Day 11:
Craig:
Thursday. I got my hopes up about going back to work soon, and sending the kids back to school. I was twisting my reality to make it look like how I wanted. Too many people are doing the same thing, and it’s a very dangerous practice. It’s almost as dangerous as the deniers. However, I cleared my head and saw reality for what it really was. And my hopes were dashed.
Honestly, I cannot wait to get back to work. And the kids really want to go back to school. Well, three of them do. I wanted to go to bed and Patience was still awake trying to get ahead for Friday with her school work. They all worked on school stuff, even Corliss, although her efforts were minimal. But she did accomplish something. Other than that, the day was relatively calm.
Day 12:
Howie:
Had I written anything about Thursday (Day 11) it likely would have been much briefer than what Craig wrote. Little happened. I watched the Picard season finale early in the day. I ended my night watching the season finale of A Million Little Things. I got my 8-bit Nintendo to work for a couple games of Castlevania. My girls did work on the computer. We’ve basically settled into the monotony.
Friday brought about a different set of feelings. One of them, anticipation, I’ll get to shortly.
Among the bigger changes from the past week and a half was that my son was home for much of the middle part of the day today. I love all of my children. I do. However, I’m convinced that he’s the reason the hair on my head is turning white and slowly running away. With him being home, the dynamic in the household shifted, and the refereeing that any parent must do with more than two kids was necessary. If he wasn’t telling one of his sisters what to do, he was telling the other. And he felt he was in charge. I appreciate and am proud of everything he’s accomplished for himself to this point in his life. He simply needs to recognize the order of things and that what he says, in fact, is not law. Whatever.
Late this morning I got a text from my brother that changed much of my outlook for the day. As some of you may be aware, my brother is a member of the military, serving on active duty as an Air Force officer. Thus far in his career, he’s earned the rank of Major, and since he and I both worship at the altar of Mel Brooks, I have an affectionate name for him that is directly taken from Spaceballs. He doesn’t mind, so long as it’s used in the proper time and place. (Of course, proper time and place to call my brother by a great name are any time and any place. Almost.) Anyway, the text this morning was sent to me as part of a group text, and it let us all know that by the end of the day, there’d be another member of the family.
Then my phone died.
Apparently, the next group text came over an hour after the first one. I didn’t get it until I plugged my phone in (after my mom called in a puddle of mush) and proceeded to check all that I’d missed.
In summation, I have a new nephew, he and his mom are doing great, and his name starts with an “H” because so does mine.
So, now you know why my mom was a puddle of mush. I was just stunned, and sat around smiling with a grin as big as the one on the face of the Cheshire Cat. The sense of pride I feel is indescribable, and I won’t try to use any extra words here. Simply put, it’s pride. An enormous sense of humbling pride, if that’s even a thing. A heartfelt thank you goes out to both my brother and sister-in-law.
Moving on with the rest of the day, I continued researching the best way to go about getting certified to teach and/or pursuing a masters degree in education. In fact, I took a break from that to write this. I think I’ll return to that now. Til next time!
Craig:
Friday. It was Corliss’ fourteenth birthday. What a way to celebrate your birthday. She couldn’t have a party. She couldn’t even have Grammie come over to have dinner and cake with us. We did did several phone calls and did at least one video chat with friends. We had homemade pizza for dinner with an ice cream cake from Lake Effect Ice Cream for dessert. Then we played a game together as a family. There were a lot of laughs.
It was a beautiful day. The girls spent most of the day outside playing in the backyard. It gave them a little break from the monotony of just hanging out in the house working on school work. They were literally outside all day. I can’t blame them. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and it was relatively warm. In Florida, they would have been huddled in parkas and touks. In Western New York, we weren’t even wearing jackets or hoodies.
I’ve spent far too long sitting on my computer for the past week and a half. I need to change that. I’m not getting enough exercise. At the same time, I’m not hungry, either. So, I’m not putting on my COVID weight like some others have complained. I am drinking too much Dr Pepper, but it’s kind of a comfort thing at this point. Starting Sunday, that is going to change. I need to be more active. It will help me sleep.
Sleep has been very broken and insomnia has struck several evenings. I know I’m tired, but I can’t sleep. The girls seem to be entering that mode, too. They are staying up later and later each day and are crankier every morning. It’s definitely getting harder to get them to focus. Hopefully a day outside will help them concentrate again. It looks like the rest of the weekend looks to be rainy, so it was a great day to be outside.
After twelve days of this, I need to make some changes before I get into a routine that is detrimental. And I need to get onto a regular sleep schedule. Part of that means making sure the girls are on a schedule. I tend not to go to bed before the girls do. However, with teenagers, that is not always so easy, especially when they think they need to talk to friends beyond midnight. Since they are not allowed to take their phones up to their rooms, they stay downstairs far longer than I want to remain awake. They need their social interactions, but there needs to be a time limit. That’s what we will work on for the upcoming weekend.