Bowlin Beige

Today will be my last "Momming Hard" labeled posts. I feel like the end of the school year signals the end of this phase. Although we are definitely not out of the pandemic, I am no longer juggling homeschool with work. Instead I'm just juggling my kids at home... while I work. Sigh... not much different I supposed. Still no camps, they still can't go anywhere. Maybe it'll just be "Momming Hard in the Summer?"  Honestly momming is hard all the time.  So today was 'officially' the last day of school for the kids. Parker finished 2nd grade and moves to the Tall Hall next year. In a normal world, Ainsley would've had a lovely 5th grade recognition assembly at school. She would've dressed up and had her picture taken. She would've walked across the stage. She would've celebrated with her classmates at a fun dance party that night. But she doesn't get to do any of those things.   We tried to still celebrate the end of her lower sch...

Happy Memorial Day!   I started the day by making biscuits from scratch - my first time ever!!! I got the recipe from my Magnolia Table cookbook.  These are called JoJo's Biscuits ( https://food52.com/recipes/76989-jojo-s-biscuits ) and they were delicious! I made the dough the night before so it was very quick to make them in the morning. Yum!  I then celebrated Memorial Day by completing a race - Remember the Fallen 21k. That's 13 miles for those (like me) who have a hard time converting k to m.  Whew... it was hot and humid but I appreciate the fact that I CAN run.  Thank you those who served and died for our country and our freedoms.

My baby girl is ELEVEN today!!! She couldn't have a big party, but she sure had a special day.  We surprised her with yard signs ( cardmyyard.com ). We released the butterflies into the garden. They hung out on the kids' hands for a while before flying off.  Her gift from us was a purple hoverboard - she is so excited! Her neighborhood friends came and secretly decorated the garage for a little party. She was so surprised and loved sharing cake with her best friends. THEN to add even more excitement, two of her best friends from school came for a 'drive-by' socially-distant celebration. She was thrilled to see them drive up - she hasn't seen them in person since March 6, before Spring Break!! Both sets of grandparents gave her a new bike (she will get to go shopping and pick it out herself next week). She has grown so much and is in desperate need of a new bike!  My beautiful 11 year old... how time flies!

It certainly wasn't a typical birthday celebration, but it was wonderful! I ended my 40th year and started my new year with a delicious breakfast made by my daughter. I ate sushi lunch outside with some friends. And then some neighborhood friends came by that night for drinks and dessert (birthday cake!)  I felt loved and celebrated, and got to eat all my favorite things. Not a bad quarantine birthday!  AND the caterpillars turned into butterflies today! What a special birthday treat! Panda was especially interested in why we allowed bugs in the house... 

We are 60 days in. Two months.  I've been thinking about all the things I took for granted for granted before all this happened: PUZZLES I love puzzles. I love the feeling of accomplishment once they are finished. This is now our 4th (or maybe 5th?) puzzle of the pandemic.  THE DISHWASHER The most useful appliance in the whole house. I swear this thing gets run once, sometimes twice, EVERY SINGLE DAY. I have never been more grateful for this amazing box of spraying water. CURIOUS CAT We didn't know last year when we got him, but Panda has been the best addition to our family. He has been an emotional-support cat for our children during this lockdown. He sits with them every day - keeping them company on calls, sleeping in their beds while they read, and tolerating their hundreds of kisses and cuddles. He never complains when the kids wake up from his nap to hug on him, or throw him over their shoulders to carry all over the house. He also provides endless ent...

There's a light at the end of the tunnel. We're into our last two weeks of school.  We've been home for 59 days, and yet somehow my son still can't seem to remember that my office is in the basement. He just runs around the house yelling for me, like he's not sure where I went. Parker, I'm in the basement working. Just like I have been since March 16. Sigh...Bless his heart.  Today he got to take a 30 minute 'class' with Leland Melvin (astronaut, former UR football player, and a visiting innovator at our school last year). That was kinda cool to be on a Zoom call with him! He gets to do another call next week and hear about living in the space station.  Although we're almost done with school, it took me 9 weeks to figure out how to get my daughter to read more. We ordered Echo Dots for both of the kids' bedrooms last week. It was a pain for us to keep reminding them when they had class calls each day. So they set alarms on their Dots for...

Even though we are in quarantine, I still had a lovely Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday Ainsley surprised us by making breakfast all be herself - cinnamon rolls, bacon and scrambled eggs (her first time cooking eggs). She set a nice table with candles and we had a lovely Saturday family breakfast.  My DH hung a new TV in the garage so the kids can watch movies out there in the afternoons while we are still working. They can have a social-distancing movie theater! When I cleaned out the garage last week I found our bounce house. It was a nice day so we got it out for the kids - and they still fit! I thought for sure they had outgrown it. But nope - they spent all morning playing in it. Now it's back in the garage, but I did set a reminder to get it out more often.  On Sunday I was treated to a delicious brunch! We normally go to the Boathouse on Mother's Day, but this year my hubby was able to pick up brunch to bring home. It was wonderful - and SO MUCH...

This was my day today. She had to go back and re-do 7 math worksheets.

33 days left and I am trying to soak up every little piece of beauty I can find. This week I am finding it outside. It's sunny and 66 outside so I'm trying to poke my head outdoors every hour to keep my spirits up. My kids both had meltdowns over various things today, but thankfully got over them quickly. Our neighborhood scheduled the Kona Ice truck to come around, so that was a nice afternoon treat for them. My peonies are starting to bloom - I grabbed a few to bring indoors.  Catmint (nepeta) is filling in nicely too! These are new this year and I can't remember the variety. But they look nice and the rabbits haven't eaten them... yet. Unlike my brown-eyed susans, which they knibble on every night.  A pretty pop of pink petunias in a pot! Try saying that 10 times fast... My JMU pot. Go Dukes! Our first strawberry is here!  And baby peppers!!!! I have never had luck with peppers before, and I have SEVEN little guys growing on my ...

We've made it past the 50 day mark, with 35 days left to go. Although after the governor's announcement yesterday, maybe we'll be finished a little earlier (???) I'm not holding my breath quite yet....  I thought this might be a good time to go back and review my goals that I set for myself at the beginning of this. I set these goals on March 22, back when I thought we'd only be home for three weeks. Oh how things changed... let's see how I'm doing thus far.  1. Read 30 minutes a day. My kids have to read 30 minutes and I should too.   WTF was I thinking here??  I mean I have done a little more reading than I used to. I'll give myself credit for one day a week of reading 30 minutes.  2. Post in my blog several times a week. #WINNING!  I am doing really well at this goal. Yay for me.  3. Two days a week I won't have anything alcoholic to drink.  Umm...... I'm not sure why I thought this was a good goal.  In other news, I moved m...