August 2020 in review

Summer goes by too fast every year. Winter seems to drag on endlessly here in Minnesota, but summer flies. I thought for sure with COVID, time would continue to tick by slowly, but that wasn’t the case, and not only is it August, it’s the end of August (OK, the beginning of September by the time this publishes). We didn’t even technically do that much. MORE

I AM CURRENTLY…

I picked up crocheting two weeks ago. I’ve always wanted to learn, so I bought a kit at the kids’ consignment sale intent on learning how to complete the projects in there. It included a pattern to make a little purse, but I quickly realized (especially being left-handed) I needed YouTube. After some trial and error pieces (including a little blanket for Emelia that I love her too much to give to her being that it’s basically a beginner’s monstrosity) I have a lap blanket and the start of a scarf that I’m proud of. I have been making my way through the ASJA virtual conference this month (Journalism and Content Marketing tracks) and have been learning a ton. The Books track is in September which I’m also looking forward to. I’m still awaiting my application for professional membership there, and I’m hoping to find out if I was accepted or not this week. My knees have continued to hurt, and I ended up making an appointment with my primary who sent me for an MRI. I’m still waiting on those results to see if I have a small tear, or worse, degeneration, that’s causing the pain.

CHRIS IS CURRENTLY…

God love this man. He’s continuing to work from home and is a saint getting Olivia ready for daycare in the morning and taking the baby down to his office with him when needed. And all with his usual sense of humor and calm demeanor. He just wrapped up a six-week leadership training through his work, but time will tell if it pays off or not. He’s planning on running the TC Marathon virtually in October and has been training for it. And every Friday evening, he’s making homemade pizza dough for family night.

OLIVIA IS CURRENTLY…

This kid has been loving going to daycare three days a week to be with her friends. She’ll be starting pre-K at the end of September and can’t wait. She loves a good nature scavenger hunt, is learning how to brake on her scooter, and is the best big sister to Emelia. She still gets up in her face 3,568 times a day, but the two of them are really interacting more. We learned from her dentist visit that she has a cross-bite, which means they’re monitoring it, but most likely means seeing an orthodonist in a few years. Her imagination is really picking up and she’s been amazing at occupying herself. She loves playing with my old Littlest Pet Shop, Barbies, and Polly Pockets.

EMELIA IS CURRENTLY…

Digging this whole eating solid foods thing. She loves army crawling everywhere, eating apples, and going for stroller rides. We’re doing virtual PT with her and she’ll be followed until she’s almost walking, just to make sure she’s on track. Her ten-month update is here.

THE GOOD

• My writing conference—is going well. Even with the challenges that come from trying to do them amidst an active baby.

• I made $487 at the kids’ consignment sale.
• Olivia did her first vacation Bible school (virtually, of course).
• I bought all of Olivia’s and Emelia’s birthday and Christmas presents, mostly from the consignment sale.
• I revamped a lot on my website, along with a new theme and color combination. I’m so happy with how it turned out and how much more responsive it is.
• Emelia popped her third and fourth tooth.
• Emelia sat up on her own for the first time. Olivia was the only one who witnessed it.
• I got a massage.
• I did a phone call with a potential new client in the fertility space creating content for their new website. Fingers crossed it works out.
• I went back to see my acupuncturist for the first time since Emelia was born. It was so good to see her again.
• Olivia spent some time over at my parent’s house. A sleepover is next.

THE BAD

• My uncle died unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident. His funeral was at the beginning of the month and was low-key and lovely.
• Emelia’s been teething, and the evenings going down for bed, along with some naps, have been difficult.
• We made a family trip out to the zoo (including some bouts of car-sickness from Olivia) only to find we were supposed to make an appointment. Olivia was so disappointed.
• We had a plumber out to the house because the electrical box was leaking. However, it was leaking water onto our already ancient gas pipe, and that had to get replaced. $800 later.
• Curiously, our bathroom light stopped working, along with the outlet right outside our patio door, where we plug the pool pump in. In our bathroom, the light doesn’t work, but the fan does. Chris was going to first try to replace the outlets, but he’s been…sitting on it for a few weeks.

ON MY MIND

• I’ve been struggling with where Emelia is at socially versus how Olivia was by her age. We can’t do any sort of baby classes or activities and I hate that she’s so isolated.
• I’ve been wanting to write a memoir, but keep getting in my own head. So then I thought I’d revisit my fiction, going back to the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo back in 2013, but got too intimidated with the subject matter. I went back to finish transcribing my childhood stories and decided to print out the last one I had written mid-high school. It was unfinished at over 25,000 words, and I decided to rewrite it as a practice to get back into the swing of fiction. I’m about 1,500 words in and it’s been a challenge to shut off my internal editor voice. But I’m determined to not only rewrite this thing but to come up with another book idea for NaNo this year.
• We had a bat in the house again. Our fourth one in the nine years we’ve lived here. I need an exterminator to come in and figure out where they’re getting in and how to stop it. This last one had put me on edge being that they always end up flying out of one of our offices down the hall in the basement around 9-10:00 at night. It. Is. Stressful. Stressful being, I shriek in fear as it flutters over my head and Chris is trying to shoe it out the nation. I can’t anymore with it. The worst was Olivia telling us the night before that she saw a “butterfly” in her room, and had woken us up around 1 in the morning. And I can’t help but feel skeeved out that the bat was somehow in my girl’s room. We didn’t tell her about the bat.
• Advancing the crochet skills. I’ve gotten the hang of the single, half, and double crochet stitches, and am OK with getting my pieces to be straight. I’ve practiced the magic circle, but teaching yourself is challenging.

• I’m not sure how much longer we’re going to have with our pool since the weather has been getting cooler. I’m not looking forward to the process of taking it down.

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