You know how sometimes you are completely involved in something and you want to give it your all – 100 % of you, but then you realize you’re a mom… yeah well, that is how the past 3 months have gone. Honestly, in the blink of an eye I have somehow sailed through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, Valentine’s Day! Next thing you know it’s St. Patrick’s Day and the world is going through a pandemic. Covid-19 is real. It’s happening. And I have a lot of feelings about it. So let’s do the normal thing and catch you up on my life and happenings.
Halloween! We all went trick or treating as characters from The Ghostbusters. The boys were actually Ghostbusters – Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler. Daddy was Slimer and I went as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! The boys barely rang any doorbells, but they had a blast and ended up with plenty of candy.
Thanksgiving! We host all the holidays so that we don’t have to pick and choose who we don’t see. It is so nice to have both sides of the family with us on these special days. Our house isn’t the biggest and we only have one oven (for now – more on that coming!) so everyone chips in and brings a dish and a dessert. For Thanksgiving we inject our turkey with a Cajun seasoning and butter and infrared fry it and my mom makes a Brisket. Along with those two main dishes we have mac n cheese, sweet potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, bacon wrapped asparagus, corn, cranberry sauce and corn bread.
Christmas! Christmas season is my favorite. This year we only had 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas – which meant, at least, ONE less week without having my Christmas Tree and decorations up. One less week to shop. One less week to enjoy the Christmas Spirit and watch my two little boys eyes and imaginations light up! BUT we did it ALL. I put all my decorations up the morning after Thanksgiving. I did all my shopping on Cyber Monday save for a few items I found cheaper else where. We took pictures with Santa, went on the Polar Express, met Santa a few more times, watched all the Christmas movies and TV shows. Made “Santa’s workshop”. And on the 23rd, my husband and I went on our 11th annual trip into NYC to see the Tree and have dinner.
Christmas Eve! We spend the night at my in-laws. They are Italian – but do not do the Seven Fishes and for the past 6 or 7 years, my husband, SIL and I have started helping or taking over. We always make too much food and never get to the dinner portion. So this year we decided to do dinner first and then munch on the appetizers for the rest of the night until dessert. I made my husband’s grandmothers Cheese Balls for the dinner. No one in the family makes them beside one of my father in law’s sisters and my mother in law (but even she hasn’t made in the in the past 10 years). So I tried my hardest – from a recipe that was written for someone who had grown up making them or at least watching them be made. And they turned out pretty great! But here’s the kicker -they’re flat – not balls like I had started to make. Thankfully, my husband was near by to steer me in the right direction! Anyways, even though I have stressed to everyone that we don’t need more toys – we need to downsize, the boys were completely spoiled and they loved everything they received.
Christmas Day! Santa came!!! My mom and sister come over for brunch and presents and then we jump right into cooking! Like I said, we host the holidays and everyone still brings their own dish to help out! We had ham and garlic pork shoulder, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac n cheese. bourbon brown sugar carrots, a green bean casserole.. so much food! And then, after all the food has been eaten – it’s over, Christmas is just over. waahhhhhhhh!
Oh, completely forgot, my cousin Timmy proposed to his girlfriend Jackie on December 14th. My sister-in-law, Barbara, got engaged Christmas morning and my cousin in Florida got engaged on the 27th! They have all set their dates for October 2020, NYE 2020 and April 2021.
Since New Year’s Eve I’ve just been trying to catch up on life while also organizing everything in my life. We are planning on a complete house remodel and addition. Hopefully, we will be starting in March!
In January, Patrick still wasn’t sleeping through the night. He did every once and awhile. After that I purchased a weighted blanket. It’s not a miracle worker – for him. He had a good turn around in February! He was sleeping THROUGH THE NIGHT for a couple weeks. Then came the Stay Home order. And NOW he’s waking up 1-2 times a night again and fighting me when I try to leave him if he’s still awake. Thank you Covid-19.
Which puts us into current times. March was cut in half. We have been home since March 14th. I am a Stay At Home Mom. That means I am an amateur cook, house keeper, live-in play date, referee, chauffeur, problem solver, bill payer, grocery shopper, party planner… you know name. But NOW, I can also add Home School Teacher to that description. I know Anthony is only in Preschool. It’s not a lot of work. It’s not even virtual [yet] but it’s still 3 worksheets plus other activities AND speech therapy work to do. He gets frustrated with me. I get frustrated with him. Daddy, who is working from home has to come and referee our disagreements. I have tried different approaches. Week ONE: I tried to keep his schedule the same. Wake up, breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth and followed his morning school routine “circle time”- calendar, weather, songs then moved onto school work. He was into it the first 3 days and then he started to lose interest. Week TWO: I skipped getting ready in the morning and tried to jump right school work to get it out of the way. Then I did “circle time” routine. BIG. FAT. NOPE. Week THREE: It’s been basically force him to get the worksheets done and try to get the extra stuff done. It should take us an hour TOPS to get everything done in the morning. And it ends up taking us 2-3. It’s exhausting. He DOES NOT like his Mommy as his teacher. He misses Miss Alana, Miss Diana and Miss Nadia. He misses his friends. I am NOT cut our for home school.
Besides that, the boys have their good days and bad days. In the beginning I had to explain to them they couldn’t eat all the food and snacks in a day. I had to explain that we can’t go to ANYONE’S house until EVERYONE is better – which they reply “I don’t have a cough anymore” – and that breaks my heart. Now, it’s just lots of emotions. Everyone is home all the time. Everyone is on top of each other. Everyone wants to play. No one wants to work. But there are responsibilities. And responsibilites and 2.5 and almost 4 year old boys clearly don’t mix. There have been many many tears in the past 3 weeks. And I know it’s just their little brains not being able to process everything. And that breaks my heart even more.
Speaking of emotions, it’s not just the kids, it’s the adults as well. My husband and I are very yin and yang. He is very anxious, I am more easy going. I’m more of a panic when it’s serious person… significant blood, broken bones.. and such. But yeah, I miss my mom and family and friends. I miss taking the boys to the park and the zoo. I miss not holding my breath around people when i’m out for my walk (while social distancing). I miss grocery shopping. I miss our normal routine.
We still have so far to go… until then, stay home, stay safe and stay healthy.
Thanks for stopping by and catching up!
Christina