1- I FINALLY WENT TO THE TAILOR. And it took less than 30 minutes door to door. And it wasn’t that hard. And it wasn’t even that $$$. I am getting 3 pairs of jeans, 1 skirt, and 1 dress hemmed. (Lani are you proud?)
This may have haunted my goals lists since like, June. Excited not to include it in November!
2- Gratitude: I should have linked up Kae‘s blog yesterday, since it is dedicated to this topic! It’s interesting how many of us have become particularly aware of the positive things in our lives during this crazy time. I am very jealous of her recent photos: Outside.
3- School. I continue to very happy about how the school year has gone thus far, considering current circumstances. Annabel is slated to return to in person next week, but without her teacher I’m just not sure it’s going to be worth it. We already received a notice instructing children to bring (among 37 other things; is she supposed to tow a truck?):
“Personal outside equipment to enjoy for recess. Nothing that is “sharable” or able to be passed back and forth like a ball, but something like a Skip-It, or jump rope. Children will be required to stay 6 feet apart during recess.”
(Well! I for one did not know Skip-it was still around; turns out it has morphed into a Twister product but still exists. I am not ordering one. Yet.)
((We are going to let her go for a day or so, but unless she really finds it beneficial I think we’ll just keep her home until things are more normal, as it has been working well.))
(((Also, the school just announced that next Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are early release days — I guess to work out the kinks in the transition? Blah.)))
4- 0/3 kids cried during their flu shot visit yesterday! So proud. Also, it’s getting less horrific to bring them all places just from a kid-wrangling perspective. This was particularly noticeable because it’s been so infrequent over the past ~7 months!
5- I am gearing up for a Josh-CALL weekend. We may venture out to get Halloween decorations, as they really want to put up some “friendly bats + pumpkins”. I still yearn for a @#$%^& playground!
23 Comments
I am so sorry about your playgrounds! It seems crazy that an outdoor activity like that is off limits. I think that data on surface transmission is pretty clear at this point. Crossing my fingers for you that they open soon!
Seattle just opened their playgrounds and if I heard correctly over the radio only five kids are allowed on the equipment at a time.
Our playgrounds just reopened this week after being closed since mid-March – watching a 2.5 and 4.5 year old swing for the first time since March is really kind of magical, I think they’ve been four days in a row now 🙂 I hope you get this soon!
I don’t get it. That seems to be completely backwards in policy.
Our playgrounds have been open for a couple months (maybe when restaurants opened at 25% capacity and virus was determined to be largely airborne?) Schools are closed, though, at least locally.
One local playground (but not another…) *just* closed because of COVID but indoor dining @ restaurants, salons, stores are all open. Makes me want to scream.
I really do not understand your playgrounds being closed but every other dang thing in FL seems to be open? So you can eat indoors/cram people into a bar, but outdoor playgrounds are unsafe. Huh. I feel very comfortable w/ outdoor play since surface transmission is less likely than through air particles. So even with me being high risk, we’ve gone to playground since they opened for ‘play at your own risk’ in June. They are a life saver on the weekend as we don’t have room for a swingset in our back yard.
I got my flu shot during my son’s 2.5 year appointment. I went first thinking he would handle his better. Nope! He still screamed/cried. But he has such skinny legs so the shot in the leg was probably painful for him. he just doesn’t have much fat on him since he’s 4th percentiler! But at least it’s over with! He had to get fluoride on his teeth, too, and that was probably worse than the shot since I had to pry his mouth open so the nurse could paint all of his teeth w/ the fluoride. Ay yi yi.
Ours finally opened! My nanny, however, thinks we (a 2-physician family) are absolutely nuts for taking our kids even when the playground is empty and is distraught about it. I’ve tried to reassure her (I saw <10 suspected CoVID patients for the second week!) but she’s terrified.
Yes, I am soooo proud of you! Told you it wouldn’t be that bad. Your tailoring story is a good analogy for the entire personal styling process. It takes a lot less time and energy to just do it than the energy suck of not doing it. So worth it. High five lady!
So sorry about the playground situation! Florida is quite confounding. I finally let my kids play at a playground the other day (distanced, masked, lots of hand sanitizer) and they were unbelievably happy. They are so trained they ran away if another kid came anywhere near them!
thank you Lani!! I hope she does a great job b/c it’s convenient and now I feel like I’d be much quicker to go back 🙂
Finding a good tailor (and making the time to go) was LIFE CHANGING for me. So glad you crossed it off your list!!! A few years ago I made peace with the fact that I am not a typical off-the-rack size. Since then, I have had ~50% of my work shirts or dresses tailored. The extra money spent to get something to fit correctly is well worth it, as I find that I buy less (since I love what I have) and wear the things I own more. Winning all around! Honestly at this point in the pandemic I’m just bummed that most of this stuff isn’t getting as much wear (I do ‘dress’ for working from home and do my hair every day but am a bit more casual than I was at the office)!
Also, add me to the list of people questioning the decision of your local officials to keep playgrounds closed but let people hang out in bars. Hope they change their minds soon!!!
YES, for me everything is too long (sleeves/pants/dresses/etc) and it really isn’t THAT hard to get things hemmed. I should do it more often!!!
I don’t know if this is up your alley but I used to hem my own pants (letting them down – tall people probs) and I find hemming to be almost meditative. It is so soothing and therapeutic! Something about the repetitive motion. Plus it would keep your hands occupied (and thus prevent scrolling…) if you ever wanted to give it a try :). (But not jeans. Gotta leave those to a professional! I did skirts and dress pants)
haha this is not really where my talents lie! but I am glad it’s fun and meditative for you!!
NC opened playgrounds a few weeks ago and they have been such a boon to us! It is so nice to get out of the house/neighborhood. However, a lot of people still not wearing masks there – and I hate blocking kids from forming fast friendships but I can’t allow my kids to play with kids without masks on.
Our school district is closed until mid-January and they haven’t said if we’ll be going back in person yet (hybrid of full time). Local districts are starting to go back next week and I’m not sure how it’s going to go. I have a feeling that if schools open up, people will relax their other activities because it will offer a sense of normalcy and I’m curious what’s going to happen after the holidays.
yes, if we went it would definitely be with masks!!! (even G who is getting somewhat better about keeping hers on!)
and i’d try for non peak times, too.
If they would only just OPEN.
Our playgrounds reopened months ago, but we haven’t been going because I assumed our 18-month old wouldn’t get much out of it since she not much of a walker. But we had our first playground playdate last weekend with the families of my two closest mom friends, and it turns out there was a ton she could do and she loved it! Our daughter also has speech and language delays, so she doesn’t understand us when we tell her to hang back from others. When one of the other two year olds arrived, our daughter toddled right over to her and kissed her on the mouth, so obviously our super social daughter can’t be trusted to follow even basic COVID precautions. Even though we haven’t been trying to have our 18-month old wear a mask, their two year old was wearing a mask.
Oh yes, even non walking toddlers LOVE playgrounds! So much to climb on, look at, free space to wander, etc. Too funny about the kissing.
G is getting better about mask wearing but it’s definitely a work in progress. I feel like by 3 (she’ll be 3 in Dec) she’ll totally get it.
PS: I finally heard back from a certain bullet journalist/writer we both love and she’s going to try to come on BLP if her workplace allows 🙂
Lately I am timing things that I put off to convince myself how little time it takes. For example, I HATE putting laundry away but really it takes only 2-3 minutes.
Yes, Beth! One of the biggest mindset changes I have had was after hearing Laura Vanderkam say that it only takes 5 minutes to unload the dishwasher. I almost couldn’t believe it when I then timed it myself and got the same result. Chores like unloading the dishwasher and putting laundry away (I have six loads waiting to be folded and put away in my bedroom right now) are also a lot more enjoyable if you do them while listening to a book or a podcast!
I love this idea! I am going to try it.
And that is my cue to put laundry away 🙂
I loved Skip It as a kid! We haven’t been to any playgrounds, we go by and I see kids all over each other with no masks and parents huddled together and mentally I’m not ready for that. We kept our boys in virtual school but we’re lucky since I stay home and was a teacher for 10 years. I do like how our virtual is going but it does feel like Groundhog Day! If Utah got it’s actually together and people wore masks and if our county didn’t have a difficult time with contact tracing I would definitely send my kids back.
Awww, thanks for the shout out! Focusing on gratitude everyday on my blog helps me so much and I hope it maybe sparks a little reminder/ awareness for anyone who reads it, too.
I also loved Skip It!! I have many memories of hopping over that thing on my driveway. 🙂