Day 37- April 18, 2020

Day 37- April 18, 2020

The guest room pre-cleanup

Today was a cleaning day- sort of.  I say sort of because without hawk-like supervision, my daughters are not the best at putting things away.  The younger one inevitably begins to take the things that need to be put away, and instead develops an elaborate storyline for them, complete with placing them in new places (granted, more orderly places, but we now have a pet shop on her desk with all her Beanie Boos).  The older one finds a book that she's half finished with, flips it open, sprawls out, and an hour later, whines "I got dis-TRACT-ed!" when I find her oblivious to the pile of stuff she's snow-angeled into the space around her.

But I at least got the downstairs relatively clean.  Homework from the last week has been placed in or on the piano bench in the corner, area rug has been vacuumed, shelves are dusted, and the living room looks like a place I want to hang out again.  The girls eventually picked up the majority of the Legos, and I was able to vacuum the guest room and put it back together so I can clean out the closet and go through our linens tomorrow (I need to get rid of the excess so we can have space for what we actually need).

I'm glad I cleared stuff out, because one of our grocery delivery services, www.gratefulproducebox.com (who I ordered from YESTERDAY and said it would likely take up to 4 business days to arrive) showed up this morning.  I commenced with wiping down everything plastic with Lysol, submerging all fruits and veggies into water to decontaminate them, and organizing the produce into new containers.  It was mixing bowls for the pears and apples, a tray for some of the biggest mushrooms I've ever seen, and some glass Tupperware for the blueberries and blackberries.  I also started planning dinner in my head: sautéed asparagus, giant salad, leftover pizza for me, and Annie's Mac and Cheese for the kids.

One of my favorite parts of having fresh produce is that I've been buying a few things we don't normally have, like celery, since there are minimum amounts you have to spend, and there's only so much lettuce one can eat before it starts to go bad.  The celery makes me especially happy, because when I was younger, we would go to Martha's Vineyard and stay at my Aunt Dot's house, and the salads there were always a motley crew of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrots, and celery as the "different" ingredient.  It adds a crunchy texture and an earthy taste, and every time I have it, I flash back to those family meals on the splintering, weathered deck looking out over the bay.

The rest of the day was relatively lazy.  It was cold (again), and drizzly (also again), and we discovered Dessert Games with Duff on the Food Network Go app.  The girls may have watched more Sonny With a Chance (I think they only have an episode or two left of the series at this point), and my friend Heather came over to grab the birthday supplies for her son's birthday tomorrow.  He's turning 11, and I'm thrilled that the helium tank, balloons, and sign are being used again to make another kid happy during the lockdown.  It was also good to see one of my best friends in person (even if it was from about thirty feet apart) and talk about "normal" things like our children, and getting them to read more, and how to keep them occupied and happy.  We lost track of time until her husband texted me looking for her (she'd left the phone in the car) and questioning if I could ask her if he should start dinner.

It was good to see her.  I'm looking forward to days spent with her and her kids in one of our yards while we sit on the porch watching them.  It's the little things like that that I am missing right now.  Someday soon, this will all be a memory, and we'll go back to living like we used to.  But I do hope that the desire for closeness to the people who matter to us remains strong, and that we remember to appreciate each other a bit more.