Ben has the Vid, volume 3

 Did I make Ben's illness a lot about me by sulking that my anticipated solo parent rescue did not come? YES I DID. Despite mindful mindfulness practice, I am still an asshole, I guess. It's like in ATGIB when Francie calls Katie on her North Pole rescue bullshit and is like um we are still poor and not explorers after all. I AM STILL UP TO MY NECK IN KIDS AND BEN LEAVES FOR WORK LIKE NORMAL NEXT WEEK no matter how brave and fun I am.

BUT I SOLDIERED BRAVELY ON into a holiday weekend that suddenly had no plans and kids with HOLIDAY EXPECTATIONS.

Bah humbug.

Ben did have the energy to blow shit up in the street, so that's a relief.

Socially distanced smores!

A truly batshit puppet show

Truly

Batshit

And delightful!

CAn you beleiev Minnie never had a smore before??

Soooo 2020 this set up

Annabel is a huge fan of the new grill and its dangling appliances-- she licked the spatula clean.

We made a trip to a Walgreens open on the 4th for more covid tests because Ben wanted to test his way out of covid jail (NOT YET WHOMP WHOMP) but made it fun by stopping at DQ. I AM SO FUN GUYS SEE?

Are you a Midwest mom without a cookie pizza? Apparently not because every place was out of Pilsbury sugar cookie dough, and I had to use the funfetti version.

Cooper sliced a watermelon, balled some of it, AND made slushie popsicles with it.

Not messing a round with their puppet constrcution

Seriously, there was much melon working.

Ben tested positive on Wednesday (while I was getting a pedicure with a friend), and we have spent our time at the pool a bunch. A bunch more than normal even.

We even branched out and went with Harry to the other pool and tennis club he also works at (both pools owned by the same dudes) to see if maybe we want to switch our memberships.

We loved how dead it was!

Kids were a fan of the garbage dinner.

We bought lots of things to blow up when we had to cancel our out of town plans.

I should be online grocery shopping right now, friends. We are spending about $100 a day at the pool snack bar, and this feels... not sustainable but also totally necessary.

Sunday should be Ben's last day of covid isolating (grumble grumble), and then we shall see how he feels (Paxlovid for the win tho seriously). Before he leaves for the rest of the week for Peoria. I AM STILL AT THE NORTH POLE YOU GUYS FUCK.

Minnie is 3.5!

 Yesterday, our little living care bear turned THREE AND A HALF! 

Also I asked her teacher what the eff is up with 3 year-olds, anyway and ordered THIS BOOK on her rec. Will report back. (I love the title from the days when it was ok to say your kid is a jerk LOL. THIS BOOK IS MY AGE.)

We celebrated with a half cake and a half song, and she made the cake herself.

I had a massage for the first time in forever because I really hurt myself shoveling snow last month, and my general stress level has been A LOT for my body. I feel SO MUCH BETTER, and it wasn’t even a super great massage. He never really used enough pressure, and I fell asleep before I could ask for more LOL.

HARRY HAS COVID, so that’s terrible. He has already started Paxlovid and seems to feel OK. The rest of us are giving him a wide berth, and he is pretty much keeping to himself in his bedroom/bathroom and accepting meals and meds delivered on trays. Luckily for the rest of us, he has not been home a ton lately (sorry to everyone he has been hanging out with), so we are cautiously optimistic that we’ll keep feeling OK. We are all staying upstairs and masking downstairs if we need to be down there for super important reasons like FORTNITE. Jack is sleeping on the couch in the family room (no mask, obvi), and Coop is staying in their room because last time Harry got the VID, he and Jack were roomies and Jack got it, too, so we thought it was probably smart to split up the pair.

Dorothy ad I went shopping for Valentines on the way to drop her off at bonus dance team rehearsals on Sunday, and the Target Vday aisle was RANSACKED! I thought we were going to have to  make paper heart tags at home and give baggies of Easter candy, but then we found 21 of these!! SO PERFECT

Tiny boxes of chocolates that she could just write to and from on- total win and I might buy these for Minnie’s entire VDay career in elementary school.

I made Minnie a heart lunch, but Dorothy and Coop just got their normal stuff because they’re too cool and also Ben packed bonus lunches on Monday because he is the best.

Our VDay date is postponed because our sitter has the VID, so Ben and I had fancy candy and champagne last night while I made homemade pop tarts (heart shaped, natch) for this morning’s breakfast. Tonight we have eleventy billion places to drop off a pick up like normal, but the whole (negative) fam is doing heart-shaped Papa Murphy’s pizza and a heart cookie cake from a local place hashtag ROMANCE.

Minnie made a triumphant return to the big red mat because she is over swim lessons (she is also over posing for pics)

Harry submitted his midterm grades to UW, hoping to be accepted with the regular decision applicants, and he wanted someone to check it over before he pushed submit, so I masked up. SO RETRO.

Send us all the negative thoughts and have a lovely day of love, friends.