staying in, week 10

Still staying home over here... When I started, who would have thought that we'd eventually be on week 10 of this series of recording the ups and downs of social distancing life? Sometimes I think pre-shelter in place Anne was so cute, thinking we'd possibly be sending kids back to school after a few weeks. I was disabused of those notions quickly, but it still does seem amazing that we're at the end of week 10 now. I do kind of wish I could go back to that previous Anne and tell her to bring home Hendrik's "indoor shoes" from his school locker. Now that he's nearly worn through his one other pair, we could really use those ones. Plus they're such GOOD SHOES.

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Good things

Anyway, onto a very quick recap of the things that brought some smiles this week -  not much new going on, so I'm not super inspired to write this post, but I didn't want to break my streak of week-end recaps!

Best reading material: the Lego catalog that arrived to our house around Christmastime. Hendrik had already studied it in-depth then, but he recently rediscovered it, and I'm not kidding, he has spent at least 5 hours pouring over it this week. How's that for getting our money's worth in quiet time out of a FREE catalog. You got me, Lego - I will totally spend money with your company to thank you for that.

Best library substitute, round 2: did another book swap with friends this week, with porch drop-offs. I was borrowing Normal People (which I enjoyed quite a bit, even more than I expected to) from a book club friend, and she asked for me to pick anything from my shelf for her... couldn't decide so I went with options: The Dry (mystery), On the Come Up (YA), and Young Jane Young (contemporary fiction). Good stuff to keep her busy a while. And neighbors gave us a whole bag of Magic Tree House Merlin Missions books for Hendrik to borrow, so he should be busy for the long weekend!

Favorite podcast episode: I recapped several of them here, but I also really enjoyed the 2nd new episode of "Against the Rules," which I just listened to when I had a free hour to myself. I find Michael Lewis' storytelling style to be quite engaging.

Most time-consuming internet browsing: since we were able to safely resume work on our bathroom renovation project, there is now an eventual end in sight...which means that (even though it's still weeks away) I can't help but get all excited about the accessorizing. I've been looking everywhere for great bath mats (love the colors of this one), towel racks, towels, and so on.

Most rejuvenating hour: cleaning out/organizing our linen closet. I was feeling kinda blah on a rainy afternoon, but ooh did I ever feel good after that. So satisfying.

Bummers

Going in to a holiday weekend, even as I look forward to at least enjoying good weather and not having to fuss with homeschooling for an extra day, it's easy to feel some bummers as we won't be doing the usual family get-togethers, and things like that.

What I miss the most: decisions feeling straightforward and/or simple. Every decision about any going anywhere - whether going out for a hike at a certain park is okay, or whether going out to (now open) golf courses is fine, or whether to possibly get together with close family members - just feels so complicated now. It's impossible to know for sure what's safe or smart both in terms of keeping ourselves safe and keeping others safe. And it feels even harder now that the state has okayed gatherings of 10 people or fewer - because at least when there were restrictions, it felt like these decisions were made for me. Now there's much personal deciding on parameters and calculated risks for our own family. Blergh.

Saddest cancellation: the outdoor summer concert series that we love going to. Not surprised, as they didn't even open up ticket sales, but the official cancellation email came this week and it made it feel like a bummer again. That really has been a fun summer tradition for us. Also continues to remind me how long it's been since we had a date night, and how long it will be till we ever hire a babysitter again...

But overall, actually feeling pretty good this week. Having my moments of being so sick of my kid that I can't imagine surviving the summer, but but for the most part just living this life as our new normal, enjoying getting outside, loving our continuing Harry Potter time together, and finding joys along the way. Not bad for 10 weeks of a way of life we NEVER expected to be living.