sick – Life Off Headset

Weekly recap + what we ate: sick week and random FIGS

It was a massively unproductive week. I was laid up sick for much of the week. What started as a throat tickle on Monday, devolved into me in bed for most of Wednesday. Wednesday also happened to be the snow day. Fortunate or unfortunate timing? Well, fortunate in that the kids didn’t have to go to school. Unfortunate in that it was a snow day and everyone really wanted to go sledding… There were disappointed kids for sure. In the end I spent three days in bed with periodic excursions to take the kids to the bus or to activities. Luckily on Friday the Husband took care of the school bus pick up and drop off so I could continue to rest.

I am a terrible sick person. I don’t like to stay in bed, I get bored easily, I always think I feel better way before I actually do. But I will say there is always one point when I feel like being in bed is doing me no good and I have to get outside. By the third day of being in the house resting, I was convinced that I wasn’t going to get any better staying in bed and went for a walk. My body just craved sunshine and fresh air and some movement. I walked towards the 13 year old’s school and met her as shew as on her way home, and he face lit up when she saw me. I don’t know if it’s scientifically backed, but I did feel better for having gotten out of bed and out of the house. Or maybe it was seeing my kid’s face all lit up with cold and joy. I’m reminded of something I read once (maybe it was Oprah) that said, “Make sure your face lights up when you see your child.” Realizing how much it made my day to see my kid’s face light up made me remember that it works both ways and I need to have that same joy when I see her too.

(note: it was Oprah. Rather Toni Morrison via Oprah. Okay -funny story – Toni Morrison taught at my alma mater. I once sat next to her at a lecture, and fell asleep. I hope I didn’t lean on her or drool or anything…)

Anyhow, whatever illness I had is now making it’s way through the house. The Husband had a tickle and I immediately sent him to bed, bought a humidifier, Cold-Eeeze, and Ricola. I’ve been obsessed with the idea that stress is one of the things that can exacerbate illness, so I’ve demanded everyone be as stress-free as possible. No yelling, screaming, or tantrums. Please. He seemed to have escaped the worst of it, though now the 13 year old is laid up in bed. Oh well, the bug will cycle through the family and we’ll all move on. Hunkering and reducing stress seems like an okay way to spend what is shaping up to be a very very cold February.

Fun thing, though – the 13 year old finally had her birthday party sleepover over the weekend. She’s been doing this formula for three years now and I kind of love that. She has friends over on a Saturday night – they watch movies, YouTube videos, eat pizza, chips, rainbow cake, and stay up way too late. Sunday morning we have waffles and bacon and the kids all go see a movie. Even though her birthday was in January, it took us until February to find a good weekend, due to activities and my work schedule. (It seemed downright cruel to make the Husband be the only parent at home during a tween sleepover…) This weekend was perfect because they kids didn’t have Faith Formation classes on Sunday morning and Monday is a day off from school so we can all recuperate.

I’m really proud that the 13 year old did a lot of the planning herself for the first time. Granted the planning wasn’t terribly timely, but she did take on a lot of the mental load, so I’m calling it a win. Being a new phone owner, she sent all the invites herself, as in she texted her friends with the details and tracked who was going to come. I feel like we’re entering new territory where she can make plans with her friends on her own. No more mom-enabled play dates. There was still a little coordination to be done with other parents to coordinate drop offs and pick ups, but all in all, it feels like we are slowly taking baby steps towards the oldest being an independent being. Some days I stop and realize that she will be driving in THREE YEARS and I try not to freak out too much.

The set up – fruit, chips, chips, chips, cookies, and face masks!

Grateful for: I’m trying to be more mindful of big and little gratitudes this month, in honour of Elisabeth’s FIG (Finding Joy in Gratitude) Collective this month. Thank you Elisabeth for gathering people and thoughts! (There’s my first FIG right there!)

-YouTubers who share their expertise – There was a cushion on our basement couch that had lost a button and as a result was going all shapeless. After years of the Husband asking me if it was fixable, I finally decided that the misshapen pillow would not be worthy of our Super Bowl guests so I went to the craft store and bought upholstery needles. I still didn’t have much of an idea of how to fix this, so I turned the experts – YouTube to the rescue. I found a clear and simple tutorial on how to retuft a cushion and in less than twenty minutes, I had fixed the pillow and it was once again standing upright. I felt so accomplished. In the back of my 5 year journal I keep a list of new skills I learn each year. Button tufting is going on the list.

-Early release days for weather and being able to pick up my kid. I know not everyone can accommodate a last minute early release, so I’m really grateful that I’m in a slow period at work and that I could pick up the kid early when the school decided to close at 1pm for weather. We went to Trader Joe’s and even such a simple thing as running an errand, made for some great mommy-daughter time.

-Non-latex dishwashing gloves for my unfortunate combination of latex allergy and eczema.

-Remote start – I will be the first to tell you that I did not want an mini van. I still find it kind of scary to drive – it’s huge and I have no sense of where the rear end is. The thing is like driving around in a living room, seriously. BUT I am discovering many nice features, and this bitterly cold week, the remote start feature was amazing.

-International grocery stores and international communities. I wanted to make tikil goman (Ethopian cabbage, carrots, and potatoes) since we had cabbage and potatoes to use up. Meera Sodha’s recipe had instructions for a faux injera to eat alongside, and I was totally going to make that. But then I realized, “Wait, there is a a sizable Ethiopian population in our county. I should just get the real thing.” So I found an Ethiopian grocery store on the way home from Soccer Clinic and we picked up two packages of pillowy soft injera made fresh on the premises. It was delicious. We might have eaten half a package right out of the bag. How amazing it is to have so many international grocery stores in our area. (Also – I went down a rabbit hole reading Sodha’s column in the Guardian, The New Vegan. I want to make every recipe.)

-The Kids’ Skating instructor. She is amazing and kind and works so well with the kids.

-The track at the 8 year old’s school. I haven’t been running, because of the cold, but there is a track at the elementary school, and one day after drop off I walked four laps while listening to my audiobook. I’m so grateful that these things are open to the public. I remember when I was little, my parents would take us to the high school and make us run laps, and I hated it, but you know… the older I get, the more I see that my parents were really on to something.

-That the car is okay. I went over a curb funny and suddenly there was this horrible scraping noise when I drove. I pulled over seriously panicking that I had done some serious damage and wondering when I was going to have time to take the car in. After looking under the hood and around the tires, and not finding anything I got down on my hands and knees and reached under the car to see if I could feel anything. Like a detached muffler. (Not even sure if that’s a thing or if I was looking in the right area for such a thing.). Then my hand felt a twig and I gave a large tug and out came a four foot long branch. Oh thank goodness. Problem solved.

-Carpooling to work with my friend and picking up Starbucks (her) and cheesy buns (me) on the way home. Letting her convince me to buy a jelly donut, which I immediately eat in three bites, covering myself with powdered sugar in the process. I don’t regret it at all.

Also this bumper sticker we saw on the way:

There was quite an eclectic collection of bumper stickers on this truck.

And Some Sick Week FIGS:
-Windows. Three days sick in bed can make one tired of staring at the the walls of one’s bedroom. Except there are windows in those walls. And through those windows I could still see sunlight and clouds and sunsets and beautiful skies.

-Mucinex – I don’t usually take drugs when I’m sick, but boy did I need it this time; I was so congested I couldn’t breath or sleep.

-Kleenex.

-Rice cakes, ramen, and soup. Making lunch seemed like an impossible task when i was sick, but I also don’t like being hungry, so I did manage to make some simple soups. One day it was ramen with a cabbage, and an egg mixed in. Another day, it was a riff of this (Rice Cake Soup with Bok Coy and Edamame), though instead of chicken broth I made a “broth” by using water with kimchi tossed in. And I added dandelion greens and ginger because that’s what I had. The hot spicy filling goodness what just what I needed.

-Audiobooks – I mentioned above that I’m a terrible sick person because I get bored easily in bed. I did watch Bridget Jones’s Baby, but too much tv made my head hurt. Audiobooks to the rescue. I checked out a few rom coms from the library and listened to them. I only half paid attention to them, but the soothing voices and just enough plot was enough to calm my brain.

-The thirteen year old – who took care of the kids on the snow days when I was sick. I’m pretty sure she made them lunch and hot chocolate and let them watch inane YouTube videos all day. I know she did make them go outside for a little bit and play in the snow. But the important thing is she kept them out of the bedroom where I was sleeping.

-The Husband – who made dinner and put the kids to bed and basically solo parented while I was in bed.

-That I’m healing. The second day of being sick, I thought some yoga might heal my congestion, so I went on YouTube and searched “Yoga when sick” and a 15 minute gentle yoga video came up. It was just the easy practice that I needed to stretch a little and breathe. At the end of the video, Sara Beth said something that really stuck with me:
“Instead of telling yourself ‘I’m sick, I’m stuffy, I’m exhausted, I’m miserable’, tell yourself ‘I’m healing.’”
What a wonderful, gratitude-filled way to frame being sick. Rather than focus on how awful I’m feeling, reminding myself that the fever and mucus are all signs that my body is well enough to fight whatever it is that has me down, and that I’m healing.

Looking Forward To – so ironically two of my “Looking forward to” things from last week did not happen because I was sick – I didn’t go contra dancing and we didn’t enjoy a cozy snow day – but I think there is still great value in giving ourselves things to look forward to:

-Getting back into a routine after being sick.

-Voice recital that I’m doing supertitles for this week. There’s some really great music on the program and I always have a really long dinner break when I do this gig, so I’m looking forward to a nice evening walk.

-Finishing this book on audio. This was one of the books I started when I was sick and it’s pretty cute – a bit gimmicky, but not annoyingly so. (I also started another book that wasn’t as interesting, but perfectly soothing in the moment. I probably wont’ finish that one.)

What We Ate:
Monday: Cheesesteak sandwiches, leftover from the Super Bowl

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. It’s getting to be a tradition. Chicken, shrimp, black beans, mango cabbage slaw, guacamole, salsa, pickled onions.

Wednesday: Sheet pan gnocchi with broccoli and cherry tomatoes. Vegan. (I think, though come to think of it, I’m not sure if we bought vegan gnocchi.)

Thursday: Noodles w/ tofu and mushrooms. The Husband made this. I couldn’t get out of bed to eat it that night, but I had leftovers on Saturday night and they were so delicious.

Friday: Pizza (Take out) and Skeleton Crew – the latest (I think) series in the Star Wars Franchise. This one stars a bunch of kids who seem to be very far from home. And Jude Law.

Saturday: The 13 year old’s sleepover. There was a lot of pizza (from Dominos), and chips. And Rainbow cake. We get this cake every year from our local deli/diner, which in turn get them from David’s Cookies. I ate leftovers from the fridge.

Sunday: Fend for yourself. I’m pretty sure the kids ate leftover movie popcorn and injera for dinner.

Hope you have a healthy week!

What are your go to comforts and cures when you’re sick? Who makes your face light up? Whose face do you make light up?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Another Sick Week

It’s the end of March and we are a little college basketball obsessed in our house right now. I usually like watching basketball with the family, but don’t really have druthers on who wins. Well, this year, my alma mater is a major underdog and had made the Sweet 16 in the Men’s Tournament so, yeah, I’m feeling a little invested, though I know that the odds are not in their favor and likely this week’s game will be their last. It’s been so nail biting and exciting to watch them play. I’m not an basketball expert, and perhaps very biased, but I think they play with a lot of heart and grit and smarts. Sadly, the Husband’s alma mater did not make it to the Sweet 16, so he’s a little disappointed. He had said that if his school made it to the Sweet 16 we were going to get t-shirts. Well I ordered Sweet 16 t-shirts, but they have my school on them, not his. Ha ha.

Also – I will say, I think it’s awesome that the Husband puts on the women’s games as well. I like that the 11 year old gets to see women play and knows that it’s a women’s sport too. Speaking of which, I was listening to this episode of 99% Invisible the other day, about 6 on 6 Women’s basketball, and it was a fascinating. 6 on 6 basketball was primarily a women’s sport and this episode looks at issues of feminism and equity through the lens of this women only sport that is not really played these days.

Last week felt like a lot of lost time. On Monday, I sat down to work on the slides for my next supertitle gig, only to find….

Someone had ripped the power button off my pencil. I’m pretty sure the someone was a child. I was soooo angry. I keep all my scores for the titles gigs electronically, and the pencil was the easiest way to mark slide placements. I finally found the focus to sit down and spend a morning on this project and… foiled! AAARRRRRGGHGHGH! Anyhow, I took myself to Best Buy to get another tablet pencil, and I almost rage-bought the very expensive Apple version. But I refrained and bought the more economical, yet highly rated by Wire-cutter version by Zagg.

On Tuesday, I had to pick up the baby early from daycare for an appointment, only to find that the school had called to tell me to come get her since she had thrown up at snack time. I took her to her appointment (every so often I sign her up to participate in studies at the University’s Language Learning Center – it’s kind of granular and fascinating the work they do, all about when children learn to distinguish certain parts of speech.) She was fine the rest of the day and up to her usual hijinx, so I sent her to school the next morning, having neglected to read and/or retain the school’s policy that a child is not allowed back at school until at least 24 hours after no symptoms. So I soon got a call to come pick her up because she was not allowed back at school until 3pm that day. Wump wump. After I did the school bus run, I went and picked her up, feeling a little embarrassed about the whole thing. There were tears when I arrived to take her home. For someone who every morning complains about having to go to school, she was pretty distraught at having to leave. I had been planning on going into the office, and instead had to take my meetings from home with a child in my lap…

Well, she also threw up the next day, so another at home day. But not literally an at home day. She was clearly unable to go to school, but not sick enough to stay in bed. So we had lunch with the Husband, ran errands (emissions test done! Target run!) and went to a park. And then on Friday, the 6 year old threw up in the morning and then the baby threw up on her way to school, so they both stayed home. Any plans I had to do some deep work were scuttled and instead I did some house chores since that was doable with two kids hanging out. I turned over the kids’ clothes and tried not to get too weepily sentimental about packing away the 3T clothes for the last time. The kids, mean while, lazed around together:

Mystery of the Week: Where are all the size 6 clothes? I’m pretty sure that the now eleven year old wore clothes when she was six years old, but I have no idea where those clothes are. Granted, there were probably very few gender neutral / boy leaning clothes in there, but I’m sure there was one or two things that I could pull for the six year old to wear this summer. I feel like I spend so much time organizing and packing the clothes for future use, yet when it comes to actually finding them and putting them into rotation, I can’t find anything. I clearly need a better system.

Other Fun thing this week:

The 11 year old’s class had their egg drop project this week. Parents were invited to watch, so I headed over. I didn’t have a lot to do with her egg drop project though I did suggest that she use marshmallows instead of cotton balls to cushion the fall. I was actually really impressed by the final product – she had rigged a parachute out of a garbage bag, with straws taped together to form a frame. It occurred to me that this was the kind of project that one could easily google a solution to, but perhaps the 11 year old doesn’t quite realize the power of google yet. Which is absolutely an okay thing.

I had a meet up with some moms from my mom’s group. It’s always nice to get together. We went to a brewery, but it turns out it was trivia night and it was super crowded and getting food proved difficult, so we ended up going to the restaurant next door. We had some tasty food, lots of good conversation and we talked until we were the last ones at the restaurant. It was pretty clearly past closing time and I kept expecting someone to ask us to leave, but they let us stay til we were done. It was great to have a night out.

Watching: This past weekend we introduced the kids to The Simpsons. When I was growing up, the Simpsons went from being this part of the Tracy Ullman show to having it’s own full half hour tv slot and I remember what a big deal it was. It has held up pretty well, even after 30+ years. Anyhow, the 11 year old thinks it’s hilarious, so I think we may be watching more. Perhaps the Simpsons will unseat Golden Girls as our evening episode of tv?

This thing that the Husband found on the side of the road and brought home. it seems like a fun toy…

The baby discovering that the sequins on her hoodie reflect light. “I can make sparkles!” she exclaimed with delight.

Grateful For:
– The 11 year old. Friday night I had a show, so I was gone. This of course was the day that the Husband started feeling ill, so he took to bed. The 11 year old made her younger siblings tortellini and red sauce for dinner and then put them to bed. I’m so grateful that she stepped up even as I feel guilty for putting such a burden on her. Speaking of which- this bit of humor, “Co-Parenting with Your Parent: A Guide for Older Siblings” hit a little too close to home.
– Having a well stocked pantry so that even those weeks when I don’t meal plan, I can throw together some pretty tasty meals.
– The Husband getting up at 5am to deal with the vomiting child.

Looking forward to:
– Another super title gig. This one is a vocal recital of songs all by Black composers with poetry by Black poets.
– More evenings at home. I’ve been working a lot of nights these past few weeks and as much as the hours between school pick up and lights out are kind of a time of chaos, I’d like to be here for it.
– Cherry blossoms! We are on the brink of peak bloom!!

What We Ate:

Monday: Black Bean Soup in Instant Pot – made before I wen to work. This seems to be one of my go-to “Make dinner in the morning” meals where I always have the ingredients in the pantry.

Tuesday: Red Lentils (from The Weekday Vegetarians), and Aloo Gobi from Indian-ish by Priya Krishna. Eaten with raita and store bought naan. I had cauliflower and potatoes to use up. I haven’t cooked a lot from this cookbook yet, but it looks fantastic. There is one section that has a chart breaking down on how to make “Indian-ish” food with what you have on hand. Everything in this cookbook seems pretty doable. Vegan. Though we did have apple pie for dessert in honor of “Pi Day”, March 14th.

Wednesday: I had mussels and fried Brussel sprouts while out with some moms from my mom’s group. The Husband made egg sandwiches for everyone else back home.

Thursday: Roast Salmon and sauteed garlic green beans. This meal felt like quite an achievement because I had forgotten to pull out the salmon the night before, so it was still mostly frozen at 5pm. I discovered, though, that salmon actually roasts pretty well from frozen and I had dinner on the table in less than 45 minutes.

Friday: The 11 year old made the little kids tortellini and red sauce. I brought leftover soup and lentils for lunch.

Saturday: Pizza and movie night. We watched the 1997 version of Cinderella with Brandy and Whitney Houston. I had never seen it before, though I certainly remember when it came out and how groundbreaking it was with it’s diverse casting. It was cute and charming.

Sunday: Leftover pizza for the Husband and kids while I worked. When I came home, I made some quick kimchi and egg fried rice for myself.