Or she who has two children has 50 woes. Either way, Buddha was correct.
Quarantine has proven to be incredibly challenging for my oldest daughter. She seemed okay, and even appeared to be thriving in the online school environment, but that was not the case. No need to get into the details here, but she spent a week in the hospital for depression, and that was disabling in a way I didn’t think could happen to me. But she has been home for 11 days, and is making progress, which is all I was hoping for during those darker moments.
So while my last post was about the upside of quarantine, things flipped on Mother’s Day, and I became painfully aware that those who have depression or mental health issues have most likely been affected exponentially by this pandemic.
My takeaway is to check in with people I care about more … make sure they are really okay, not just telling me they are okay. ❤
While there have definitely been hard moments, several good things have also come from being home with my family for eight weeks. The best part has been all the quality time with the girls. We haven’t been crafting or learning a new language, but just being around them 24/7 has been wonderful. For example, Scarlett loves breakfast, and she is usually awake right after my first few standing calls of the day, so I’ve been able to make her something special a few times a week. With Anabella, it’s all about Starbucks drive-thru and watching “our” shows (The Masked Singer, Below Deck Sailing Yacht and Catfish … don’t judge!). They are both growing up fast, so I feel blessed to get this weirdly special time with them.
Having time to do things around my house (cleaning out closets, organizing, gardening, etc.) has also been cool. I’ve knocked a lot of things off my “to do” list … things that I probably never would have gotten around to.
And at least two or three times a week, I go outside with Rocky around 7:30 p.m., listen to music and watch the sunset … all by myself. And I’ve discovered that doing nothing is awesome. I rarely, if ever, get this much time to just be.
I’m officially one step closer to becoming a Stepford Wife. I was already the woman who is constantly cleaning/tidying the house, but quarantine has me gardening, cookinq and now I’m throwing dinner parties for my less-than-enthusiastic family. It was actually sort of fun to make a big Tex-Mex feast … almost everything from scratch. Two hours of prep and over in 15 minutes, but what else was I doing? 😉
Scarlett and I attempted the “drive thru” option at the vet’s office, because Thor (the puppy) needed his next round of shots, and Scarlett spotted a flea on Rocky (OMG!). Sounded easy enough … you pull up, call them, and they come get your dogs.
We arrived on time, but they were “running behind.” (Just like a normal doctor’s appointment), so we sat there for the longest 25 minutes ever (the dogs both wanted to sit in my lap …and also look out the window, while also fighting, honking the horn, etc.). They FINALLY come to get the dogs, but they say they only want to take one at a time. Well, Thor loses his mind when they take Rocky … he jumps in the back seat and immediately pees all over Scarlett. She starts screaming, so I tell her to put him in the cargo area and start handing her paper napkins and Clorox wipes.
Thor does not enjoy the cargo area, so he pees there too (thank goodness I had a big blanket down from a flower purchase a few weeks ago.) He starts barking like crazy and then hits the button to fold the seat down on Scarlett. She’s screaming again, he’s barking, and I’m laughing because it’s literally like an insane asylum in my truck.
The vet tech brings Rocky back, and he immediately lays down to chill. We all get a nice 20-minute break while Thor is gone … but when they bring him back, it’s like he had two espressos and an adrenaline shot. He’s running back and forth over Scarlett in the backseat, she’s screaming at him again, so finally I’m like “put him back in solitary!”
He starts barking non-stop, but we are only a five-minute drive home, so we decide we can handle it. About two minutes later, the whole car fills up with the smell of crap. Scarlett is holding her nose, I can barely breathe … she looks in the back and says “Mom! He pooped THREE TIMES back there!” He stops barking, and we hang our heads out the window the rest of the way home.
Sunday was our 12th wedding anniversary. A friend asked how long we’d been together, and when I replied “12 years” Dan quickly jumped in with “FIFTEEN!!” So apparently it’s been a long time. Or it at least feels like a long time to Dan.
He is super hard to buy for, so when the opportunity came up on Facebook to help a local wildlife rescue group release a hawk back into the wild, I jumped on it. Birds of prey and Dan go together like peanut butter and chocolate. And luckily I won (and it didn’t cost me nearly as much as it should have).
So here are some photos from our adventure out to Magnolia, Texas, last weekend to release a juvenile red-tailed hawk … such an incredible creature. And it was an amazing moment to watch him circle around and fly off to freedom.
Ok, it’s not Wednesday, but this was supposed to be published on Wednesday, so it still counts.
I saw several cars this week that made me think “WTF?”
This one wins the prize. Granted, we all support our troops and our military should take great pride in serving their country. However, pride can go a step beyond and become cuckcoo. Case in point:
Click on the photo if you want to see this in all its glory. He’s got decals, flags and all kinds of goodies in the back window.
I love my car, but my car is a THING, not a person. Please quit giving your car eyelashes, and in this case, a NOSE.
This one really stumped me. I’m not a big fan of personalized license plates, and this one is another example of why. Is he really confused for Greg so often that this was necessary?
And finally, this one is just for fun. It’s rated R, so make the kids leave the room. Someone posted this on Facebook and it had me laughing so hard that Dan came in the room to ask what was going on. 😉
Several months ago, Dan put Anabella and Scarlett in karate lessons. They love it … it makes them feel like little badasses … plus it teaches them discipline in addition to being great exercise.
Recently the opportunity came along to get their photos taken in their Gi (pronounced Gee). It was early in the afternoon, and it cost $90, so I figured we would just blow it off, but Dan decided he wanted to take them. When I got home and saw that they both had uncombed hair, I should have known this photo shoot went terribly wrong.
But it wasn’t until I got home and saw the following photos (which we paid NINETY DOLLARS for), that I realized just how “wrong” wrong can be.
That’s right. Those are my sweet little girls. Holding sharp objects and clearly battling dragons in Middle Earth. Or perhaps it is Armageddon? The big smiles are surprising considering they are standing in hot lava.
When I asked Dan about the background, he swore up and down that the girls chose it.
Uh huh.
But this photo is what really sent me over the edge. We didn’t order this one. The photographer gave it to us.
Considering the other photos, he probably assumed we needed some religion in our lives.
Don’t get me wrong. I love bacon. But if we glorify fatty food by turning it into jewelry and lipstick, can we really be surprised that our kids have a weight problem?
