Darais Days

On Tuesday Abe drove Mary to Ligon because now that he works from home he just doesn’t leave the house as much as he’s used to. So after his bike and shower he took her while I walked Ammon, Clarissa and Basil to the bus. The extra time I saved from not driving I used to tidy all of the rooms before 7!

The kids were cute as always. Ammon was wearing his new Janie and Jack vest and Clarissa was “all blue” stripes.

After I took Basil on a short walk, did some laundry, drove the car to the car wash and vacuumed it, and then I did weights with Carey. After weights I came home, ate lunch, walked with Abe, wrapped a present for Selby, and picked up Mary and Clarissa early from school so they could rock climb. After I picked up Mary I also dropped the present off.

Mary and Clarissa LOVED rock climbing. I feel bad that I haven’t been having them do this regularly for years. Why didn’t I make Lydia keep it up too? She was so good at it. Clarissa seemed almost high from the experience. She was scared but in the same way that she gets scared at roller coasters. I think she was releasing tons of dopamine because she kept wanting to try again and again and spent the rest of the day exclaiming how amazing rock climbing was. Technically she wasn’t supposed to rock climb because she is nine, but she passed all of the tests and by the time the employee figured out she wasn’t 12 she had passed the tests. We were the only ones there so he let it slip. I emailed whoever’s in charge to try to figure out how to make this happen regularly in the future.

After rock climbing we zipped home so I could pick up Ammon and drop him at dance, and straight from there went to Clarissa’s harp lesson. After her lesson we picked up Ammon, came home, ate dinner, and then Abe rushed to eat something before dashing off to Scouts with Ammon. While he was at scouts I cleaned the kitchen and then read to Clarissa.

Lydia had a great day in Germany today. She gave a presentation on the measles in German and her class clapped for her because it was the first time many of them had heard her speak German. Lydia was a little confused because she has been there for two months and knows that kids knock the table instead of clap, but maybe they made an American style switch and clapped. The teacher said she had a nice accent. Marcus told her he could understand her but that her accent was very heavy. She got one statistic wrong, but she was given all of the information from the group and had fixed the statistic mentally in her head so when the question arose she was able to immediately correct it.

After that Abe and I took a walk, he gave me a massage, and we went to bed. We have been going to bed early and it feels amazing.

On Monday I intended to mail Lydia’s packages and clean the car, neither of which happened. I did, however, cook bacon and eggs and make toast for the kids, clean the kitchen, do laundry, tidy the house, vacuum, write letters, and go to the store to finish buying the last things for Lydia.

Then I picked up Mary and drove to USPS where I learned that it would cost $692 to send my package to Lydia. I went back home and started trying to figure out how to ship it with a label I print at home for a fraction of that. I never finished because I had to take Ammon to dance, practice the harp with Clarissa, and then take Clarissa to swim.

After swim I tried to make sure kids had actually eaten dinner and then tucked in Clarissa and read her a few books. Abe and I were in bed by 9pm, at which point we watched some John Oliver. I don’t really think he’s that funny anymore and fell right asleep. Abe switched to some show where a bunch of people have kinetic (?) powers all over the world. The number 7 is in the title.

On Thursday I got up early to cook breakfast because the kids had NC check ins. I made oatmeal with chopped apples, onion and lentil egg bites, and sausages.

I also finally, finally completely caught up with my house! I listened to East of Eden while I cleaned because there was only so much of the NYT’s masturbatory coverage of the election that I could stand to listen to. The NYT, the Bulwak, and NPR are all having orgasms because Trumpism is over. At times I almost felt embarrassed to listen to them. The crowing and gloating was as gross to me as Trump’s posts, only less funny. If the democrats are actually committed to good governance then this is indeed a win, and I’ll be happy to watch it play out in real time. But I chose the very dark novel because I couldn’t stand the gloating for two seconds more.

Every room is organized and clean. I spent hours on the final two rooms–Ammon’s and the library. I also did a couple loads of laundry. In the middle of the day I was sweating because I switched the mode of the house from air conditioning to heat, and the temperature outside has risen in the meantime.

Abe and I took a quick walk in the afternoon before I went to pick up the kids because we were both exhausted. Abe consulted AI and asked if a nap or a walk would help more, and walk it was. The autumn colors are at their peak. We have one crepe myrtle where the leaves look like they are glowing the most beautiful golden orange and rosy peach colors. I studied and and concluded that tree, the one by the driveway, gets the most light. The other four crepe myrtles have to make do with less light, and their leaves are such a different color you would think they are different species. The tree that got the most light is literally glowing as it turns, and while the other trees have pretty leaves, there is no glow.

After I picked up Mary I took her to Boulted for a loaf of kids bread and to the Farmer’s Market for a bouquet of flowers. I had some lilies that lasted over a week but were drooping, and the bouquet we picked was just beautiful.

After we got home I took Clarissa to math, bought some dog food for Basil at Unleashed, and then it was time to head to weights. Mary, Abe and I all went together. Abe and I were absolutely exhausted when we were done. Mary said it looked like we were suffering and she was very glad she wasn’t us.

Then we came home and I found Clarissa sobbing into her pillow because she missed Lydia so much. She is lonely and it isn’t fun for her without Lydia. I offered to play the matching game with her, which she accepted. I genuinely enjoyed it so much (we did the bird version). Then Abe cuddled her and offered to play the pizza game with her. The three of us played. I ended early because I had so much sweat on my boobs they were getting cold and I wanted to shower. But when I got upstairs Mary was already in bed, so I went in to give her a hug. Ammon was still watching TV, so I made him turn that off and quizzed him on his spelling words while I gave him a foot massage. After that I showered and fell asleep before 10pm, which felt amazing.

On Wednesday I made yogurt parfaits with ancient grain granola and bananas for breakfast, which everyone seemed to like. I wonder why I didn’t make more breakfasts all these years.

Then I took Mary to school and Abe walked the little kids to the bus. After I came home I went on a long walk with Basil, after which I thoroughly cleaned the house. I cleaned Mary’s room especially much and was so happy with how it turned out.

After I picked up Mary I also picked up the boys, and then I brought them home to change before rehearsal. I had forgotten to order Ammon a costume so he cried. I felt frustrated and took it out on him, and we were already running late. Once I told him they might be able to take care of his costume there he stopped panicking and got on his black dance clothes. I didn’t realize it was a long rehearsal so I stayed three hours instead of two. Most of the time I was just browsing wallpaper, which made me feel frivolous and vapid and purposeless. But it is fun.

In the meantime Abe took Clarissa to swim. She talked to him the whole time. He also picked up Taco Bamba for dinner. Ammon was a little sulky when he found out it was Taco Bamba because we had it last week, and that recent of a repetition felt like a hardship to him.

By the time the boys were done it was past 7. I dropped off Ian, brought Ammon home, and then read Clarissa Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and some book about the boy who deciphered the Rosetta Stone. She loved the first and fell asleep to the second.

Abe and I walked with our weighted vests for an hour in the evening. Abe has been researching glycogen and was very excited to share everything he had learned. We did the Ranlo Lubbock loop over and over until we finally saw Sy (not sure the spelling) and Ace, whom we chatted with for about twenty minutes. We think they are the best prepared house in the neighborhood for a break in because Ace is a German Shepherd that comes from a long line of active police dogs. He does not miss a beat and is HUGE.

After that I showered and went to bed early. It was such a pleasant way to end the day.

On Sunday we went to church, and after church I made chili and set the house up for our Wingspan game with the Moraleses. After that was set up we met up with Danny and Kimberly’s family at the Mordecai house and walked Oakwood from 3-5 admiring all of the decorations. We chatted with some very passionate homeowners (and contest winners!) and stumbled upon the Oakwood band practice, which was adorable.

Then we came home and played Wingspan with Eric and Whitney while the kids all played upstairs. They had had such a big weekend that by the end of the game Clarissa was already asleep, Ammon was falling asleep and Ian was also tired.

I wish I had pictures of this day. It was a beautiful, beautiful fall day in Raleigh.