Day Twenty-Four: Chess, The Creek

I got an early start again today. I got my laptop, tea, and breakfast and joined a happy, wagging, nipping Daisy on the porch in the dark morning. The moon was full and in my full view from where I sat.

When the sun was up, William found me outside and needed me to come in and give him snuggles. I got him warm and cozy on the couch, set up with a show about all the planets. They are going to have so much random, disorganized knowledge swirling in their brains when they start school up again, it's going to be hilarious. I got some more work done while they watched. Jeremy was gone doing chores then running some errands in town.

So much potential...

Once they had learned everything they needed to know about the solar system they decided we needed to make stuff out of Legos. We looked online for some easy Lego ideas, and we got the idea to make a crane with a wheel for a pulley, and string, and a little box for a bucket. We dumped them all out on the floor, and William and I played with Legos until lunchtime. Taiya popped in and out, and made an awesome, very functional catapult that we had a lot of fun with.

Jeremy came back from his errands with a new leash for Daisy in a brilliant blue color that got William's full approval. He also got her a knotted rope chew toy which she was excited about and put to use immediately. She didn't even have to read the instructions!

Jeremy also was successful in acquiring a few odds and ends of groceries, and Uno, Yahtzee, Checkers, Chess, and Backgammon at Walmart. He said everyone was well-spaced out in the store, and there was a line of people waiting to go in when he left, since they're only allowing a certain number of people in at a time. I'm so glad people are behaving.

We sat down to play a game of chess first, me and Taiya on one team, Jeremy and William on the other. I am not a practiced chess player, and Jeremy's only a little better, so the game was evenly full of hilariously bad moves. I usually sit and over-analyze every move since I don't really know what I'm doing except how each piece moves. I have no strategy or plan, no set of moves to draw on. But for  this game I forced myself to not take so long all the time. It resulted in us getting beaten, but it was much more fun. Then we switched to Uno. William was on my team, and Taiya and Jeremy played individually. I forgot how much fun these games are! Taiya won fair and square, all on her own, and now she wants to play Uno all the time.

I am so grateful for our creek!

After game time, the kids wanted to go to the creek, so we put Daisy's new leash on her, put sun hats on since it was well in the 80's this afternoon, and wandered down the hill to the creek. Daisy pulled William along, not tripping over her leash too much. The kids immediately went into the creek, swamping their boots before shedding boots, socks, and then all their clothing to go into the water. Daisy wandered in too, lying down in the water like she knew exactly what she was doing. I played lifeguard. After a while of this I was ready to go back to the house, so I sprung another surprise on the kids I knew would get them excited about returning home: Jeremy had gotten a sprinkler to play in, and today was perfect to bust it out! It worked just as I knew it would. Taiya raced into her damp clothes, William managed to get his boots back on, and we were off and running to play in some more water.

What surprised me about the sprinkler was how much fun Daisy had in it. She absolutely loved it. She and the kids took turns running through it. It was so fun to watch.

I noticed while they were playing that we'd gotten a message from one of Taiya's friends wanting to arrange a phone call. So Taiya took a break and called a good friend of hers, chatting on the porch about what all they'd been doing since school closed. It was so sweet and funny to eavesdrop on them.

At chore time the kids wanted to go with Jeremy, and I just had a rest. I didn't try to catch up on anything, or get ready for anything, I just watched a QI on YouTube, a hilariously silly British quiz show (QI stands for Quite Interesting) that is always a good break from reality. By the time that was over I started wondering where my people were. It was almost six and they were still gone. I went downstairs and made a quick dinner of tuna salad sandwiches, leftover sweet potatoes, and pickles on the side, and by the time I was done with that they were home.

Taiya had another phone date with a friend right after dinner, and William and I played Paw Patrol (we actually played with some of his plastic toys... he made a liar out of me!) while she was busy, then I got them set up with a Dora the Explorer while I tackled the dishes I'd successfully ignored for 24 hours. I fed my sourdough starter and washed the sprouting jar which is now ready for batch two. After shows and brushing teeth, Taiya and I almost finished Danny, Champion of the World.

Jeremy has been mourning John Prine today. I never listened to John Prine until Jeremy introduced me to him, and I have come to love many of his songs, but Jeremy is the true, lifelong fan. He spent the evening after the kids were asleep listening to his music on the porch. Rest in peace, John Prine.