Day #29: The Things I Could Learn From Grandpa and Also i was a Terrible Housekeeper Before This...
I'm not good at housekeeping. I never dust. There, I admitted it, I never dust. I might wipe down things when I'm moving them and run a rag over the windowsills a couple of times a year but I don't dust. My floors don't get enough attention. Josh has basically taken over kitchen cleaning because I was failing at it at all levels. So what I'm trying to say is my bathrooms needed attention today. Like, bad. We are 29 days into this and they weren't fully clean when we started. I'm not going to say they haven't had a wipedown in a month, but they needed the full meal deal. So, with a little help from my kids, I spent the day procrastinating on this. I don't know why I got so mad at James when he woke Max up from his nap early. It was indeed the excuse I was looking for.
So finally, at about 5 p.m., with dinner in the oven and feeling like supermom, I took on those bathrooms. Because the reality is once you start cleaning a bathroom it doesn't take that long. The starting is the hardest part. Josh was lying down with Max because, you know, shortened nap, and James had had enough TV (decided by someone else, no 5-year-old in the history of the world has ever said they are done with TV even though you know they feel it too,) so he wanders in and says he's bored. What he actually said, and this is so James, was "Do you ever get this feeling like you don't know what to do with yourself and you're just bored?" And I wanted to say, actually, no, I'm a mom I never get that feeling. What I said was the mom thing, which is if you are bored I can find you something to do, do you want to scrub toilets? And the kid said yes.
I almost backed off it...I mean I figured he was just gonna slow me down. But I got the toilet scrubber and I showed him how to put it in the toilet and scrub, which he found hilarious because it involved talking about poop and what 5-year-old doesn't want to talk about poop? And then he sprayed and wiped down the bathtub. Which he complained about ("This is weird. I'm never doing this again in my life!") but you could tell it was in that way that he didn't mind it so much he just liked the attention. And the company in bathroom cleaning was kind of nice in the end. If I can teach him to be a better housekeeper than I am, that would be something.
Talked to dad on the phone today. I've been debating going down to see him this weekend, just me. I'm so worried he's going to get sick and will have seen no one in weeks. But he shut me down immediately. He isn't worried about getting sick. He wants the people he love to stay protected. And I know he misses the heck out of my kids but I also know he's right. He's been through a lot in his life. He has master coping skills. I could learn so much from him. He sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" to Max on speakerphone while Max was nursing and he was just nursing and giggling...it was a beautiful moment. I'm sad my dad doesn't understand video chat because it would mean a lot to see him, but the moments like that are so special.
He also has flour! No one on the planet has flour. I mean...dad keeps things forever...it's probably long expired. It would be nice to have baking flour but even long expired flour would make puffy paint sidewalk chalk and cloud dough, that would be something. We are currently working on a flour trade. I'm trying to get him to accept a home cooked meal in the exchange, no contact, but what's going to happen is flour is just going to appear on my porch. Lordy, I knew there would be shortages, but I did not expect a flour shortage.
We've officially been extended on our stay at home order to May 4, which feels like an eternity from now. I'm trying not to complain about it, I hope it is based on good science, it's just this doesn't get any easier and I'm tired. Mrs. Willett sent her plan for how to celebrate James's birthday via video chat. We'll delay his birthday celebration but I will have to think of something fun to do on his actual birthday. It's hard to even find a place to hike. Whatever. It is what it is and we will keep moving forward. I need to learn the lessons on coping from Grandpa. This isn't easy on him either but he is the most selfless person I know and this sacrificing himself for others comes naturally (if not easily) to him. I'm not as good at it. I will keep breathing. I will keep praying. I never know what to say in prayer these days so I just recite the Lord's prayer in bed at night. It's sort of meditative at this point. And I pray with James. Somehow that's easy to do.
Today I'm grateful for James and his company and creativity, my dad, Max giggles, good books, Harry Potter, reading to James, being read to by James, that I don't really have to know kindergarten math, Max's trike, the mailman, the smiles of neighbors, rain free moments, that we can go outside, good food, good health, and people to talk to.
So finally, at about 5 p.m., with dinner in the oven and feeling like supermom, I took on those bathrooms. Because the reality is once you start cleaning a bathroom it doesn't take that long. The starting is the hardest part. Josh was lying down with Max because, you know, shortened nap, and James had had enough TV (decided by someone else, no 5-year-old in the history of the world has ever said they are done with TV even though you know they feel it too,) so he wanders in and says he's bored. What he actually said, and this is so James, was "Do you ever get this feeling like you don't know what to do with yourself and you're just bored?" And I wanted to say, actually, no, I'm a mom I never get that feeling. What I said was the mom thing, which is if you are bored I can find you something to do, do you want to scrub toilets? And the kid said yes.
I almost backed off it...I mean I figured he was just gonna slow me down. But I got the toilet scrubber and I showed him how to put it in the toilet and scrub, which he found hilarious because it involved talking about poop and what 5-year-old doesn't want to talk about poop? And then he sprayed and wiped down the bathtub. Which he complained about ("This is weird. I'm never doing this again in my life!") but you could tell it was in that way that he didn't mind it so much he just liked the attention. And the company in bathroom cleaning was kind of nice in the end. If I can teach him to be a better housekeeper than I am, that would be something.
Talked to dad on the phone today. I've been debating going down to see him this weekend, just me. I'm so worried he's going to get sick and will have seen no one in weeks. But he shut me down immediately. He isn't worried about getting sick. He wants the people he love to stay protected. And I know he misses the heck out of my kids but I also know he's right. He's been through a lot in his life. He has master coping skills. I could learn so much from him. He sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" to Max on speakerphone while Max was nursing and he was just nursing and giggling...it was a beautiful moment. I'm sad my dad doesn't understand video chat because it would mean a lot to see him, but the moments like that are so special.
He also has flour! No one on the planet has flour. I mean...dad keeps things forever...it's probably long expired. It would be nice to have baking flour but even long expired flour would make puffy paint sidewalk chalk and cloud dough, that would be something. We are currently working on a flour trade. I'm trying to get him to accept a home cooked meal in the exchange, no contact, but what's going to happen is flour is just going to appear on my porch. Lordy, I knew there would be shortages, but I did not expect a flour shortage.
We've officially been extended on our stay at home order to May 4, which feels like an eternity from now. I'm trying not to complain about it, I hope it is based on good science, it's just this doesn't get any easier and I'm tired. Mrs. Willett sent her plan for how to celebrate James's birthday via video chat. We'll delay his birthday celebration but I will have to think of something fun to do on his actual birthday. It's hard to even find a place to hike. Whatever. It is what it is and we will keep moving forward. I need to learn the lessons on coping from Grandpa. This isn't easy on him either but he is the most selfless person I know and this sacrificing himself for others comes naturally (if not easily) to him. I'm not as good at it. I will keep breathing. I will keep praying. I never know what to say in prayer these days so I just recite the Lord's prayer in bed at night. It's sort of meditative at this point. And I pray with James. Somehow that's easy to do.
Today I'm grateful for James and his company and creativity, my dad, Max giggles, good books, Harry Potter, reading to James, being read to by James, that I don't really have to know kindergarten math, Max's trike, the mailman, the smiles of neighbors, rain free moments, that we can go outside, good food, good health, and people to talk to.
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