I am posting a little later than usual because the evening was a little different than usual — but that’s not a bad thing!
After posting last night, I gave the toddler a bath and put him to bed by 8:30. I then spent half an hour opening boxes to find the 12-year-old’s clothes since I found out he had quite possibly been wearing the same clothes for a while. I came down to find the kitchen was still a mess, which put me in a foul mood. My husband was out buying rings for a shower curtain so another child could shower and the kids were all on electronics and had not put things away.
So after getting the 6-year-old showered and in his room with a book I stomped off to my office and shut the door and read a magazine for a while with a craft beer and the fireplace turned on and it was great. Just what I needed. After 45 minutes of this I had calmed down. I turned people’s lights off at 10, showered, and was getting into bed around 10:32, so right at bedtime.
I then proceeded to wake up at 11:30 for the bathroom — darn craft beer. You can’t win at age 43.
Anyway, up at 6:30 again with the alarm (actually I woke at 6:20 and lay there for 10 minutes). We repeated the same morning more or less as the past three mornings except my husband had to be stationary for something right at 8, so B came 15 minutes early and I drove the 12-year-old to school. Our timing was a bit off and I had to scrape ice off the van so we were about the last ones in the carline. I didn’t get a absence/tardy call, though, so he seems to have made it (even with the alto sax again!)
I read a synopsis and commentary on Henry VI Part 2 in advance of reading it over the next few days. Then I dug into work, feeling quite focused, from 8:30-10:30 a.m.
Then I got ready and drove over to the elementary school to pick up the 10-year-old and 6-year-old. They had doctor’s appointments today. There will be three shifts of these over the next few weeks, and this was the first one (the toddler is next week and the big boys after that). It took about ten minutes to find them since my daughter’s class was somewhere in transit. We got to the doctor’s office at 11:10 and checked in for their 11:15/11:30 appointments.
All went reasonably well and the pediatrician’s office is mercifully good at efficiency. For instance, we had the 10-year-old get her HPV vaccine shot first, since you’re supposed to hang out for 15 minutes afterwards. Normally shots would be at the end, but getting it done first meant we didn’t have to wait around. Everyone is good and no one destroyed anything in the office so that’s a win.
I brought them back to school at 12, then came home, ate lunch, chatted with the toddler who was also eating, and then got back to work at 12:45. I worked on book edits until 2:00, when I got my running clothes on, and went for a slightly longer run around the new neighborhood (2.8 miles). I came home, changed, answered emails, and worked from 2:45-3:30, when I met the 12-year-old halfway up the hill to help with the alto sax again.
He was interested in chatting so I more or less hung out with him until 4:00 when the elementary kids descended with the usual fury. The 6-year-old had been working hard to manage impulsivity all day and was just done. There was yelling and running around so I wound up taking him and we cuddled for a bit in his bed to calm him down. This took until 4:30.
At that point my alarm went off because I had decided to watch the sunset. My bedroom in the new house has a little balcony which faces west and overlooks the woods. It looks like a wonderful place to relax, except there hasn’t been a huge amount of relaxing time since the move. So today was going to be the day. I took my computer up there and worked on a little stool (I don’t have balcony furniture…) for 30 minutes until I needed to go downstairs to wait for the wallpaper guy.
We had a bit of a disaster with the dining room wallpaper. I chose a lovely (and not cheap) wallpaper for the dining room and it was looking amazing. The house had been at 25 percent humidity, which is too low, and so we had moved it up to 35 percent over the weekend — which is where it was supposed to be. However, in an old house with all new HVAC systems something went wrong, and the dining room collected an amazing amount of condensation in a short period of time, which resulted in the wall paper falling off one of the walls. The paper hanger told me he had only seen this happen three times in 25 years. I guess I am special. Unfortunately, the verdict is the paper that peeled off can’t be saved so we’ll need a new roll and to redo one wall.
My husband had gone to get the dog from doggie daycare. When he came back we took off for a Thursday night date night. Normally Thursday is choir night, which is why we have evening childcare. This is something of a holdover from when my husband was traveling more frequently so we wouldn’t fight about whether he was home in time. But the choir hasn’t been meeting for rehearsals the past few weeks due to elevated Covid levels. (A reduced number of us are still singing in services). So my husband and I went to our favorite Mexican place (which was not crowded so we could sit far from everyone else) for margaritas and guacamole, among other things. It was nice to get away for a bit. It was quick — 6:15-7:00 or so, and then we drove by the old house to get the mail.
Back at the “new” house I helped the 12-year-old put sheets on his new mattress (which finally arrived), and then I put the baby to bed. I tend to scroll around on Twitter while this is going on. I’m sure I could be doing something more enlightening but I am not. I came downstairs to type this while he was still fussing but he seems to be quiet now.
Looking back on the past 24 hours some highlights were the hour of reading by the fire last night, going for another run, sitting on the balcony for the sunset, and then of course the margarita. Not bad for a Thursday (and the end of Wednesday)! The wallpaper issue is a pain and tomorrow will be disjointed with the kids having a half day and lots of workmen over here. But I guess you win some you lose some.
The wallpaper situation would leave me in tears. We are going through renovations and I absolutely dread everything about the experience. I feel guilty about this because I know it is a privilege to be able to do these sorts of things (while things are aesthetically improving, most of these upgrades are necessary as our house is almost 60 years old and we’re replacing structural issues like rotten wood + upgrading windows and ventilations etc) – but it leaves me stressed and anxious almost 24/7. I cannot wait until most things are done, hopefully by the end of this summer.
Another busy day for you. Glad you fit in a short date + watched the sunset and were able to unwind a bit by the fire. Coming back to a messy kitchen is one of my least favourite experiences. I would, as my father calls it, have had “smoke coming out of both ears.”
We’re removing wallpaper at the moment and what a bear….it’s just a small dining room but the previous owners put up very expensive, very hideous feature wall that 1 year in, I cannot live with. The other walls have painted over wallpaper, which is ridiculous to remove. We’ve booked in someone to come and skim coat the plaster and then we’ll paint ourselves.
@CB – it makes a big difference – having paint and wall paper you’ve chosen just makes the whole house feel better. And yes, in my house hunting I found that many people have interesting taste!