Worst Mother's Day Ever

From our birthday trip to Chicago right before the lockdown

I had to self isolate from the kids all day and monitor my temperature.

It has been 36 hours since I hugged anyone and this sucks.

"something else"

This is Nu's new friend Fredd. Fredd looks horrified and cannot move. Me too.

I haven't left the couch, much less the house today. I'm feeling a bit under the weather (headache, sniffles, fatigue) and a bit worried about how this will change the pattern of our already somewhat fractured homelife if it develops into something else.

Notes from the Outside

Quick walk to Sparty today, and L and I marveled that this postcard pretty was our reality. (Ours to look at anyway.) Someday (maybe this summer) I'll use this for garden inspiration.

It was very fragrant when Big A and I were outside this afternoon. At Beal, there was a gentle shower of cool, white... something. We wondered if the nubs were flowers, but it was snow.

Here's Floofy

A floppy puppy floofing on the floor? Fun to say! But no.

It's just the pile of doodle fur I trimmed off this afternoon. 

The puppies are lighter and smell better, although it was tiring and took way longer than I expected. Huck looks polished enough for a job interview; Scout looks a bit scarily dino-headed because I trimmed too much off his face.

Also, after months of requests, At shaved his beard off yesterday and took us all by surprise. The last time we saw him beardless was in his high school senior pictures. Without his beard and his hair at mid-length, he looked a bit awkward (cough Lord Farquaard cough). I gave him a trim too.

Yes, please!

In other art news, this uncharacteristically "earnest" superhero nurse painting by Banksy and Indian folk artists using gods as characters to message social distancing and hygiene.

I found my heart in the woods today

There're unmistakable signs of greening everywhere and although in a group (L & T & R), social distancing and Michigan's winter #7 of 2020 allowed me to stay with my thoughts, thinking through things, work-in-progress/work-at-standstill, recipes, and how in ten days Big A would be on a plane for NYC.

This graffito of a heart did bring me a smile, but much as I appreciate street art, I wish people wouldn't paint on trees.

shadow / reflection

Back to afternoon walks with Big A after a few days off... It had been rainy/he worked three in a row/one or both of us didn't sleep well/some other excuse.

I'm burying the lede a bit here, but Big A's scheduled to report to NYC for a couple of
weeks--although their cases are down, their regular docs will need a break. He volunteered about a month ago, and his schedule has just been formalized.

He offered to "just stay the heck alive" because it made him sad to imagine me falling apart. Reader, I plan to take him up on this generous offer.