Kris's Covid Pandemic Blog

I know it is weird to think that I have moments where I don't know what to do with myself. Because there's ALWAYS something to do. There's always dishes. There's always laundry. My kids want me to go outside and play with them. And the kids' bathroom could REALLY use some attention. But I'm writing because I don't know quite what else to do with myself. I feel like I should be reading. Or something. But I've kinda been sitting helplessly looking at the computer and doing nothing for a good 20 minutes so I opened a blog post to see if writing could settle me a bit. It sometimes works.  It's Father's Day weekend and also the first federally recognized holiday of Juneteenth. Like a lot of people, I don't have a history with Juneteenth. I like the idea of people getting a recognized holiday to celebrate, but there's a flip side to it. The timing is terrible. To have a holiday in the third week in June here screws with our school calendar in m

This one probably calls for a picture but I don't want to work that hard. Right now, I'm "working" with Max. I'm not sure when we started doing this, probably around the time James went back to school full time. (James's last week of school is this week.) Max is pretty good at entertaining himself...wayyyy better than James was at that age...but he likes to be with people. It's like he never really outgrew parallel play. So he brings his crayons and markers and a coloring book or paper to the table and sits with me. At first he wouldn't let me be on the computer because he thought that was just messing around, but eventually he mellowed. I sit with him and write on the typewriter or in my book journal or do book reviews or whatever it is I do and he colors and chats with me about what he's doing. Sometimes I have a cup of tea. He can do this for upwards of an hour and when he's done will often wander into the living room to play and let me cont

On Thursdays I volunteer in James's class. It's actually a pretty sweet gig. My role is to work with the members of the fluency club, who are kids who just need to practice reading out loud to work on their reading fluency. I listen to them, time them, encourage them. And because reading is not an area where James struggles (believe me, there are areas where James struggles,) I get to be around without needing to be in his space which is good. As I was cleaning up to leave today (I'm there first thing in the morning for about an hour while Max stays home with Daddy while Daddy works,) they were working on writing their nonfiction books and James was extraordinarily proud of the book he is writing on tarantulas. I want that back. I want to be just delighted to be writing something, anything. Not struggling with imposter syndrome or wondering why I've never published that book I've been saying I'm going to write my entire life...to just be doing it. I miss that so