Quarantine: Thurs. 5/21 (NH)
There was a lot of stillness today. The girls spent hours in their hammocks, reading. Andrew hung one up for me, too, and I was with them much of the time. Utterly silent, just us in the woods. Andrew went for a long run, chopped wood, drank a beer while looking at Mt. Ascutney. Greta hung out by herself on the dock for a while, swishing her net around in the pond, catching salamanders and putting them into a bowl of water. A woman rode by on a white horse, slowly. The sun shone the entire day.
The girls and I came out of our solitude later in the afternoon to do some rock painting. I'd brought some Posca paint pens and we'd collected rocks at the creek. Greta painted a capybara rock and then painted other rocks as furniture for her capybara. Lucia painted stones with eyes looking in all directions and arranged them like the Brady Bunch (her comparison! parenting win).
Dinner was burgers on the grill. Now this is news: we ventured out of our near-total isolation for the very first time since the lockdown began and went to our favorite ice cream place, which is open. We all wore our masks while we looked at the ice cream menu. We socially distanced. I didn't let the kids get cones, just cups, and I chlorox-wiped the cups and spoons before we ate in the trunk of the car. It was pretty low risk. (We did feel like unwanted toxic outsiders, driving into the parking lot with our Jersey plates.)
The kids were dying to have another firepit, so we did that when we got back. They do not tire of throwing dried pine needles, pinecones, and leaves into the flames and then playing out elaborate Harry Potter scenes.
We had one moment of drama today. It was bedtime--the kids were all washed up and ready to get into bed, and Lucia suddenly realized she couldn't find her rag doll, Martha, who is constantly with her these days. She began sobbing and freaking out, which is, I have to say, an outsized reaction, since she didn't take the doll to the ice cream place and we were literally on our property the entire day. She was here somewhere. Lucia had had her with her in the hammock, so Andrew took a flashlight and went into the terrifying dark woods to look. She wasn't there. Greta went out with him to help him look more. No Martha. I suggested Lucia look once more all around the upstairs, and--lo and behold, there was Martha, with the Legos.
What We're Reading
Margo: starting A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight
Andrew: finishing The Dutch House
Lucia: just finished Breadcrumbs by Ann Ursu, and tons of Berenstain Bears (a vacation favorite; we bring them when we come up here)
Greta: still working on School for Good and Evil #3, and also all the Berenstain Bears
MARK YOUR CALENDARS, blog readers: I'm having a virtual book launch event through Facebook Live next week, hosted by Octavia Books in New Orleans, at 6pm ET on Thursday, May 28. I know you're home, I know you're on Facebook...and I hope you'll all tune in to help me celebrate the official release of The Distance from Four Points!! Details soon.
The girls and I came out of our solitude later in the afternoon to do some rock painting. I'd brought some Posca paint pens and we'd collected rocks at the creek. Greta painted a capybara rock and then painted other rocks as furniture for her capybara. Lucia painted stones with eyes looking in all directions and arranged them like the Brady Bunch (her comparison! parenting win).
Dinner was burgers on the grill. Now this is news: we ventured out of our near-total isolation for the very first time since the lockdown began and went to our favorite ice cream place, which is open. We all wore our masks while we looked at the ice cream menu. We socially distanced. I didn't let the kids get cones, just cups, and I chlorox-wiped the cups and spoons before we ate in the trunk of the car. It was pretty low risk. (We did feel like unwanted toxic outsiders, driving into the parking lot with our Jersey plates.)
The kids were dying to have another firepit, so we did that when we got back. They do not tire of throwing dried pine needles, pinecones, and leaves into the flames and then playing out elaborate Harry Potter scenes.
We had one moment of drama today. It was bedtime--the kids were all washed up and ready to get into bed, and Lucia suddenly realized she couldn't find her rag doll, Martha, who is constantly with her these days. She began sobbing and freaking out, which is, I have to say, an outsized reaction, since she didn't take the doll to the ice cream place and we were literally on our property the entire day. She was here somewhere. Lucia had had her with her in the hammock, so Andrew took a flashlight and went into the terrifying dark woods to look. She wasn't there. Greta went out with him to help him look more. No Martha. I suggested Lucia look once more all around the upstairs, and--lo and behold, there was Martha, with the Legos.
What We're Reading
Margo: starting A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight
Andrew: finishing The Dutch House
Lucia: just finished Breadcrumbs by Ann Ursu, and tons of Berenstain Bears (a vacation favorite; we bring them when we come up here)
Greta: still working on School for Good and Evil #3, and also all the Berenstain Bears
MARK YOUR CALENDARS, blog readers: I'm having a virtual book launch event through Facebook Live next week, hosted by Octavia Books in New Orleans, at 6pm ET on Thursday, May 28. I know you're home, I know you're on Facebook...and I hope you'll all tune in to help me celebrate the official release of The Distance from Four Points!! Details soon.
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