I remind myself daily that we have a lot to be grateful for. In this pandemic, we are what is referred to as “best case scenario.” Meaning we can work from home, have job security, have enough food to eat, internet to support working and learning from home.
I repeat, best case scenario. So as we learn to navigate Phase 2 of life in North Carolina (and what that means for my teens and their friends. More on that in my next post), what am I grateful for in our crazy world of the unknown?
1. The main photo for this post. We have baby cardinals. We have always had cardinals in the yard, but I could never find their nests. Yesterday morning I was grateful that it was not raining (like it had been for 4 days) and so the pandemic puppy and I were enjoying my morning caffeine outside again. As I was walking back toward the house, I heard little chirp sounds coming from the Gardenia bush. I looked and looked and finally saw their nest. It was so hard to find when I came back outside with my camera. Very good spot mama Cardinal.
2. My virtual Girl Scout meetings. I am in charge of doing programming for girls in 4th and 5th grade. One of the girls is working on a Take Action Project to breakdown a specific stereotype to educate others about this important topic. She is going to record a video for her project as a way to reach more people. She is also planning to write a song as another way to make her message heard. She was the only girl who participated this week, but it was very meaningful to me to be able to reach and teach her how to share her message with others.
3. My sweet Aidan is healing well after his ACL surgery. We made an hourly schedule so he knows when to take medications, use the ice machine, and when to do his exercises. His range of motion improved from 50 degrees to 62 degrees from his first to second appointment this week, which means he is doing the exercises. I was really impressed with how well he listened and answered all the questions the PT asked him.
4. Bailey is officially a “car dog.” Smooched loved to go for rides, so I was a bit disappointed when Bailey would get car sick when in the car. Apparently motion sickness in puppies usually goes away around 6 mos of age, so she is happy sticking her head out the window and riding wherever we go.
5. My at home hair stylist. The teen girl talked me into a balayage treatment. I had this done professionally a few years ago, but the lightness at the ends of my hair have been trimmed so many times that my hair was just mousey brown. I am super happy with the lightness and this style is easy to maintain during quarantine. Win-Win!
6. Our very own personal chef. The husband is still doing a lot of working from home (picture lots of conversations about constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux) and every day around 5pm he opens the fridge to see what ingredients he has to work with and whips up an amazing dinner. This is one aspect of quarantine I would like to keep going.
7. We are hitting the road RV style in June. This will be the first summer since the kiddos were toddlers that we won’t be at Wrightsville Beach for Father’s Day week. But we realized last summer that teenagers are not that excited about spending a week at the beach with parents, so this tradition might not have continued anyway. I signed up with Harvest Hosts and rented a Class 3 RV (perfect for beginners). The rules for Harvest Hosts are that you can only stay one night, it is dry camping (which means no electric hook up or water access) and you are asked to buy something from the host. They provide a list of farms, wineries, breweries complete with reviews. Most of the time your RV will be the only one on site at a time and most sites have self-guided tours. Sounds good to me, so we are going to give it a try. It can’t be worse than staying at home, right?
So there you have it. My current list of what I am grateful for, most of all being in the group called “best case scenario” in our current pandemic.