Got a late start today. It was nearly 8am when I woke up! That's way late for me. I'm normally up around 6:30. It seems to be when I naturally wake up now. I did stay up a little later than usual so I guess that's it.
I immediately went downstairs to make coffee. Also did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen while the coffee was brewing then spent the morning knitting. The only hiccup was when I went to refill my coffee around 9am which happened to be when the 20yo got home from work and started in with her nagging about how unhygenic we are and not taking the pandemic seriously as she wasted a dozen paper towels (used to open cabinets and the fridge because everything is contaminated--it's our last roll of paper towels). Never mind she just went to work and to the store while potentially exposed to said pandemic. Ugh.
I just filled my coffee and left the room without listening to her rant. I thought she was in her room, sleeping, but she must have left at some point. Not sure if she decided to isolate at her ex-boyfriends house or something else. That's where her son is at while she works nights. If the 14yo happens to have COVID then the baby was already exposed which means his dad's family was also exposed so I guess it wouldn't matter if she went there so she could spend the two weeks with the baby. Saves us from the constant fights and leaves just two kids at home (not sure where the 17yo is).
The rest of the day was peaceful. I just knitted because I really wanted to have this sweater done by the first day of school, but it doesn't look like it's possible. I'm still not done with the sleeves and still need to make the collar, ribbing for the back and fronts, the sleeve cuffs and the button bands, not to mention, piece it all together. There aren't enough hours.
It doesn't help that I spent way longer than normal making dinner tonight because I had a taste for fresh-baked bread. I'm new at bread-baking but have gotten the hang of sourdough (although my starter isn't very "sour" yet) and pizza crust so thought I'd try some dinner rolls using the rapid rise yeast I have. I did mess up the recipe because I missed that it was for 12 rolls. I only separated the dough into 8 rolls. Oops. They turned out amazing. They needed two tablespoons of butter and we use sweet cream butter so the rolls had a hint of sweetness to them that was amazing. 10/10 will make again.
But with the added time of making the dough (I don't have a standing mixer so have to hold the hand mixer for minutes at a time) and preparing the hamburger patties for the Salisbury steak... Let's just say dinner took forever. I went down at 3:30 to start the bread and didn't sit down again until the food was ready at 5:30pm which is when we normally eat dinner.
I'm a little sleepy now even though I didn't do much. Not that I really could have because my feet and legs are really swelled up. They hurt. I can't bend my toes. I've been drinking a ton of water tonight, but it's only helped reduce the swelling in my fingers (which is nice for typing) and made me have to pee every twenty minutes (which does not help my swelled feet).
School starts in three days for two of the kids. Everything is crazy, and I'm stressed out with it. The 10yo is doing the virtual school option which is as close to normal school as they can get. He has to log into Zoom by 7:55am to start the day at 8am. They have two hours of live classes then he's supposed to do independent work (minus two recess periods and a half-hour lunch) until 2:30pm. Yeah, that's not happening. I told him that as long as he gets all of his assignments done then he can be finished whenever. So he doesn't have to work on the subjects during their assigned times and can skip "recess" to just finish all of his afternoon stuff as quickly as possible as long as he does his best work.
I agreed to sit at the table with him until he's used to the routine. I thought I could get some writing in but I could also play some games on the family PC as long as I don't have the sound on and block his view (he'd be too distracted otherwise).
Meanwhile, we're attempting to sign the 14yo up for the districts other schooling option which is an all online academy with no live meetings. She can do her work whenever she wants as long as she turns stuff in by the end of the week. She can also work ahead if she wants and finish classes early. At least we assume it's like this because the only way to get info is to email the principal. They didn't send any general info out so everyone is annoyed. I kept expecting an email with more info on what to expect with the program and how to enroll. It took me until Saturday (four days before school starts) to finally realize you had to email to sign up and get info. Grr. Apparently, the school called my husband to set up a phone meeting about it or something. I didn't think they'd get back to us until tomorrow as it's the weekend, but I guess with the start of school so close and all the confusion, they're just handling stuff as it comes in.
Besides figuring that out (hopefully before the first day of school), we have to contact someone at the middle school about picking up the 14yo's yearbook. We didn't get the email notifications that they were in because we don't have a student at the school anymore (silly me thought they'd send them to people who ordered, but they just sent them as a general announcement to current students at the school). And we have to go to the district office or make an appointment at the high school to get a transfer paper for the 17yo because she goes to an online school in another district. She thought about transferring to our districts new online option (that the 14yo is using) but she's behind in her assignments from the last couple years, and I assume, would have to repeat the semesters she's missing instead of just finishing up the assignments where she is.
Oh, and then tomorrow night is a virtual open house for the 10yo on Zoom at 6pm and Tuesday is a drive-thru back-to-school thing at his actual school but we're not going to that because of 14yo being sick. We'll have to wait to pick up any materials until after the isolation period. They'll probably do the once-a-week bus drop-off thing again.
I'm having a hard time keeping track of everything and have been so intent on finishing the sweater that I forgot I was supposed to double check that Zoom is working right on the 10yo's laptop. I think I figured out his problem last year with the sound. I downloaded the app finally and noticed in the settings that it doesn't auto-connect the sound unless you check the box. I'll have to either show him how to connect the audio or toggle that option on for him. We'll do some test runs tomorrow so he's ready for the open house (if we don't forget).
Between school stuff, 14yo being sick, 17yo MIA and 20yo starting drama every moment of the day, I'm just beyond stressed. I'd have a beer, but I don't have room in my stomach for any more liquid and need to drink more water because of the swelling (also not supposed to drink on my meds but... ugh).
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