my pink life, mi vida rosada

 I almost made an "Ides of March" joke/title, but (crossing my fingers I don't jinx it) so far, March is looking better than February.  I mean, we are here in something like 3rd winter/beginning of the pollen season, which also means the weather is super unpredictable and gives me sleeping trouble and headaches, but all things considered.... Sweet hubby and I took the kids to the beach to meet up with a couple of Chilean friends (who currently live and work in the US) who have been very Covid-cautious for a long weekend.  IT WAS SO GOOD.  Y'all, I remember how excited I was to add each family member back into our bubble almost a year ago....and this?  This was even better.  I guess the amount of time that has gone by, combined with being their VERY FIRST bubble expansion....It was very meaningful.  We stayed up late, ate Chilean food, and spoke in Spanish.  It was an amazing experience for my kids, who haven't visited Chile in almost 4 years now (...

 Onward!  This new month is bringing with it some warmer weather, flowers blooming in the yard (daffodils and camellias, and they are so, so welcome!), and the promise of renewal that spring seems to bring with it.   My husband has gotten his first Covid vaccine shot, and I am so grateful for that, too.  There seems to be great progress towards returning to a life that is lived more outside of a bubble, and the promise of being able to reconnect with friends and extended family is providing some much needed hope and enthusiasm.  The Easter bunny has been working diligently behind the scenes, and purchasing treats and toys to fill three little people's baskets at my house.  The other day, I sent my husband to pick up a pair of target orders. The next morning, I had an email from Target saying that my items were being put back on the shelf since I hadn't picked them up in time....except the items were already in my house, some in use.  I called the ...

 Well.  Here we are.  Only a couple more days and this (LOOOOONG) short month will be over.  Some good, some not good.... Anyone else find themselves struggling with the fact that we've been readjusting our lives to Covid-19 for nearly a year?  I think that is the wall that I'm facing -- but it could just be other things. Or the other things might just seem harder because we're nearing the one year mark of life being turned upside down, and so much of that trauma is still unresolved.  (If you didn't experience some kind of trauma when the world shut down due to Covid-19, congratulations!  Three days before schools went "virtual" here, my husband and I made a very last minute decision that he should fly to Chile the next day, to spend time with his mother, who was in the hospital, leaving the states before the airlines/airports shut down.  We predicted this accurately, and by the end of that weekend, he would not have been able to get into Chile....

 This month feels like it is going ON and ON and ON.  I guess 31 days in a single month can make it feel like the month will never end.   It's not a terrible month....it just....it feels like we aren't really getting anywhere.  I keep teaching my kids, we keep doing our "normal" routine of which books we work in and what subjects we study and where and how much we play outside....and the days, they all feel like more of the same.  I start each day calm, and quietly giving directions, and about two hours later all thoughts and feelings that "homeschooling is working for us, this is fine, I could totally keep doing this for another year" fall away and are replaced by feelings of anger and frustration and OMG could my kid please just listen to me ONE TIME and do what I ask her to do ONE TIME without me having to raise my voice? Well.  So that's how homeschooling is going. The homeschooling blogs and facebook groups all seem to agree that this is a tough t...

 Welp, we're back from the beach.  Hubby is out of travel related quarantine. The kids are overjoyed to be back with him.  I'm glad to be back home with him too, but probably overthinking every single thing, as I was when we were together before his trip.  We haven't had any of the tough conversations that we probably need to have, partially because it has only been a couple of days that we've been back under the same roof, and partially because it is no fun to have tough conversations, and I seem to avoid them at all costs. (Current cost appears to be my sleep.) My immediate family has been extremely careful, since March, related to preventing contracting Covid-19.  I'm homeschooling my kids; hubby is wearing KN95 masks in the school building; brother and sister and their families taking similarly restrictive approaches to work and social lives. My extended family, on the other hand, who tend to have different political views than my family, have not been quite...

I present to you: Miss middle, jumping with joy at finding soup in her stocking.  In our family, if you are naughty, Santa brings you soup instead of coal.  She got lucky that Santa didn't decide to pour the soup into the stocking, but rather chose to leave the soup in its own container. She also got lucky that Santa brought her toys AND soup, rather than just soup, because she is often naughty.  The thought of soup in her stocking had caused much worry and many tears over the past month or so, because she really does make naughty choices quite a lot. Also partially pictured: the loveseat (yellowish) and a grey chair, both mentioned later in this post.  Well, the excitement is over and the busy-ness of solo-parenting is taking over.  I'm crossing my fingers that the busy-ness will overshadow the loneliness and the feeling of sadness from the husband leaving mid-day Christmas day to travel to visit his family in Chile again, to be there for the first New Year's c...

 I just deleted a personal pity party (you are welcome!) and all that's left is this list, punctuated by some poorly lit pictures (and some disappeared as I was trying to move them into their correct places).   For a few days, I managed to put my phone down and not spend much time on social media.  Instead, I focused on advancing a variety of sewing projects.  1. The flying geese quilt is finished.  I think of it as "flight behavior," but I haven't made so many quilts that I need to name them.  I *did* go back and zig-zag the opposite direction for each of the nine columns.  I am more confident that it will survive what will likely turn into frequent washing.  I was able to bind the quilt with a large amount of leftover bias tape from making baby blankets for "the baby" three years ago, combined with a little bit of the same fabrics used in the quilt (but not cut on the bias). This quilt contains a variety of scrap fabrics that are meaningful...