Winning

I couldn’t take the house anymore so the big kids and I went on a walk – or, as I sold it to them, an Exploration. They went on bikes or scooters and I was on foot. Noodle said he felt bad that I didn’t have a bike, but he didn’t realize it was all a part of my plan. I walked slow and they raced ahead, then rode back to me. Repeat for entire Exploration. I walked two miles and they did probably close to six. Congratulations, mama. You’re a fricking genius.

Bean needed to stop and examine every flower on every bush. Noodle took a header off his scooter down a particularly steep hill, but he’s ok. And every time Roo zipped by me, he’d shout, “I’M A LAMBO!” because he’s convinced that Lamborghinis are the fastest cars around and also because he’s partially insane. Literally, who cares? They went for six miles. I may actually get an hour of peace when we get home.

At the moment, we’re on the grounds of a ginormous Mormon church close to the house – it’s as close as we can get to a park these days. I’m making the kids play Hide & Seek while I sit in the shade and write this, again congratulating myself on another parenting win. Twenty minutes to write while the kids are awake is rare. The sun is out, the short humans should be tired tonight and we’re rounding the corner towards bedtime, also known as lunch. This is not the worst quarantine day I’ve had by a longshot.

I do have some serious concerns about my sons’ Hide & Seek skills. Roo jumped into the middle of a shrub only to discover that what he suspected was his sister was actually a discarded Cheeto bag. Noodle forgets to include 16 in his count every time he‘s the Seeker. I guess those are lessons for second grade.