I have officially reached my tipping point this week. You can only watch so many movies, play so many games, take so many walks around the neighborhood, read so many books, talk about the same old things with the same people, look at the same four walls. I am loosing my ever lovin mind. This is the sanitized, non-breakdown version. The real thing was much messier.
I know all the right answers. I know we've been doing this for the greater good. I know millions of people have it much worse than I do. I'm thankful we've remained healthy and no one I know has died of this vicious virus. I willingly wear my mask wherever I go with no complaints. We've been the lucky ones who haven't lost their jobs. I have the most loving, wonderful husband and kids that I've gotten to spend oodles of time with. I know there's so much to be thankful for.
But I am also human. I am not Pollyanna (contrary to what many think). I miss other people. I miss going on adventures. I miss going out. I miss traveling. I'm tired of trying to come up with activities to relieve everyone's boredom. My heart breaks for all of Bennett's missed experiences of his Senior Year. My heart breaks for all of the people who've lost loved ones. My heart breaks for so many older people I know who feel alone and trapped in their homes indefinitely because of their high risk status. I'm just down in the dumps. So, that's what this week has looked like.
It wasn't all bad though. It actually started off AMAZING with Mother's Day last Sunday. Chuck is always the most creative gift giver. He and the kids came up with this idea to wear a hat with all the job titles I do as a mom taped on the hat. All of them wrote up something little and then presented to me. Gavin joined us via zoom (thus the grainy photo above). My heart melted. It was the most precious show of affection and affirmation. Then, on top of all that wonderfulness, Bennett and Chloe bought me a pasta maker - which, if you know me, is the perfect gift!! I can't wait to make real pasta!
I also got a beautiful love note written on my mirror.
We ordered Jimmy John's online and went to a park and had a picnic for the first time in forever. As you can see by Chloe's blanket, it was a wee bit chilly. But the sun was out and we were someplace other than home. It was absolutely wonderful!
After playing a million games of spike ball, which we brought with us, we hung up our hammocks and basked in the glow of the dappled sunlight under the giant pine trees. As you can tell, Chloe likes to be close to us at all times. She spent most of her time in Chuck's hammock on top of him, even though her blue hammock was less than 3 feet away from both of our hammocks.
Bennett decided to use the quilt we brought (in case we had to spread our picnic out on the ground) to keep himself warm in the mid-50s breezy weather. But you didn't see any of us complaining.
These two share a special bond. Wes adores Chuck. When we were leaving their house after Thanksgiving this past year, Chuck gave Wes his business card and told him he could call him any time he wanted.
So, can you guess who Chuck's talking to here? That's right. Apparently, Wes had lost Chuck's card and recently found it again. He called him twice on this day. It was precious. It certainly was a bright spot in our week.
At the beginning of the week, my computer keyboard and tracker died. It took calling our IT department (Gavin) and Chuck working together on the phone for over an hour to configure this contraption to finally get my computer to function as more than a brick. Chuck did more digging and learned that all we have to do is replace some cord in the tracker thingy, but apparently it will take like weeks to get the parts. So I've made peace with my new setup.
Part of my sadness this week might also have had something to do with the fact that this was my last week of work. Not only that, my last day working for this organization. I am now unemployed. This was our last staff meeting. We lost 40% of our funding for this coming school year. My boss was going to have to lay people off and combine classes. I only taught one class and knew it would be helpful to bow out on my own accord to help make things easier for her. Plus, I just felt I was supposed to be doing something other than teaching (more on that to come in a future post). I was at peace with the decision to leave, even though I love what I do. So, that was sad.
We watched two INCREDIBLE and INSPIRING commencement speeches with Bennett this week. If you didn't get to hear Oprah's, you can watch it here.
And Mr. Obama's speech was a soothing balm. Bennett said he enjoyed this one the most.
Miracles still exist. My menu board is living proof. Somehow meal ideas keep showing up on this board and we keep making and eating them. We only nixed Monday's meal, but the rest of the week was spot on.
We spent a lot of time watching shows this past week because...quarantine + boredom = lazy butt movie night. This (plus episodes 7 & 8 of "The Last Dance”) was the most interesting thing we watched by far this week. You will not be able to look at Amazon the same after watching this.
And lastly, this was the fantastic book of the week. It was nice to have a fast paced fiction book to read after weeks of reading about heavy, depressing topics. It is about an American Christian archeologist who has the find of a lifetime in a Palestinian settlement. The Christian, Muslim, and Jewish archeologists work together at this dig site and some amazing things happen. I enjoyed learning alot about archeology, the tension in occupied Israel, and some of the fundamentalist leanings of ultra-orthodox Judaism.
