jedimentat

Took a family outing to Grounds for Sculpture

One of my, and Libby's, fave parts was actually the really gorgeous lotus flowers in all the lilyponds

some Shanghai buns on the way back

Sunset Sunflower Yoga

holding hands during savasana, oh my heart.

With the start of school, I'm not in a good place.
I feel like the summer of stress and alcohol has taken a real toll on my body; I got poison ivy this summer for the first time, scratched it and spread it everywhere, so whatever is going on, my body is like yaaay inflammation. And I'm feeling RRP-ish and had to make an appointment (in September in NYC during Covid-times, and man, that sucks more than usual). Hoping to beat that second Covid wave if I need surge.

I undertook a lot of "pandemic projects" over the summer, just kept picking and doing more things, and man, I have some regrets and fails. I wish I could train myself to look more fondly on the successes and the learning process, but it's coupled with a sort of frantic gathering-of-resources feeling, bc of, idk, American society at the moment.

I'm so so angry at our government, and demoralized, and alarmed. Determined to do what I can for social justice, and for my family's safety and success, but the death-cultism and idiocy and ignorance right now is staggering, not to mention extremely dangerous, and there is no easy fix or way out. And this is not even me being dramatic or paranoid, it's actually a statement that is minimizing the situation. There have also been wildfires and hurricanes, and both sides are already worrying that the results of the election will be invalid. And the Post Office (which I always took for granted, like flushies or electricity), is all jacked up because of politics. There have been more BLM protests, met with "militia" presence, and even a 17 year old blowing people away with an AK at a protest. The daily situations are pretty intense. And a lot of August focus has been on school stuff...whether or not to open, how to open safely, etc. We're just starting to see the first Back-to-School pics this last week of August, as some return to hybrid schooling (we're doing virtual, so it's pretty all pretty wierd).

Watched the RNC Convention, which might have been why I am in a darker place these few weeks.

We got a good amount of pool-time in this summer, and Kirk learned to swim without swimmies.
Liberty learned to ride her bike without training wheels.

We did a *lot* of home-time, playing with toys, playing video games, playing in the yard.

I hung out with some friends in my "pod," and I'm really grateful for my cautious and smart girlies. We did some firepit with our firepod.

Went on some hikes and riverwalks

Here's a rundown of some of what I'm calling my "pandemic projects" and just other snapshots of what I've been doing, in no particular order:

Raised quail, learned new things about quail (rather after the fact). found out that they are the wrong breed for daily eggs. Started thinking about next steps to take with quail, although my children are using them for their 4H project.

Ran for Board of Education, first political campaign. Will post more about that in September, but really the campaign is just one intense month, because mail in voting starts in NJ October 4.

Various online Zooms for churchy-things, bc we're not going to church in person

Building a shed, which was mostly done by my friend but I helped a tiny bit, painted the shed

Did some FB Marketplacing, both buying and selling. Found a new corner bookshelf for the library, and an antique living room set (armoire, 2 buffet cabinets), with resulting ring story

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After the ring episode, I took my kids to some graveyards. We discussed them, and visited a family plot and I told them about some family members who died before they met them. Then we visited my old church's old graveyard, which has some very old tombstones but is currently in rough shape.

House-chores, mostly done by contractors etc:

knocked down old rotting chicken house, put in missing fence panel

Powerwashed Carriage House, re-painted

Chimney Re-Masoned and Flashed (this was a 6 month long headache with some irate phone calls. hope it was worth it.

Kids' and My Wardrobe sorted, culled, re-sorted, several times. I painted my closet.

And our lawn has never looked so good! we got stung and poison-ivy'd though

We had kale all summer from our backyard garden, and some lovely sunflowers and random squashes.

seventeen bags of corn for the freezer, and playing 'Corn Fairy' to friends' and neighbors' mailboxes. Been doing a CSA farm-share all summer from Melicks and it's been nice.