Corona Chronicles: Day 16

Today was better than yesterday.  At least I can say that.  I still had to physically restrain my son to get his homework, but at least I didn’t have to help my daughter with math.

That’s not to say things went well.  The baby asked me to help her with her writing.  She then erased it and said it wasn’t good enough.  The teenager was not impressed with my extremely limited knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem.  And my son used his school furnished laptop to watch anime every time I left the room.

At work, my phone disconnected and my computer crashed separately from each other and both times, I was in the middle of a presentation.  I saw crazy things on social media that actually kept me from going outside today.

I got a few phone calls today that were upsetting, but the last call I got, made it all worth it.  I got a call from an anonymous number, so I was fully expecting nonsense. And it was nonsense, but at least it made me smile.  My oldest figured out how to call me from her laptop.  I could here her giggling from her room.  “Love you, mom” she said between fits of laughter.

And now she’s patrolling the house  with a Nerf gun.  This isn’t going to end well.

Good night all.

Corona Chronicles: Day 15

Y’all.  I’m not going to make it.  At 9:00pm, we were still trying to do my daughter’s math homework.  This kid has a protractor and a billion dollar calculator and I still didn’t get it all.

She lost me at transversals.

i had to practically tie the boy to a chair to do his homework.  I had to call his teacher for clarification on a problem and I still haven’t located the item he needs to complete his assignment.

The pre-schooler was suffering from lack of attention, so she threw a tantrum or two.

I don’t have enough hands or brain cells to handle all of this.  I had to ask my husband for help, and I honestly don’t know which of us was more annoyed that I had to ask.

My mom didn’t call during work today, but unfortunately she called right in the middle of homework, so I wasn’t as attentive to her as I should have been.

I can’t do it all, and it’s weighing on me.  I honestly don’t know whether I am exhausted or sad, but I am trying to convince myself it’s okay to be both.

It’s okay to be both!!

Happy Holy Week to me.

Corona Chronicles: Day 14

 

This is the weirdest Palm Sunday  ever.  There were no palms.  No shouts of Hosanna.  In fact, of the three sermons I heard today, only one even used that phrase.   There was no big dinner after church.  I cooked, but it’s 9:15 and I haven’t eaten dinner yet.  I’m probably not going to eat.

For some reason, I decided to braid my oldest child’s hair today.  It sometimes takes trained professionals 5-6 hours to get through her head.  I am not a trained professional.  I can barely braid at all.  Thank God we don’t have anywhere to go for awhile.

Tomorrow is the first day of online school for my kiddos.  None of us knows exactly what to expect.  We’re pretty much just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.  Kind of like every other day of this quarantine.

Best of luck to us all.

 

Mana Radford

Corona Chronicles: Day 13

Today started off rocky.  My usual Saturday morning routine took two hours longer than normal due to social distancing rules at the grocery store and a couple of extra errands for mom.

By the time I got  home.  I was tired and the house was a mess.  (The House is indeed still a mess.) I decided to do movie night with the kids, complete with their favorite candies.  I’ll come back to that in a minute.

Can anybody explain to me the plot of Frozen II?  I am completely perplexed.  How did Elsa’s parents get back to Arondale as children?  How the heck did Elsa become unfrozen?  And since when are there black people in Avondale?  I need answers.

There were a couple of good things about the movie.  The celebration of native culture was a sign of progress.  Did I mention there was a black dude? Ana telling Elsa that if she didn’t want her  sister to follow her into the fire, then she shouldn’t run into to the fire in the first place.  That was a whole sermon.  I  talked to my kids about never leaving a sibling behind.  My son had the nerve to say it depends on which sister.  I should have called it a night at that point.

But I didn’t. I gave them sugar. I looked up and the littlest one had poured her pixy stick onto a plate and was attempting to eat it with a fork.  What a perfect analogy for what my life is like in 2020.

I am the pixy stick, being forced into situations I wasn’t made for.  I  am the fork, useful, but not so much in this situation.  I am also the poor disappointed child who can see all that she wants in front of her, but having no clue how to get them from where they are to where I want them to be… and completely making a mess in the process.

Good Times.

Photo by Egor Kamelevfrom Pexels

Corona Chronicles: Day 12

“How do you want to shine today?”  This is a real question I asked myself this afternoon.  A question I asked myself while wearing gray sweatpants and a Royals T-shirt I bought my niece five years ago,  but forgot to put in the mail.

I haven’t washed my hair or changed my earrings in two weeks.  But for some odd reason I decided to spritz on perfume after my 5:30am shower, before slipping on the aforementioned comfortable clothes.

After working all day, and writing out all my bills, this is what I chose to wonder about.  (I also briefly wondered how in the heck I ended up with all three kids in my makeshift office during a conference call, while my husband had the day off, and the entire main floor of our house to himself.)

I taught today, and feel like I did alright, but I certainly didn’t shine.  I fed the kids, but it wasn’t a rockstar meal.  But the day isn’t over. I still have a chance to shine.

Nah.  I’m going to bed. I’ll try to shine tomorrow.

Corona Chronicles: Day 11

I’m starting to lose track of days of the week.  But you know what I am tracking?  Hours, and today I got off work at 1 million o’ clock.  I’m also tracking steps, and I’m closer to zero than I am 10,000.  I am not counting calories because I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life.

I’m teaching this class and I feel like I have no rapport with them.  I can’t tell if they are laughing at my corny jokes or rolling their eyes.  I can’t see the flicker in their eyes when the light bulb comes on in their brains.  Our interaction basically consists of me talking for 4 hours, and them sometimes telling me go back a slide.  It is not an ideal learning environment.  But today a couple of them told me I taught them something they didn’t know.  So that is a win for me.

The littlest Radford has been told multiple times not to keep her food off my couch.  So today,  she pulled a chair to the edge of the couch.  She sat her plate in the chair and laid across the couch with the food at her finger tips.  These kids are smarter than me, and frankly I’m sick of it.  But also, my kids are smarter than me and I’m kind of impressed.

Also, I want cupcakes, but am forcing myself to eat key lime flavored yogurt.  Is this what settling feels like?  IS this the Corona Chronicles version of the sweet life?

 

 

Photo by Vojtech Okenka from Pexels

Corona Chronicles: Day 10

So today, in the middle of my teaching via Skype, my mother called (again).  My aunt called.  And the baby walked in during my presentation and made her presence known to everyone on the call.  Once again, I was plagued by technical difficulties, and it’s hard to believe that the whole thing wasn’t a disaster.

But you know what wasn’t a disaster?  The time I spent with the kids today.  We laughed and generally just enjoyed each other’s presence.  We played a game and they actually ate what I cooked, without complaint.  We picked up my son’s technology, so he will be able to participate in the on-line learning with the rest of his classmates when digital learning goes live next week.  We picked up my daughter’s notebook yesterday, so she’s ready to go.  The youngest will have to settle for paper and pen for a while.

For some unearthly reason,  I agreed to join a couple of my cousins on a fast.  I don’t know how I’m supposed to get through the next ten days without cursing or drinking, but that is my goal.  Speaking of goals, I’ve pretty much given up on trying to get 10,000 steps a day.  I’m probably closer to getting that many calories in a day, thanks in part, to a care package from my aunt.

My family is the best.  Looking forward to our first Post-corona party.  There will be plenty of drinking and cussing then. 🙂

 

Photo Credit: Cottonbro on Pexels