Skipping Town

We! Are! Not! In! New! Jersey! Anymore! Our trip to NH feels like a jailbreak, even though we haven't broken free of lockdown in any real way. But it's a change of scenery, and we're running through the woods without another soul in sight, so there's a feeling of lightness and freedom that we've been missing for a long time. We're not afraid of getting covid here. We're afraid of getting covid pretty much every single time we step outside our door back home. That alone is freeing. You know what else is freeing? Driving here in 4 hours and 15 minutes. It usually takes us at least 5.5 hours. There was no traffic whatsoever, and we didn't stop except for a quick fill-up at a gas station (none of us got out but Andrew, and he didn't touch anything except with a Chlorox wipe). It was crazy. We got here so fast. We used to make comparably good time ten years ago, during the month we spent living in a corporate apartment in the Trump Place on Riverside Dr...

Fridays are always a relief. Very light homeschooling assignments, and then the weekend ahead. Today was quite busy, because I had to pack for our ten-day trip to New Hampshire. We're leaving tomorrow morning and we're all very very excited. We'll be even more isolated there than we are here. We're bringing all our own food so we won't have to go to the grocery store, and we won't be stopping along the way. (I'll spare you the details of THAT lovely plan, but it involves a purchase touted as "great for hunting.") The kids spent most of today figuring out what Legos to bring. They finally winnowed down to a zippered pouch each. I haven't packed for a trip since the very first weekend in March, when I went to a conference for three nights. It feels strange to be packing up again. Ten days is a lot to pack for, especially because we'll see all kind of temperatures there. It'll be so nice to have a change of scenery. I can't wait to...

Today felt like a blur. There was homeschooling. There was a mask-required trip to UPS to get some documents notarized. There was a massive attempt to finally clean up the Legos in the basement (the fervor is as strong as ever, but I need them to be off the floor now). There was some prep for an Instagram Live interview I'm doing tomorrow. There were Zoom piano lessons. Lucia lost a tooth tonight--one of the big canine teeth. And that was the day. They go so fast. I'm so tired right now I can't even come up with any pithy anecdotes for this post, and I don't have any pictures. Ah well.

Forgot to blog yesterday. And now I forget yesterday. I do know I forgot to blog because instead of writing a post while the girls showered, I was helping each one clean their disastrous, inaccessible room. Lucia and Greta have begun referring to each other as "Skoots" and "Temberley." Greta is Skoots and Lucia is Temberley. I don't know what the names mean. I'm assuming these are their quarantine names. Should I have a quarantine name? Should you? Greta has been modifying her Lego Friends figures with odd adornments on their heads. Lucia hated the dinner I made tonight so much that she called it a "bowl of nightmares." It was an egg roll bowl. I'd given her a bowl of ramen as well, which she called a "bowl of dreams." Every time she ate a bite of the egg roll bowl, she said, "I hate this so much." Today, in quick succession, I did a podcast interview over the phone, fielded inquiries about a real estate matter I c...

Back to it. Homeschool + Legos + leftovers for dinner + episode of Little House. (And YES, Little House has gotten sooo trendy, with the article yesterday in the NYT etc., but I started us on this show waaaay before the think pieces began.) I worked on an essay thing, read, paid bills, prepped for a podcast interview I have on Wednesday. All good stuff. The girls are still obsessed with their Friendship Buses. Also swinging--I have no idea how long they were outside swinging today but it was a very long time. Sometimes they were actually swinging; sometimes they were casually sitting and swaying and talking. It's so cute to watch them from the kitchen windows. Just totally free and happy. The world is awful but here, on our own homestead, things are good. Oh, and it HAILED for a little while. #apocalypse #hellscape What We're Reading Etc. Margo: Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin L&G: random School for Good & Evil books (Lucia's just rereading them now...

Quarantine Mother's Day! Normally I take myself shoe shopping for Mother's Day and choose a couple of pairs of new sandals for the summer, but Andrew and the girls made it a great day even without the ability to venture out. Andrew ordered donuts for delivery from Krispy Kreme (donuts are a Mother's Day tradition here), and I read in bed for a while before they arrived. L&G each made me a wonderful collage, and Andrew got me a handbag (anticipating the day when I'll need a handbag again) and a subscription to a monthly houseplant delivery. The kids worked on their Lego Friends Friendship Buses. Later, we walked up to the reservation. For dinner, Andrew made baked tilapia, summer squash with tomatoes, and a spectacular pineapple upside-down cake. A lovely day all around. Happy Mother's Day, all.

Yesterday the kids were looking at the Lego website and grew hysterically excited about a set called the Lego Friends Friendship Bus. They told me they wanted to use their own money to buy one, and I said that sounded great, and that we'd order it tomorrow (which is now today). Of course, when we went to order it today, it was backordered for 60 days. It was unavailable on Amazon and Walmart except through third-party sellers who'd tripled the price. The only place that had any at all--and thank the Lord they had two--was a Target in Parsippany. I ordered for same-day pickup, and in a few hours we loaded ourselves into the car (Farrah too) and drove to Parsippany. What else were we going to do today? It's actually not too far. And I didn't even have to go into the store--they were handling pickups outside. Win win. The girls were thrilled and built for the rest of the afternoon. It's a cute set--like an RV. There's a little frying pan with an egg in it. I fo...

Another Friday. The kids did some work (Fridays are pretty light with schoolwork) and then disappeared for Legos once again. We read some Harry Potter. For dinner I made a spinach quiche and a carmelized onion foccaccia. The kids chose National Treasure for our movie night, which they loved. It's pretty riveting, even though I find it impossible to look at Nicholas Cage and think of anything except Ghost Rider, the most ridiculous movie ever made. (His head is a skull! Now it's a FLAMING SKULL!) But National Treasure was fun. Andrew, on brand, reacted in audible horror at the scenes of the Declaration of Independence being rolled up, tossed around, and imperilled. I'm not sure if National Treasure is actually what I'd call "understandable," but it's visually arresting, with invisible ink becoming visible, clues coming into focus with weird-looking Ben Franklin glasses, artifacts fitting into openings to magically open ancient doors, etc., and Nicholas Ca...

Overall the kids are so happy to be home. BUT this doesn't mean they also don't miss their school, class, teachers, and normalcy. Greta seems to be the most regretful, and she'll remark on things now and then--how afraid she is that she'll never see her teacher again, how she'll finish her time at Marshall without any kind of goodbye ceremony, that she won't be able to perform in the June music ensemble concert, and of course her First Communion is now in October. This is teacher appreciation week, and each day she's written a note to one of her subject teachers; today she wrote to her favorite, her music teacher, and said, "I know I'm never going to see you again" and "I wish I was always in 2nd grade." Then she started to cry. Poor little thing. Because she's usually so happy and she and Lucia are always having so much fun, it's easy to forget that there's loss and sadness, too, with this quarantine. They're missing ...

I made cinnamon buns this morning. That should be enough of an update today, no? I honestly don't have much more to say. It rained all day. It's cold outside. Blah. L&G are still playing hypnotically with their Legos Friends. It's like they've been brainwashed. I've never seen them this enmeshed. They played for SEVEN HOURS today, and that's been the same every day. I guess this isn't really that surprising. Even as toddlers they had long attention spans--it's just their temperament; I can't take credit; I was the same as a kid--but when we're not quarantined, their days are broken up by school, activities, and homework. Now, without all that, they have no limits on their time, and their involvement with whatever they're involved with has just expanded to fill these endless days. Even now, 7:45pm, they're still playing WHILE they each take a shower. They'll play quietly while I'm reading to them. It doesn't end. I mean, ...

Homeschool etc. The best part of the morning was our break for some Snickerdoodle Bread, which we ate on the porch sharing a blanket and reading Harry Potter 5. (If I ever homeschool for real, that'll be my entire curriculum.) We had lunch and then I didn't see the kids again all afternoon. Let's see how closely you've been reading this blog: Fill in the blanks: The kids were playing in the _______ with their _______. If your guesses were "basement" and "Legos," you were correct. As for me...I dealt with some real estate matters that I can't talk about yet for fear of all manner of jinxing, wrote and sent a newsletter to my email list (are you on it? no? you can sign up at the bottom of my website ), and ordered four new books. We wanted Mexican food for dinner along with everyone else in town, and it took a while to find a place that would take our order, and then when Andrew walked down to pick up our order he waited for over an hour with a...

Sorry for skipping a day. SORRY. Yesterday was just a blah day. A meandering, pointless, useless day of nothing. I feel like I'm fine as long as we're doing something--school assignments or a house project or a game or what have you. But yesterday just got me down. Andrew suggested that I should go exercise and I burst into tears. So he made me a G&T instead and we sat on the porch. We Zoom-called with friends in the evening. What did the kids do all day? They played outside--it was warm and sunny so they jumped in the sprinkler and mixed chalk in the tinkerspace. We ate a random assortment of leftovers for dinner. Today I made Snickerdoodle bread, we homeschooled, and then the kids played outside. They painted the foundation of the house with a chalk and shaving cream mixture. We made a few Andy Goldsworthy-inspired mandalas (Greta made a cat face out of rocks). Today we found out--officially--that school won't reopen this school year. Not a surprise at all, but so...