Stress, Tears & Perspective

Today’s foggy scene was vastly different than the bright, clear orange sunrise of yesterday morning, but the dreariness is kind of nice sometimes too, right?

We had another good day of drop-off in the lobby, without any issues or whining or worrying about this cute Tater Tot.

Right as I walked into my office this morning, I finished Erin & Ben’s book on audio. I have SO enjoyed listening to it! I originally bought & read the hardback version of their book when it first came out in October 2018. (Actually, I read the whole thing during the days of no electricity after Hurricane Michael. My posts from then are here and here.) But I decided I wanted to listen to it as well. The plan had been to listen while we drove to Laurel, Mississippi, last weekend for a quick one-night-visit at a cute Airbnb, but sadly that got cancelled due to the coronavirus.

But still, I’ve been listening this week, and LOVING it. It was perfect. I absolutely loved hearing their voices. It just made the whole thing so much sweeter and more personal. My favorite parts were hearing the love in Erin’s voice whenever she talked about Ben. So precious. Also, I would listen to absolutely ANY book that Erin narrated, because I loved her sweet, Southern voice. Can’t you just imagine her reading some Southern fiction?!

I had been eating slices of my mother-in-laws homemade banana bread for breakfast every day this week, but I finished it off yesterday. So Jeff packed me milk & cereal to bring to eat at work. I hadn’t had Captain Crunch (with berries!) in forever, but it was really yummy!

I decided to venture out to the grocery store on my lunch break, to attempt to look for a few essentials. Since I work downtown, the Winn Dixie on Magnolia is super convenient. As I mentioned last night, we were starting to run low on diapers, and we already needed some more bread and eggs (actually, we bought eggs at Publix on our big grocery trip two weeks ago, but they got left out on accident for like, seven hours, so sadly we had to throw those away, womp womp), plus I got some all-purpose flour & sour cream, and some ramen for Jeff to eat for lunch while he works from home. (He needs quick & simple 😉 ) And I got lucky! They are fully stocked on things like bread and produce, and pretty much all other regular foods. However the TP & paper towels & even the diapers are all running super low. I got one of only three boxes of Emmie’s size diapers. But it’s enough to last us for another couple of weeks, so we should be fine for a while.

Oh, and I also grabbed a treat for myself at the cash register line, that I didn’t even have time to enjoy until literally 4:30pm, because things got crazy at the office again this afternoon!

In the middle of crazy stuff at work, I also learned that effective Monday, our Growing Room Metropolitan location will be closed, for an undetermined amount of time. (Other GR locations are still open though.) Apparently, the parent of a kid in one of the younger rooms was exposed to coronavirus, so they have been tested themselves. They haven’t yet gotten the results back, but due to potential exposure, they’re closing the center for now. (WCTVposted the whole story today.)

So today was Emerson’s last day at school for a while. Jeff is still teleworking from home, but I am still not allowed/able to do so (lack of resources in my State Department), so we started scrambling this afternoon to start figuring things out for childcare for who knows how long… I’m honestly praying the results are negative, and that the school can open back up again soon. But at least she had a great day! I know y’all probably don’t care as much as I do about her potty habits, but she went pee four times, and even pooped in the potty too!!! Woo-hoo!

So after a bonkers afternoon of work stuff & daycare stuff, I was ready to come home with my little family. I made Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soupfrom my favorite food blogger. This was the second time I’ve made this, and I was actually really proud of myself for not even needing to reference the recipe this time.

While I chopped & sauteed & such, Jeff and Emerson did all the playing…

And look at this little hair-do! She rarely lets me do ponytails, but she will always let her teacher Miss Jessica do them. And I love these double ponies she got today! And especially how curly that one of the bottom is!

I asked Jeff and Emmie to go out to the front yard to pinch off a sprig of rosemary from the bush, and she was very excited to bring it back inside to me for the soup!

After getting everything in the pot & turning on the pressure cook function, I got to sit down and hang out with my girl for a bit. She watched me put away some cold stuff back into the fridge, and just had to grab a go-gurt for a snack. And then we also had a nice long video chat with Aunt Meggie, Uncle Bo, and the baby girls! We were wanting to go over & play in their water toys tomorrow afternoon, but we’re going to skip it until we get the results back from the daycare parent, and continue social distancing for now.

And this soup turned out soooo good! I also toasted up some slices of a ciabatta loaf I grabbed at Winn Dixie today, and it was a really good meal!

We went for some outdoor time after dinner, and just ran around the yard together for a bit. We checked out a tree that’s flowering and Emmie was excited to find one little flower down low on her level, so she instantly picked it off the tree.

And then we talked about how we are wayyyyy overdue to cut down last summer’s banana leaves. Usually, they’re supposed to be cut down during the winter, so that they can grow back in the late spring / early summer, but clearly we procrastinated. Jeff claimed I wasn’t strong enough to do it myself, so he went and got the machete to prove it. But it turns out, I could totally do it!!! The thing is, they are just leaves, but they retain an insane amount of water, so they’re really thick and dense and heavy. And it was super invigorating! I loved it. But I was barefoot, and I didn’t want to get super dirty tonight, so I’ll finish up tomorrow, and I’m honestly looking forward to it. And then we’ll have to clean it all up & haul it to the road for the yard trash tomorrow, and that’s definitely the worst part.

Sleepy little girl threw a little fit about cleaning up all her toys in the living room, so we had a rough time getting ready for bedtime. But once we got her calmed down she was back to her sweet, precious self, bent on over-moisturizing her lips & face before bedtime.

I’m giving myself the night off from dishes, because I’m just emotionally and physically exhausted tonight. And tomorrow’s another day.

I will say though, during lullabies tonight, while singing the first song, “A Life That’s Good,” I got emotional and cried again, at the lyrics, knowing that after all the craziness and the stress, I’ve got “two (tiny) arms around me, heaven to ground me, and a family that always calls me home,” and “at the end of the day, Lord I pray, I have a life that’s good.” Amen, right?! We just need the right perspective on what’s important, and my safe, healthy family is the most important.