Sequestered with Teens; Week Six

Sunshine and rain, a bottle of sweet Riesling, delicious pumpkin muffins, and Skippy… that’s how this week started.

I felt quite accomplished… making the best pumpkin protein mini muffins I’ve ever had, and exercising, and getting through my to-do list. And then I bought Ayden a giant jar of GMO-riddled, sugary Skippy peanut butter (vs the usual healthy organic alternative). And then suddenly I drank a whole bottle of wine. I think something in me snapped. Maybe it was the quarantine. Maybe it was the influence of Mrs Richardson’s life exploding after she tried so hard to be perfect in the Hulu series I just watched. When I bought the peanut butter, in my mind… I literally said, “Fuck it”. Halfway through the bottle of wine, I told Ayden that story. He looked at me and said, “You’re drunk”. I don’t really say the F word, you see. My grandmother may be able to enjoy sipping wine while she cooks dinner, but apparently it’s not such a good plan for me. I dumped my gluten-free noodles into the boiling pot regular noodles, then ended up dumping a bunch of them on the counter. At least I could laugh about it. The end of the night brought a break down that had probably been brewing for quite sometime.

Week six of this pandemic craziness was kind of a blur. The highlight was Jesse’s birthday. He turned 42. We surprised him with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins, and dinner from Julianno’s Pizzeria. He’s not an overly social kind of guy and family and friend get-togethers are not his cup of tea, so I was surprised when he said later in the evening that he felt like he got jipped this year. Maybe he likes those things more than I thought. Dang it… I should have planned a birthday parade for him! My grandma and aunt did pull up and sing him happy birthday. He was excited about his survival shovel/ax/spear kit and proceeded to practice throwing the ax at our tree. It only landed in the neighbor’s yard once. This will come in handy when the zombie apocalypse hits.

 

 

We watched The Notebook. Maybe that was the highlight of the week. Noah and Allie. Aww. I just love this movie. We got back into the Netflix series, Ozark. Matthew Bateman is awesome. I am constantly impressed with how the directors of this series are not afraid to kill off major players in the story.

We worked on the garage. This seems like a constant activity. Does it ever end?? When did we begin having hoarding tendencies? I am thrilled with the progress we made. I highly doubt the garage has ever been this organized. I am getting rid of things I’ve held onto for far too long. There is plenty of room to comfortably be in there playing ping pong. We can access our camping gear and shaved ice equipment easily. I went through a tote of wedding stuff. That was fun. So many memories. And to top it off… I found a gift card for Victoria Secrets with $20 still on it. Score! Now if we can just put things where they belong when we’re done!!

Phoenix is entering finals week. And her final week of her first year of college. Not ending nearly the way she wanted, but she’s going with the flow. Jesse and Ayden worked on the Ranger together. Alexis got a ton of school work done.

Tomorrow, I go back to the office. I am emotionally torn. Such excitement about a little normalcy returning to my life. And then, it’s crazy… but I already miss my family and seeing them so much. We’ve been in constant companionship for the last month and a half. Everyone’s been doing their own thing and had their own space. But we’ve still been together. My kids are teenagers and young adults. I know the moments I have with them so close and so constant are fading, few remaining. I don’t want to let these moments go.