Neither Here Nor There

I’m sick, but unable to take off of work to recuperate, so bullet points it is.

~ My son has been quite sick this week, but my in-laws are miraculously in town and have taken him two out of the last three days. It is so nice to have them back.

~ But it’s also bittersweet because they leave in two weeks with one-way tickets to Texas. We’re not sure when they will be coming back. I have complicated feelings about this that I haven’t taken the time to untangle. My husband has even more complicated feelings about this, which he will probably never attempt to untangle. Our kids are just really, really sad.

~ Work lately has been… surprisingly reasonable. Not sure why, maybe because we’re still less than a month out from that amazing break. Whatever is making work seem manageable, I’m not complaining.

~ I took my son out twice in the last month to practice on his balance bike and he’s finally getting it. I plan on taking my daughter out on her bike soon. I will be really excited when they can both ride. There are some fun paved bike paths in the area and I’m dying to go for a ride with them.

~ My daughter and I ended up having to sell Girl Scout cookies for THREE HOURS on Monday (kick-off day) and she did amazing. Last year’s attempt at selling GS cookies was a cluster-f*ck of epic proportions, so it made me incredibly proud to watch her rock it this year. She really has come into her own in SO MANY ways. It’s astonishing to see.

~ {I, on the other hand, got shat on by a pigeon – pigeon shit was on my ear, face, glasses, hair, three articles of clothing and in my purse. I didn’t NOT handle it well. This was about half way through the three hour selling spree. It was a REALLY long three hours. I did not do as well as my daughter.}

~ I still give a lot of credit for her turn around to Magnesium. To mine own as well. Right before, and during, the break I fell out of the habit of giving it to both of us, and by the end we were both in foul moods. The whole second week of break we were moody, easily angered, just generally in shit moods. Then I remembered we hadn’t been taking Magnesium and I started us both on it again and the change has absolutely been noticeable. I need to remember to ALWAYS take my Magnesium, and continue giving it to my daughter.

~ My daughter can swallow a Magnesium capsule now! Which makes it SO MUCH easier to give it to her. Before I mixed a soluable powder into apple sauce, which she hated but would take begrudgingly. A couple of weeks ago we tried having her swallow a capsule and now she can take one without any problems. Our magic combination is the capsule in a spoonful of applesauce, plus drinking big gulps of water out of a straw to swallow. It works! And since the dose is higher we only have to take it 3x a week.

~ My son is really enjoying soccer and it’s fun to watch. At this age I don’t have to be out there participating in the games which makes the 45 minutes much more pleasant. He clearly wants to improve and is obviously trying SO HARD to master the skills they work on. It’s awesome to watch.

~ My parents and I went to a comedy show last weekend, which was part of SF Sketchfest (one of my favorite SF events of the year!) It was great to spend an afternoon/evening with them, and I’m realizing that QT alone with them needs to be one of my top priorities. They are both obviously getting older, and I am becoming acutely aware that they won’t always be so active and interested in doing fun things. It’s a new goal of mine to get together with them, WITHOUT my kids, about once every month or two.

Annnd, I have a ton of grading to do so I gotta shut this down. Today is the first day of February. Let’s do this!