February Updates.

 

I do not know why we are getting a fifth quarter to 2020 - no one wants that! No one needs this nonsense! So things here have been pretty unspectacular. The light is definitely at the end of the tunnel, as we watch some of our favorite people over 65 get their vaccinations, and dream about going out in public and hugging people again, but in the meanwhile, it's a lot of the same old, same old. With the huge surge of cases we had here in Orange County, we went from seeing a couple of families here and there to just locking back down to our initial bubble - our neighbors Rob, Victoria and Keira continue to be a key part of that, and thank goodness for it. I joked to them a few months ago that I felt guilty when they would talk about not seeing anyone outside of your household, so dangerous yadda yadda, and so I had decided that we were officially one household. 

We've been focusing on a lot of small creature comforts around the house. When we took our Christmas tree down, every time I walked in the front door I'd be greeted with our beat up recliner, and that started to bum me out, so we went and replaced the living room furniture with a new sectional. Our old couch still had some life in it, so I put it on craigslist and was glad to see it go. No bites for the recliner on craigslist, so it went to the curb for bulk item pick up. 

The new sectional actually gives us more seating in about the same amount of space. It's really comfortable and works for what we need. I got a little glass topped coffee table off of facebook marketplace, so we are pleased. Well, most of us. Kids are miffed that they're not permitted to eat on the couch, but that's what happens when you keep filling my furniture with crumbs (I can eat on the couch though, of course.) Thankfully, the cats have mostly left it alone, though the other day I caught Taco trying to go at an arm, and so to distract him, put cat nip on the couple of scratchers we have throughout the house. Tim's coworker got a good laugh over zoom later in the morning when he heard me shout at Adam "don't touch them, they're on drugs right now!" when he went to try to pet a those drugged out goons. 

On the last rainy Saturday Ellie asked me to dye her hair, and now she is a beautiful mermaid girl. The boys remain totally overgrown furballs, and I had a dream last night that I cut my hair short again, and it was very tempting. 

Distance learning continues to be a trial, especially since Adam seems hellbent on making it as miserable as possible. He just doesn't want to do the work (and I know some of this is no different than it had been back when he was in the classroom.) He thinks it's boring, or he already knows it, and he hates anything that involves writing, so he'll just delay as long as possible. After a couple of really ugly days, where he was logging off of his zoom instead of completing the assignments, and then he and I going head to head while getting stuff done (stuff that should be SO EASY for him) because he'd spent the entire school day screwing around, he's now working out in the dining room, where I can supervise. I don't want to micromanage, but I also don't want him to fail second grade because he's being an ass and pretends he can't find a pencil and therefore can't take notes and then can't fill out the assignments. It's the sort of stuff that in the classroom, a teacher would stare him down until he got out his social studies book, but over zoom, she can't be as effective and so it's my job to step in. As I told his teacher, I've run out of carrots for him, and since I can't hit him with a stick, we're all getting punished and working together! I still don't think sending him to school is worth it, because the hybrid program is only 2.5 hours and we'd still have to slog through some of the online learning at home, but if his campus was open up for full day school, those kids would be out of here as fast as I could get a mask on their faces.