Good Thing Friday (74)
July 17, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $1589.82; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. PiC had the opportunity to do a fun social active thing both days this weekend with friends. Since it’s the safest thing he can do by nature of the activity that forces them to be something like ten feet or more apart, it seemed like a great idea for him to do both days instead of just picking one as he normally would have. He had fun!
2. JB and I had a little less fun but I very deliberately set my expectations incredibly low. Gauging how I felt Saturday when I woke up, I proactively decided we’d do chores half the morning and watch TV for half the morning. Normally that’s not on the menu at all, it’s just a treat. But it was good. JB got their chores done in record time without whining. I got a bunch of administrative crap out of the way and that felt good. PiC got much wanted social time.
Lest that seem unfair, there’s really no one super local I can safely and easily hang out with so I keep in touch with my people via text, tweet, or email. I’m pretty set on the socializing front.
Sunday was similar, I destressed the day from the get go by planning for it to be a “lazy” day. I ended up knocking off a whole list of things I had to do because I was too achy to be up and about doing chores, JB was instructed to do some quiet activities and they did so, and mostly things went well.
3. Spendy but good. Our toaster oven called it quits on us this week and we use that thing 3 or 4 times every day, so we had to replace it. I picked a digital combo air fryer and toaster oven because I’ve been yearning to do air frying but adamantly against adding yet another appliance to our countertops. A combo situation was the only way I’d be willing to get myself a fryer. We’re giving it a test run, I hope this is the one!
4. Little treats: I adored these Fairydrop mushroom cards from Redbubble. The quality was great and I am really feeling like that angry mushroom these days.Ā As I’m not black I can’t use them myself, but I could (and did) gift them to a friend who can. I’m swooning from the cuteness of Pikaole’s Redbubble shop but given Seamus’s emergency and our other purchases this month, I will have to wait a bit before I shop again.
Challenges this week: The school district’s reopening plan was a steaming pile of terrible. And then we were told to decide what we’re going to do in a week with very little information. We have the WORST President and Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos. We spent a whole day this week tending to Seamus’s almost-emergency situation that was, thankfully, not quite at the emergency level we thought it could have reached. I’m glad we spent the day working on that because it can very easily tip over to the Actual Emergency and Serious Consequences zone, still can if he doesn’t respond to this treatment plan, but at least we have a chance.
5. I feel bad that I couldn’t make the time to spread the net wider but a group of us pitched in to support the vaunted Sandy (of Yes, I am Cheap fame) as she moves the Elevate Conference online and I’m really happy that we were able to come together this way for her and members of our PF community. The conference looks like it’s going to be fantastic and I’m so excited to sit in on some of the sessions.
6. Sera finally stopped vomiting after 3 days, thankfully. It was just a run of the mill bug because absolutely everything else was fine and she most definitely had an appetite the entire time. I was grateful that if she had to be nauseated and vomiting a few times a day, she usually came to tell us when it was time to go out. That’s an improvement over horking on the thick pile rug.
I’m recovering from a car accident, so that’s been fun. š But I’m doing better than expected at this point, so yay I guess? I’m planning to set aside time this weekend to do some deep introspection, assessment, and planning for my family for the rest of 2020. Since March things had been so up in the air & constantly changing that I just took it one week or even just one day at a time. But I feel like things are finally settling down into a lousy-but-predictable enough pattern that I can put some thoughtful effort into scheduling our routines and school plans. (As long as there aren’t any more car accidents! š)
PS Sad to hear that JB’s school future is looking dismal. I hope you’re able to find an option that is a slightly smaller pile of cow by-products.
Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry to hear you were in a car accident and that it required real recovery. I am sending “recover completely” care bear beams in your direction and fingers crossed you’re all full up on accidents this year.
Thanks re the school thing. My perspective is that my kid “losing” a year or three of education is not worth losing the lives of teachers and staff in droves which WILL happen if we re-open schools willy nilly. Yes my kid is younger so that helps but you know what, we have the means to figure this out. I’m so sick of all the chatter that’s all about each person only getting what they need and to Hades with the rest of you lot. We need to work this out together in a way that serves the most vulnerable among us, not just the ones with the most resources. And I say that as a person with reasonable resources and the luck of having decent employers right now.
It was a really hard week. The struggle was real! Finding out about the schools, the one camp we’d planned our summer around (due to 3 week gap requirements) cancelled the day before, after we’d bought everything needed & packed & the kids were SO excited… blog drama, life drama. It was no fun.
The kids are going to different school districts next year (our high schools are all in a separate district, which is strange to me, but whatever) & the plans have also been both very hard to parse & just depressing. Starting high school without ever having been there? A kid with ADHD kicking off his freshman year being on the computer all day? Going to be rocky.
In positive news, and working hard for this:
-we continue to get by without a kitchen.
-I’m finally getting my freezer cleaned out, because those moderately appealing leftovers are suddenly really appealing when you can’t cook.
-The kids are getting super into tennis, because it’s a socially distance/approved activity.
-The weather has been cooler for this time of the year, and I love it
-Our garden production has really started to increase, which is awesome
Hawaii Planner recently posted…Sunday