Darais Days

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.

In the morning Abe and Ammon left on a campout with the scouts, and Ammon was wearing the cargo pants Abe bought him yesterday and his new coat that just arrived. He took a ton of action figures with him and I hope he doesn’t lose them!

Mary had an art lesson in the morning and then scootered to Harris Teeter with Lana and Marina and then went to Sara Layton’s afterward. Clarissa and I decided to walk to Harris Teeter’s so we ran into the girl on their way back. Clarissa talked to me for hours straight. She talked to me about her dreams, things that she has watched, and also played a lot of “would you rather?” with me.

When we got to Harris Teeter she examined the chocolates and finally settled on a milk chocolate Ritter Sport because it had fewer ingredients and seemingly a better nutritional profile (there was protein) than, for example, M&M’s. It was a perfect autumn day and we had a great time walking and chatting back home. When we reached Huckabay she wanted to cut through Stuart’s house, but I wanted to take the sidewalk. I proposed we split up and meet at home. She said it would be a race and took off running.

I walked home but didn’t see her. Instead I saw Ann, my neighbor, and I chatted with her for a long time. I figured Clarissa had already beat me home but at the end of about thirty minutes she appeared. Apparently she had seen a strange man in Stuart’s yard so she didn’t cut and instead tried to come home on the sidewalk, but she overshot and ran all the way to Glenwood! At that point she started crying and turned around. She was afraid to ask strangers for help but figured the two women walking their babies were probably as safe as possible. She asked them where Lubbock was and they helped her find it. Honestly, I think she overshot again because when I saw her she was coming from the side of Lubbock close to Ridge.

I felt so bad for her! But she had a quick turnaround becuase Lola invited her to play, and so she spent the next hour and a half at Lola’s playing in Lola’s electric car and racing her on the scooter. She was in great spirits after that. I took her home, fed her and Mary some Taco Bamba, and then tidied and did laundry while they watched some show on TV. Currently they are playing together in Mary’s room and there is a lot of giggling.

I set up Mr. Bones arranging flowers. I actually panicked and drove back to Harris Teeter’s to pick up a pumpkin for him to carve, but then I thought it might be better if he carved them when we actually carve them. So he is arranging flowers. My other thought was to have him toilet paper the tree by the mailbox, but I like the flowers a lot. Maybe tomorrow he will cut coupons.

On Friday Lindsay and I took a walk around 9. Afterward I cleaned the kitchen while chatting with Lydia, who explained the plot of Carrie to me in great detail. She started this explanation yesterday but ran out of time, so finished this morning. I am glad she told me because now I feel like I can see Carrie references everywhere in popular culture.

Abe and I were still tired, but we went to weights around 11am. Afterward we went to Bottiwalla for lunch, and I picked up a latte at the food truck near the restaurant on my way out. Then we went to the Green Front to look at rugs and furniture. I had read about it in Sir Walter Raleigh magazine, the home issue. It was only five minutes from the Iron Works and we had the most fun looking at all the rugs. We kept staring at two distressed oriental (maybe called vintage?) in very differnet color schemes, but both beautiful and glowy. I didn’t like how rough the rugs felt, though. After I researched and realized maybe the wool quality wasn’t great.

After looking at rugs we drove to Meltwell, where we did the sauna. Abe actually slept in the sauna he was so tired. After that we hit Trader Joe’s to get some last minute things for Mary’s book club, and then we picked up Mary from art club. We drove home and chatted with Lydia on the way. and she hosted book club while I took Ammon to dance and then drove Clarissa to swim. She forgot her bag and I got very snappy because I was on three hours of sleep and also so frustrated about how much we miss swim. We drove straight back home.

Abe picked up Ammon from dance and drove him to the mall where they both got great haircuts from Billionaire Barber. Abe bought some needed travel luggage and a work bag, and also some cargo pants for Ammon.

I was so tired that I went to bed early.

On Thursday Abe was not feeling well. We both had phone calls we took from bed (I chatted with Amy for an hour and he chatted with some people at work).

After school I made some chicken with tomatoes and prunes and cinnamon from the Gourmet cookbook. I served it with couscous and a bagged salad at dinner, after which Abe, Mary and I headed to Capital Strength for our workouts. Turns out Abe and I didn’t have a session to 6:30 while Mary was at 6, so we were there until 7:30. Abe and I enjoyed our session with Carey so much.

After we played a game of Wingspan. Abe blacked out his board and filled it entirely with birds. I didn’t feel like I had a particularly strong game but I won. We concluded that an evenly played game always seems to win. I played evenly by accident.