And another week is upon us.
1.) My Baby Brother Went and Grew Up.
My younger brother started attending the U.S. Naval Academy a couple days ago.
It's just surreal, I watched him being born, I helped raise him, and now he's in college and in the military.
They never tell you that you get a small taste of what it's like when your children are grown when you're the big sister in a big family (I'm number 1, brother in question is number 5). I'm only 27, I'm too young to have these feelings!!
It's just surreal, I watched him being born, I helped raise him, and now he's in college and in the military.
They never tell you that you get a small taste of what it's like when your children are grown when you're the big sister in a big family (I'm number 1, brother in question is number 5). I'm only 27, I'm too young to have these feelings!!
2.) There's a Mysterious Bug Consuming the Tomatoes
I really have no idea what these things are.
They're all over my tomato plants. I'm pretty sure they're sucking the juice out of the fruit, because now they're all this weird mottled color and have soft rotting spots.
They're all over my tomato plants. I'm pretty sure they're sucking the juice out of the fruit, because now they're all this weird mottled color and have soft rotting spots.
The harvest is pretty much all in, so I'm not too concerned with the damage they're doing, but I wish I knew what the heck they are. They're not in the bug book I have on hand in the house.
3.) Doll Baby Keeps on Rocking
The doll I'm making for Little Girl is coming along nicely. I finally finished the detail work that I was doing on her hands and feet, and now I'm working on a dress made from a nice flowered bed sheet my Mother in Law passed on to me.
I'm actually pretty excited. Little Girl has caught sight of her (despite my attempts at secrecy), and she's pretty excited about her too.
I'm actually pretty excited. Little Girl has caught sight of her (despite my attempts at secrecy), and she's pretty excited about her too.
4.) Blueberries for Miles
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| There's a whole 'nother cookie sheet full of berries below the one in the picture. |
So, I've mentioned before that we get a lot of our produce at a mom and pop store called Fruit King.
This past week they had a sale on boxes of blueberries, and we ended up with a LOT of them.
I rinsed them and put them on cookie sheets to freeze. Hopefully that'll last us awhile for oatmeal, muffins, and pancakes. Blueberries are something that we can't grow down here, our soil isn't acidic enough, so it's exciting when we come across a windfall like this.
This past week they had a sale on boxes of blueberries, and we ended up with a LOT of them.
I rinsed them and put them on cookie sheets to freeze. Hopefully that'll last us awhile for oatmeal, muffins, and pancakes. Blueberries are something that we can't grow down here, our soil isn't acidic enough, so it's exciting when we come across a windfall like this.
5.) We are Currently Attempting to Establish Family Game Night
Chris and I will occasionally play a card or board game together, but lately we've been trying to bring the kids on board (see what I did there?) too.
So far, it's actually going pretty well. We've been playing Sequence for Kids with them, which is complex enough that Chris and I don't die of boredom (I hate Candy Land with the passion of a thousand suns, it's just so BORING), but simple enough that the kids can understand game play. We had to slip Little Girl the unicorn card at one point to stem a temper tantrum (she then guarded said card jealously), but over all it went surprisingly smoothly.
6.) My Anxiety has Been Acting Up.
I have an anxiety disorder. It's mostly under control, but lately, for whatever reason (probably pandemic/lockdown/raised racial tensions related) it's been spiking. I've been finding myself pacing around the house like a caged animal and feeling like there's a tension inducing soundtrack behind me wherever I go (like this one. Imagine that feeling you get when you're really engrossed in a high tension scene in a movie, but you're in the movie, you can't actually hear any music, and you're just doing normal household stuff. That's roughly what it's like).
As a result, it's hard to focus, I wake up in the morning anxious and dreading the day, and I've been more curt and short with the kids.
In response, I'm trying to cut down my exposure to social media (turns out that's a major trigger for me. I tend to take the ugliness I see and get involved in pretty personally), and I'm trying to focus on stuff I can actually control and make a difference with at home. I'm also going to try and refine my schedule with the kids: I find I do better when things are more structured.
Humbling that I have to do that and step back, and that my skin is evidently that thin, but there it is.
Humbling that I have to do that and step back, and that my skin is evidently that thin, but there it is.
7.) I've Started Planning International Travel Trips as a Hobby
I've always wanted to travel internationally and, in part to keep myself off of social media, I've started researching and planning what it would actually cost to go to some of these places on my bucket list.
I'm fully aware that said trips aren't likely to happen anytime soon (especially with Covid 19 being a thing. Most countries in Europe won't even let people from the US in until this fall- if they do even then), but it's still fun to daydream about making them happen.
I've done Lourdes so far (turns out that it'd cost about $2,000 an adult to travel over there, so about $5,000 for our family, including kids), next I'm thinking I'll research what it would take to visit the Holy Land, or to walk the Camino in Spain.
I'm fully aware that said trips aren't likely to happen anytime soon (especially with Covid 19 being a thing. Most countries in Europe won't even let people from the US in until this fall- if they do even then), but it's still fun to daydream about making them happen.
I've done Lourdes so far (turns out that it'd cost about $2,000 an adult to travel over there, so about $5,000 for our family, including kids), next I'm thinking I'll research what it would take to visit the Holy Land, or to walk the Camino in Spain.
It's a weird hobby, but it beats arguing on Facebook.
For the rest of this week's takes, click here.
I used to go on Orbitz and figure out the cheapest way to take my dream trip around the world... so there's that.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of anxiety due to racial tensions, getting away from social media is a VERY good thing. (I'm a fan of media-fasting after national disasters.)
ReplyDeleteOne MASSIVE thing you can do to help is simply teach your kids to celebrate diversity and read them stories with characters who aren't necessarily from your ethnic group. One of my friends started doing this after Charlottesville, and she shared the following link with a bunch of us: https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/
This is a list of ideas of things white people can do that has gotten passed around since Charlottesville as well: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
(Keep in mind that it is a list of ideas, not a to-do list.)
Most importantly, listen to what black folks are saying. Many of them are sharing their pain, and ways to help. It's hard to listen sometimes when people are sharing that level of pain, but it's something we need to do.
I linked to an article in this post that subject that shares what I'm doing (or trying to do) and what I'm struggling with in the aftermath of all this. I read the "what white people can do" article when it first came out-- I tend to lean conservative, but I actually really, really liked that article, because there was a lot on there that I CAN do, and that I think needs to be done, even if there were a couple ideas on there that I felt uncomfortable doing.
DeleteI especially liked the stuff about lobbying for prison reform, that's a subject I've had strong feelings about for awhile, even before all this stuff broke out.
another blog post I wrote, not article.
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