SOL 22: annual reminders

I live by my Google Calendar. I put each birthday in with the year the person was born with an annual repeat to *try* to remember how old they are and to text them. I have my daughter’s, son’s, and my work school calendars all imported to make planning family events easier. I meticulously plan what we will be eating next week. Every doctor appointment can be verified for date of service whenever a bill comes We even have it displayed in our living room so no one can ever say I didn’t know that was happening.

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SOL 22: dating my husband

Covid killed a whole lot of romance in relationships. People were spending WAY too much time together. They saw, hear, and maybe even smelled things that were never meant to be shared with a romantic partner. That absence makes the heart grown fonder thing stopped because there was no more absence. It happened all over the world.

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SOL 22: thankful

McKenna has matured so much in the last year. She is helpful now. She wants to learn how to cook. She treats her baby brother as if he’s the best thing since sliced bread. She even planned a project to earn money to purchase hats and gloves for those less fortunate than herself. She talks about all the things she wants to be when she grows up. The list is lengthy but includes being a mom, nurse, teacher, veterinarian, artist, doctor for babies, writer, scientist and about a million more things.

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SOL 22: hairy situation

My youngest is a pandemic baby. If you don’t know what I mean—look it up. It’s a thing…this breed of feral babes that are just built differently. They are overstimulated. They are easily occupied in the home but are scared of anything outside of their yard. The CDC even recently changed the developmental milestones for infants and toddlers. Was this change in the works or did Covid encourage the change? Who knows. All I am certain about is that my pandemic baby has shortened my life by at least 8 years. This kid is wild.

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SOL 22: Getting curried away

Today was day 1 of George’s recovery. By nature, he has always been a bit…dramatic. I was just waiting for him to start saying he was too sick to walk or scream (breaking his scabs) because McKenna looked at him. This was the part I was dreading the most. I just knew I was going to have the iPad permanently at the ready with a never ending supply of apple sauce to be spoon fed to him.

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SOL22: Breaking The Cycle

George had seventeen eighteen fevers in the last 12 months. He had 23 the year before. George was diagnosed with something called PFAPA. Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis Syndrome leaves our little man fevering at 105*+ for 3-5 days every 18 days. That’s 120 out of the last 730 days—16% of his last two years has been spent with a fever. Conservatively. Add in 1 day for pre-fever symptoms and another 2 days for recovery, and you are looking at 240 days or 33% of his life disrupted due to PFAPA. One third of his last two years has been spent sick, on the couch, attached to mom or dad, and feeling like shit. My poor baby.

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