School's out!

The strangest school year ever is over at last. The official last day of school was Friday, June 19th, but elementary school report card pickup was Tuesday, June 16th. Jay and Rose finished their last assignments on Friday, June 12th. They each had one last class video meeting on Monday, June 15th before they were officially DONE. Confused yet? Welcome to "distance learning!" Hah. These ambiguous end dates wreaked havoc on my traditional "last day of school" pictures and end-of-school survey worksheet, so we decided to call Friday, June 12th our last day of school. We took our front porch pictures and filled out my homemade worksheets a full week before Jeff was officially done with his school year as a teacher. 

Snow Lakes

Last week it was high time for another Shaina trail adventure, but the weather forecasts in the mountains were cold, rainy, and stormy all week. I used the time to research possibilities, scouring maps, trip reports, trail descriptions, and weather forecasts for days before finally choosing my forest. This week the weather cleared. On Tuesday night, I threw together my gear and went to bed looking forward to an early start the next day.

Quarantine Hair

Jay was determined to wait until the school year ended before getting a haircut. Consequently, he grew an impressively luxurious strawberry mop of hair. The last time I trimmed his hair back in February was the best haircut I've ever given. My February fading and layering job on Jay's hair made it grow out in an almost-perfect way. The back didn't look bushy and mullet-long because I layered it so well and because the top was so much longer. It was satisfying to see my quality amateur work grow out so nicely. But the situation was getting intense. Jay developed a head-jerk-side-sweep to swoop the hair out of his eyes every few seconds. He voluntarily wore it in a ponytail on two separate occasions. He was feeling ready to see clearly again.

June Joys

School is winding down down down. There are still a few more things to be done before school is officially out for the summer, but it is rapidly waning. This week we had some oddly cool weather, with some storms and humidity. It made for some dynamic sky views--my favorite. 

On Monday my adult sized scooter came, so Jeff and I were able to enjoy scooter rides together. That same day, our ward primary had a kids' virtual talent show where each child could perform and share a video on our Facebook group or create art and share a picture of it. Jay played one of his favorite piano songs from Lord of the Rings. Rose did a flip on the trampoline. Amber drew a picture of a rainbow. It was fun seeing what talents the other kids in our ward shared, and helped us feel just a little more connected. 

Weird week

It was a weird week. I was in a funk. Intense events were happening nationwide. Social media morphed from a cozy place to touch base with friends to a polarized battleground of guilt trips and calls to arms. Inside my own home, all of my usual activities sounded either difficult or uninteresting in the most irritatingly relentless fashion. 

Just now, as I sat down to type this blog post, Amber destroyed a tree Rose built out of "brain flakes" building discs. Rose screamed and cried and shoved Amber away. Amber cried. As natural consequences, I had Rose apologize to Amber for the shove, and Amber had to clean up the busted pieces. Amber thought this was the most unfair edict ever, and in anger she tornado'd the blocks around the room, scattering them far and wide and making her clean-up job that much harder. For the next fifteen minutes or so, I endured Amber's endless protestations and outright refusal to clean up. Her main argument was she wanted lunch before she cleaned up the mess. I refused. She whined and moaned and kicked more pieces around. I told her whiny kids get naps instead of afternoon screen time. She got more mad. 

Happy Jeff-Day

June 1st was Jeff's birthday! We love him! I gave him an adult sized scooter. He gave himself a new video game controller. The kids made him cards. My mom sent him a book about a French snail named Escargot. Jeff requested Cajun shrimp for dinner and brownies with ice cream for dessert. I made my best batch of Cajun Shrimp ever, and even accessorized with several colorful side dishes. Side dishes are my nemesis, but I managed to slice a watermelon, heat and butter a can of sweet corn, cook the rice, and toss a heart of Romaine lettuce into a bowl. It was such a lovely summery meal, we ate it outside in the front yard. Lighting the birthday candles was a challenge in the breezy outdoors, so we don't have pictures of that portion. We lit a 3 and an 8 shaped candle, and one of them blew out before we could sing Happy Birthday at top speed. Jeff blew out the other one and we called it good. After dinner, Jeff's parents paid us a responsibly distant visit. They sat in our yard while we sat on our porch and chatted for half an hour. Happy birthday to the best husband ever!

Hex Mountain

About 100 miles northwest of our house is the tiny town of Cle Elum, nicknamed "the heart of the Cascades." Many recreation areas are still closed due to the pandemic, but extensive research revealed a gem of a trail hidden tucked away down an unmarked unnamed gravel road. No parking lot, no facilities, no closure--the perfect pandemic escape! This area was burned during the horrible wildfires of 2017, so trail info warned that it was a full-sun no-shade excursion. I knew I would need water for the endeavor. When my snazzy new hydration vest was delivered a few days early, I decided it was time to tackle the Hex Mountain Trail.  

May End

Another month is drawing to a close. Journal excerpts from the end of May: 

Monday, May 18, 2020. My book came today! The one I wrote! Well, it's the first draft, but I started reading it and got about a quarter of the way through. So far so good. I thought taking 2 weeks away from it felt like forever, but it all feels more familiar than I expected. I hope I can be objective and figure out what to do to it. 

Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Last night/early this morning I had the weirdest dream where I was preparing to fight Lord Voldemort and I couldn't find my wand. My wand was a tiny sewing pin and I kept losing it amidst a bunch of non-magical pins. In order to find my wand, I touched the pins and said "lumos" over and over until my wand-pin lit up. I knew I was going to fight Voldemort in my parents' house instead of Hogwarts, and I was stressed about making a mess in their house during my duel with my tiny pin-wand. It was a stressful dream, and I never actually got to the part where I fought Voldemort. Thank goodness! Haha, I haven't remembered a dream that vividly in a long time! Random!

Jay's Birthday

"It's not every day that your young man turns eleven." --Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Scanning the pages of HP book one made me relatively certain that this quote is only spoken in the movie, not the book, sadly.  I have been holding onto Hagrid's movie-quote for the past few years in anticipation of Jay's eleventh birthday, and at last the day came. Thursday, May 21st was Jay's day. He turned eleven in his calm collected easygoing way. No fanfare or dramatics; just a boy joyfully digging into a pile of new books wearing his new toy sword. We love our Jay!

Halfway through May

Somehow we are already halfway through May. Somehow we are only halfway through May. The days are all blending together in a long blob of quarantine sameness. May marked the beginning of the end of any given day "feeling" like a specific day. For example, pre-pandemic, Monday felt like a Monday because we had just done the usual church Sunday routine the previous day. Friday felt like Friday because we had finished four full busy weekdays. Sunday felt like Sunday because it had been a week since we had a day of rest and went to church. Now, we have precious little to mark the passing of our days. Even my journal entries feel bland and similar. It is a challenge to TAKE each day and MAKE it useful when we have zero plans outside of our home. Running is my sanity right now.

Whites Ridge Run

Abstract, aka short version, aka Instagram summary of my glorious Monday run: I indulged in a long rugged solo run with wind-whispering pines, sun-warmed sap scent, sky-hugging views, and rushing icy water for company. It aired out my soul.

Detailed version: On Monday, May 11th, I decided to go on a trail run in Ahtanum State Forest, since most WA state parks opened back up the previous week. Jeff endorsed the outing and manned the home front while I wandered. Before I left, I looked up Whites Ridge Trail online to make sure that it was actually open. It was, so I packed a sandwich, an extra pair of socks, and some water, and drove the 75 minutes to the trailhead. I listened to piano music on the way there, and felt that familiar heady soaring sensation of freedom with every lovely note. Then I started passing actual trees and my anticipation mounted even higher. I asked myself over and over why I hadn't sought natural solitude before now, with all of the relentless home-home-home time we've had lately. Then I remembered that state parks only just barely opened up one week ago, and many of our favorite trails and all of our nearby national parks are still all closed. This outing was an extra-special treat.

The day for mothers

Mother's day is complicated. It catapults so many mixed up emotions into the air all at once, I get into a tangled twisted muddle. Normally I am content to do the mom gig and all that goes with it--currently, everything I do goes unnoticed and is taken for granted. But stupid ole mother's day comes along and makes me want things, like a little extra appreciation and love. During the week leading up to mother's day, I ran my own annoying personal gauntlet of emotions regarding the idea of mother's day. It was exhausting, but I made it out of the dark cavern little by little and now I am safely on the other side, back in the open air, back in my usual position behind the spotlight. I realize that my issues with mother's day are tame and lame compared to what many others go through, but that doesn't make them any less valid. I have a loving husband and three healthy kids; I shouldn't complain about them not "caring enough" on mother's day, whatever that even means. But I feel that way and it's ok. I get over it and we move on.