This guy was a scrawny thing the first time we saw him at the animal sanctuary. In fact, my daughter didn’t even pick him up at first. It wasn’t a love at first sight story (well, for her; my heart had a feeling.)
A little backstory for you: several years before, we had gone to the same sanctuary and asked to foster a mama cat and her kittens. We came home with a mother and barely 3 day old babies. Yeah, I know, I’m crazy. The kids immediately fell in love, chose their favorite babies, and named them. When it came time to send them back to be adopted, we claimed all three kittens and the mama (because how many female cats spend way too long waiting for adoption?)
We loved all of them to the moon and back, but one day, the worst happened. Our older daughter’s cat got out, and we couldn’t find her anywhere. We looked for weeks, and then months. Our whole family was heartbroken, but our daughter was especially devastated. I waited until I thought she might be ready, and then one day I said to her, “Would you like to go look at kittens?” She smiled and cried at the same time, nodding her head.
Once at the sanctuary, she actually looked at this guy first. Then she moved from cat tower to tower and back again, looking at all options. You see, she knew she didn’t want a kitten with similar coloring, but she thought she wanted another female. I, along with her two siblings, waited patiently.
And at that moment, it happened. This handsome grey tabby reached his paw out of the tower, touched my daughter, and meowed at her. That was all it took. She asked to hold him, and as she did, the volunteers told us his story. He had been found, almost dead, in a ditch. (In fact, his momma cat and rest of the litter didn’t make it.) Another mother cat, who was nursing her own litter about 2 weeks younger than this rescue, took him in and loved him as her own. His health seemed to have rebounded, and he was up for adoption.
By this point, our daughter was openly crying happy tears, the kitten was perched on her shoulder, and there was no doubt we were taking him home. In many ways, he rescued us. We have never regretted that decision for a moment, but it did start us on a path of learning all about unique health needs for him, and the cats, dog, rabbits, turtles, birds, hermit crabs, and bearded dragon we had a home.
I doubt there is a single family in the United States who is experiencing the summer they expected (and if you are the exception, I would love to hear from you.)
Like so many others, we’ve lost get-togethers with friends, cooking out, lazy days on the water, summer camps, and day trips to random places like the world’s largest hippo hang nail.
Unlike many of our friends, we didn’t lose the pool altogether.
Thankfully, the board split the membership into two groups, allowing us to make reservations to attend every other day. The pools are split into swimming zones, and families register for a certain time to swim. Not ideal, but certainly better than nothing, right?
At least that was what I told my kids. Inside, I was chaffing at having to plan out our pool times (after all, even in this weird 2020 summer, who wants to have someone else decide their schedule??)And when we had a stretch that all of our pool times where getting rained out, it really became hard to maintain the good attitude.
Then I reevaluated. Yes, we missed a few days. But on the days we were there, very often there were unclaimed swimming zones, meaning we could stay longer, which has been especially important to our youngest, who hasn’t gone anywhere other than the pool in I-don’t-know-how-long. But the most important difference is the one that will have the longest lasting impact.
My husband (and the awesome daddy to our amazing kids) has been able to go to the pool with us.
That may not sound like much to some families, but it is huge to ours. You see, I grew up in a family with a wonderful father who worked long hours so we could afford to go places like the pool, but that meant he was rarely physically there. I guess it should come as no surprise that I married a man who also wants to provide for his family. It has been slightly different in that at least my husband could periodically show up at the pool for 10 minutes or so to watch the children’s latest tricks or to treat them to ice cream. I’ve always been grateful for that. With the Rona came a new appreciation.
Due to working from home and being able to mostly arrange his hours, my hubby has been going to the pool with us almost every time. Not only that, he is IN the pool, playing with the kids, participating in any silly game they concoct. I can hear their laughter before I ever even make it to the pool deck. And it is the most amazing gift.
We’ve had some hard years. My husband wasn’t always the most emotionally present. The kids often referred to him as “grumpy.” There were times we clearly knew to avoid his negative attitude. But if there is a silver lining of coronavirus, it is that he is more present in our lives than ever, and he is making a tremendous effort to keep it all positive. Watching him in the pool with our kids has helped me to fall in love with him all over again.
So, yeah, this is the summer that wasn’t … but it is also the summer full of endless possibilities.
Yep, this one. The one with masks.
Now, before we get too carried away, this isn't a debate about whether we should wear masks or not. It is a simple explanation of why I won't be commemorating this season with multiple photos of my children with masks on their faces.
Part of this is easy. I want to capture their beautiful smiles and hilarious expressions. I want to see the way our eldest child's dimples shine, our son's habit of slightly sticking out his tongue when he is concentrating (just like his grandfather), and how you can almost predict with 100% accuracy what kind of request will come out of our youngest's mouth depending on the set of her lips.
The sadness, frustration, and difficulty of this season is already etched on our hearts. We don't need to look back at photos of ourselves in masks to be reminded, especially when said photos will cover up much of the emotions those pictures could tell.
I can hear people coming out of the woodwork now to say if we don't document it, we'll forget. First of all, I was trained as an historian before I chose to come home with my kids. There is plenty of documentation of masks in the current culture; you don't need to subject your children to front porch photo shoots in which they wear cloth face coverings of their favorite animated character to have evidence of your existence during Coronavirus. Secondly (and once again, as an historian), I can give you multiple examples of how we choose to forget the past even WITH photographic evidence right in front of our eyes.
I’m choosing to photograph the ways we are celebrating this season. Swimming, cornhole, water balloon fights in the front yard. More family game nights than I can count. Our eldest planning college visits. Our middle starting in-person Scout meetings again. Our youngest expanding her culinary skills. All wonderful memories, and all without masks.
Now, all that being said, if you are filling your SD card or cloud with masked photos of your family, you do you. We are all coping in different ways. For me, I’m going to go capture a few more gorgeous smiles.
I had a reason to have a good laugh at myself yesterday, and it really felt wonderful.
For years, I was that person who needed to be in control. In fact, I would often let that keep me from even trying things if I believed I couldn’t get it perfect. Not a fun way to live, right?
That started to change when we added Child #3 to the mix. Her sparkly personality meant I needed to find a way to be more “Fun Mama” than a perfect one. And, no, that doesn’t mean throwing all rules and expectations out the window. I didn’t want to raise tyrants, but I did want to make sure I was soaking up joy with them whenever I could; after all, how many mothers of older kids have told you not to blink, they aren’t little forever?!
Another factor that helped me loosen up was our decision to homeschool. The irony was it was my extensive research that showed me I was going to have to prioritize what I wanted our learning experience to look like. I made a conscious decision (and verified my hubby was on board) that with the focus being on the kids’ education, the house wasn’t going to perfectly clean. This gave us so much freedom to focus on what we loved rather than feeling constantly guilty about the kitchen floor not being mopped regularly. (Not all family members agreed with our decision, but that’s a subject for another day.)
Enter the disaster I made in my kitchen and the laughter that ensued. You see, I had promised my friends that I would make a video of our family’s favorite lemonade recipe. Well, I only had enough ingredients for one take, so when something went wrong, I had to roll with the show. Take and look and see the hilarity that followed.
I didn’t realize how much I needed to laugh at myself under all the current craziness we are experiencing. I hope it at least brought a small to your face. And I have a new favorite saying: What big mess did you make today?
Luscious Lemonade
- Juice from 6 lemons and 1 lime (feel free to add more if you want a stronger citrus taste!)
- ½ cup local raw honey (make sure you use local if you want help with your sneezes)
- 1-2 drops Lavender Vitality
- 8-10 cups ice water, or different amount to taste
Combine lemon and lime juice, honey, and Lavender Vitality in large glass pitcher. Stir well. (If your honey is particularly thick, you may want to heat in a gentle warm water bath before adding to juice.) Add water, stirring again. Taste and enjoy!
I don’t know about everyone else, but my family has hit the point where days are starting to run together. Losing church, in particular, has really seem to thrown a wrench in our sense of time.
Some like to say that since we were already homeschooling before the recommendation of social distancing, this shouldn’t be as hard for us. The reality is, all of our normal activities have been cancelled, too. Our youngest in particular seems to constantly want something to do … which is actually ironic, considering two weeks ago she would have welcomed extra Disney+ and video game time. Now she wants someone to play board games, go on walks, and shoot baskets almost constantly. The perception has changed even for those who are used to a less than “normal” (whatever the heck that is) schedule.
Enter making homemade playdough. She has loved being in the kitchen and working with recipes since she was an itty bitty thing, so while this one was inedible, it was still tons of fun!
You can find lots of different homemade playdough recipes out there. We used the one that calls for the fewest ingredients because life needs to be kept simple at this point. Also, good flour is getting extremely difficult to find in our area, but there seems to plenty of the enriched bleached stuff you could use for playdough.
HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH
- 1-1 ½ cups flour (we actually needed more, but start slowly and add as needed)
- ¼ cup salt
- ½ cup warm water
- 3-5 drops of food coloring (optional – can also add more to reach desired color)
- 6-8 drops essential oil
Mix flour and salt together. Add food coloring (if using) to warm water, then slowly add to flour mixture. Stir together, then add essential oils. Knead all ingredients together. If dough is sticky, continue to add flour in small increments.
Wondering which oils to use? Our daughter chose Christmas Spirit because it is her favorite happy oil. Other great options would be Thieves or Stress Away.
Looking for another fun DIY project you can do with your kids? Check out our elderberry gummy recipe!
