6710 Grand

Monday.    Quarantine day 45…I think.   It feels like day 68,532.   I’ve been awake since 5am but lack the will to get out of bed.   It’s now 7am and Isabelle has crawled under my covers.   I kick the cat off of me and whisper in her ear “ready to get up?”.   She is and we push the blankets aside.   I used to get up early.   I still have alarms set.   But the hour comes and I ask myself why bother?   It will all still be there in a few hours.   So I try and try to sleep in.   It just ends up feeling like wasted time. Bebo gets dressed while I put on gym clothes.   She puts on whatever she feels like wearing.   Sometimes it’s a fancy church dress.   Sometimes it’s her Supergirl outfit.   We go downstairs and start the coffee just as Ike is waking up.   Iris is eating breakfast.   “Can I have breakfast mom?” Bebo asks.   I tell her I’ll get up Baby Ike first and they can eat toget...

In this new "normal" of working from home with four kids I am adjusting.  I still get up and run every morning.  I still get dressed in normal clothes (have never been the yoga pants type).  I still fix my hair and makeup.  I'm trying to keep all of my self care items in place.  But really, it's not just for self care.  It's for Zoom. Yes Zoom. Zoom meetings (or Microsoft Teams or Skype or whatever) are now a part of my every day and that means being presentable from the neck up. No problem.  Until you add a one-year-old and a traveling husband. Nick is considered essential so he still goes to work which means he travels internationally.  Such travel means digging out our Korea days survival kit and connecting multiple times a day on Skype.  The Skype song is like Pavlov for Ike.  He hears it and immediately thinks "Dada!" and comes running.  I'd say he's right about 90% of the time. He cries and whines until I pick him up and...

I've been trying to post for days.  Something keeps getting in the way.  A grant deadline is moved up to get funding out to non-profits faster (good!).  An unexpected sunny day means working outside (good!).  Ike falling asleep eating his lunch and nap time comes early (not really good, but definitely funny!).  Iris needs help getting some strange app that is suddenly required and my tablet is the only place she can get it (not good.)  I'm sidetracked by the latest report on COVID-19 (not good.)  But finally now, it's quiet and peaceful and I have sometime to write down what I'm thinking and feeling...and I find I just don't know where to start.  At the start (for me) I was annoyed with 2 weeks at home with my kids but tried to look on the bright side and actually though I'd get a lot of reading done (um, no.).  But now two weeks has stretched into 6 (at least) and I'm not only missing my usual birthday hoopla but also Easter, spring break,...