anyway is anyone else, like, “Why the fork are my kids so loud?!” Our children are soooooo loud. Everyday it’s like, “OMG, if you’re going to scream, please go upstairs or go outside!” But also, “WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?!!” Normally they’re happy screams, but my ears weep. WEEP. I cringe and my brain skips its track. So loud. This evening Margaret and Niels were running up and down the stairs and through the family room wielding a stuffed monster and a light saber, yelling incoherently. They ran around outside, unsupervised, without coats. It’s 30 degrees. It’s the 1980s up in here. Sorry, neighbors!
Henning bought a fancy office chair a month ago after suffering with a terrible chair for months. The fancy office chair was no good—hard, stiff in all the wrong ways. Tonight we took it apart and packed it up to return it. Taking it apart involved us hunched over chair parts with clamps, a rubber mallet, and some 2x4s. It was like a sad reality show challenge to take a chair apart delicately to make sure you get a refund. Riveting! We succeeded. You can’t bring us down over a measly office chair, 2020!
OK. These round up just kind of end. There’s no wrap up of the round up. So, cheers! Hugs and love. Until tomorrow.