Darais Days

When I came home I read a book to Clarissa, who spent the next four hours playing continually with magna tiles, Lincoln Logs, and Legos. She had a very elaborate city and game going!

I then dropped off Mary for her last day volunteering at VBS and then I went over to Ridge Road to swim. I swam very gently because of my back and hip flexor issues, and I was a little shocked at how dirty the pool is this year. But it was still peaceful and fun, and I always love being there. After I showered, got ready, and then it was time to pick Mary up. Ammon slept in and lounged almost until noon.

Mary and the kids helped me extensively clean out the car and begin putting away things from the garage, after which Mary and I sweat it out cleaning the car at the car wash. It was a HOT day, but we powered through. The car looks amazing (compared to its previous deteriorated condition) and she is feeling better about hosting girls in the car on the way to Girl’s Camp this Tuesday. She is very excited about this week and has been saying it will be the greatest week of the year. We picked up some things at Whole Foods on the way home.

When we came home, I practiced with Clarissa for an hour and watched a tutorial with the girls on how to make a lemon meringue pie. I realized it was too advanced for them to do independently so Mary made brownies while I took Clarissa to swim. Clarissa did AMAZING at swim! Just a few months ago she was struggling so much, and today her form was so amazing on the butterfly that the instructor had all of the kids watch her do a 50 and then clap after. She did incredible. She also won all of her mini little races. She has some bug bites on her face that reacted with her goggles, so the coach pulled her and suggested she go home a bit early because her face was really swelling.

We came home, I fed the kids meat loaf, and then the locksmith I really liked broke my heart by totally overcharging me to fix a minor problem with the garage lock. I told the kids after he left that they are never to strip the lock and I think they seemed to internalize that. He charged me $235 for 5 minutes of labor. It was crazy.

And now I am on the bed next to Abe, who is going to work a 16 hour day most likely. He is typing away while I blog. Maybe the kids and I will watch something together, but it is getting late and they sound very happily engaged. Also, Lydia comes home tomorrow! Hooray!!

P.S. The kids and I finished the day by watching the Sheep Murder Mystery, which was shockingly good. I loved all of the Christian symbolism, and it was SO cozy with the kids. I want to watch a movie cuddled up with them every day! It is so fun! Abe didn’t join us because he was busy creating some sort of financial engine from scratch with AI. By the end he was so excited at what he had just created. He is thrilled and was so excited to tell me about it. I was less than enthused because the first thing I saw was the screen that documented how much I spent last week. It was appalling. Abe tried to comfort me that a lot of that was Seagrove and that he had wanted that, but it was still crazy. This week I swear I will be so frugal.

On Thursday Today Abe and I started the day at the sauna, which was amazing.

After I had the most leisurely experience cooking moussaka, which I have wanted to make for years. It was so satisfying to cook and I loved it. The kids didn’t love the topping, and Abe didn’t either. I loved it enough for all of us. I also practiced with Clarissa, took Mary to and from art, and went swimming in the morning. It was a really delightful day.

Possibly the best part was that we all crawled into my bed and watched I Love Filipino together until we fell asleep at the end of the day. Ammon massaged my hand with the magnesium bar Clarissa and I picked up at Lush, and everyone was so warm and cozy. Abe even joined for the first part. It was so wonderful.

On Wednesday the carpet cleaners came and I also went swimming in the morning.

Then we loaded the car and picked up Aparna and Aarna on our way to Jordan Lake. Aparna and I set up chairs and the kids played for a couple hours. They discovered that the lake bottom is actually genuine clay, so by the end they were all busily sculpting their sculptures.

After that we hurried home, dropped the kids at math, and I took Ammon and Clarissa to the Titans since I didn’t have time to drop Ammon at home. He and I picked up Chick Fil A for Clarissa and then picked up Clarissa before heading home. Mary went to swim team with Marina in our absence. I can’t remember what happened that evening, but it possibly involved a lot of reading? At least I hope I read a lot to the kids. We have been on a roll.

Abe was also feeling much better health wise today. Hooray!!!!

On Tuesday I went to the sauna for the first time and had an amazing experience. I scheduled another one for Thursday so Abe could experience its wonders. After I went to Trader Joe’s, bought some food, and went swimming. I am pretty sure I practiced the harp with Clarissa after that.

In the evening I had my first Deep Stretch class while Ammon had musical theater. I thought it would be a like a slow gentle yoga class. It was not that at all. It was very fast, and by the end I am pretty sure my hip flexor was re-aggravated. But it was nice dancing with April, Shia’s mom. And I did feel happy to be exercising in a class. I need more classes in my life. They are so healthy in all the ways. And it was fun to get a taste of what Ammon experiences every day!

On Sunday we all went to Seagrove, which was such a delight as always. We stopped at the Seagrove cafe for lunch, which we love. Then we went to Blue Hen Pottery where Anne had made 20 plates! We chose 13 with the kids’ help, and we LOOOOOOOVE them. We have been using them nonstop ever since. You know how they say experiences, not things, make us happy? Well, I beg to differ. Certain things retain their happiness-injecting power, and beautiful pottery does just that. We then went to From the Ground Up, where we bought a mug and two pitchers to replace the one pitcher that disappeared. We are sad to think that our last vase got stolen, and we can’t imagine who would have done that. But it seems to have happened. Abe got a mini mug to remember the last vase, and the two new pitchers we got are from a collection that matches a chalice Clarissa picked out. It is a collection Michael made for the first female priest in South Africa for her ordination to the priesthood. The glaze is gorgeous, and Clarissa’s chalice even has a little hidden bird on it. I didn’t realize how happy the slender pitcher would make me, but it brightens my mood every time I look at it.

We then drove out to Jug Town but everything was closed, so we headed back and stopped at a potter that we had not seen before. He uses clay from his back yard to make Japanese tea kettles, and he recommended we check out another potter who was open just down the road. That potter was the jackpot. Not only did she have three amazing flour, sugar, and sundry jars that we picked up (alongside another mug), but she had a little kitten that the kids went wild for. They played and played with her baby kitten. It stuck out its nose and nose bopped each kid. So adorable.

On that high note we went home. Up until the kitten some of the kids were on the verge of pottery burnout, but the kitten was a very high note. We came home, admired our pottery, played Wingspan, and went to bed so happy.

Well, I am in the worst shape of my life. I think all of the GLP1’s aged me like crazy because I lost so much muscle and now have so much fat. I also seem to have arthritis in my hands. And I have a hip flexor strain, a back injury, and even though just a few weeks ago I was running 5ks, right now it seems like I will never run again. It is very discouraging.

But my birthday itself was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I had a leisurely morning, then I got a much needed haircut and a Brazilian (I never will do that again because now they have stopped doing the second half and just leave the formaldehyde in your hair for 48 hours), and then Abe took me to Jolie for my birthday dinner. It was the BEST!!! Maybe my favorite restaurant in Raleigh. It certainly has the best patio, especially after they rolled up the shades as the sun went down. Afterward we walked around Oakwood for an hour, came home, played Wingspan, and went to bed. Oh, and Christina and Dan gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my birthday, and I was so touched. Dan handed them to me as Abe and I were driving to Jolie, so the waitress set them on the table all during dinner. They looked and smelled amazing.

I really don’t know what the kids did today. I know Mary had art. I think Ammon worked on his slideshow. But I am not sure what he and Clarissa were up to beyond that. Had I written this blog the day of, I could have told you. But I am writing it on June 27, and apparently I am old. Seven days is far too long for me to remember! Ahhhh!! Oh–I do remember Abe took a long nap. He was sick this day, and he was battling that.

On Friday I got a pedicure and cleaned the house, and then I went to get Neomonde’s. Then Dan, Christina and Trent Morganti, our neighbors on Lubbock, came over for dinner. They were so delightful and I was deeply inspired by their stories. At one point Christina broke her arm, climbed all the way down the mountain with her arm almost severed, and proceeded to advocate for herself and run a marathon shortly after. I was reading in my novel about Vermont where one of the characters breaks an arm the next day and thought, “I don’t think this character is going to run a marathon like Christina anytime soon!”.

We really enjoyed our neighbors and feel so blessed to have them as neighbors. Ammon and Trent explored the backyard, played Aikido’s, and watched Sing. Trent is 2 but so tall he looks 4. He also behaves very maturely, so I kept thinking he was much older than he actually was. I got a great suggestion about a dentist from the Morgantis,so I am going to make that appointment soon. I think we are all overdue for the dentist, and apparently there is one within walking distance of the house!

On Wednesday we tried to get Clarissa’s hair cut for the umpteenth time. The lady never showed up. Honestly, I was kind of relieved she didn’t show up because I wasn’t encouraged she would do a good job if she couldn’t make it to work within an hour of the posted start time. But Clarissa was sad–we had told her after Ammon’s haircut at that same salon at the mall went so well we would make sure she got the same experience. Sigh. We might have to try in Seattle at this point! picked up Aparna and Aarna and went to Jordan Lake.

On the way to Aparna’s I attempted to play Spanish in the car for the kids, at which point Mary started quarreling with me. We did not start out the play date very happy since I did not control my temper upon being provoked. But the day got better. The kids really enjoyed the lake, and even though we didn’t have time to hike, they had a great time playing in the water and we resolved to come again with more time.

The kids had math and then swim team in the evening. I don’t remember much beyond that!

On Monday Clarissa had her first harp lesson with Ms. Byrne. She did so well. After I took her across to the playground to work on her sight reading while Lydia had her lesson, but Lydia’s lesson ended early because Ms. Byrne got hacked so had to take care of that and we ended up leaving shortly after so she could alert her network about that. Lydia’s email was part of the hack, and note to self, I need to figure out if there is anything else we should do about that.

The day’s schedule included Mathnasium and Titans. Not sure what else happened.