Quarantine Journals - playground, butterflies, Texas is open again

I know I missed a day, still I feel like I'm coming here with the same old news. We spent the last two days outside mostly. Richard has been finishing off the playground, and the kids and I have been back-and-forth between the backyard and the pool that we have set up in the side yard. We let the butterflies go yesterday, and the kids really enjoyed it. I got the whole several of them, and one of them kept bouncing around from one of us to the other before it finally said goodbye.

The playground is almost completely finished. We can't find a slide anywhere, so Richards making a little door for that space. He's also making the pulley system for them.

I had a rough night last night. I finished watching shits creek, which made me cry, and then I realized what day it was, and I sought out on the back porch singing Rick's favorite him and thinking of our last time together. Went to bed super late, and woke up teary-eyed still. The morning was rough, Penny was ready for battle. The last few days she's just been angry and ready to attack. She doesn't want to entertain herself. She repeats everything 1 million times. And she just gets one thing stuck in her head and I can't redirect her to anything else.

We played outside for an hour before she had her virtual field trip with her class via zoom. Their field trip last about an hour, during which Oliver chatted with Aurora and then sat down next to Penny at the table and I said them lunch. I got to watch videos from animals at the San Diego zoo and watch some of their live cam feeds. Some of the kids seem to really enjoy it, and some of the kids seemed crazy as usual.

During that time I watch the documentary about Schitt's Creek it had a nice big cry. It was such a precious, joyful show and I guess it just meant a lot to me to have that little bright beacon to end my day with.

Richard and I shared some hugs today, I'm trying to help push each other through the day. He spent some time working on the playground, and I spent some time moving the seedlings to larger pots, sending them out, and hardening some off the move outside. The outside plants seem to be doing OK. The onion that have sprouted in the house is thriving outside. The plants inside are doing well, and the aero garden is getting bigger and bigger. I still got an issue with watering and fungus gnats, but we're probably too deep for me to get rid of them anytime soon.

Before dinner, I took the kids out and let them splash in the swimming pool in the side yard again. Our neighbors toddler time or direction, and they started a very nice distance away and we yelled at each other for a few minutes. She's the one neighbor that seems to be taking this all fairly seriously. She wears lots of PBS and feminist shirts, and I think I would probably like her and like to get to know her, under different circumstances where we weren't yelling all of our conversations across the side yard. She said they finally broke down and hired one of the daycare workers to come hang out with the kids so that they can catch up on their work.

While I was watching the kids splash, Richard got a video call from Alan and Jake. So he got a chance to chat with them, which I think was really good, especially this weekend. I was really feeling somewhat suffocated by the fact that I don't really get any breaks to do anything or use my brain for anything that's not Parents related. So I pulled a table over and did some gardening while the kids were splashing, and they gradually moved from the pool to the driveway where they started washing Richard's car. They seem to have a lot of fun, but Penny's heart was set on a water balloon fight that never really happened. 

Today, the straggler murder worm emerged from his cocoon, and it is actually just a vengeful butterfly. So we will be waiting a couple of days and setting him free outside as well.

Tonight I stayed up to iron some fabric so that I can move, inch by inch, closer to making us some masks. While I was ironing, I just restarted the Schitt's Creek Siri so I could watch it again. I know that probably seems a little bit obsessive, but it makes me happy, so I'm just leaning into it.

Today is my first day in Texas has re-opened.  The governor has declared that all retail and restaurant/dining businesses make reopen, but that it's their choice. Of course, most of them are choosing to reopen. The only limitation is that they have to stay at 25% capacity. He does not require mass, and he basically said that he overrides with any of the counties decide to do. The 25% capacity is policed only by the Manessa Pallardy's, who never wanted to reopen in the first place. I have seen a startling amount of post today, locals who are checking in at bars or restaurants or lining up down the street to going to Hobby lobby. My brain continues to explode with each social media exposure. The number of cases/deaths in Dallas county Was again at its highest today. There is absolutely no logical reason for why we are re-opening, but we continue to do it anyway.

My dad emailed, ready for a new round of groceries. So I will be managing that logistics tomorrow.

Speaking of food, I seem to be gaining quite a bit of weight despite the fact that I don't feel like my eating habits are changing that much. So, that kind of sucks and is concerning, but also just depressing when there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Perhaps I could adopt some work out at home regimen, but I don't really have the mental bandwidth to take on/research anything else right now. So we will just continue business as usual.