quarantine chronicles, week 15

we hit the road again, this time to visit my sister and her family in minneapolis for a short weekend excursion. we biked, we spent time in their gorgeous backyard, we explored along the mississippi, and we had an infusion of normal for a day. it was grand.

david and i visited the george floyd memorial and it was deeply moving and peaceful. we found there, among the flowers and the names on the roadway, a very welcoming community of mourners and optimists. 

and then the next day, because this is tradition, we spent father's day driving home from minneapolis in the heat after a visit with my family. poor david has grown accustomed to having his special day overridden by family, and this year was the last! i think. probably. i dunno. but in an effort to make it special, we decided to get back on the road by noon to have some home time on father's day, only to discover a whole disaster with some frozen empanadas that we were bringing back to madison from from minneapolis's boludo  and it was weirdly stressful and the whole thing kinda smashed the father's day mood for a bit. oh well. 

back home that afternoon, we dealt with the empanadas, and then raced into our swimsuits and got out on the lake as soon as we could, and father's day giggling and swimming and fun commenced immediately. 

later, there were homemade gifts and ice cream. truth be told, david is the best dad and husband in the world. there isn't a celebration i can think of that would appropriately fit the magnitude of his perfection in this role, and i'm being dead serious.

then monday came, and stress came flooding back in. electricians and their muddy boots spent two full days in the house drilling holes in the plaster walls and ceilings in all our bedrooms and common spaces, to rewire the house. i mopped EVERY afternoon, and it wasn't enough. the house was/is filthy. the second part of the week belonged to the plaster repair team, who spent multiple full days in the house, in their dirty boots, making a mess while patching holes. it's frustrating to spend limited resources of time and money and emotion on a house project for someone else. that's just true. 

additionally, the adults in our house have to work, but the children in our house have no childcare, school, or camps. that is also a fact, and it is a hard stressful one. the kids are returning to a feral state, and have learned to forage for service berries and mulberries in the park, 

even ben has learned to forage for catnip. good boy.

between the mess, the stress, the kid fights, the tears, and all the stuff stuff stuff happening in the world, we keep doing the work of sorting. first we sorted stuffed animals, books, toys, clothes, spending time looking through our thinsg and honestly deciding what we need, what we want, and what we can get rid of.
and then we pack and plan.


but real life is starting to feature those same moves, too. what do we need to be happy and healthy? what stuff can we sort through: what information? what resources to trust? what recommendations to follow?
and then we choose: what do we need, what do we want, and most importantly, what can we get rid of? we have decided as a family to get rid of the fear, the negativity, and the toxic dread and doom that is circulating out there in response to a virus we can't control, racism that needs to be called out and fixed, and leaders bent on dividing our communities up into haters.
and then we can pack up and plan with our family, our friends, our communities, using what we need and can trust, using one another to move forward, with hope for a better society, with justice in our hearts, and love as our guide.
we are looking for signs of hope, and they are everywhere.