Monday, October 20 - Tuesday, October 21

The nicest thing about the past two days is that Greta has wanted me to read her a couple of Halloween books before bed. She has reconnected to these books because of that school project and seems to have a renewed appreciation for them. Needless to say, I love it. 

Tuesday was an insane day:

6:30am: Frantically finished the cleanup of the kitchen to prepare for the cleaners' arrival. I'd spent the entire evening before taming the insane mess of our house, a bi-weekly ordeal that is painful but always worthwhile. Greta and I had gotten Nutmeg into the guest room late Monday night, and Greta slept up there, so at least we didn't have to do that. But there were still, somehow, five thousand dishes in the sink between 11pm and 6am. I dried them all and put them away.

7:15am: Left for school. Negotiated with the construction workers to let me out of my driveway. Yesterday they had to drag a steel plate over a trench to let me out; at least the trench is now filled and only a few vehicles had to be moved. Dropped Greta off on the street corner by school to wait until the doors opened at 7:30.

7:40am: Dermatology appointment for Lucia in Shadyside. Got a text from the cleaners that they were cancelling. 

8:05am: Drove Lucia to school, just under the wire so she wasn't late.

8:15am: Navigated chaotic road construction to get the car home, successfully convincing the woman guarding the road-closed sign that I live on the street. 

8:30am: Got the bus to work. Worked all day.

4:00pm: Home

5:30pm: Picked up kids and drove to piano

7:30pm: Cooked dinner while Lucia had online tutoring

8:00pm: Attempted to get Nutmeg down from the attic. Fruitless. She hid under the bed. I brought Farrah up to try to get her to herd Nutmeg into her crate; instead, Farrah hid under the bed with Nutmeg. They arranged themselves to be perfectly out of reach.

8:30pm: Ate dinner

9:00pm: Farrah emerged and Lucia and I took her for a walk

10:00pm: Went to the attic to try once more to wrangle Nutmeg. She was calmly waiting for me IN HER CRATE. If buns could cackle, she would have been cackling. Greta and I resettled her in Greta's room.

10:30pm: Dragged out all the trash cans. Took Farrah out a final time.

11:00pm: Finally the day was over. The sink is again full of dishes from dinner but I didn't touch them. I will not be doing any more cleanup until the minute before Andrew returns from Peru.