A Day in the Life

It’s true—your brain does continue to grow. New neural pathways can be created. Though in my case I think an old neural pathway gets shut down for every new one created!

Remember how this blog started?! The Social Distancing Diaries?? Remember how I wrote something Every. Day?! Today I was feeling the vibe of the Social Distancing Diaries and thought I’d give you a glimpse at my life.

I awoke this morning a bit surprised that we hadn’t received a 5am 2 Hour Delay call. Apparently the icy conditions hadn’t developed overnight as expected. Nonetheless, there was no run or walk on my agenda today. I was cooking my egg when I heard a thud from another room. Something breakable was dropped and it caused great distress and a bit of tension between family members. Yes, I’m being intentionally vague. My coffee and egg sandwich waited while I cleaned up, consoled, and repaired. Note that this happened before my morning coffee.

I warned the other inhabitants.

I finally ate the breakfast and drank the coffee. While I got dressed I recalled that my dad was having breakfast in town, so I texted him to ask if he could swing by the school and pick up Lily’s “Art Kit” (she has art this quarter and the school provides some supplies for the online learners). He couldn’t, so we arranged that he and I would go back into town together after he came home. This suited me since I didn’t know the road conditions and wasn’t keen on driving myself. As I stepped onto my deck to walk across the back yard to my dad’s waiting car my feet slid out from under me as I somehow made an undoubtedly graceful half-turn to fall flat on my stomach, now facing the door I had just exited. Black ice. No worries, nothing was broken or injured beyond the reach of ibuprofen. I exited through the front door, to the car, making a quick check of the road surface on my way. Thankfully the roads were fine. It was just all the surfaces getting to the road that were icy.

Thanks Mario! You’re a godsend!

Dad drove me around town, taking care of my errands as well as his, and back home again without incident. At home I continued to research a new product that I plan to offer. While it sounds simple enough to offer a new product, there’s actually quite a bit of research that needs to be done to figure out cost to make, retail price, wholesale price, etc. This took me a good part of 2 days. Having figured it out and decided I can do it profitably, I then purchased the supplies I needed. I finished that in time to heat up lunch for Eden since this was a day she eats lunch at 10:45. Making her lunch made me hungry, so I ate lunch at 11:00 (when you give a mouse a cookie…).

By the time Eden and I finished lunch it was time for Lily’s lunch, so I helped her get her lunch ready too. While I ate I placed my order for cabinets that we will be installing in our basement for my studio renovation. This also involved going next door to consult with my dad before finalizing the order.

While I was next door for 10 minutes I received phone calls and texts from 2 children wondering where I was (Note: I did tell one of those 2 children where I was going and why before I left). I also received a text from child #4 who is already back at college telling me that she needs to quarantine for 7 days. Ugh. Upon my return I checked in with them to offer the help that they had requested while I was next door, but the next class had started so my help was not needed at that time. I decided this was a great opportunity to check in with the 3rd child whom I hadn’t seen yet that day. Turns out the reason I hadn’t seen her was that she was feeling a bit down about the prospect of returning to college at the end of this week and hadn’t left her bedroom. The COVID restrictions on campus are pretty severe AND The Boyfriend lives here, not there. Those two things are weighing on her. I spent a few minutes listening and encouraging, all the while hearing another child stomp around the house, aggravated that I had gone missing again.

I’ve done pretty well this year, helping one child with Pre-Algebra and the other child with Algebra and now Geometry. But every once in a while I encounter a math concept that I don’t recall ever learning. Today it was Simplifying Radicals. But “Mario” on YouTube helped me out and after watching his 3 minute video I was an expert simplifier. Shhh, don’t tell, but it was actually kind of fun! While the kids attended their online classes I re-learned Algebra and Geometry. I also make dinner and clean toilets, so yeah, I’m basically a goddess.

Everyone is doing their best this year. Whether you’re working overtime out of the home, filing for unemployment, sending your kids to school and daycare, or homeschooling your kids, nothing is easy. I knew that having the kids home this year would disrupt my routine and I try to remind myself of that during the challenging times. I also remind myself that this isn’t their first choice. As I manage my hissy fits I also help them to manage their hissy fits. Hopefully we’re not all throwing fits at the same time!