2020 Life Logs, Day 114: Boundless Energy
Date: Thursday, April 23, 2020
Weather: Sun Early, Then Mostly Cloudy and Windy; High 47 degrees, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
No, I don’t have boundless energy. But the Goldpebbles do and tonight I am worn out from just watching them put that energy into another spring vacation work and play day.
I had a follow-up chiropractor visit this morning at 10 am and there was definite improvement after my visit yesterday. So, I will return a couple of times next week and probably the week after that. I am just thankful that my chiropractor is nearby and is doing everything possible to make visits to his office as safe as possible. I was in and out fairly quickly and was at the Goldstones by 10:30. I was met by a bag of groceries sitting by the door for me and three boys ready to spend the rest of the day, tonight, and tomorrow at my house. Heather made a trip to the grocery store for both of us this morning. Thank you, Heather. Unfortunately, many things on our lists were not in stock. I had hoped to get grassfed ground beef so I could have hamburgers for dinner for the boys tonight, but that was a no go at Stop and Shop. Later in the day, however, I ordered from the tiny organic market in Mashpee Commons and within an hour, the bag with the grassfed ground beef and other goodies was on my doorstep. They didn’t have buns of any sort, so I made hamburger buns. They were not only a great hit, they were extremely fast and easy to make.
Even though the boys were packed and mostly ready to go. We made a stop at 60 Vidal to dig up a few raspberry plants that we want to move to my yard. We only dug up a few to use as guinea pigs to see if our plan was going to work. By the time we got to my house, it was time to fix lunch. While Ollie and Sam dug the trench for transplanting raspberries, Jonah and I made flakey biscuits to go with a mac and cheese lunch. Not sure what happened, but the biscuits were definitely not flakey. I’ve made those biscuits for years, but maybe using almond milk instead of regular milk doesn’t work with this recipe. The boys ate them anyway and then we returned to the raspberry project. We planted the ones we had brought with us and determined that our plan was going to work. But before going back to get more plants, it was time for the next item on our agenda which was kayaking. 
Once again, Shadow and I sat by the dock in what felt like freezing wind and watched the Goldpebbles enjoying another kayak explore. Then we went back to 60 Vidal for more raspberries. 
I’ll not go into detail on what is like trying to oversee three fully energized boys doing this project. I’ll just say they work like bulls in a China shop. But bottom line. They got the job done! There are still more raspberries at 60 Vidal, but if we are going to transplant those, that project will have to wait until the weekend.
When we got back in the house after transplanting the raspberries, it was time for quiet indoor play while I got dinner together. I made those 40-minute hamburger buns, but then realized that I had no ketchup. The Goldpebbles consider ketchup to be its own food group and believe you can’t have a meal without it, especially not a hamburger. So as soon as the buns came out of the oven, we drove to 43 Grasmere to borrow some ketchup. When we got back home, Sam grilled the burgers and everyone agreed that the burgers were perfectly grilled and that the buns were perfect. Success.
The boys are fast asleep now and I am tired. But I am not nearly as tired as the parents in this country and around the world trying to work full-time while basically homeschooling their children. It is hard enough to home school kids, but to do it while you are working full-time from home is almost impossible. Then there are the parents who are still out there going to work everyday with kids at home with no one to be with them. It’s not like summer when you can send them to camp and enroll them in other activities. There are no camps and no other activities. And then there are the parents who have lost their jobs and are at home and have the time to educate their kids, but are so stressed out about how they are going to pay the next rent check or feed their family with no money coming in that they can’t think straight. We, all of us, have a lot of figuring out to do right now. As I am sure you know, it is totally overwhelming. We’ll get there, but this is tough stuff.
The Goldpebbles and I are going to totally ignore the world’s problems tomorrow. It is supposed to rain all day and we have planned a movie binge day to celebrate the last day of spring school vacation. We are going to start by watching Harry Potter 1 and 2 for the second or third time, maybe watch Harry Potter 3, and in between we might fit in a few science videos. Stay tuned on how that goes.
