What's Been Going On: Monday, 27 June - Wednesday, 30 June, 2022

It feels like this week, and this month, really, has passed by in an absolute blur, but I guess that’s just how summer goes when you’re an adult, eh? Especially when you’re a homeschooling parent (and I’m sure it’s similar for teachers, especially these days). Before I know it, we’ll be back to full days of school, but for now, I’m relishing every bit of the time off and the warm weather that I can.

That’s about all I have this morning, so here’s what I’ve been up to the last few days!

 

Monday, 27 June, 2022

After coffee, I wrote and posted Monday’s post, then posted my review for Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson over on my book blog. I loaded a review onto NetGalley, then did thirty minutes of volunteer work. I threw some beans into the Instant Pot, loaded the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen, and took out the compost and recycling. And then I cleaned up the cup of milk my daughter had dumped all over the kitchen floor. She was a little more upset about that than I thought was normal, so I started making some plans.

I spent a little bit of time on the computer, and then, after lunch, we drove over to a local wildlife rehab and forest preserve. The inside building is still closed and has been since the pandemic started, but the trails, where they house some of the animals who can’t be sent back to nature, are still open, and it extends further back to include a pond and a sandhill crane enclosure (if you’ve ever heard those things scream, you’ll understand why they’re kept so far away from the other animals). We got to see a HUGE old turtle (I think it was a snapper. Not 100% on that, though) pretty up close and personal, which was awesome. We stood there and watched him for about ten minutes.

 

At home, I did thirty more minutes of volunteer work, then blended up the beans. I did a little bit of homeschool planning, threw together the tostadas, and got them in the oven for an early dinner. I did my Duolingo, and then my son and I went on a four-mile walk.

I took out the recycling and garbage and took the cans to the curb, then I put dinner away and showered. I read my ten pages of I and Thou by Martin Buber on the porch, showered, put my daughter to bed, and read my book. My husband and I watched two episodes of God’s Favorite Idiot before bed.

 

Tuesday, 28 June, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I scooped the litterbox. I got dressed and ready, then posted my review for Since Sinai by Shannon Gonyou both on my book blog and on NetGalley. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and then my son and daughter and I walked over to my daughter’s old school to vote in the primaries. My mom used to take me with her to vote in every single election when I was younger. She provided a very good example in that area, so I always make sure I’m either there at the polls or sending in my vote-by-mail ballot on time.

Back home, I did thirty minutes of volunteer work, then looked through NetGalley and requested a book.  We had lunch, then I completed my last thirty minutes of volunteer work (and thus completing my work on resources in the state of Tennessee!). And then, even though it was SUPER hot and sunny, I went out to the garden to rage-rip weeds out and listen to the January 6^th committee hearing. Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes, is all I’m going to say. Also, I’ll say that my daughter had similar lack of control as a toddler, throwing things and lunging at people, and, uh, that’s not at all a compliment.

When I had done all I could take (which lasted throughout most of the hearing; I think there were only like five or ten minutes left when I came in – there were a LOT of weeds in the garden!), I cooled down for a bit, then made some Instant Pot Vegan Alfredo Sauce (everyone REALLY liked this. I thought it could’ve used a bit more garlic, but I think that about everything!). I used a bag of frozen cauliflower and the sauce ended up a little thin, but I thickened it with cornstarch, three tablespoons of it, and it was perfect then.

I read outside for a while, then cooked the pasta, sliced five pounds of strawberries, and took out the compost. We ate dinner, I did my Duolingo, then I went for a four-mile solo walk (this made a total of six miles for me this day, plus whatever I walked around the house). My heron friend was out at the pond!

 

I put dinner away, showered, read my ten pages of I and Thou, then started reading Worn Out by Alyssa Hardy, about the awfulness of the fashion industry (this is my latest book from NetGalley and it’s a great one!). My husband and I watched one episode of God’s Favorite Idiot, the last available, and went to bed a little early.

 

Wednesday, 29 June, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I filled and ran the dishwasher, made out my grocery list, then got dressed and ready. My daughter and I headed across town to pick up her new glasses and they look ADORABLE on her. Perfect fit and shape for her face, and they match her toast-colored hair. SO cute. :)

We ran by the library afterwards, and while I kinda hadn’t expected to come home with anything, I of course came home with a stack of books. One is middle-grade fiction, typically a pretty quick read for me, and another is a graphic novel, so it shouldn’t take me too long to get through this new pile!

I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then took out the recycling, and it was time for lunch. Afterwards, we read on the porch for a while, and when my son got home, we got gas and hit up three grocery stores. One store had some decent sales (barbecue sauce, which I needed, was only ninety-nine cents per bottle, and from another store, we got marked-down bags of fresh green beans). At home, I put the groceries away, took out the compost, and cooked the pizza. We had dinner, and then my son and I went on a three-mile walk. I did my Duolingo and showered, then I put my daughter to bed and continued reading my book. My husband and I watched the first episode of Stranger Things before bed.

 

And that’s it! I’ve got a bunch of blog post writing to do today, including a bunch of book reviews, so I’m going to try to get all of that done early on, but we’ll see. My daughter said she wanted to get started on third grade math and get ahead of the game, so we’re going to tackle a unit of that, and I REALLY need to wash and fold some laundry. SO behind on that.

I hope you’ve been having a good week so far!!!

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 23 June, 2022 - Sunday, 26 June, 2022

Monday again, and here we are. Can’t say it’s necessarily a *good* morning, because *gestures at the state of the world* but I’ve still got fight in me, and I hope you do too. The weather has cooled down a little, enough to turn the air conditioning off, so it’s actually really nice this morning. I’m going to make the best of it, before getting started on the many tasks of the day, including more homeschool prep, volunteer work, cooking, and laundry.

It's been a rough week and things aren’t looking to improve, so I’m hoping you’re all practicing copious amounts of self-care. It’s not easy, but it’s important. We’re in it for the long game, and we’ve got to take care of ourselves, and others.

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

Thursday, 23 June, 2022

I emptied and ran the dishwasher on a cleaning cycle, then sat down for coffee. I wrote and posted Thursday’s post, got some lentils in the Instant Pot, sauteed some onion, garlic, and mushrooms, and then it was time for homeschool prep. I’ve decided to go with the school curriculum for Language Arts (it's free and this way my daughter will be right on track with her public school classmates), so I’m going through that and marking all the material we need, along with familiarizing myself with everything. I paused to prepare a lentil loaf (with added mushrooms; this is really good and extremely versatile and easily veganized. It makes for great sandwiches the next day!), and returned to going through the curriculum.

After lunch, I filled and ran the dishwasher, then baked the lentil loaf. I sliced some broccoli and took out multiple loads of compost, wiped down the countertops, and returned for more homeschool prep. Then I went out on the porch to read with my daughter.

Inside, I roasted and steamed the broccoli (my daughter doesn’t care for it roasted, so I always steam a bit for her). I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then chopped the potatoes to get them in the air fryer. After dinner and Duolingo, I had planned to go for a walk, but I was feeling really, really tired, so I showered and lay down for a bit. I put my daughter to bed, read The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before going to bed.

 

Friday, 24 June, 2022

Aftere coffee, I wrote and posted my Friday post, I filled and ran the dishwasher, scooped the litterbox, then got dressed and ready. I showered my daughter…and then read the news on the computer. I spent most of the rest of the morning on the computer in an entire rage.

I don’t owe anyone my story, but here it is anyway. When I got pregnant (on purpose!) with my son, I *very* quickly developed hyperemesis gravidarum (the Latin medical name for ‘morning sickness that wants you dead’). We’re talking DAYS after I tested positive, and I tested positive at ten and twelve days after I ovulated. Within days, I was vomiting like the little girl from The Exorcist and needing to go to the emergency room, sometimes multiple times a day, to get rehydrated by IV. This went on for a few weeks until my then-husband called the doctor and expressed his concern for how sick I was. I wasn’t supposed to be seen until I was 12 weeks, but they said to bring me if he was worried. I sat in that waiting room with my hand clamped over my mouth after having done the usual pee-in-a-cup thing. I met my OB when he rushed into the room and said, “Hi, I’m Doctor Blahblahblah. How do you feel about the hospital?”

I was 7 weeks pregnant. He had yet to examine me. That’s how bad my urine looked. In just a few weeks, I had dropped an enormous amount of weight. I’m 5’8; during this hospitalization, they clocked me at 102 pounds (that’s about 46 kilograms). I continued to lose weight after this (like I said, this was my FIRST hospitalization).

Do me a favor. Take a good, deep breath. Let it out.

I couldn’t do that. Taking anything like a normal breath made me throw up. I threw up after every time I showered. Moving around too much made me throw up. Standing made me throw up. Sitting up made me throw up. The movement from the TV screen made me throw up. For months, all I did was lie in bed with my head under the covers and listen to the TV, and throw up. Everything I ate or drank, I threw up. I discovered I’m allergic to the combination of two common anti-nausea drugs (THAT was a fun hospital trip). The one med that worked, insurance wouldn’t pay for, and it was $3000 per month.

I lay there in my hospital bed, alone (husband was in the military and had to go back home so he could go to work; we lived over 1000 miles from any family), scared, and I wanted to cry, but I knew I couldn’t, because it would make me throw up. From all my reading, I knew that a lot of women who suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum ended up aborting, because it’s just too awful (to this day, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It’s legit the worst thing I’ve ever gone through). And I considered my options. Could I keep doing this for another 33+ weeks? Did I want this baby that badly to continue suffering like this, to the detriment of my own health?

I did.

I came to that conclusion lying on a crunchy hospital bed, after lying on a cot in a storage room in the ER (due to lack of space) for about twelve hours, in a room with an elderly woman who had THE FLU (I’m STILL angry that’s where they put me. I know they were struggling for space, but REALLY?!!?!?!????), hooked up to what was probably my thirtieth-or-more IV in three weeks (yes, my arms looked AWESOME), and I decided to keep doing all of this.

And to this day, I don’t blame any woman out there for choosing differently. It was bad. And to be honest, I was pro-choice before this; this experience only made me more so.

Had I not had this choice, had I been forced to be a prisoner in a body that was actively trying to kill me… there’s no doubt that I would’ve ended my life. If I had been forced to suffer through this, especially with the insurance company telling me I didn’t need the one medication that kept me out of the hospital, that I wasn’t worth it and their saving money was more important than my health, yeah. It would’ve been over and I would have been dead.

My son knows all about this. He knows that he is here because I made the choice for him to be here, despite what it cost me, and what the alternative would have been had I not had the power to decide what to put my body through. He’s just as angry about the fall of Roe v. Wade as I am.

I made it through the pregnancy, but with permanent damage to my body, and the day before I gave birth, I weighed in at 131.5 lbs. No one believed I was full-term because I was so small. I lost a tooth, needed three root canals, and had many other fillings (despite brushing my teeth after every time I threw up. The baby takes from your body, including from your bones. I fully expect to get an osteoporosis diagnosis at some point in the not-too-distant future. I had over $10,000 of dental work done and my teeth are permanently screwed up. It took me over a year and a half of appointments every three weeks to repair this damage). My chronic pain from my back problems likely began here; doctors are shocked when I tell them I was initially diagnosed with my degenerative disc disease at 23, but that’s what tough pregnancies do. They ruin your body.

So you can imagine how Friday’s news made me feel. It would have been my death sentence had it happened back then. Not that the people who did this care. They don’t, and they never have.

We had an early lunch so we could go to my daughter’s counselor. Afterwards, we stopped by the ATM so I could get some money out, and then it was home to have some yogurt while I raged on the computer a little more.

I went out on the porch to read, but then got a call; my daughter’s replacement glasses were in, so off we went to our old eye doctor. At home, we read on the porch, ate leftovers for dinner, and I did my Duolingo. I showered and knit, then logged in for virtual Shabbat services. I read my book afterwards, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Saturday, 25 June, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, I got dressed and ready, and then we were out the door. I ran into Walgreens to pick up some new anti-itch cream for my son (remember last week, we went to the beach and there were a ton of those nasty biting flies? They LOVED him and he’s still suffering from the bites). And then we headed to another book sale!

Did I need to go? NOPE. I have so many books I need to read. But hey, there’s not a lot of good in the world right now, and since books spark joy, I’ll absolutely take that dopamine hit wherever I can. This sale was smaller than the last, but here’s what I came home with:

 

At home, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then snuggled with my daughter and husband for a bit while she looked at toys on my husband's iPad. : )

After lunch, I read for a while, then took my daughter to the library; she wanted a few extra books and a few cookbooks (she really likes to look at them, which I think is adorable). I got a few cookbooks of my own. At home, I read for a good long while, then went on a 3.2-mile walk with my son (shorter than I wanted, but his fly bites were really bothering him). We saw this squirrel, whose chomping on this nut was incredibly loud:

 

I made dinner, a dish from Budget Bytes that can now only be found with the Wayback Machine, but which isn’t all that great anyway, so I don’t know that I’ll make it again. I filled and ran the dishwasher, took out the compost and recycling, did my Duolingo, showered, and put my daughter to bed. I read my book, and my husband and I watched three episodes of the Netflix sitcom God’s Favorite Idiot, which is pretty funny and clever. I couldn’t sleep afterwards, so I grabbed my kindle, which lights up a little, and continued to read until I was able to sleep.

 

Sunday, 26 June, 2022

After coffee, I continued reading and finally finished The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish. SUPER good if you like historical fiction. I got dressed, emptied and refilled the dishwasher, took out the compost and recycling, then tidied and swept the living room and kitchen. I grabbed my daughter’s copy of Guts by Raina Telgemeier and read it all (I hadn’t read this before, and her books are so cute), then had lunch and filled and ran the dishwasher.

I got the tofu out to press, then read out on the porch and finished Library Lin’s Curated Collection of Superlative Nonfiction by Linda Maxie, which I really enjoyed. I then grabbed the copy of The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman, which had been waiting for me for a few weeks, and began reading that. Reading is very much self-care for me, so I’m hitting the books as hard as I can right now.

Inside, I made a batch of tofu meatballs, emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then took out the compost and recycling. I relaxed on the computer for a bit while the fries cooked, and after dinner, I did my Duolingo, then headed out the door for a high-speed walk on my own. Four miles in just over an hour, which is pretty much as fast as I go.

I showered, put dinner away, then crawled into bed. I read ten pages of I and Thou by Martin Buber, then finished The Complete Maus. I started reading The Nourishing Homestead by Ben Hewitt, and my husband and I watched two episodes of God’s Favorite Idiot before bed.

 

And that’s it! Nothing on the schedule this week; just the usual of volunteer work, homeschool prep (you know, for someone who’s been told she ‘hAtEs bAyBeEz’ by people of a certain political persuasion, I sure put a LOT of work into making sure my babies have good lives…), and the usual cooking and cleaning. I’d like to go through my daughter’s closet and weed out the too-small clothing; that’ll definitely happen before the start of school, but I don’t know if we’ll get to it this week.

Be good to yourself this week, friends. It’s not easy out there. Wishing you all a productive, peaceful start to this last week of June.

Friday links: 24 June, 2022

Good morning! Another weekend headed our way. Before we know it, the summer is going to be over and we’ll be counting the months to the next one. Yikes!

It’s funny. Some weeks, I really have to search to find links for this post; other weeks, like this one, I’m absolutely flooded with interesting articles. Strange how that happens.

We’ve got an air quality alert today; because of the ongoing heat wave and various other conditions, the air is grossly polluted. I feel bad that we have to go out at all in the car and contribute to it, but fortunately my daughter’s counselor isn’t that far. Regardless, today’s a day I definitely wish we could stay home!

Here’s what I found interesting online this week! Buckle up, friends. It’s a rough one today.

 

Pilgrimage to Mecca is never easy. Saudi Arabia just made it a lot harder.

Saudi Arabia has switched up the rules for hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites, a religious obligation for Muslim adults at least once in their lifetime (if it’s physically possible and affordable for them. This is, as you might expect, a pricy trip). Millions of people found their hajj trip cancelled this year with no real answer as to why, bewildering and devastating them. Obviously, COVID is still very much real and very much a threat, so there may be an up to this, but I absolutely understand the grief and frustration of the people who were planning to make the once-in-a-lifetime trip to fulfil their religious obligation and now cannot.

 

We asked teachers how their year went. They warned of an exodus to come.

I can’t imagine anyone who’s surprised by the fact that teachers are quitting in droves. I don’t blame them one bit. Even in my area, we had garbage parents screaming at first graders for wearing masks as they walked into school (I wish I were making this up, and I feel zero remorse for calling those parents exactly what they are for standing outside schools and threatening children). We’re not giving teachers what they need, we’re not giving children what they need – and in many cases, we’re actively making things worse on purpose and expecting teachers to be at peak performance regardless. That’s absolute insanity.

And it won’t matter to anyone in charge when schools can’t open due to lack of teachers. We as a country have collectively decided that we don’t care. If we cared, teachers wouldn’t have been placed in this situation in the first place.

 

These children lost young parents to Covid-19. Here’s what they want other kids – and adults – to know.

Hey, another thing we collectively decided doesn’t matter! (I’m an angry, sarcastic mess about everything. I figure that’s going to be my permanent state from now on, because HAVE YOU SEEN…EVERYTHING?!?!??)

Over 200,000 kids have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID; some have lost both. And what are we offering those kids? Thoughts and prayers, as always. A head pat. A firm reminder that no one needs to wear a mask to protect themselves and others from the illness that sent their parents into the ground in a box. (Also exhausted teachers who are increasingly deciding they can’t do this anymore; see link above.)

We’re creating a terrible future full of traumatized adults with zero resources to deal with their pain, other than an influx of guns, because apparently the right to a gun is the only thing we’re permitted here. What’s going to happen when these kids are adults and have grown up with the grief and trauma of loss, with their financial future now in a precious place, and they realize how little society cared about their parents, or them? None of this is going to be good.

 

I’ve had enough of teaching.

Another perspective of why teachers are quitting in droves: because we’ve created a generation of kids who can’t or won’t pay any attention in class. Phones are a huge problem. I can’t say that I blame the parents for not wanting the schools to ban phones; as a parent, I wouldn’t want that, solely because I want my child to be able to contact me if, God forbid, there’s a school shooting – and this is a problem we’ve created as well and which we refuse to do anything about. But tweens and teens, who aren’t known for their self-control, struggle with the temptation to pull the phones out during class.

There are ways to deal with this, but the parent community has to be on board, and it sounds like most of them are not. I’d be perfectly fine with there being rules about phones remaining in pockets or backpacks and detentions handed out if phones come out during class without permission (like if classmates are exchanging phone numbers or sending each other images for something they’re working on. I just had to email a doctor’s office images of my insurance card while I was in the office) or if it’s not an emergency, like a lock-down. There are parents who are against that, though, and therein lies the problem.

 

States scale back food stamp benefits as prices soar.

This is an older article, from April, but you know things haven’t improved since then. We’ve cut the free school meals that went on during the pandemic, families are struggling with the high cost of food right now and can’t keep their cupboards full, and both children and adults are suffering. Do we care? No, we do not.

You’d think that as obsessed as this country is with money and military might, we’d at least see the dangers of this from an economic and security standpoint. Kids who don’t get enough to eat don’t perform well in school; they grow up with health problems, unable to qualify for the military (making this a national security threat, something the military has continually warned about and which has fallen on deaf ears in Congress) and struggling to perform as well at work. And let’s face it: if we can’t or won’t feed our people…what makes us any better than places like Russia or North Korea? We need to start being honest with ourselves here about who we really are.

 

This right wing religious website is telling readers to ruin LGBTQ+ displays.

 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand this is in my area; I’ve been in the store the article is about (and it’s a delightful store!).

What have we become? What are we doing that so many people can’t tolerate the idea that some people are attracted to different kinds of people than they are? What kind of garbage society have we created that entire groups of people can’t stand the site of Black and brown people on the cover of a book? There is something deeply, DEEPLY wrong with us as a nation – to be honest, it’s always been there, it’s just at the forefront right now because certain political groups have made it okay to publicly display how disgustingly hateful you are.

This is just depressing. And these are grown adults. In another article I read about this in a local group, the store employee said that every time someone has been caught hiding these books, it’s been an adult. I’m ashamed to live in the same community as these people.

 

Why Social Media Makes People Unhappy – and Simple Ways to Fix It.

Ohhhh, this is a tough one. We *all* know how hard it can be to put that phone down, close that computer, stop scrolling (or doomscrolling…) and go do something productive. I struggle with this a lot, but I’ve been fairly successful at developing strategies that get me off the computer and sometimes even my phone. I don’t always get to keep up with everyone as much as I’d like, but I get way more stuff done around the house (although nowhere near as much as I’d like, because there’s just too much for any one one person to do), and I don’t usually feel like I’ve wasted too much time online. It’s hard, though. I’m off the computer and upstairs in my room most nights by 8, but I still have my phone next to me, which I check now and then for texts and messages, and I often look up unfamiliar words when I’m reading. It’d be nice if I could do without it at all after 8 pm, but that’s just not a thing these days.

 

Raising kids is ‘essential labor.’ It’s also lonely, exhausting, and expensive.

Not gonna lie. Parenting pre-pandemic was tough. Parenting during the pandemic has been devastatingly exhausting. Trying to deal with the stress of *gestures vaguely at everything* while also managing the emotions of a small child and trying to explain to them why people aren’t wearing masks when over a million people have died? Trying to be that child’s sole source of education, entertainment, friendship? Impossible. Trying to do all of this while the Supreme Court releases decision after decision that proves this country doesn’t care one bit about the health and well-being of its citizens? Demoralizing.

And it’s not looking to get any better or any easier. America doesn’t value the labor its women provide; it never has. It gives lip service to those mythical stay-at-home mothers of the 50’s (you know, the ones who ended up drugging themselves to oblivion with prescription meds because they couldn’t stand the drudgery of their lives. Mother's little helpers, anyone?) who always had a clean home, homemade meals (Jell-o molds full of celery and shrimp, anyone?), and perfectly well-behaved children, but we disdain the efforts of actual women; whatever they’re doing, it’s not enough and they should definitely be working harder, with no help, and receiving absolutely no benefits for their work and the work of others that they make possible. I feel this every single day.

 

And that’s it for this week! I’m about to get dressed and go clean the kitchen, shower my daughter, and get some more random house stuff done before we have to jaunt off to her counselor. I also have to figure out what to make for dinner tonight…we’ve got some leftovers, maybe I can go with that and figure out some sort of side dish to go with. We’ll see. The fun never ends around here!

Wishing you all a peaceful, safe weekend. Try to find some rest in there if you can. Shalom, friends. : )

What's Been Going On: Monday, 20 June, 2022 - Wednesday, 22 June, 2022

Good morning! Another week almost over. This summer is flying by way too fast; I’m going to need these days to have at least another good sixty hours each in order for me to get everything I want to done!

It’s been super hot out this week, but I haven’t let that stop me one bit. Proper hydration is key, but I’ve been chugging water like crazy and it’s all been good. I don’t mind winter at all, but I *really* love being able to go outside, even when it’s 98 degrees, so I’m going to wring every last bit of enjoyment out of this season, no matter how much I sweat while doing it. : )

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

 

Monday, 20 June, 2022

After coffee and breakfast, I finished writing my Monday post and got that up. I got dressed, emptied the dishwasher, and refilled and ran it. We gathered our library books, and then we were off to the library (I grabbed one book; I’m still making my way through several books and didn’t need more). And then we did a bit of geocaching!

There were a few caches in the area and we found two of them (we’re saving the others for our next trip):

 

 And then we took the art tour of downtown that the app offers. Our town has a bunch of different sculptures all along Main Street, done by the same guy, so we got to check them out up close thanks to the app directing us all to them. Here’s my favorite part of the sculpture outside the bank on Main Street, an inflated piggy bank:

 

We stopped into the Dollar Tree for a new whiteboard, some notebooks, and toothpaste (all for my daughter, who was likely hungry at this point, because she was a crabby little beast), and then went home for lunch. After we ate, it was time to head out to the porch for reading! I read my ten pages of I and Thou by Martin Buber, then read more of Library Lin’s Curated Collection of Superlative Nonfiction by Linda Maxie.

We were out there so long that by this time, it was time to reheat the leftovers for dinner! After we ate, I did my Duolingo and 30 minutes of volunteer work, then went for a 3-mile walk by myself (93 degrees at this point!). 

I took out the garbage and recycling and hauled the cans to the curb, put dinner away, and showered. I read my nighttime book (The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish), and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Tuesday, 21 June, 2022

I took out the compost and had my coffee, then did an hour and ten minutes of volunteer work. I got dressed and called the eye doctor. I had planned on calling on this day; my daughter needed her yearly exam (we keep an eye – ha! – on one of her eyes, which has a tendency to turn a bit), but she had broken the earpiece of her glasses the night before, so that made sure I didn’t forget to call! Unfortunately, while they did say they’d fix her glasses, no problem, the office had stopped accepting our insurance in January, so I would need to find a new eye doctor for her.

 We drove over to the eye place; turns out the earpiece broke due to a defect, so they’re going to order a whole new pair of frames and just put her lenses in there (and these will be her backup pair of glasses when she gets her new ones). We drove over to the Dollar Tree for some duct tape, for a temporary fix (since the new frames will take a week to 10 days!), then went home so I could repair them.

I cleaned the kitchen, scooped the litterbox, and got some beans in the Instant Pot. I hung out on the computer for a bit, and then it was lunch time. I filled the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen, and tidied and swept the living room. I wrote 1.5 book reviews, and then my son and I ran over to a local supermarket to grab some eggs on their last day on sale (a good call, since no one else had eggs this low on Wednesday). We also found a geocache in the parking lot. : )

We stopped by Aldi on the way home for some cheese, since my husband had eaten the last of it at lunch and I needed some for dinner. At home, I filled out paperwork for the new eye doctor I’d found for my daughter, finished that second book review, and filled and ran the dishwasher. I got dinner going, Cheesy Vegetarian Chili Mac (I added red peppers), and we all LOVED it. It would be good without the cheese as well. : )

Even though it was 96 degrees, my son and I packed extra water and went on a 3.2-mile walk (where we also found a geocache! I didn’t have a pen, so we couldn’t sign it, but we’ll do that when it’s cooler and not so buggy; it was hidden in a wooded area and I got a few bites). At home, I did my Duolingo, put dinner away, and showered. I put my daughter to bed (we started reading American’s Horrible Histories: Are We There Yet by Elizabeth Levy). I read my book, and my husband and I watched an episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Wednesday, 22 June, 2022

My son’s 20^th birthday! SO bizarre to think he’s 20 and no longer a teenager.

After coffee, I took out the compost and recycling, I made out our grocery list (strawberries are on sale this week, 88 cents per 1-lb container!!! I may go back later in the week to get more and make freezer jam). I did my final 20 minutes of volunteer work, then got dressed and started a load of laundry. I emptied the dishwasher and refilled it, took out more compost and recycling, then cleaned the kitchen, wiping down the counters and scrubbing off the stovetop.

I switched and hung the laundry, and then it was time to settle down for more homeschool planning. That took up the rest of the morning, but after lunch, I was right back at it. I took a break to do a 10-minute, then a 5-minute ab workout with my son (which I can very much feel this morning; I can only imagine how he’s going to feel, since he’s not used to this!).

 My son and I left for groceries when my husband got home, hitting three stores, then we picked up a pizza from a local place (his request for his birthday dinner). At home, I put the groceries away, then we had dinner and I did my Duolingo. I showered, we had birthday cheesecake, and I did a little more homeschool planning before putting dinner away, putting the greasy pizza box in the outside trash, and heading upstairs to read The Weight of Ink. My husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

And that’s it! There’s another book sale this weekend. Do I need to go? Absolutely not. Do I still *want* to go? YOU KNOW I DO. Still trying to make up my mind on this one. We’ve got my daughter’s new eye doctor this afternoon, and her counselor tomorrow, so we’ll be keeping busy no matter what!

Stay cool out there, friends! Drink that water!!!

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 16 June - Sunday, 19 June, 2022

Good morning! Happy Juneteenth observed if you’re in the US, and welcome to another broiling hot week! Are you ready for those high temps this week? I’m not sure anyone is. Our high on Tuesday is 100, which is just crazy. I’m really hoping the infrastructure around the country can handle all of this. I suspect there will be problems in plenty of places, unfortunately.

It’s been a sort-of more laid-back week around here, I think? Still busy, just with fewer things. Lots of homeschool prep going on, trying to figure out exactly what she’s going to learn and how, still not entirely sure what language arts will look like entirely, but I at least have a few ideas. Plenty more work to do, though!

This upcoming week will mostly be trying to keep cool…I think. Possibly just melting.

Here’s what I was up to the second part of last week!

 

Thursday, 16 June, 2022

After coffee, I wrote and posted my Thursday post. I did some homeschool prep throughout the morning and had an early bagel for lunch, because we were supposed to have an earlier-in-the-week appointment with my daughter’s counselor. Just as we were getting ready to leave, I got an email that although he was testing negative for COVID, he had a cold and a bad cough and knowing how cautious we are, he was leaving it up to us if we still felt comfortable coming. I wrote back, wishing him a swift return to full health, but said we’d skip this week, and he responded, saying that he was going to cancel anyway, since he couldn’t stop coughing. Poor guy!

My daughter was bummed, so I snuggled her for a while, then changed my clothes, and my son and I did a 14-minute and then a 7-minute ab workout. I rested for a few minutes, and then my daughter and I read outside on the front porch.

I filled and ran the dishwasher, then sauteed a batch of zucchini with garlic while my son made some pasta for dinner. We ate, I did my Duolingo and showered, then I read outside on the porch some more (not as pleasant as my swing, but still enjoyable!). I moved upstairs and continued reading in bed, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Friday, 17 June, 2022

After breakfast and coffee, we all got ready for…the beach!

It took us about an hour to get there; it’s in a ritzy suburb north of Chicago, so I did a bunch of homeschool prep on the ride up there. What better time to get things done?

 

Let me tell you, Lake Michigan is cold. The 99-degree weather last week had absolutely zero effect on lake temps; you immediately lose feeling in your feet once they touch the water. I floated in a raft on and off during the day, but even that wasn’t easy. Every time even the tiniest wave rolled over my legs and into my lap, I gasped. Just absolutely, shockingly cold!

It was still a really fun time, though. The pebbles on the shore are super pretty and I brought back enough to fill a jar to remember our day.

I mostly just watched out the window on the ride home; despite not swimming much, I was still really worn out! At home, I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then it was my turn to shower and de-sand myself. I had a quick late lunch, then read out on the porch, finishing Since Sinai by Shannon Gonyou and reading all of the graphic novel Illegal by Eoin Colfer. The canvas on the arms of our chairs had ripped, so I repaired those during this time as well.

Inside, I did my Duolingo and knit while watching YouTube, then logged in to virtual Shabbat services. I read for a bit, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Saturday, 18 June, 2022

After breakfast (no coffee), I loaded and ran the dishwasher, and then the kids and I were off to a used book sale by a local women’s education group. They have these every few months, mostly in the warmer weather, but there have been a few in the fall and spring as well. This was only the second they’ve had since the pandemic started. We were there on their $10/bag day. We were some of the only ones wearing masks there, which didn’t make my daughter happy at all. She didn’t even want to touch anything (but she still wanted to be there!). She’s definitely got some OCD-type tendencies (which we’ve noted with both her counselor and her medical doctor as something to keep an eye on); this whole pandemic has been really stressful for her.

But the book sale was awesome! We came away with three bags of books, a good mixture of books for my daughter for school and for fun (she picked out an Anne Geddes book of babies dressed as flowers, and a bunch of cookbooks; she’s wanting to learn to make fancy cupcakes, so we can absolutely work that into schoolwork!); a bunch of awesome books for me, including some excellent Jewish books, which makes me SO happy (I’ve already started very slowly reading Martin Buber, who intimates me, but whom I’ve always wanted to read, because he was so brilliant); and various books for my son. Here’s a look at just some of the books we came home with (the other books had already been scattered to various parts of the house!):

 

My son suggested We Interrupt This Broadcast; he had a copy when he was young and used the heck out of it, so I'll be using that with my daughter. I've already read Basic Judaism by Milton Steinberg, but I just wanted to add it to my collection; it's a really great book. : )

At home, we had lunch, then I sauteed some onion, garlic, peppers, and mushrooms, and got the eggs cracked into a bowl. I took out the recycling and compost, then read outside with my daughter (during the day, I’ve been reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein). After a while, I brought in a bag of tater tots from the garage and put together the breakfast casserole for dinner, and then my son and I were off on a four-mile walk!

 

When we got back home, the casserole went into the oven and I headed to the porch for 30 minutes of my personal Read Harder, and guess what? I finished The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music History! WOOHOO!!! I hadn’t realized I had so little left and was surprised to reach the end. My next pick for Read Harder is I and Thou by Martin Buber. I’m going to read this ten pages per day; his writing is so heavy that I’m not sure I can handle much more than that. It’s a short book; my edition is only 137 pages, so this won’t take me too long in terms of time. I’m just hoping I can understand even a fraction of it! I’ve long admired his ideas, so I’m jumping in with both feet. Wish me luck!

I did some homeschool planning and finished going through The Ultimate Book of Homeschool Ideas by Linda Dobson. Dated, but there were a few things I jotted down on my list. After dinner, I did my Duolingo and showered, then put dinner away. I read the intro to I and Thou, then put my daughter to bed. I began reading The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, and my husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

Sunday, 19 June, 2022

After coffee, I got dressed and filled the dishwasher. I made an Instant Pot full of lentil soup, then threw together the dry ingredients for a batch of corn muffins. I ran the dishwasher, then made a batch of pineapple jam!

 

I also took out various loads of compost and recycling, then sat down to barrel through four chapters of Le Petit Prince (finally!!!). More homeschool planning, then I had a quick lunch, made the rest of the corn muffins and got them in the oven, then went out on the porch to call my dad for Father’s Day.

At 2pm, my son and I left to go geocaching around the area. He’d been before; I hadn’t, but it was so much fun! We couldn’t find the first two caches, which were hidden in a more wooded area, but we found a bunch more afterwards (including one really cool one hidden in an old payphone). This is my first one!

 

We also went on a walking trivia tour of a local private university, which was set up in conjunction with a partnership with the geocaching app we were using, which was SUPER fun (although it was extremely hot!). Afterwards, we headed off to the mall, where we had tickets for the Stranger Things pop-up hosted there, which my son was super jazzed about. : ) We took a bunch of sweaty mask selfies, which I won’t post, but here’s the living room…

 

We came home for dinner, I did my Duolingo, then I showered and put dinner away. I worked on this post for a while, then put my daughter to bed (we finished our Greek mythology book) and finished reading The Color of Law. My husband and I watched one episode of Unusual Suspects before bed.

 

And that’s it! It’s going to be an absolute scorcher this week, so we’ll be doing inside workouts for the most part. I’m also going to try to get my daughter’s closet organized and the too-small clothing weeded out, since we’ll all be captive inside (what better time to do that?). Heat like this makes me nervous, so I’m going to be doing my best to stay ultra-hydrated!

Have a great week, friends! Stay cool and be safe, whatever you’re doing!!!

Friday links: 17 June, 2022

Good morning, and happy Friday! It’s beach day for us. The high today is going to be 85, with sunny skies, so I feel like that’s a much better choice for a beach day than our original pick of Wednesday, which was 99 degrees. YIKES. We weren’t interested in risking heatstroke, so today it is! I haven’t been to the beach since the summer of 2019, so this should be a fun time.

Here’s what I found interesting online this week!

 

Shooting at Uvalde: A conspiracy theorist explains why she says no kids were ever killed.

Starting off with the tough one. This is a horrifying, yet enlightening article on the muck and mire that fills a conspiracy theorist’s head and what they’re willing to sacrifice to maintain their delusions. This woman is possibly one of the worst people out there, and I have nothing good to say about her. I feel terrible for her children, because she absolutely threw them under the bus in order to pursue the conspiracy theories that made her feel powerful and made her life feel worth living. This is a massive tragedy all around, and I’m sorry for everyone that has to deal with this woman on a daily basis.

 

Abbott halts production at Michigan baby formula plant due to storm

Just when we thought things were getting back to normal…

Production will likely be halted for a few weeks. We’re going to be seeing more and more of this as storms get worse and worse with climate change. We’ve already had several tornado warnings that sent us into the basement in my area the past two months; even a few years ago, we’d only have maybe one per year. Look at what’s happening out in Yellowstone, and the water levels at Lake Mead. This time it’s formula (again). Next time it may be something you depend on. This isn’t good.

Speaking of shortages…

 

Here’s what’s behind the tampon shortage

Yikes! I’m lucky enough to own and use a Diva cup; it’s served me well for about 15 years now, but I know that’s not for everyone, whether it’s because of cost or comfort. Scrambling to get period supplies sounds like an absolute nightmare, but that’s where we’re at these days. If you donate to food pantries, feminine hygiene products like pads and tampons are always needed, and I’m guessing that need has only increased with the pandemic and inflation, and now even more so with this shortage. Not a bad idea to donate if you can…if you can find them.

 

DNA analysis reveals source of Black Death

This is so cool!

Researches extracted DNA from some skeletons they had unearthed in Kyrgyzstan, and found plague bacterium – from bodies of people who had died a handful of years before the Black Death had raged through Europe! They’re still working to figure out which animal species it originated in, before it made the leap to humans, but this is seriously fascinating. Learning about this may help us figure out how COVID started and how to potentially prevent future pandemics. I can’t wait to find out more, but science moves at a snail’s pace most of the time, so we’ll just have to be patient.

And that’s it for this week! I have to go dig through the closet and figure out which swimsuit fits after three years of not wearing any of them, so…this should be interesting! Wish me luck…

Wishing you all a relaxing, peaceful weekend. Stay cool and hydrated. Shalom, friends. :)

What's Been Going On: Monday, 13 June - Wednesday, 15 June, 2022

Good morning, friends! It’s a toasty one out there: A high of 92, which is five or six degrees cooler than the past few days, but still pretty gross. We had some storms roll through last night, so at least the garden got a drink and the water barrel got refilled.

Busy day today as usual. We’ve got an early counselor appointment this morning, and I’m eyeball deep in homeschool prep and buried in library and review books (with another coming to me in the mail). I’ve got laundry to do as well, but I’ve been hoping to do it on a day that isn’t quite so toasty, though I think I’m out of luck there.

(Bear with me today; my mouse seems to have died and I’m using one of my son’s. It’s weird and doesn’t feel like my regular mouse, so everything feels off!)

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

 

Monday, 13 June, 2022

After coffee, I finished writing, edited, and posted Monday’s post. And then I weighed myself.

I had been on an antidepressant for a bit earlier in the year, and we all know what those can do to a person’s metabolism. I hadn’t liked the number on the scale at my check-up in March (still an okay weight for my height, but at the top of the range), so I had decided I needed to do something about it. And the verdict was in: I’ve lost almost ten pounds! I’ve got about five left to go to get back to where I was before the meds, so I’m pretty happy about this. : )

I got dressed and cleaned off the stovetop, then emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I tossed a batch of pinto beans into the Instant Pot, then settled down for 30 minutes of volunteer work (I’m finding I really enjoy breaking it up into 30-minute chunks). I showered my daughter, swept the upstairs and downstairs, and then my daughter and I snuggled together and looked through a cookbook.

After lunch, we all ran to the bank for my son, to Five Below for hand weights and swim floaties (for a beach day later in the week), and a local grocery store, where milk was on sale, two gallons for $5. Back home, my son and I did a 25-minute HASFit workout.

I relaxed for a bit, then got dinner ready, a bean-and-rice casserole someone had posted in one of my Facebook groups earlier this week. Recipe is as follows:

Beans & Rice Casserole

1C of rice any kind but not instant

1 can of beans any kind

3C chicken stock or any kind (I used vegetable)

1C tomato sauce (I used salsa)

1 pkg taco seasoning

Mix together in a casserole dish, cover with foil & bake at 350 for 90 minutes

I even forgot to foil it, and this turned out SO GOOD. Everyone liked it, so it’ll be going into the regular rotation. I did throw some cheese on the top at the end, but it’s not necessary. I also made some cauliflower in the air fryer from a recipe that was in the book my daughter and I were looking at earlier in the day, but no one was impressed by it, and I won’t make use that recipe again.

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, and just as I was about to put dinner away, we got a tornado warning, so down into the basement we went! This was part of the storm system that eventually caused a few derechos and massive damage over in Ohio. We didn’t get much of anything at all, fortunately, and eventually, when the warning expired, I went back upstairs to put dinner away and take out the garbage. I hauled the recycling and garbage cans to the road, then showered, and my daughter and I started reading a book of Greek mythology when I put her to bed. I read for a bit, and my husband and I watched one episode of Keep Sweet on Netflix.

 

Tuesday, 14 June, 2022

After coffee, I did thirty minutes of volunteer work, then got dressed and scooped the litterbox. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, then got started on dinner prep, making Creole Black-Eyed Peas in the Instant Pot so as to not heat up the house. (This is SO good!) I helped an online friend out with some meal ideas for her picky kids, then had breakfast with my son.

I did some homeschool prep, followed by thirty more minutes of volunteer work, and caught up on a few things on the computer (including agreeing to review a book for someone. Perks of also being a book blogger!). My son and I did a 28-minute Yoga with Adriene video (he was pretty squished by the end, this was rough for him!), then I gathered our library books, put some rice in the rice cooker, and my daughter and I were off on a trip to the library.

At home, we both read for a bit, and then it was time for dinner. I did my Duolingo, then headed outside to read…and my swing seat ripped AGAIN. My husband is going to try to weld on a few extra metal parts in order to create a sturdy seat (and then we'll buy some cushions), as the seat right now is just cheap canvas (which explains the weathering and ripping!). The seat is just too weathered to keep patching it; it’s not going to hold for long. If he’s unable to fix it, we’ll either replace the swing part with a wooden one or replace the entire swing altogether. We’ll see!

I showered, read my book, and finished A Knock at Midnight by Brittany K. Barnett (INCREDIBLE book), then started The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein (phew, this is going to challenge my brain! I’m thinking I’m going to have to read it in small chunks at a time). My husband and I watched one episode of Keep Sweet before bed.

 

Wednesday, 15 June, 2022

After coffee, I made out my grocery list (almost nothing good on sale, sigh. No surprise there). I did some homeschool prep, then finished reading Parenting with Love and Logic, as recommended by my daughter’s counselor. I tidied the living room, including shaking the couch blankets outside (SO dusty!), and then it was time for lunch.

I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, took out the compost, wiped down the countertops, and refilled my sugar container. I went through some library cookbooks, then headed upstairs to sit with my daughter while she got upset about cleaning her room. My husband came home and took over, and my son and I headed out for gas (OUCH) and groceries.

We hit up two stores (we’ll stop by a third if we end up in that area, but I only really needed one small thing from there, so it wasn’t necessary to go all that way). We did get two bags of marked-down mushrooms, three scorpion pepper plants for a dollar, and eggs were on sale two for $4. At home, we put the stuff away, and I was delighted to find that my daughter’s room was entirely clean! (My husband had helped her, though she had gotten an excellent start on her own, though we had to put some toys in time out, because she couldn’t decide if she wanted to clean them or if she wanted Mom to clean them – and you know that nothing good happens when Mom cleans them! She was just getting overwhelmed at the time and needed to calm down. She’ll get the toys back soon!)

I read for a little bit, then farted around on the computer while the pizza cooked. We had dinner and I did my Duolingo, then I showered and read outside on the front porch in my folding camp chair (not quite as fun as my swing, but it’ll do in a pinch to get me outside). My daughter and I read more Greek mythology when I put her to bed, then I finished reading my daily section of The Color of Law and read all of The Book of Elsie by Joanne Levy, from NetGalley. My husband and I finished watching Keep Sweet on Netflix before bed.

 

And that’s it! Tomorrow will be a little different; we’re packing up and going to the beach! It’s supposed to be in the upper 80’s and sunny, so it should be a fun day. Hopefully it won’t be TOO crowded; I’d like to stay away from people if we can. Seems like everyone and their brother has COVID right now, and while outdoors is safer, it’s still not 100% and we’d obviously like to keep our exposure to people we don’t know and trust down. We’ll do our best!

I hope you’re all staying cool and hydrated! :)