Processing

A week ago, Monday, Grace and Juliet were both recovering from some sort of illness that had them vomiting Sunday night.  I was scheduled to work Monday, so they stayed home with Billy, both were feeling better, but they hadn't cleared the 24-hour window to return to school.  I woke up feeling okay, so William and I dropped off the big girls as usual, but when we arrived at his school, I suddenly had a headache.  William had been complaining about how unfair it was that the twins 'got' to stay home, so when he complained about not feeling well, I gave him a wait and see response.  Especially so close to covid recovery as a society, no one wants to be around a sick person, so after ensuring that my charges would be well cared for, I took my leave and went home.

I slept, and around midday the office called me to come get William.  He was moving slowly, but managed a quick recovery once home with his recovered sisters.  Billy, Alice and Emily did seem to escape any ill effects though. 

That night, we caught word of the MSU shooting.  Memories of my own college days flooded back, how carefree they were, unlike the covid ridden and mass shooting society of today.  My heart breaks for all of the MSU students and staff, and the effects were felt throughout the entire Lansing area.  

Despite or because of* what was going on in the world outside of our walls, I laid out Valentine's gifts** on the table for the morning.

The majority of Ingham County schools were closed Tuesday, and since the little ones' district is based primarily in Ingham County, they were off.  The big girls go to Eaton County school, so they had classes as usual. Since I was already out, I followed my usual Monday shopping routine, since I hadn't managed to work or shop the day before, and Billy was home with the small ones.  

We received updates via email from WG&J's teachers. They made plans to adjust Valentine events for later in the week, and sent out information offering help and support if needed.

On Wednesday, everyone was back to a regular schedule, though the world felt a little off kilter.  Avia sent a valentine's gift of cash to enjoy an Arby's meal.  Since we barely muddled through Tuesday, we held off for the Wednesday, on which the little ones would get out before the big girls and be forced to come collect them with me.  We went straight to Arby's, but went inside to place our very large order.  The woman behind the counter was patient and kind, and helped the little ones get what they wanted for their individual budget of $7 (which can go quite far during happy hour!.)  When we were finished and the order had been checked and rehashed, an older gentleman (wearing a Spartan cap, which I feel could be an important detail) offered to pay for the meal.  Of course I protested, our meals are quite pricey, and we had gotten milk shakes and other treats, but he insisted.  His eyes were tear filled,  my eyes were tear filled, the woman taking the order had tear filled eyes.  It was the kindest gesture from a stranger, and gave a little bit of light in a very dark world.

We brought our food home, and I did what I could to keep Billy's warm, since we had gone quite early, straight from the big girls' pick up at 2:45, and he wouldn't be home until after 5.  Emily and I decided to call the very kind gentleman "our stranger."

Thursday morning we woke up to news articles that the 'shelter in place' had been lifted for Dimondale, because there was a shooting at Cherry & Washington St.  This is literally 1.5 blocks away.  They assured everyone there was no threat to the public^, which was good, as we had all been asleep and blissfully unaware of any danger. It is of slight concern that our phones did not warn us of the shelter in place, since we should have been on the towers in the affected area.  Just the same, the school morning went along as planned.

That afternoon, I got a separate message from both schools that another shelter in place was in effect at a point about halfway between their two schools, and both schools were in lockdown under an 'abundance of caution.'  I had a doctor's appointment that I ended up driving to in a roundabout fashion, as to avoid the lock down area.  My heart felt like it had been through the ringer, and when my appointment ran long, I was just a few minutes late for picking up the big girls.  The staff there was trying to usher students quickly out the door, as icy condition were starting to develop, and they were starting their 5 day weekend, so there were no afterschool activities.  I was happy to have them back, in one piece, for another day.

A skating party was planned as a fundraiser for the little ones, but I had warned them that morning that if the roads were questionable, we would not be going.  Sure enough, after we gratefully collected the little ones, and came home, my runner was so icy I slipped just getting out of the car.  I called off the skating, but did order pizza.  When I went to collect it (and get a few things from Carl's), there was still a bit of rain coming down, but as I made my way back to the car, I was sliding around on the sidewalk, because ice pellets were falling from the sky.  By the time Billy made it home, even his protests had quelled, in the face of ice.

Thursday night, our endlessly long week was truncated, due to ice, and the break could not have come at a better time.  The little ones got to start their break one day early, and having all of my dear ones safely tucked away is currently my favorite thing in the whole world.

This week has also been a little unexpected, thanks to an ice storm that cancelled the big girls return to school on both Wednesday and Thursday, but Billy also got to work from home, which made the break feel a little longer and more restful.

I'm hoping for a much quieter, less eventful spring, since winter has had far more excitement than I care for.  Either way, we will continue to love and attempt to be someone's "stranger" whenever the opportunity arises!

later days

*I'm sure philosophers and psychologists around the world have debated why people continue to do the normal despite the terrible. 

**Grace let out a squeak when she saw hers, and sadly I didn't get to see William's reaction, but Billy assured me it was favorable.  I was so excited to share his.  He requested a shotgun (that released shells after shooting) for Christmas, but when I went out to find it, it was not even Nerf brand, and it was almost $50!!!  About a month ago, I found one at a thrift store for under $2!  It only had a single casing, which allowed me to test to make sure that it still worked.  After affirming that it did, I had to shop eBay for more casings, which were more than the $2 for the gun, but much cheaper than the $50 for a new one.

^based on the information given it was a murder/suicide of an 18 year old girl & 24 year old boy, in a relationship of some sort, and one of whom lived at the residence.

Other Fun!

This is the place where I include all of the events and pictures that don't have their own post.

Grace made a cute face on her knee using playdoh.

Emily reminds me a lot of myself at times, and so when I was at the thrift store and found a stash of 50 or so hair tie sets that someone had made (maybe to sell at a craft show?) I grabbed them.  When I presented them to Emily, it was for her to pick through to give to her friends at school. 

She carefully selected patterns and colors for each of her friends, then bagged then up with some candy and labelled them. So as not to exclude the boys in her group, she made up some strictly candy goodie bags too.

Also in the bag were these two nifty hair pieces, for which we had to find a youtube video to learn how to use.  lol.  They are really cute though!

The second fundraising roller skate night was two days before Christmas break, so we were all tired, but it was nice to order a pizza and hang out while the kids went to hang out with their friends.  Even the big girls had fun.  They considered it a practice for the field trip they would get to go on the next day with their classmates!

Grace got some gloves from someone at school as a Christmas present.

The look of delight on William's face when he found this kitchen "gun" that we were using to decorate some cupcakes was priceless.  I caught it just as he was turning away though.

Eggs used to be a cheap protein choice, but now they are running around $5 a dozen (thanks to avian flu and a few other bird illnesses) so these deviled eggs were an expensive "treat" but they came out very tasty!

I made some fresh bread, because it just seemed like something I hadn't done all year, so I got at least one loaf in. = )

We found this secret message book at the thrift store one day.  It had lots of neat codes in it, but the red filter cutout was missing, so some of the codes were quite tricky to try and decipher. After a search of likely places for some 3D glasses came up empty, I was so proud when Grace colored a piece of tape with red sharpie to help her decode the words. = )

The twins were particularly goofy when Renae came over to hang out one weekend.

In her absence, Avia left money to treat us to a milkshake during happy hour at Arby's.  Some of my children opted for the larger shake, others opted for the smaller shake and fries. = )

I'm sure I've told the story here before, but have no idea where, so I'll tell it here again.  Many years ago, Emily was reading the tags under the Christmas tree and found one for Billy.  It read "to" Daddy from: ALL."  Emily came to me full of disbelief and asked "mutti, who is A-L-L???"  like she absolutely couldn't believe that this person, of whom she'd never heard, would be giving Billy a gift!!!  

After teasing her, and still doing so occasionally to this day, A-L-L has become our invisible 'monster' who is never on the floor of the house we are on.  He lives mostly upstairs and in the basement.  Well, one day I was driving through town and learned that A-L-L got a job!!  We don't know what he does, but that is totally his van.

Alice is carving a niche out for herself as the resident band snack provider.  Now that her band director has returned, she brought some blueberry muffins to share with her class.

At a thrift shop, Emily and I found a squishimal that was designed to look like bubble tea.  She had never had bubble tea, so we ventured out to a nearby shop.  Sadly, this was during the break and they were closed until after the New Year.  So, the following weekend, she asked if we could go get some.  When Billy heard we were going for bubble tea, he assumed we were heading to East Lansing, where there are several bubble tea shops, and he wanted to come along and get some No Thai.  

They are one of the few stores, outside of doctor's offices, that are still requiring masks to enter.  So, we had to run out to the car to grab our masks.

They had the strangest combination of a German name, Chinese characters and English translations as an afterthought.

I had done some research in anticipation of our first trip and picked out the Taro flavored bubble tea.  Emily and Grace both wimped out and picked an oreo flavored drink.  I did have them try mine though, so that they would know what bubble tea tastes like, should anyone ask whether or not they like it.   Bubble tea is not my favorite, I really dont like "chunks' in my food or drink.  But the flavor was spot on and I would totally recommend it if you're new to bubble tea and need a starting point.

At the thrift shop, I found a Tucana friend for the cockatoo that Chelsea bought me years ago!

Alice and Emily are part of Monday cooking club.  On their first day, they made cupcakes, the second round was from scratch pretzels!!  I think they are having a good time, and the pretzels were pretty good (a little undercooked, since they ran out of time.)

We celebrated Billy's 41st birthday with a resee's peanut butter cup ice cream cake for breakfast!

He saved his birthday gifts for after work.  He got a pile of homemade gifts and cards from the kids.  I added some subway gift cards and a new Halloween house for his budding Halloween village.

Alice is on the internet alot, and was telling me how very little I knew about modern fashion.  Particularly "suede goth with preppy vibes."  I told her all except for one of those has been a thing *at least* since I was in high school.  The little girls decided to dress up to see if they could nail the look. lol.

Alice was not amused.  I thought it was hilarious.

later days

All the Fun!

Aside from just school, and sports, and band, we've been having fun doing other fun things too!

Emily loved my school days book so much (when I was able to pull out my 8th grade (I don't know what happened to my 7th grade) class schedule from Jr. High to show them) that she wanted to make one for herself. 

We had collected a few things to make one ourselves out of a spiral, and my "secret plan" was to buy her a real one for Christmas.

Somehow, when we went to the thrift store that morning, she found one, barely used, written in only pencil, for 90 cents.  Y'all, this girl is soooo lucky!  So far, she's used fancy photo corners to put in past pictures, and collected all of her cross country tags and class schedule to slide in the envelope.

I found a new battery organizer!  My only complaint is the tiny button battery storage area, so I still have to keep my basket with those.  It is so much faster to grab what I need, and I really love the tester too!

We learned this year that chippunks climb bushes!

2 weeks after the little ones started, and one week after the big girls started, I had three sick ones home in one day!!!  They all rested and recovered quickly.

Then, I went down.  I was much slower to recover.  Once I tested positive, Billy had to test, and he had it to.  The Covid got us.  = (  It wasn't awful, and we all lived, but it wasn't fun.  It seems that Emily and William managed to escape completely or perhaps suffered the least.

Halloween decorations at Menard's make me curse my lack of outdoor plugs all the more.

We were at Menard's because Billy built me a raised bed garden to extend into next year!!!! I loved all of our cucumbers and tomatoes and onions and pumpkins, so we're going to do even more next year!

The ladybug colony loved sunning every morning when we were out on the playground waiting for school to start.

I found a heart shaped chip for Emily to present (the night before school started, judging by the pile of snacks on Juliet's computer cabinet.)

Once everyone had their lockers in working order at the big girls' school, students were no longer allowed to carry backpacks.  This was a point of annoyance for Emily, since she had to carry everything loose.  Apparently, this problem is prominent enough that 5 star makes a GIANT binder that can hold a chromebook, file folders, papers, and a pencil bag.   Sadly, they were sold out, of the color scheme of Emily's preference, online everywhere (except for double price on Amazon.)  I sent a plea to my mom and sisters and Avia delivered!!!  

It wasn't the navy and pink request that she sent to me, but grey and pink was good enough, that on day one she even dressed to match! = )

As a footnote, Alice has been offered the same, but has so far declined.

Juliet was so sad when her hoodie, whose service has been appreciated for several years, was too short in the sleeves.  We pulled out an old hoodie of Alice's, but there were still tears.  So, this picture was the goodbye small jacket, we love you picture.  The new hoodie has served her well so far. = )

As a family, we are rough on furniture.  The last free recliner, that we were gifted, served us for many years, but was slowly decaying.  It was to the point that the floor was more comfortable than the chair.  

Once again, Avia came to the rescue and found us a new recliner. It is not nearly as fancy, but its comfort is far superior.  After initiating it into our house, we put our old chair out for trash pick-up.  Since it was around Labor Day, trash was strange, so we let it sit out for 3 weeks before I called the village office to find out what needed to happen to get it picked up.  

Turns out, we had to pay a fee (not that big of a deal) but to even find out the price I was to create, yet another, account with the trash service*, which is a deal breaker.

So, I told William that he was on destruction duty, which was right up his alley. ; ) He spent many fifteen-minute rounds tearing up the chair, so that the pieces would fit into our trash can.  He did a fantastic job, but after he exhausted the easy bits, and I took some scissors to the upholstery, Billy had to step in with his Axe and finish it off.

Speaking of our little village, we have had two new art installations this year!  We missed the dedication of the first, though it is lovely, but we were able to go to the party that accompanied the second.  Well, some of us did.  Emily was at cross country, and so it was just Grace, and Billy and Me.

After listening to some live music, we headed to unveiling.

It is such a perfect piece, and I'm thankful that it was designed by someone who loves this village as much as we do.

I don't recall how Grace wanted her hair, but I recommended the clip going up against her skull, holding the braid.  Much to my surprise, it was still in place when she came home!!

Once of the saddest days of my year: winterizing my sandals.  I slather on the lotion, and it sits all winter, so that the water damage of the summer can heal a bit.  Looks like it's closed toed shoes for me for the forseeable future.

We attended our first school skate night since 2019? possibly 2020?  It was so.busy.  apparently, this was the first one they've had since the shutdown, and everyone showed up for it!  We were able to bring 4/5 pairs of skates**, share a pizza and have a lovely time.  We'd forgotten so many of the details, that we can't wait until next time so that we don't' feel like such noobs!

I don't know if it's being back among people we've missed, or just feeling like we're 'vested' in Michigan, but it's been a wonderful couple of months, despite any hardships^.  I'm feeling hopeful, despite the looming winter, I hope it sticks.

later days

 *the village provides trash service, so we don't have an individual account.

**I'm lacking a pair for Emily's size.

^like Emily's brutal afterschool cross country schedule, lol.

Some Blurry Skating Photos

William managed to avoid injury in the weeks and days leading up to the fundraising event, so we all made it to the first one! 

The pictures weren't great, but the pizza was!  It is one of my favorite ways to spend a Thursday evening. = )

later days

Skate Night

4 times a year, the school hosts a fundraiser at the local skating rink.  The kids love to go, and the school gets money it's a nice setup.  We bring our own skates, but this time Juliet's skates were rejected because they were balanced in line skates. = (  Sadly, those were the ones that were purchased new.

This particular trip, we brought along Alice's friend Willow.  She is one of the few that has used the spare seat in our car multiple times. = )  She is a gracious guest, and always includes Alice's siblings!

Billy gave them the option of arcade tokens or 'skatemates,' but Alice was the only one who picked the arcade.

Emily really wanted in my picture:

The pizza dinner was tasty as always (they are my favorite local pizza place.)

At the end of the night, poor Willow fell and injured her back.  She's still recovering, poor thing.  Hopefully she heals soon.

My crew had a great time, and looks forward to going next year.

later days