What's Been Going On: Thursday, 26 May - Sunday, 29 May, 2022

 You know what they say about the best-laid plans…

I had such great plans for this weekend, and then….THHHHHHHHHBBBBBBBBBBBTTTT, nothing.

I hate when that happens, but this very much wasn’t my fault, and you’ll see what I mean in a few, since this update will look a little different than normal. Oh well. I suppose there’s always hope for next weekend?

 

Here’s what I was up to – and, uh, not up to – the second half of last week…

 

Thursday, 26 May, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I wrote and edited my Thursday post. I got dressed, filled and ran the dishwasher, cleaned off the stovetop, took out the recycling and compost, then chopped and froze a bag of red peppers.

I chopped some onions and potatoes, took out more compost, then brought in a jalapeno from the garage freezer. I rested for a bit on the computer, then made a batch of curry burgers out of last week’s Indian dal (added some flax and breadcrumbs, and they turned out great!), which we had for lunch.

After lunch, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and I made a batch of samosa wrap filling – and then two more trips to the compost! I cleaned the kitchen and filled and ran the dishwasher again, and then it was time for some reading in my chair.

I finished And Now I Spill the Family Secrets by Margaret Kimball, followed by all of Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast. I ate dinner and did my Duolingo, then took a quick library trip to pick up a few extra books for the holiday weekend (driving, not walking this time, because there was no way my back could’ve handled the walk).

At home, I put dinner away and showered, did my Duolingo, and started reading The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. I knit and watched some YouTube afterwards, before going to bed.

 

Friday, 27 May, 2022

After coffee, I wrote and posted Friday’s post, then got dressed, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen, then I tidied the living room. I spent some time on the computer, and after a brief early lunch, my daughter and I were off to her counselor.

At home, I helped my son with the creation of his skillet dinner and supervised his first use of our air fryer (he’d used a different style and wasn’t sure how to run ours at first). Afterwards, I dozed on the chair, then messed around on the computer for a few before cooking the eggs that went with the skillet. We had dinner, I knit and watched some YouTube videos, then showered and did my Duolingo. I knit a little more and connected to my synagogue’s weekly Shabbat services when it was time. When that was done, I looked for some new books on NetGalley (and found some!). My husband and I watched an episode of Under the Banner of Heaven before bed.

 

Saturday, 28 May – Sunday, 29 May, 2022

And it started from the moment I woke up.:

MIGRAINE.

All day.

That’s it.

That’s literally all I did all day was deal with effects of the migraine.

But it wasn’t just Saturday. Check the dates up there.

I woke up in the middle of the Sunday AM hours with the migraine roaring just as fiercely, sending me running down the bathroom hall TWICE to throw up (in addition to the time Saturday morning it had made me throw up).

The headache pain does die down for me after a while. It takes a really long time, along with powerful prescription drugs (that insurance doesn’t want to pay for, of course. Anyone know any BCBS executives so I can go throw up on them? Because they don’t seem to think that’s a big deal at all for me, so it shouldn’t be a big deal for them either, right???), but I do get some relief from the being-stabbed-in-the-head-with-an-icepick-every-time-I-inhale feeling, but what doesn’t leave me all day long is the nausea, the exhaustion, the stomach problems, the dizziness. That’s an all day, sometimes multiple-day thing (what with the ‘migraine hangover’ that’s so fond of sticking around). I did manage to get some reading done over the weekend, even out on my swing, but it was while feeling the constant full-body effects of this migraine from hell. And of course, I still cooked and cleaned the kitchen, because apparently while I was off vomiting and feeling like my head would explode, my entire family broke their arms and legs, rendering every single one of them entirely incapable of preparing a single meal or cleaning up after themselves more than one would expect, say, a zoo animal!

 

So that’s it! I had a huge list of things I was planning on getting done this weekend, and instead I threw up and lay in bed with my eyes closed. NOT exactly what I had planned on.

Crossing all the things that all of you had a more pleasant weekend!

Friday links: 27 May, 2022

Good morning, and happy Friday!

It’s been raining and raining and raining here, at those kind of weird intervals that make it impossible to mow the lawn. It’s super long, but my son and I are going to tackle it tomorrow (I’m going to do the square in the front; I don’t like how he mows that. He’s going to do the sides and the back). It’s going to get really hot here for a few days after tomorrow, so best to get on that while we’re not going to melt!

Not much in the way of plans this weekend, except getting my daughter the booster shot (she’s going to be *so* angry. Tough luck, kid!). I’ve got a stack of library books and a back porch swing calling my name, so I plan on spending a lot of time out there. It’s been a week, and I’m looking forward to diving into those books and entirely dissociating from the world.

Here’s what I found interesting on the internet this week!

 

13 Final Texts from Loved Ones Lost to Covid

This is a tough one, so skip it if you’re not in the right mental space (and ugh, who is these days?). We’ve officially reached 1,000,000 Americans dead from COVID. That’s like wiping Austin, TX off the map entirely. THAT’s how many people we’ve lost. It’s insane. And here you can see their final conversations with their families.

 

Barnes and Noble Being Sued in Virginia Beach Over Gender Queer, Court of Mist and Fury

It’s beyond school libraries and public libraries. Now these control freaks don’t want private businesses to sell books they don’t agree with. Folks, this is bad. This has nothing to do with ‘protecting the children.’ (Like it ever was. Let’s get real. As we’ve seen, these people don’t give a flying fig about elementary school kids being slaughtered during math class.) This is because these people can’t wrap their miniscule brains around the idea that some people are different from them, and thus they want to make sure they don’t have to think about things they refuse to understand. That’s it. It’s all about power and control and making sure they can feel bigger than gay and transgender people. What a sad, pathetic bunch these book banners are. Stand up to these bullies every chance you get, because they don’t deserve anything even resembling power.

(I’ve read Gender Queer. It’s fascinating and I very much enjoyed it!)

 

It’s happening here: Massachusetts has a growing neo-Nazi movement

Because I don’t have enough to worry about.

It’s not just Massachusetts. It’s everywhere. These people are everywhere (especially on the internet; it’s nearly impossible to be Jewish online and not encounter them), and they’re super vocal about how I shouldn’t exist.

Teach your children better. Teach your friends’ children, teach anyone you can that this isn’t the way to go. Because these people are violent and scary.

 

The Annihilation of Florida: An Overlooked National Tragedy

Eep. This is a long one, but it’s worth the read if you have time. Basically, we took Florida, an amazingly diverse natural paradise, and we ruined it. (Sing it with me: “We paved paradise and put up a parking lot…”) All that biodiversity, all those animals and their habitats, gone. And we continue to ruin it every day. And we KNOW we’re ruining it, and still we put our heads down and charge forward, because hey, all that matters is the money we make!

The consequences of this are going to be massive…but we’ve shown we don’t care about the consequences of our actions, because they never seem to affect the people with the stacks of cash in their pocket, right?

And on a lighter note…

 

Spring Decluttering is Better Than Spring Cleaning

It felt *so* good to get that box and two bags out of the house this week and off to the thrift store. I have plans for a LOT more decluttering this summer; I’m tired of having so many belongings to care for, so I’m going to be brutal when I go through things like my kitchen (buhbye, old cups from restaurants we went to eight years ago and mugs we never use) and my laundry room (which doubles as storage). I’m ready to feel less beholden to my possessions. Now, if only I could get the rest of my family feeling that way…

 

And that’s it for this week! I’m about to go hose down my daughter and then clean other things around the house. We have her counselor today, and then I’m going to make potatoes in the air fryer for my son, who is making some sort of breakfast…thing…for dinner. Hopefully I’ll have some time to finish the YouTube video I started yesterday while knitting, but if not, I’ll definitely have time over the weekend.

Take some time for self-care this weekend. It’s been a really difficult week, and there’s work to be done to make things better, but make sure you’re getting some rest in there. This is going to be a long road. Shalom, friends. : )

What's Been Going On: Monday, 23 May - Wednesday, 25 May, 2022

 Good morning, friends.

What a rough week it’s been. Just so much heartbreak. I learned yesterday that one of the Uvalde parents who lost their children is a friend of a friend. Not surprising, because my friend’s son had to hide himself and others in the bathroom a few months ago at the Oxford, Michigan school shooting; another friend’s daughter’s school was shot up in Indiana a few years ago, and someone I used to post with at a breastfeeding messageboard when my son was little lost her daughter in a school shooting in, I believe it was, New Mexico a few years ago.

The fact that I’m just one person and I have all these connections to grieving parents and their dead-or-traumatized kids says a lot about what we value in this country, doesn’t it?

Anyway.

This is our first week of summer break and the plan was to take a little bit of time off to do some house projects. Not much of that has been done yet, since I’m just kind of…numb, and trying to process. I’d like to think the rest of the week, or maybe next week, will be more productive, but who knows? We’ll likely all have moved on to the next mass shooting by then…

Hard to be optimistic when we all know this is just another stop in the road, right?

Here’s what I’ve been up to so far this week.

 

Monday, 23 May, 2023

After coffee, I edited and posted Monday’s post, then posted a review for The Big Tiny by Dee Williams over on my book blog. I got dressed and threw some chickpeas into the Instant Pot, and then it was time for what we decided would be our last day of school.

We dd On This Day in History and geography (Oman), and then we plowed through three units of math. This was long and tough, but my kiddo made it, and at the end, we were done with the second grade math curriculum completely! \o/

After lunch, I did an hour of volunteer work while my daughter watched two episodes of Horrible Histories. I cleaned the kitchen, took out the trash, compost, and recycling, emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and ran it. I made a batch of vegan chickpea balls, then I scooped the litterbox.

I hung out on the computer for a bit (I went in and out to the backyard a few times where my husband and daughter were playing), then boiled a pot of water at my husband’s request for the massive anthill he found out back. He went for a run, and I went on a 3-ish mile walk with both my kids.

At home, I boiled some noodles and heated leftover homemade sauce, and we had spaghetti and chickpea balls for dinner. I did my Duolingo and showered, then knit my blanket while watching a YouTube video I’d had open on my computer for a few days. I put my daughter to bed, read my book, and my husband and I watched an episode of Under the Banner of Heaven before going to bed.

 

Tuesday, 24 May, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I emptied, refilled, and ran the dishwasher. I got some beans into the Instant Pot, did an hour of volunteer work, then copied some recipes from a library book that needed to go back. I brought in a jalapeno from the garage freezer, and then it was time for lunch.

The kids and I made a trip to the library so they could grab some books. At home, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, took out the compost, and turned the IP beans into a batch of cheesy beans. I cleaned off the counter tops, emptied the jar of orange peels that had been soaking in vinegar for a few months into a storage container and took the peels to the compost, then I made a batch of cornbread muffins.

I hung out on the computer for a bit, then went on a 3-ish mile walk with my son. At home, I made a batch of rice while my son cooked some soyrizo, then I went to collapse on the chair, since my back really hurt. It was about this time when news of Uvalde began coming out, and I stayed on the computer, horrified by the news and the increasing body count of small children.

After dinner (rice bowls with cheesy beans, soyrizo, yogurt-as-sour-cream, salsa, and cheese, with cornbread muffins), I did my Duolingo, showered, and knit while watching YouTube videos. I read my book, difficult as it was to focus, and my husband and I watched an episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Wednesday, 25 May, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I made out a grocery list (absolutely nothing decent on sale this week, ugh). My back was still extremely cranky, so I stayed in the chair on the computer most of the morning. I did fill the dishwasher and got dressed, and I took both kids to Five Below (and the Petsmart next door) for something to do; my son needed a case for his phone, so this was something we needed to do.

After lunch, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher and took out the recycling, and it was back to the chair, where I doomscrolled and refreshed, looking for updates on the Josh Duggar sentencing. I’ve had a horror/fascination with that family ever since they appeared on the first TLC special when my son was about three (and rumors began swirling online almost immediately afterwards about their eldest son’s behavior and the manner in which the parents covered it up, all of which turned out to be true, though this wouldn’t come to light until years later). I was happy to see he ended up being sentenced to 12.5 years in federal prison.

My son and I went for an expensive grocery trip (2% milk was up to $3.50 at ALDI!!! Just a few months ago, it was $1.78), and at home, we put the groceries away, then headed to the basement because of a tornado warning in our area (everything was fine! It passed by us). When it was over, I cooked the pizza, and after dinner, I did my Duolingo and hung out on the computer some more. It was just that kind of day.

I  showered and put my daughter to bed (no walk today; the threat of rain was still there); she and I finished reading Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander. I finished reading A Beginner’s Guide to Paradise by Alex Sheshunoff, then read all of the graphic novel Lennon by David Foenkinos, and started And Now I Spill the Family Secrets: An Illustrated Memoir by Margaret Kimball. My husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

And that’s it! I’m going to try to be a little more productive today. We’re going to try to clean things up a bit around here, I’ve got dinner that needs to be cooked, I need to scoop the litterbox… maybe that’ll all keep my mind off *gestures broadly at everything*.

Hang in there, friends. I think I’ve got a few letters to write to some Congress critters. I know that mine agree with me, that the slaughter of elementary school children and their teachers in Uvalde this week was entirely pointless and that this country’s inaction on these mass shootings is shameful and a more civilized society would have taken care of this problem approximately 2348327498323 mass shootings ago, but I need to do *something*. I’m so sad, y’all.

Wishing you all a peaceful end to this week, however you can find it.

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 19 May - Sunday, 22 May, 2022

 Hello, hello! The start of our last week of the school year, and I could not be happier! I’m looking forward to our bit of planned time off to get some house projects going (one of which I started this weekend; more on that in a bit!), and to plan our curriculum for the fall. I have a stack of books I’m going to sit down with and figure out what we’re going to do, in a relaxed, no-stress, no rush kind of manner. Who knows what fun things I’ll discover for my daughter to learn???

Boy, did it cool down here! It’s been nice for walking, that’s for sure, but now my feet are cold again! No reading on my swing this weekend, but that’s okay, we’ve got the whole summer ahead of us. :)

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately!

 

Thursday, 19 May, 2022

After coffee, I finished writing and posted Thursday’s post. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, chopped and sauteed some onion, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms for dinner, then I got dressed. We tidied a few things in the living room, and then it was time to start school.

We began with On This Day in History and geography (Nigeria), and then did a unit of math. We finished Why Is Art Full of Naked People and our book on fair trade. I got my daughter settled down with lunch just a few minutes early, then took a phone call upstairs with her counselor. He had a few questions and wanted to talk about a few things NOT in front of her, so we tackled those things, and I took a page full of notes from his suggestions.

After lunch, I cooked a combination of red lentils and rice, then we took school outside. We finished the book of Mister Rogers’ poetry (my daughter really loved this!), read more of Wild Girl, and read a story from Not One Damsel in Distress. We did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading (I’m still reading The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music History and my daughter is reading a stack of Judy Moody books), and then I read outside on the swing while the red lentil casserole baked in the oven.

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, then got my shoes on and did a five-mile walk to the library (it was 87 degrees. I was VERY hot and sweaty). And of course, just as I sat down outside the library to put my mask on (it’s an N95), the side strap kind of shredded. Fortunately, it held and still had a good seal, but OF COURSE THAT HAPPENED THEN, when I had walked and didn’t have a backup! *sigh* Speaking of hot, this is what my shirt looked like when I got home:

 

I put dinner away and changed into a different shirt immediately so I could put my daughter to bed, then I showered (and yes, my feet were pretty darn sore! The walk TO the library was actually harder than the walk home, because I could definitely feel the seven-ish pounds of books I had to return in my backpack, in my hips. Ouch!). I read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Friday, 20 May, 2022

After coffee, I wrote and posted Friday’s post, then scooped the litterbox and got dressed.

We started school with On This Day in History and geography (Norway!), then buckled down to do math. Instead of our usual schedule, I got my daughter through three units of math on this day in order to finish up on Wednesday, like the rest of the schools in the area are doing (to be honest, I don’t know that her class is finishing ALL of the units of math, but I want her to). I ended up having to change my clothes and start a load of laundry when my daughter accidentally spilled some red paint water on my favorite skirt (no worries, it came out), but then we read a book of random facts (a lot of which my daughter remembered from reading other things this year, and she had no problem chatting on and on about them! Made me pretty happy).

We had an early lunch, I got the dishes into the dishwasher, and then it was off to her counselor! The schools were let out early this day, so I didn’t feel like I necessarily needed to make her keep working when we got home, so I tidied the living room and swept. I chopped an onion for my son (who reacts terribly to them!), then hung out with him while he cooked a pan of baked ziti.

After he went back upstairs, I dozed for a bit, wrote a book review, played on the computer, and got the ziti into the oven. After dinner, I did my Duolingo and showered, then knitted and finished watching The Boy Band Con, which I’d started a few weeks ago (SUPER interesting!). I joined virtual Shabbat services when they started, and afterwards, I watched a TEDx talk called Change Your Closet, Change Your Life. My husband and I watched an episode of Unusual Suspects before bed (and were up late because of a super noisy thunderstorm!).

 

Saturday, 21 May, 2022

After coffee, I relaxed and played around on the computer for a bit, then I emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I got a batch of Indian dal soup with mixed vegetables into the crockpot, read for a bit, dozed, then read a little more.

After lunch, I knit and watched The Minimalists on Netflix. This got me thinking, and when the documentary ended, I put my knitting down and headed upstairs to my closet. I proceeded to pull out a huge box and two garbage bags’ worth of clothes I hadn’t worn in years. AHHHHHHHH, that felt so good! Pants that I hadn’t worn since before I had my daughter (that my expanded pelvis won’t even let me *think* about squeezing into), sweaters that no longer matched my style, t-shirts that my son had given me from his closet years ago that I was never going to wear (a grown woman going around in a 2015 middle school band t-shirt? Yeah, no), they all went into the donation pile, and it felt *really* freeing. I also switched all my hangers around so I can see what else I’m not wearing and give those away as well.

I went back downstairs and continued to knit while watching random TEDx talks about food waste, then I brought in some frozen vegetables from the garage and added them to the soup. I took out the compost and swept the kitchen floor, and emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I continued knitting while watching a Rob Greenfield talk, then folded and put away a load of clothing (and I stuffed a few extra sweatshirts into the giveaway bag). I picked a bunch of tiny burrs off a pair of my daughter’s pants with tweezers (#momlife), then continued knitting.

After dinner (which was okay; I think everyone else in the house liked it more than I did), my son and I went on a probably-slightly-longer-than-3-ish-mile walk (we avoided the pond that day, since the path would likely have been wet and squishy from all the rain we’ve been getting). At home, I showered and then put my daughter to bed and read my book. My husband and I watched an episode of Under the Banner of Heaven before bed.

 

Sunday, 22 May, 2022

I had coffee and got dressed, then copied down some recipes from a cookbook from the library. With both of my kids, I dropped off the donation boxes at Goodwill, and then we ran next door to Walmart for some random things, including milk, bleach, cat food, and a 9-volt battery.

At home, I made frozen ravioli for lunch, then ran the dishwasher, and headed outside to plant some watermelon starters that had been waiting all week long for me to have both the time and clear-enough weather (I gave the garden a brief watering when I was out there, since the top part seemed weirdly dry for all the rain we’ve had lately). I rested for a bit (since that really hurt my back!), then prepared some tomatoes for roasting and got them into the oven.

I sat down and worked on this post, then headed to the kitchen to make a pizza crust à la The Complete Tightwad Gazette. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then blended the roasted tomatoes into sauce. The sauce went onto the pizza, along with some mushrooms and chopped tomatoes, and into the oven it went!

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, and then took my daughter on a walk around the block so she could ride this little car that my mother gave her when she was eight months old. (Don’t ask.)

 

After that, I went for a 3-ish mile walk on my own (my son was busy). The crane was out!

 

At home, I showered, then read my book. My husband and I watched another episode of Under the Banner of Heaven before bed.

 

And that’s it! My daughter wants to try to finish up all of math today (we have three units left; we’ve tackled that much before), so school may look a little different today so we can get that done. That way, we can just do fun stuff these last few days. I’m absolutely down with that!

Wishing you all a lovely start to the week! : )

Friday links: 20 May, 2022

Good morning, and happy Friday! As I write this, it’s sunny and beautiful out, but we’ve got some thunderstorms rolling in later on today (including some wind, so I may tip my swing over later on, just in case. It tends to blow over when it gets windy, so I like to gently set it down to prevent any damage). And then it gets cool for another week. Ah, well; we had a good run!

Nothing planned for this weekend that I know of! I’m hoping to at least be able to get *some* rest in there. It’s been such a whirlwind of constant activity lately that I’m getting seriously worn out. We’ll be done with school next week, so we’re going to take some time off for a few weeks after that, so I can do some house projects, get the house in order, and start planning curriculum for the fall. The last few years of school have been so weird and exhausting; I think everyone’s ready for summer break, even homeschoolers!

Here's what I found interesting online this week:

 

Wasted food, wasted money: Why some poor families can’t afford to eat healthy

Besides the added extra cost of fresh vegetables and other healthy items, beyond the need for a kitchen with the basic cooking utensils (which not everyone owns or has access to), beyond the time it takes to prepare fresh, homecooked meals with healthy ingredients (which is another major reason so many people struggle with getting healthy food on the table; it’s hard to find the time to peel and chop potatoes or roast broccoli when you’re working two jobs AND you need to help the kids with their homework…), there’s the issue of food waste. Kids are notorious little food wasters, and parents who struggle financially can’t afford to gamble with their kids not eating. It’s one more factor that leads to poor health outcomes, but one that’s entirely understandable. If your kid needs to eat, and you have the option of feeding them something you know they’ll like, or feeding them something you spent an hour making, cost extra, and you’re pretty sure they’ll reject, what do you do?

  

Mother sues DeVos Children’s Hospital over COVID-19 vaccine requirement for girl’s kidney transplant

Another parent of the year here. Daughter is 17 and was adopted from Ukraine last year. She needs a new kidney, but Mom is throwing a tantrum because the doctors don’t want the daughter to die of COVID-19 when she gets a transplant and then needs to take anti-rejection medications that basically beat her immune system into submission. How dare they, wanting her to live and not wanting the kidney to be wasted, amirite?

I don’t understand these parents. I don’t feel like they see their children as people but more as props, something they can project their political identities onto in order to make a point and win cool points from their friends, at the expense of their children’s’ lives. Organ transplants are serious business, and kidney disease is a terrible condition; even a new kidney will only last so long, and then this girl will be right back where she is now. I’m sure Mom probably sees herself as some sort of brave warrior who’s valiantly charging in and saving her daughter’s life, but from a medical standpoint, she’s only further putting her daughter at serious risk. I hope this girl is able to make it to 18 and has someone in her life willing to explain that her mom is wrong, and that she’s able to get the vaccine and the new kidney, and that she has many more years of a joyful life on this planet despite her new mom’s stupidity.

 

FDA authorizes Pfizer Covid booster for children 5-11 years old

Woohoo!!! My needle-phobic daughter is going to be so angry! Tough luck, kid; we’ll stop by Dairy Queen afterwards. : )

SO glad to hear this. My kiddo is due for her booster after the 26^th, so we’ll be over at the pharmacy getting her protected. I do wish the vaccine offered more long-term protection, but it’s what we’ve got right now, and the booster does seem to make a huge difference in terms of case severity with Omicron, so I’m definitely a fan. This is a pretty big relief to me, because I’d been worried about this, knowing that she was due for a booster, but I hadn’t heard *anything* about it being approved for her age group. Now I can relax a little!

 (Pssst, FDA: Now do approval for the vaccine for the under-5's, mmkay???)

The many, many costs of breastfeeding

*Disclaimer* I’m all for breastfeeding. I nursed my daughter until she was almost three.

I know a lot of us are big fans of frugal living and all the books and blogs that celebrate it. One of the pieces of advice you often see in frugal living circles is, “Breastfeed your babies, it’s free!” …but it’s not really, is it? This web comic breaks down the cost of breastfeeding in terms of time, sacrifices, extra calories Mom needs, nursing bras (which are NOT $25 if you need a size not typically sold in stores. Bras for sizes like, say, 40GG can be over a hundred dollars (because you can’t buy them at Walmart or Target; you have to go to a more specialty store), and I can’t even imagine the struggle of trying to find a nursing bra in those sizes, or what they’ll cost (and you need at LEAST two, and likely more, because HOO BOY DO YOU EVER LEAK those first few months, well beyond what those nursing pads – another expense! – can soak up. The number of times I woke up in the night entirely drenched in my own breastmilk…LAUNDRY! Another expense).

And these are all best-case scenarios. I had mastitis three times with my son within two months (doctor appointments and prescriptions. Extra expense). I had pain issues with my daughter that sent me to the doctor (doctor appointment. Extra expense, including gas because it was over an hour’s drive away) and had me popping ibuprofen ‘round the clock (extra expense) until I left-side weaned at 18 months. This constant pain, which was all day/night long and not just when we were nursing, took a huge toll on my mental health. There’s a definite cost to breastfeeding – it’s just that a lot of it is invisible, because it’s women who bear it.

 

Lake Catholic lacrosse player with swastika on leg used slurs toward Orange team during Monday loss, superintendent says

*sigh* The Jews are tired, y’all.

This stuff? It’s super common. Like, SUPER common. It happens all the time. I hear about it all the time in my Jewish groups: the comments, the uninformed questions (NO, WE DON’T HAVE HORNS. IF WE DID, WE’D LIKELY HAVE BEGUN GORING PEOPLE WHO ASK THAT CENTURIES AGO), the workplace hostilities, the slurs, the vandalism, the death threats (also way more common than you might think. A rabbi I follow on Twitter was recently threatened and had to quit his job as a hospital chaplain because people were threatening his workplace). And this is a kid saying this. Who taught him this garbage? Who taught him to be like that? What is WRONG with people???

 

And that’s all I’ve got today! Busy day as usual; my daughter’s counselor ended up being negative for COVID and is completely better, so we’re masking up and heading over there at our regular time today. Hopefully we’ll be home before the rain starts. My son is making a pan of baked ziti for dinner tonight (I told him he was in charge of cooking on Fridays now, to which he happily agreed. He likes cooking, thankfully!), since it’s *so* hard for me to get food on the table AND get my daughter to the counselor *and* homeschool. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, right???

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! Be healthy and stay safe out there. Shalom, friends. : )

What's Been Going On: Monday, 16 May - Wednesday, 18 May, 2022

First half of the week is done! I always enjoy it when I get past Wednesday. I usually have all my volunteer work done, or close to done; the errands are done; I can spend the next four days relaxing and being not-quite so busy. Because the first half of the week is always just a blur of exhaustion and constant motion around here. Not necessarily something I planned, just how it works out. Homeschooling is awesome, but it definitely adds a ton of work and takes up most of my day! I envy the people with kids who are more self-motivated and can do their work without Mom prodding them with a stick every two seconds. If I weren’t directing every moment of my  daughter’s day, she would spend it all drawing unicorns in the margins of her papers (ASK ME HOW I KNOW THIS… :D).

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to so far this week!

 

Monday, 16 May, 2022

Up and at ‘em! I scooped the litterbox, had coffee, edited and posted Monday’s post, then edited and posted my review of The Kissing Bug by Daisy Hernández over on my book blog. I got dressed, emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and got my daughter downstairs to start school.

We started with On This Day in History and geography (New Zealand), then did a unit of math. We read through two books about camping (my daughter’s choice; she LOVES camping), and she took notes about what she felt was important, for a writing assignment. We discussed her writing assignment, and then she came up with a topic sentence for her writing. We read more of our book about fair trade, and then we read a book of random facts, which she really liked.

After lunch, I chopped some onions and a red pepper. I did 40 minutes of volunteer work, partly while my daughter watched an episode of Horrible Histories. We took our books out to the swing and started reading: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers, Wild Girl by Helen Skelton, Not One Damsel in Distress by Jane Yolen, Why Is Art Full of Naked People (this is such a fun book about art!), and then we did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading.

My son and I gathered a bunch of boxes and bags for Goodwill and loaded them into the car, then we dropped them off and went next door to Sam’s Club, where I bought toilet paper, garlic, and soap (and something else, but I can’t remember what!). We dropped off books at the library, then went home.

I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, took out the recycling, started the pasta boiling, took out the trash, and hauled the cans to the curb. I did 30 more minutes of volunteer work, had dinner, and did my Duolingo. My son and I went on a 3-ish mile walk.

I showered my daughter, showered myself, put her to bed, read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Tuesday, 17 May, 2022

Gratulerer med dagen! This was Norway’s national day. Lots of big celebrations there!

I had coffee, then emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I chopped and sauteed a batch of onions, peppers, and garlic, then got some taco-spiced lentils into the Instant Pot. I wiped down the counters, swept the kitchen floor, took out the compost, and got dressed. After starting a load of laundry, I ran the dishwasher and put the blankets back on the couch. I swept the living room and kitchen (again!) and wiped out the bathroom sink, and then it was time for school.

We started with On This Day in History and geography (Nicaragua), and then it was on to math, spelling, and writing. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, switched and hung the laundry, folded the laundry already hanging and put it away while my daughter did her math problems.

Part of the fun of homeschooling is you can arrange your schedule to make it work for you, so off we all went to buy my son a MUCH-needed pair of shoes. As luck would have it, the used bookstore is right next door, and my daughter came home with a stack of books from a series about fairies that she really likes, and they were all from the discount rack! Talk about a stroke of good luck. I came home with A Day Apart: Shabbat at Home by Noam Sachs Zion and Shawn Fields-Meyer, and God Was In This Place and I, I Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality, and Ultimate Meaning by Lawrence Kushner.

At home, we had lunch, then took our books out to the swing. We read more poetry by Mister Rogers, more social justice in shopping, a story from Not One Damsel in Distress, more Wild Girl, and then we took our books inside, since it was getting cool. We read our art book, and then it was time for 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading.

I dozed for a few minutes afterwards, then got a batch of cilantro lime rice into the rice cooker. I did around 50 minutes of volunteer work, and after dinner (homemade Chipotle bowls), I walked 3-ish miles with my son. I put dinner away, showered, put my daughter to bed, read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Wednesday, 18 May, 2022

After coffee and 40+ minutes of volunteer work, I made out my grocery list, got the dishes into the dishwasher, wiped down the counters, got dressed, and scooped the litterbox. And then school!

We did On This Day in History and geography (Niger), then math. And then it was time for my daughter to edit her essay. She was really upset by the idea of the process of editing (“Isn’t it already perfect???”), and this took the rest of the morning, but she did a great job! Here’s what she wrote:

            “There’s lots of rules to follow when you go camping. You should bring food and clean the             crumbs. Place them in Ziploc bags and keep away from animals. Bring water and don’t forget to take      bug spray. Check the weather and don’t go if it’s going to rain. Bring a nature guide book. Never             feed animals. If you follow the rules, you might have a fun time and you’ll be safe.”

Not bad for a first attempt at writing an essay! Writing is going to be a BIG focus for us this upcoming year, so I’m pleased with where she’s starting.

We had lunch and did a little bit of reading afterwards, but I have a really obnoxious sore spot on the side of my tongue that rubs against my teeth when I talk, and I had pretty much  reached the limit of what I could take, so we spent the last part of our afternoon watching educational videos (one about the problem with stuff, and a bunch from the YouTube channel HomeschoolPop, which we both enjoy). When my husband came home, I made my daughter read her essay out loud for practice, and then my son and I went for groceries.

SO much fruit this week! Bananas, apples, plums, marked-down mandarins and marked-down nectarines. This was the biggest grocery trip I’d done in a while, so it cost a bit more than normal. We hit up all three stores, and at home, I put the pizza in the oven and put the groceries away.

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, and my son and I went on a 3-ish mile walk. Check out the parents taking their babies out for an evening swim! There are three sets of parents and babies at the pond: two duck families and one Canadian goose family. The babies are ridiculously fluffy and adorable!!!

 

At home, I showered, then crawled into bed and finished reading The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir by Dee Williams, then started reading A Beginner’s Guide to Paradise: 9 Steps to Giving Up Everything So You Too Can: Move to a South Pacific Island, Wear a Loincloth, Read a Hundred Books, Diaper a Baby Monkey, Build a Bungalow, and Maybe, Just Maybe, Fall in Love by Alex Sheshunoff. My husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

And that’s it! It was 61 degrees yesterday, today is going to be 87. That’s okay, as long as I can get outside in some aspect, I’m happy, even if I sweat half to death. Over 70 degrees, though, and I have to bring my water bottle with me when I walk. My old body needs that extra hydration when it gets warm out! I’ll likely have a phone call at some point today with my daughter’s counselor. He’s feeling better and never tested positive for COVID, fortunately, so we’ll be seeing him (masked!) tomorrow. We’re going to try to work out some strategies to deal with her stubbornness without her there. Wish me luck…

I hope you’re all having a wonderful week so far!!!  

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 12 May - Sunday, 16 May, 2022

Welcome to the start of another busy week! This weekend was super busy, but it was the good kind of busy, the satisfying kind. Plus that good thing that happened. Arright, let’s get this party started so I can tell you all about it!

Here’s what I’ve been up to!

 

Thursday, 12 May, 2022

I had coffee and edited and posted Thursday’s post. I got a batch of Indian-spiced lentils in the crockpot, filled the dishwasher, and posted my review of The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer on my book blog. I gave my daughter an early-morning shower, then we both got dressed and started school.

We started with On This Day in History and geography (Netherlands), then did a unit of math. We did spelling, then we finished the second grade Language Arts curriculum. Third grade is laid out quite differently than the second grade one, so I’m going to have to figure out what we’re going to do for Language Arts in the fall.

We had lunch and watched a second TED talk with Tristram Stuart on food waste (which I didn’t remember to link!), and then it was out to the swing! We finished Be the Change, finished our book on fashion history (which was great!), and read one Hans Christian Andersen story. We did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading, and then we were done for the day.

I picked up my son and ran him over to Walmart for a few things he needed, and I came home with caffeinated soda (oy, the headaches this week, likely from a combination of hormones and the weather change) and a marked-down pie. I dropped my son off, then came home and filled and ran the dishwasher. I took out the compost and recycling, started the rice in the rice cooker, tidied the kitchen, and tidied and swept the living room.

We had dinner, I did my Duolingo, and then…

MY SON MOVED BACK IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He moved back for various reasons, but I’m just thrilled to have him here again. I helped him carry his stuff in, and then he and I went on a 3-ish mile walk together.

When we got home, he and I watched a few YouTube videos he’d been telling me about, then I showered and helped him set up his computer. My husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Friday, 13 May, 2022

I had coffee and wrote and posted Friday’s post. I got dressed, scooped the litterbox, and emptied and refilled the dishwasher.

We started school with On This Day in History and geography (New Caledonia), then did math. And then I got the email cancelling my daughter’s counseling appointment. Unfortunately, her therapist had been exposed to two people with COVID and while he had tested negative, he was feeling sick and was assuming it was just too early for him to test positive. We’re hoping it passes by quickly for him and leaves no trace behind.

While my daughter worked on some math problems, I prepared some tomatoes for roasting and got them into the oven. We worked on spelling, then read a book about Chicago. After lunch, all three of us headed over to the library for some new books.

At home, my daughter and I headed out to the swing for our afternoon reading. We tried to read a book about a blizzard in the 1800’s, but my daughter found it too scary, so we abandoned that one. We switched to Not One Damsel in Distress by Jane Yolen and read a story from there instead. We also read a book about fair trade (which also gets into explanations of economics, which is great!), then read a book about art called Why Is Art Full of Naked People?

I read on the swing for a bit, then I helped my daughter with her math problems. I headed in and made salad and the salad dressing, then I boiled the spaghetti noodles and blended and heated the roasted tomatoes. I filled and ran the dishwasher, and we had dinner.

I did my Duolingo, then went on a 3-ish mile walk with my husband and daughter. I showered, put dinner away, and attended my virtual Shabbat services. Afterwards, I watched a YouTube video by Rob Greenfield, read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Saturday, 14 May, 2022

After coffee, I wrote 2.5 book reviews, got dressed, and helped my daughter look for her glasses (my husband eventually found them in a cardboard box of old school supplies. Because of course that’s where they would be…).

My son and I went to Walmart and a local grocery story for potting soil and plants (plus some fresh tomatoes on sale and two pounds of green beans from the markdown rack). We had lunch at home, I filled and ran the dishwasher, and put the tofu on to press. I grabbed my son and I made a Freecycle run for a pair of shoes for me, then we stopped by the library again so my son could grab a few extra books.

At home, I made tofu meatballs and cooked them, and helped my son fold and put away his clothes. And then I headed outside to plant my flowers and tomato and basil! Super hard work, but so worth it!

 

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, and my son and I went on a 3-ish mile walk. I showered, put dinner away, and read the rest of the evening (husband and daughter were backyard camping).

 

Sunday, 15 May, 2022

After coffee, I cooked a batch of lentils in the Instant Pot, then emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I snapped two pounds of green beans, sauteed onions and garlic, and made the lentil meatloaf for dinner. I peeled and chopped about ¾ of an Instant Pot of potatoes, then got those cooking. After I took out three loads of compost, I cleaned the kitchen and got dressed (yup, did all of that in my pajamas!).

I ran to the basement and brought up toilet paper and some popsicle sticks, then headed out with my son to pick up a packet of Cherokee Trail of Tears beans from a local group’s One Community, One Seed program (you plant the seeds, grow the plant, then save some of the seeds for the program’s seed bank at a local library! Super cool, right?). At home, I headed to the garden and ripped up a boatload of weeds and turned the soil, then planted the bean seeds, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, a pepper plant, another tomato plant, two more basil plants, and several cucumber plants. All I had left was the watermelon, but I didn’t have time to get that in, plus I would’ve had to clear out more space, and it was starting to rain, and my back was KILLING me.

Inside, I had lunch and relaxed on the computer for a bit. I finished reading Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter, then dozed on the chair for a bit. When my daughter woke me up, I made a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars, made the mashed potatoes, sauteed the green beans with garlic, got the dishes in the dishwasher and ran it, then took out the recycling. I cooked the lentil loaf and spent the time it cooked looking for new recipes on Pinterest.

After dinner (which was awesome, though time-consuming!), I did my Duolingo, went for a 3-ish mile walk alone (shorter than my normal alone walks, but it was a little rainy and I didn't want to chance a longer one!) and then showered. I put dinner away, put my daughter to bed, and began reading The Big Tiny: A Build-It-Myself Memoir by Dee Williams. My  husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

And that’s it! We’ve got two weeks of our regular school, and then we’re going to take a little bit of time off to do some house projects before starting our summer schedule. I don’t have anything on the calendar this week (just errands after school today!), but I’m sure it’s going to be another wild and crazy week packed full of tons of things to do, because that’s how it goes around here.

Wishing you all a lovely week, friends!