Meg

It’s been an intense week as we try to slide back into academic schedules where so little is different from the jolted changes last spring. We’re trying to navigate work schedules, school schedules, and family time, and I’m aware it’s just the second week and things are going to get more stressful (for me, at least) as the semester progresses.

I’m also aware things are a lot more intense for a lot folks, especially on the West coast.

I’m curious how situations have changed for different folks. Sometimes when I look online, I mostly see families prepping for actual in-person school or having nannies and child-care support, neither of which are really options for us with where things are in the pandemic at the moment (C’s won’t go back to school physically until mid-October at the earliest). But I also hear there’s so much overwhelm and exhaustion with the hustling from home with kids underfoot; a reality that is far less Instagramable.

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And here we find ourselves in the last weekend of August. David and I packed up the kids at the start of the week to take a quick 3-day trip to Vermont (both celebrating our anniversary and getting a much-needed change of scenery). I’d just been there with my sisters and felt the wide-open spaces and chance to get more exposure to nature were sufficiently safe from a social-distancing perspective. We went canoeing, saw a handful of the famous covered bridges, bubbling rivers and deep gorges, and wrapped up with a visit to a nature center. 

We came back to full to-do lists and long nights getting the work done to get back on track. It feels like there’s so little wiggle room in schedules that vacations aren’t necessarily time off, but simply time away with the work just condensed into a shorter timeline.

And then there’s the way it’s been a week for everyone else in the wider world.

As my semester starts up again this coming week, I’ll be trying to carve out productive time, creative time, rest, and family time. The days will come and go, somehow it’ll all get done. Flexibility’s the name of the game it seems.

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As weird as this summer is, it’s been fun in its own way. But over the last week or so, I’ve also felt a bit of a change for the worse. I think my anxious thoughts are ticking upward anticipating the start of the fall semester, for both me and the kids. After lots of discussion (there’s a lot to consider both ways!), we were starting to wrap our minds around sending C to in-person school beginning in the middle of September. Then, on Wednesday, we got an email saying the schools decided to push back the in-person start date to mid-October and begin the whole school year with remote learning. So we’re shifting gears (I’m alllll in favor of doing what’s needed to stop or slow the spread of the virus and keep people safe), but I have to admit there’s been a bit of emotional whiplash and a mental recalibration.

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I spent last weekend at an al fresco picnic along the river. The weather was great, and everyone was (mostly) appropriately socially distanced and masked. We know masks help and are our best shot at getting through the worst of this pandemic and mitigating future death and economic damage. **Wear a mask!**

I’ve spent the week being more productive than I’ve felt in awhile. I think part of that is coming from finding somewhat of a rhythm in my schedule with the kids at home and a little bit because I can feel the countdown to fall coming and know that’s going to be a lot to try to manage with the logistics and uncertainty around school & childcare, paired with the absolute certainty that my academic workload will increase by 100%.

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Good morning. We’ve made it to the last Sunday in June, and suddenly July 4th is almost upon us. It feels like the holiday approaches with a whimper this year as we continue to reckon with the shortcomings of our national agenda (the pandemic response, systemic racism, a frayed social safety net straining at the seams).

The weather has also announced we’re solidly into summer now, and my cooking has shifted accordingly. We’re grilling, eating pastas and salads, and leaning on leftovers with the goal of not turning the oven on at all. We might be in the 60s on Tuesday, so I’ll maybe try to squeeze in some baking or summer fruit desserts, but for now, we’re sticking to ice cream. 

Yesterday my body demanded rest, and I spent much of the day horizontal, apart from taking care of the kids and making sure they were watched and fed. It feels like an illustration of where we all might be this summer: in the middle of it and in need of rest. 

Here’s what I’ve been reading and cooking this week:

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Good morning and happy Sunday. The theme this week appears to be people pushing to go back to normal, and in all the ways that feels so wrong. We’re still very much in the middle of a pandemic and black lives matter. The weeks ahead can be an opportunity to pull forward the elements of protest that need to be present in a daily basis and reject the elements of normal that weren’t actually working so well.

Here’s what I’ve been reading and cooking this week:

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