The sky is the color of a used eraser and the roads are sludgy and Sullivan has mysterious red spots all over the palms of his hands so I kept him home from school today. It's nap time; Scarlett's sleeping and Sully's curled up in my bed watching Paw Patrol. I'm in the living room at my desk with a cup of coffee and massive blanket and leftover Halloween candy. I've lit a candle for maximum Hygge. People swear by lighting a candle.
I've now lit a second candle because the first one wasn't doing anything for me.
I'm giving the candles a moment to kick in.
Okay, well, I'm feeling no effect from the candles, but the blanket is nice.
It's been a long time since I've blogged about something other than publishing (I guess the last time would've been in June when that guy tried to break into our house in the middle of the night), and I enjoy stream-of-consciousness writing, like in the good old days of blogging, so here's that. In fact, maybe I'll reach even further back in time and do, like, an old-school family newsletter-type blog post. The kind your family got in the mail in the 90s from your mom's friend whose kids are around the same age as you—who she says you were besties with when you were two and she's shocked you can't remember them because you loved each other so much it was adorable—but, really, you were two.
Here goes:
Life is quiet lately. Barclay's first full landscaping season (which went swimmingly, I thought) is finally starting to wind down; he's got a few projects to finish up and then we're into snow clearing days—which means that we get to see him more, but also that I get a bit of time to leave the house and work during the day, which I'm excited for. I like being a stay-at-home mom, but I also really like working and letting Barclay be at home with the kids. Plus, the winter schedule means I get my evenings off (*trumpets*). In the summer, because I don't really get to work during the day, I generally work from 7 pm until...whenever I can afford to go to sleep. In the winter, I get to watch Netflix and read books in the evenings and hang out with people. It feels amazing. Balance, you guys. Totally underrated. I'm working on book three, but it's not under contract so I have a bit of room to breathe and not run myself into the ground over it (again).
Sullivan's in kindergarten now. That's weird. He loves it, which is great. Generally, he's really nervous about new people and new situations, so I was fully prepared for the kindergarten experience to be...hard. To put it lightly. But on his first day, Sully just hugged me goodbye and disappeared into the school with all these kids and teachers he'd never even seen before. I could tell he was nervous but he just did it. I, obviously, burst into tears and another mom came over and said stuff to me like, "It's hard, isn't it? When they don't need you anymore?" and "He'll be okay; this school is so great." And I was crying so hard I couldn't talk so I just fanned my face like I'd just won a beauty pageant and nodded like I was sad that he didn't need me anymore or like I was worried about him. But the truth was, I was so proud of him, and that was it. He's still into drumming and pretending to be an adult man for hours at a time.
Scarlett and I are spending a lot of one-on-one time together, and that's good too. I mean, she's pretty cranky about not being allowed to go to kindergarten and even more cranky about not having Sully around, but I can tell she also likes having the house (and me) to herself. She's talking so much now and her most frequently used phrase is, "Oh! I love that!" or, when she's eating, "This is a happy meal!" (Even if it's not actually a Happy Meal™.)
That's...basically it. I know my newsletter skills hardly rival that of a legit 90s mom, but maybe that's okay? It's really not a fair fight anyway, since you can't use your fancy Stampin' Up scissors on the edges of a blog page.
I've now lit a second candle because the first one wasn't doing anything for me.
I'm giving the candles a moment to kick in.
Okay, well, I'm feeling no effect from the candles, but the blanket is nice.
It's been a long time since I've blogged about something other than publishing (I guess the last time would've been in June when that guy tried to break into our house in the middle of the night), and I enjoy stream-of-consciousness writing, like in the good old days of blogging, so here's that. In fact, maybe I'll reach even further back in time and do, like, an old-school family newsletter-type blog post. The kind your family got in the mail in the 90s from your mom's friend whose kids are around the same age as you—who she says you were besties with when you were two and she's shocked you can't remember them because you loved each other so much it was adorable—but, really, you were two.
Here goes:
Life is quiet lately. Barclay's first full landscaping season (which went swimmingly, I thought) is finally starting to wind down; he's got a few projects to finish up and then we're into snow clearing days—which means that we get to see him more, but also that I get a bit of time to leave the house and work during the day, which I'm excited for. I like being a stay-at-home mom, but I also really like working and letting Barclay be at home with the kids. Plus, the winter schedule means I get my evenings off (*trumpets*). In the summer, because I don't really get to work during the day, I generally work from 7 pm until...whenever I can afford to go to sleep. In the winter, I get to watch Netflix and read books in the evenings and hang out with people. It feels amazing. Balance, you guys. Totally underrated. I'm working on book three, but it's not under contract so I have a bit of room to breathe and not run myself into the ground over it (again).
Sullivan's in kindergarten now. That's weird. He loves it, which is great. Generally, he's really nervous about new people and new situations, so I was fully prepared for the kindergarten experience to be...hard. To put it lightly. But on his first day, Sully just hugged me goodbye and disappeared into the school with all these kids and teachers he'd never even seen before. I could tell he was nervous but he just did it. I, obviously, burst into tears and another mom came over and said stuff to me like, "It's hard, isn't it? When they don't need you anymore?" and "He'll be okay; this school is so great." And I was crying so hard I couldn't talk so I just fanned my face like I'd just won a beauty pageant and nodded like I was sad that he didn't need me anymore or like I was worried about him. But the truth was, I was so proud of him, and that was it. He's still into drumming and pretending to be an adult man for hours at a time.
Scarlett and I are spending a lot of one-on-one time together, and that's good too. I mean, she's pretty cranky about not being allowed to go to kindergarten and even more cranky about not having Sully around, but I can tell she also likes having the house (and me) to herself. She's talking so much now and her most frequently used phrase is, "Oh! I love that!" or, when she's eating, "This is a happy meal!" (Even if it's not actually a Happy Meal™.)
That's...basically it. I know my newsletter skills hardly rival that of a legit 90s mom, but maybe that's okay? It's really not a fair fight anyway, since you can't use your fancy Stampin' Up scissors on the edges of a blog page.