Thoughts, books, and stuff....

Fall is here.  The sky was grey this morning but the sun broke through and now its a sunny seventy-five with little humidity  I had today off work.  Gotta love the PTO.  I took today off to have a broken tooth fixed and spend some Q time with my thirteen year old daughter.  That consisted of matching dental appointments, matching numbness, a two and a half mile walk around town, a Subway run and a Walmart run and then the break down.  Anyone else have a teen kid?  Show of hands?  This school year has been a slight nightmare.  I am guaranteed my kid is going to breakdown any evening between the hours of seven and nine because of....math.  It's not that she can't do it it's that she has to have reassurance that she can do it.  Oh thee of little faith...  We always end up checking her work and its correct.  Of course on our wonderful "Girl's Monday" she would need to get to cracking on her school work because school never stops even if you only go two days a week.  Of course that led to the break down of the day.  Which led to me getting super frustrated because the kid can do it she just is thirteen and says the stupidest ish ever and I'm like WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?  But today I went ahead and reached out to the teacher who told me all is well in COVID School and not to fret.  

If I didn't have ball I think I would trade my afternoon coffee for an afternoon whiskey.

I do love my kid.  A lot.  

And here are some other things I am loving...

1.  Panera App

In a world of not really wanting to touch anything or talk to people my Panera App has made my lunch life so much easier.  Even more awesome is there new Duets menu with a half size salad or sandwich and a cup of soup for $5.99.  Download the app, get the free pastry, and thank me later.

2.  The Dearly Beloved

Have you read this book?  No?  OK read it.  It's such a good and thought provoking book about the good and bad in life and faith and lack of.  It's set in days long gone by (fifties, sixties) and it is the story of four people...two couples as they maneuver about their youth and young adulthood into their careers and lives.  There is heartache and there is joy and there is the desire to slap some people.

3.  All Things Reconsidered

Good book by a favorite podcaster, Knox McCoy.  I feel like I know he and Jamie Golden like my own close friends.  Knox's sophomore release is a nice follow up to The Wondering Years.  In All Things Reconsidered he seriously talks about the things he has reconsidered in his life - from Big Bird to God.  Read it.  And if you haven't read The Wandering Years - its awesome.

4.  Pumpkin Spice Coffee Great Value K-Cups

In layman's terms the Walmart brand k-cups in pumpkin spice.  I am not a huge pumpkin spice fan but these are pretty good.  Not so overwhelming and you are in charge of how you make your coffee so it doesn't have to be a diabetic's nightmare.  They will never top the caramel creme ones Great Value makes.

5.  Fall ball...

The joys of being on the field with a dozen middle school girls.  God save us all.  I don't know what it is but this age is such a challenge that I love yet hate all at the same time.  Our team has lost two of their two games.  Glad I'm a Cubs fan...I'm used to these kind of seasons.

6.  Dove Beauty Bar

I made a vow to cut the plastic.  That means back to bar soap.  I enjoy it.  Weird - its nostalgia maybe to being three years old and my mamaw only allowing me an inch of water in the tub to get clean in because you don't play in a bath tub.  Everyone knew that playing in a bathtub meant busting your face open.  Swear she told me that.  I get the pink Dove Beauty Bars - those are the best things in the world.  I wash my freaking face with them and I must say my skin is looking great (I also use toner...) and they smell so good.  I'm really going back to basics I should type more about that.

7.  Challenge accepted....Tide in a box.

Another nostalgic piece of childhood - powder detergent.  Yep...switched back to it too!  OK I know you can get the liquid in the paper carton now but I like powder.  I didn't realize how much I liked powder until I started back on it.  Whoa that sounds like I'm referring to something else I did use powder and started back on it in the same sentence.  TIDE not anything else people.  TIDE.

8.  Stuck on some Outlander.

That freaking Scottish porno has really got me sucked in.  Oh?  Its not a porno?  Coulda fooled me.  Actually, I just finished season three and its more like when they bow chicka bow wow it looks like animals on Discovery Channel but anyway....My sister-in-law said it starts to suck when they "come to America" - spoiler alert they never really came to America the whole show was filmed in Scotland.  My only issue is when they go to the "West Indies" its blatant they are in Ireland.  You can agree NC and Scotland look a like but the Caribbean and Scotland - no honey no no no.  Anyway since I'm watching on Netflix I have to wait ever so patiently for season four to reach the 'flix because they stop at season three.  Major bummer.  

9.  Election ads are killing me smalls.

Between the deforestation that both sides of the aisle are doing with their mailings and the horrid ads they paid too much to make I really need everyone who strives to be a politician to take a freaking pill and go to sleep for like fifty years.  Please and thank you.

10.  Bye Facebook.

I have an account but I took the app off my phone.  I hate Facebook.  I really hate it.  What I hate the most is this...

Person:  Did you hear so and so died?

Me:  Oh my gosh!  WHAT?

Person:  Yeah.  Why didn't you know?

Me:  I hadn't heard.

Person: Ummm Facebook, Amanda.

Me:  Palm to forehead Ughhhhh.

I hate Facebook, Boomerbook, ugh.  Now I say I will allow FB for Fridays so I can take a glimpse of what "news" I need and then delete that ish back off my phone.  

A few things to add to this post that I'm working on over the course of the next thirty days:

We're All Adults Here - reading this or rather having it read to me.  I am liking Jenna's Book Club.

I was reintroduced to The Nester again a couple weeks ago.  You know what drives me nuts?  When people have super smart yet super non-novel ideas and they can make bucks off of them and make people like me slap my forehead and say, WHY DIDN'T I DO THAT ALREADY? Total respect to Myquillyn on taking the bull by the horns and reminding us of what is important in a home.  So my current plan is to thin out the storage of ish in my house.  I actually started this already by filling up laundry baskets on excess crap I do not need.  Of course this all came on the heels of my husband getting a few boxes of his things from his late father's home.  I'm a tosser he's a sentimentalist.

I have a YMCA membership and they said they are going to start charging me again.  That means I need to carve out work out time - intentional work out time, in a gym, with other people.  Scary!!!

Ratched...I pressed play and Mary Mother of Our Lord...can I get through it?

Pumpkin patch on the agenda of my brain but not the agenda of my agenda....it must happen.

Fall Ball needs a dub.  Here's hoping they will start swinging at pitches and actually hitting them in the next couple of weeks.

Yard sale?

***

That's it.  That's all I gots.

The Mandated Break: Week 1...or is it 2?

Good morning.  I know its morning because I woke up while ago (two hours ago) made coffee and watched Willie Geist on NBC.  

I hear some people are getting days and nights mixed up like infants because they are on lock down.  

Did you ever think you would be in the circumstances of a pandemic?

I am thirty-eight years old and I have lived through/seen some recessions, a couple or three stimulus packages, a couple wars, terrorist attacks, the birth of HIV/AIDS as a public health concern, Ebola, "new" flus from chickens and pigs, the birth of the internet, the invention of TikTok, and now I can add - shut down from pandemic.

Ahhh the novelties of this life.  The ride that keeps us on our toes.  

In the midst of all this semi-organized chaos I have continued going to work, paying my bills, making dinner but without those other things like...

Picking up and taking kids to sports practices

Going to the YMCA to work out with my friends who are the same as family...

Going to the store fifty times because "oops" I forgot this or "oops" the kid forgot to tell me she needed that...

Last week I came home from work every day and changed clothes and immediately took the kids OUTSIDE.  We went to the track we got in steps, we kicked soccer balls, we threw softballs.  I made dinner late and had nothing prepped.  

We talked, we hung out, we had a nice week.

It was just like summer break came early.  

I embraced it whole-heartedly because I embrace a slow down.

As the week progressed I noticed something really nifty.  The kids weren't glued to their computers and devices quite as much.  Spring came and so did eighty degrees and sunshine.  I didn't have to say, "We're going outside" - they beat me to it.  They were on the trampoline, the scooter, the 4-wheeler, grabbing the softball bag from the car.

"Silver Linings "by Ava & Neve

And in those moments I saw something brilliant.

I decided after last Monday that the kids would be in charge of making dinner.  Each evening around seven or seven thirty I would call the kids in the kitchen and they would make the meal.  Not I.  And they didn't fight.  They were busy chopping, stirring, mixing, cracking eggs, seasoning vegetables or meat.  

And in that kitchen I witnessed something nostalgic.

Silver Lining by wmshop

Mama still had to be at work at the crack of dawn so our night time routines didn't change last week.  The oldest is a million percent capable of her night time routine.  I still need to warden over the youngest.  After shower, dental hygiene, and night time medication administration he was ready for a book in bed.  He would allow me to read him a whole library when we snuggle up if I had the ability to.  From those pages we would start a dialogue (we were reading Minecraft books) and it would flourish out from how many glass blocks to how many wool blocks to if we built this in real life to one day a little voice that will all too soon turn into a deeper one say, "I may be an architect, mama."

And in these moments I found what I have always treasured.

School may be out.  Work may be chaotic.  There may be stressors building up that cause you to have mild panic attacks.  

Please stop.

Just stop.

Open your eyes to what you have at this moment - look at the silver linings.  

Turn off your television and your social media and open your eyes to what this actually is.

Its not about an economy or a health issue.

You're being given the greatest gift besides love.

You have at your feet - time.

People write books, songs, poetry about how they wish they had more time.

And today March 2020 - you have been given the gift of time.

The government cleared your calendar.  The teachers filled the Google classroom with tasks that can be completed in an hour.  Your appointments are pretty much canceled.  Your work may be shut down or on a simplified schedule.  

You got your groceries.  

You're good.  

You're covered.

Put your focus on the fun, the joy, the people who you realized just a little while ago are growing so fast and you know if you blink one more time they will be driving, graduating, moving out.

Focus on that person you committed your life to.  The one that doesn't give you much attention because so much is going on or you don't give too much attention to because you seem to busy with the kids or the job.

Call the friend.

Go outside and blow bubbles, throw the ball, kick the ball, look under rocks for creepy crawlies, paint the picture on the canvas.

Plant the garden.  Jump on the trampoline (but if you have had kids and are over 35 don't!)  Go for the walks in the woods.  Watch the last Frozen movie *ughhhh.

Read the extra books.  Help with the Google classroom work.  Play the board game.  Make the new recipe.  Take the dog for an extra long walk.  Leave the cats alone - they are pissed your home so much now.

Embrace the gift of time that you have been given.  Let creativity drip from your soul like the slow drip of an old school coffee pot.

You have been given what so many have prayed, begged, and died over - time.

All good and wonderful things come from the Lord.

Make the most of it.

This is mandated.

David Stiendl Rast

xoxo