Michael's 39th

When Michael and I were dating we were wandering around Walmart a couple weeks before my birthday. I saw a super cute pair of pajamas and commented, "These are so cute! They would be a great birthday present!" I then wandered further down the aisle. I turned around to find Michael dropping the pajamas in his cart. I was aghast.

That was not how birthday shopping was supposed to work. You would thoughtfully, and secretly buy your loved one a present, and then look forward to their surprise as they unwrapped the gift. I explained all this to Michael. He was not of the same opinion, but he respected where I was coming from and put the gift back. He then bought be something else, at a later date.

Fast-forward twenty-ish years. I asked Michael what he wanted for his birthday this year. He was uncertain. I was tired. I then offered to just give him his birthday budget and he could buy what he wanted. He happily agreed. Michael went on an Amazon shopping spree, and received his cardboard boxes on his birthday. Do Amazon boxes count as gift wrap? In our house it did this year. 

Oh how my standards have dropped!

He enjoyed his birthday, even if I'm a slacker. His sister delivered cookies to his office, which he wasn't at. He took the day off work, but made time to go pick up a massive box of cookies.

(banana for scale)

For dinner I made him his requested dinner of gnocchi with fontina cheese. We had homemade gingersnap cookies with homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert. In years past I have made him a ice cream cake, but this year was all about simplicity. A cookie, a scoop of ice cream, some sliced banana, and a little bit of caramel sauce. Easy and still super yummy.

After dessert we watched Back to the Future II. Michael introduced the kids to the old franchise, and found it deeply satisfying they enjoyed it so much. I imagine we will be watching the 3rd one soon.

It was a markedly low-key celebration, like most of ours lately. It has been beautiful in its own way.

With everyone home we also made time to do some tie dyeing. A bag of activities was dropped at our doorstep by an almost-anonymous source that included tie dyeing supplies. We had a lot of fun making several creations, although they did not turn out as well as our previous attempts.

It was still a fun project that everyone enjoyed participating in. 

Happy Birthday Love! I hope the next year isn't one of so many interesting events.

Mother's Day

We spent a quiet day at home for Mother's Day this year. 

I had found a fun cake idea, so I made my own dessert. We enjoyed it with a scoop of ice cream after our home held church services. 

In the afternoon we went for a bike ride and found a quiet spot on the river to skip rocks. Despite a couple close calls, no one got hit with any rocks.

Someday I will put a flattering picture of myself on the blog. Today is not that day.

Michael made veggie korma for dinner, which the kids did not eat, but they did attempt! I had a delicious dinner and delicious lunches for the next several days, so I have no complaints.

It was a pretty laid back day. It was a great way to celebrate Mother's Day.

Cutting Our Own Hair

I blame it on Libby. She lulled me into a false sense of security. She asked me if I could trim an inch off her hair. Trimming curly hair is so easy. Even if I mess up, no one would even know. So I grabbed the scissors and hacked off an inch, then put her hair into the requested braids.

Her hair looked great, life was good.

Then Ethan asked for a haircut. He has been asking for a couple weeks. He even sent me a video. I tried, all I can say is I tried, and rejoice hairdressers should be able to open soon.

His before pictures.

His after photo. I was only allowed to take this picture after I agreed to play a round of Mario Kart with him. The 'do isn't horrible and if I were brave enough, I would cut more off. I am not brave enough. He is not patient enough. We are moving on with life.  He is wearing a hat.

Then Grace asked for a haircut. I was surprised, to say the least. I talked to her for a few minutes, to make sure she was certain. Her long hair has been so important to her for so long and I didn't want to cause psychological damage.

She was certain, so I grabbed the scissors. Girl's hair is easy.  She was very pleased. Although her braid isn't as long or flexible now, it looks so much nicer. I don't know why it looks so crooked in this picture; it's much straighter in real life.

Sam was the last in the roundup. He honestly doesn't care what it looks like, so there was no pressure. 

It turned out all right, but I'm not tempted to cut his hair again. Cutting boys' hair is hard! All the blending and shaping. Every mistake shows. I think we will leave hair cutting to the professionals from now on.

I think I should have stuck with the original title to this post: "Cutting our own hair; do not recommend."

Running Away

The governor of Idaho had asked that we avoid all unnecessary travel to limit the spread of this virus. At week six, we had all had it. We were all getting ground down. After careful consideration, we asked Michael's aunt if we could use her cabin in Crouch, Idaho. We planned carefully, so we would not need to stop anywhere besides the cabin after leaving Boise. It was just what was needed.

The kids enjoyed burning all their school work from the current year. We roasted marshmallows over the ashes of their education. I feel like that might be a fitting metaphor for the last two months. Only thing left to do is (borrowing a phrase from my eldest brother) roast marshmallows over the whole smoldering mess.

Michael and I went on a hike and discovered a national forest started just half a mile from the cabin. We had no idea. We took the kids for a drive up into the woods and discovered this waterfall a short hike from the main road. Everyone quickly fell in love.

The kids also decided to hike out onto the boulders in the middle of the river. I tried not to cringe too hard. Everyone made it back safely.

Libby found swarms of white and violet butterflies, and set about catching one. She quickly caught one and showed it off.

Her siblings followed her example and caught their own. They are tiny. It's the little white spot on the girls' hands.

Sam wasn't sure how he felt about catching a butterfly. He eventually came around. No butterflies were hurt in the making of this blog post.

We had to stop on the way out to see if Ethan or Grace could climb up higher on this downed tree. After the third branch snapped off in Ethan's hand, I put an end to this game. The angle was much more steep than this picture shows, and I didn't fancy the notion of hiking out with an injured child.

We planned on staying for one night, but the girls begged and begged. We ended up staying two nights, eating a lot of junk food, went for some hikes, burned some wood, read some books, and came home ready for whatever comes next.

Family Activities

All the kids' outside activities have been canceled.  To the previous list of canceled activities we now can add: Horsethief YMCA camp (Grace), Trek (Ethan and Libby), Boise Youth Spectacular (Ethan and Libby), Girl's Camp (Libby), Freshmen Farewell (Libby), swim team (Grace and Sam). Currently all the kids' summer activities are canceled. As all the plans fell like dominoes, we all had our own crisis. 

I had an anxiety attack when they canceled Trek which is still a couple months out. I think my brain finally accepted this is going to be a long-lasting problem, and I just couldn't even breathe. I came home and cried in the hammock. Libby fell apart two days later due to the same feeling of not being in control of her life.  Just a few days later we learned BYS was canceled. Ethan has been joking since early March that he was going to apostatize if BYS was canceled. He took the news fairly well, but then had a meltdown a few days later. Grace is devastated about swim team, while Sam is not so quietly celebrating.  

The last few months have sucked. They have sucked so much. There have been so many tears. There has been so much anxiety. I am strongly considering talking to my doctor about anxiety medication for myself, because I am just as stressed as the kids, but I can legally drug myself. I would get in trouble if I tried to sneak Valium into their applesauce. It has been a hot mess dealing with four stressed out kids sniping at each other all day, every day.

Along with all the snot and tears, there has also been some incredible blessings. For the last two months I have had all my children home. We have spent so much time together, doing things that were difficult to manage around school, after school and church activities, work, and so on. 

We have cooked and baked together. They would bake daily, if allowed, but I'm hoping to not have diabetes by the time we are all allowed to resume our normal lives. Baking has been a necessarily limited activity. 

We all worked together to make an awesome cake, if I do say so myself. We even made it shaped like a true pandemic necessity. It took a couple tries, and it's not perfect, but we were pleased. And it tasted good.

Michael and I have had more time together. We went on a sixteen mile bike ride and ate take out falafel. It was the most perfect date we've went on in a long time. Also, I now want falafel daily.

We continue to watch the monkey. He makes us laugh and insists on spending his awake hours outside. I'm so glad we are still watching him. It makes the girls so happy to take care of and love on him. It is frequently the highlight of their day.

I went on a 13 mile bike ride with this guy. We are trying to get a lot of bike rides in before our planned 90 mile bike ride (over three days) vacation. We are crossing our fingers it does not end up on the chopping block as well.

I have been working in my plot at the community garden. I'm not sure how I'm feeling about the new volunteer management, but I am trying to understand that this is a stressful time for everyone.  Michael felt like an absolute beast when he hauled these two bales of straw the 2.68 miles home from the garden, on his bike. As I biked behind him, I noticed a whole lot of people checking out his caboose. He was well pleased.

Michael and the kids spent several hours at the river, just exploring and skipping rocks.

All this downtime has created opportunities for us to spend time with each other, and meet more people in the neighborhood. Everyone is currently out walking their dog, child, or elderly grandma. Ethan has even found two new teenagers in the neighborhood.

I would not wish this situation upon anyone. It's crappy and stressful and overwhelming. But the time we have been given has been beautiful. I feel like the entire nation has been very slowly rebooted. I hope I can learn the lessons this reset has given me, and remember them going forward.