Full Fam

I felt nearly 100% today, and I had no fever at any point in the last three days, so we've decided that I'm safe to be around the kids. A lot of this sounds arbitrary, panicky, impulsive--and it is all of those things. In the absence of an accessible test, I don't know what more I can expect of myself.

Something I realized while I was confined to the bedroom this weekend is how lucky we are to be able to quarantine Big A comfortably with his own bed, bath, workspace, and mini kitchen setup so he's not too cramped and can grab drinks and snacks when he feels like it. An extra aspect of weekend sickness-suckiness for me was having to ask for things to be brought to me and that felt like a lot to ask the two human kids who had to deal with their own schoolwork, meals, and pandemic issues. I love how cute and funny they were quasi-faking toddler-level neediness by showing up and piteously asking "cuddle?" now and then.

Anyway--it's still cold and drizzly, but here's a picture of all my loves, reasonably distanced. (Bonus: both cherry trees are close to full blossom above them.) Their kind expressions make it clear they're humoring me because I wanted a picture of everyone before we sent Big A off to NYC on Thursday.

NYC. On Thursday. 

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.