Bowlin Beige

Yesterday the neighborhood kids have found this huge pile of dirt in the section across the street where they are building new homes. One of the moms has been nice enough to take them all over there on their bikes to climb this 'mountain'.  It definitely provided some entertainment after school finished for the day!  It also rained A LOT today. The kids made multiple trips to the new bridge to see how high the creek was. Looks like it's holding up well! 

It's amazing what a little bit of prayer will do. And I don't mean my prayers - I mean the prayers of all my friends and family who read my post yesterday. I had a long board meeting call last night and afterwards I poured a glass of wine and sat down to unwind for a few minutes in front of the TV. I turned it on and the movie Gravity was showing (the one with Sandra Bullock). Not trying to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it...but the moment I turned it on is near the beginning of the film where she is floating helplessly through space. An explosion has sent her flying, untethered, into dark space. She is flipping over and over again, and can't get her bearings. George Clooney is asking her what she sees so he can find her position. She can't focus. She can't make out what is around her. This is how I felt for a good part of yesterday.  A short while later in the movie they are trying to get back to the space station. They are approaching it too fast

I woke up this morning and a feeling of helplessness washed over me. All the unknowns are creeping up and threatening to smother me. It's a wave that comes over and over again. I get to the top of one and then another hits. I have always been a planner. Sometimes I worry. But I very rarely have anxiety. I try to focus on what I know and what I have control over.  What DO I know? I know what will happen for the next 4 weeks. I know the kids have school until May 22 and I will do my best to balance it with work. Got it. I can do that.  But what happens after that? What will they do all day when school ends and I'm still working and camps haven't started up yet? What if camps never start? Do I cancel the camps now and try to get some money back? Or do I wait and see if they cancel and give me a refund? Do I move their camps to later in the summer when they're more likely to happen? But if I wait to see if the June camps are cancelled then all the July and August camps mi

It's Monday. 43 days down, 43 days left to go. I feel good about this. We've reached the halfway point, right? We made it to the top and now we just coast down for 43 more days. The kids had a decent day today. School work was pretty good, no major catastrophes, I was productive with my work.  We got the house and fence power washed. It looks good - nice and clean and smelling like bleach. A nice way to start the week - fresh and clean. We can do this!

Fridays are always a bit of a relief. We are busy wrapping up projects and school work, and getting excited about the weekend. This weekend was pretty 'typical' for the past month. Lots of house chores and laundry, riding bikes and watching movies, glasses (or bottles) of wine. A bunch of the neighbors decided to get together and build a bridge over the creek behind us, so the kids could get back and forth easier. We had a bunch of leftover boards from having our deck rebuilt a few years ago, so the only cost was a box of screws and some beers! The Builders.  I ran 10 miles - the last of my long training runs before the half marathon next weekend. Needless to say, I was exhausted the whole rest of the day. Ashton, Kristina and I delivered a housewarming gift to the Freeds.  Just seeing their faces made me smile and thankful. Looking forward to the day when I can actually hang out with them and eat sushi at our favorite restaurant. 

Some days you just need to snuggle with your cat and sit on the couch and binge-watch Star Wars. Apparently today was one of these days.  47 days left until lockdown ends. I woke up with a huge crick in my neck and I can't turn my head. It runs down the back of my shoulder blade. I think part of it is my desk and chair situation (aka the poker/beer pong table in the basement) which isn't at an ideal height for me. And I probably slept wrong. So even though the kids were so-so with their moods today, I certainly wasn't feeling my best.  So on that note, I'm going to do some yoga and throw an ice pack on my shoulder. G'night all. Tomorrow is Friday, and the end of week 6. I am thankful for that. 

So. Many. Tears. I think Parker locked himself in his room three times crying. Wednesdays are hard. Who's kidding... EVERY day is hard. Our school is now having "Wellness Wednesdays" which means the teachers don't give any new assignments that day and the kids can catch up on other work from the week and take a break from screen time. I love the idea in theory. But I still have to work all day... so what do I do with them if they aren't doing school work?   The first part of the day was actually pretty great. They read. They painted. I'm not entirely sure what else they did, but they played together and didn't bother me for a solid two hours. Just take a moment and imagine how productive I am when I can work uninterrupted for two hours. I was starting to think these wellness days are a great idea!  But within a few minutes of that thought passing through my head, I heard the yelling, stomping and slamming of doors. Oh well. It was great while it lasted. 

Today was Papa's birthday! Although we couldn't have a proper celebration with him in person, we did bake cupcakes and delivered gifts to him (by passing them from the trunk of my car to the  trunk of his). Thankful that he had a beautiful sunny day for his birthday. Also thankful that I had my first opportunity to pop the roof off the Jeep when I went to deliver everything!  The kids also had a sunny and brighter day today. I think all our moods improved a little. The fifth grade is still holding a (virtual) science fair this year. Ainsley chose to do some experiments with different fertilizer in the garden. She chose 4 squash plants as her test subjects, and made beautiful rocks to mark each one for the experiment.  This one is fertilized with coffee grounds.  This one is fertilized with banana peels.  This one is fertilized with egg shells.   And here is our control plant, with no fertilizer. We'll watch what happens with these little guys over

It rained today. Like almost all day. We all woke up in a bad mood.  Last night Parker was scared that he would have nightmares. He didn't have his fort to sleep in, and he couldn't have a sleepover with Ainsley. So he was scared and I ended up pulling out his pop-up rocket tent and putting it on his bed.  Ainsley was crying by 8:20 a.m., frustrated by school and technology. She did her work but didn't post it. Or she posted it but didn't understand it. Or she thought she understood it but she ended up getting it all wrong. She is embarrassed to ask her teacher for help. "Why would you be embarrassed? No one in your class would even know you asked for help! You aren't in a classroom with them!"  Sigh...  so we continued our trend of good day / bad day. Yesterday was Parker's bad day. Today was Ainsley's bad day.  Parker had an awesome today. He did a great time with his school work and enjoyed reading in his bed/rocket tent.  He is star

51 days left of lockdown. Today looked a lot like yesterday, except Parker went golfing with Daddy. I had the house to myself when Ainsley went outside to play. So I sat at the table and worked on a puzzle with my mimosa. I got to enjoy looking at my new welcome sign while I puzzled. This is a cool sign I ordered from my friend's parent's business -   https://www.facebook.com/Signs4Seasons/ The "O" in Welcome has a bunch of different seasonal/holiday things you can put in its place. I had a rabbit for Easter and now I've switched to the flower for spring. I had this on my front porch but the wind was so bad last week, so I brought it inside and put it in the dining room. Now I kinda like it here because I get to see it myself!  I took down all the forts in the kids' rooms (cue huge sigh of relief as I could see the floor again). They weren't too happy about it, but I think the secretly liked having their beds back.  What else to do on a lazy Su

Today I ran the (virtual) Carytown 10k. I finished in 56:50, which was slower than last month, but since I had taken two weeks off running I thought it was decent. Blue enjoyed lounging in the yard and chewing on a rawhide on this beautiful day.  It really was just a "normal" Saturday. Which seems strange to say because our Saturdays have now become: read the paper, eat breakfast, do laundry, clean something, and then sit around outside with a drink. I guess it could be worse! 

FRIDAY!!! We made it through another week! Whew... At least April seems to be moving a little faster than March did. I had to cover our garden last night, as the temps were hovering around freezing. Of course THIS YEAR we would have the potential for a late frost. Luckily these little beauties had started blooming and that made me smile.  Parker aced his spelling test today, and Ainsley had to choose a topic for the science fair project. Yep, fifth grade still does the science fair! It will be virtual this year, and hopefully I won't have to run all over town looking for posterboard. She is going to do some experiments with different fertilizers on the garden. Great. Everyone wins!  Yep, we are still working in the fort. I gave them until Sunday and then I'm taking them down. I'm not sure who will be more upset - the kids or the cat.  I ordered some hair clippers online and they arrived yesterday. Parker's hair (and Daddy's too) are getting a litt

My day didn't start off well. I discovered my dear daughter had not been checking her school email (she "didn't know she was supposed to") and had 118 unread messages from her teachers. In addition to managing my own anxiety over having that many unread messages, I then had to sit down with her to go through everything and help her get organized. I remember posting last week that she was pretty independent and only came to me when she had questions. Well, apparently I only thought  she was independent. She actually was missing all sorts of things. Nothing major, otherwise her teachers would've reached out to me. But enough that I felt bad for her. Cue #momguilt. I don't know why I feel like her performance reflects badly on me, but I'm sure I'm not the only parent out there who does. Then I feel guilty that this has been going on so long and I didn't catch it. I keep reminding myself that, although technology is part of MY usual work day, it has no

Forts. A child's wonderland and a mother's nightmare. Every time the kids build forts they have a great time for about 3 hours, and then the %&#* hits the fan as soon as the first blanket falls. They argue over who gets which part of the fort, who has more pillows on their side, who has the better (or bigger) blankets. We've got 55 more days of this, so when they wanted to build a fort yesterday I just went with it. No forts in the living room. Nope. Nada. They decided to build one in Ainsley's room - a MASSIVE fort that covered her entire room. And then they decided to sleep in it. Normally I would squash that idea but... quarantine rules apply, right? I didn't think they'd last an hour but they ended up sleeping on the floor of their fort the entire night!  You can see Ainsley's section in the back. And here is Parker's "bed" Wednesday morning started off well, with both of them doing their schoolwork in the 'offices'

We made it through 30 days of this mess. Wow. 30 days. When this all started we thought it would be two weeks. Then a month. And now three months.  We started off the day by taking the kids to their annual check ups. Our pediatrician is scheduling well visits first thing in the mornings. It was actually a great time to go - the place was empty!   Parker weighs 62 lbs (68%) and is 52" tall (also 68%). At least he's proportional!  Ainsley weighs 77 lbs (40%) and is 58" tall (65%). Our doc said she will likely grow 3 - 4" more this year. Yikes - guess I'm going to be doing some shopping!  Work is going to super busy this week, and it seems like the kids are going to be super busy too. We're holding on as best we can, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to take a shot of vodka at 10am... Tried a new crockpot recipe tonight, served over egg noodles: https://www.myfoodandfamily.com/recipe/150546/slow-cooker-smothered-chicken-with-bacon?cate

Easter Monday is also a day off school, which worked out well since we still had a lot of yard work to finish. We added more dirt and built chicken wire fences around all the beds to keep the bunnies out. Luckily we don't have (many) deer that jump the fence into our yard, and hopefully they won't decide to start now. Then the kids helped plant all of our fruits and vegetables!  We will be growing lots of herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary, mint, cilantro, parsley), lettuce, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, broccoli, red onions, green onions, strawberries and...corn (insert eye roll - I told my kids we would plant TWO corn seeds and see what happens).  The kids also got a fun Easter gift from Grandma and Grandaddy - a photo album from their summer visit! They had a great time reminiscing over their 2-week adventure on White Oak Mountain.  I should now mention my #momfail. I had planned a nice Easter dinner yesterday of ham, sausage balls, green beans, rolls...

He is Risen! I was sad that we couldn't do our usual church-and-brunch on Easter, but tried to focus on the positives - we are healthy and safe. Our families are healthy and safe. And no matter what is happening in the world, Easter is a time to celebrate Jesus. We started the morning with an egg hunt! A woman in our neighborhood has a cookie business. She makes the MOST amazing cookies, and we have ordered them for baby showers, tailgates, and other fun events.  http://www.hollandbaking.com/ She made Easter cookie decorating kits with edible 'paint'. That project kept the kids busy for a little while!   Yummy! After celebrating Easter, we dove into our next project: the GARDEN! The kids decided they would like to put in a garden where the playset used to be. They helped to clear the area, level the ground, build the beds and fill the beds! It was a busy day in the yard, but we had beautiful weather and it was a great family activity