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.
Ugh. I am so sorry you’ve had so much sickness. It has been such a rough stretch for so many people. Colds and flu bugs seem to be absolutely everywhere.
Those in-between days are the hardest; when the kids aren’t sick enough to just want to snuggle in at home but they also aren’t well enough for school or outside activities!
I have definitely had my 11-year-old throw together a supper of toast or cereal for she/her younger brother when my husband is traveling and I’m under the weather. She seems to love the responsibility!
I think it was just the stomach flu, which I guess is better than it being COVID or Hand, Foot, Mouth? The baby wasn’t allowed back to school without a doctor’s note, so that was tedious because it meant one more day off for her since I could only get an afternoon appointment. But they are all well and back in school this week – thank goodness!
So much sickness! I am so glad I do not have young children because I haven’t been sick in years and the thought of little kid germs makes me kind of queasy! (Also? If I throw up, I’m basically a rock for the next twelve hours. You’d never catch me grinning for a camera while I cuddle on the couch. I’d be all “woe is me! I’m going to die right here on the couch.” The way kids bounce back is amazing.)
I hope all is better now and the kids are back to their regular selves.
They were definitely very energetic for being sick.
It’s funny, when we just had one kid, she never got sick, but once there was more than one kid, it seems to always be something.
Ugh, more sick days! It sounds like everyone just threw up once (or twice?) instead of continually, so at least that’s good. I’m impressed with your older daughter’s cooking skills! My daughter is 14 and she’s only recently started doing some cooking for herself (not sure if she would also do it for younger siblings.). That Indian-ish cookbook sounds really good. I love Indian food but rarely make it- I’m not sure why. Maybe this will be the week where I finally make something like Aloo-Gobi.
I know I’m a little late commenting- I hope this past week went a little more smoothly for you!