This is Quarantine: Day 65

Today I made the executive decision to give us a mental health day.

e has been exploring the limits of her emotional range and flexing her threenager independence all week.

E has been coasting a little on the schoolwork front and getting sucked in to the threenager drama more than a little.

Mama is staying up too late and feeling terribly worn down by all the arguing, negotiating, nagging and conflict resolution...just the incessant parenting of it all.

So today, apart from Zoom meetings, I made no demands. Stay in pj's as long as you want, skip the shower, eat what you want, watch what you want, and let's see if we can reset ourselves a bit going into the weekend.

I was surprised by some things:

For two kids who beg to stay in their pyjamas on any given day, they both decided on their own to get  dressed much earlier than expected.

I came back from picking up groceries to find the girls in the dining room, with E at the sewing machine making masks and e playing happily on the floor beside her.

Nobody asked to watch any more TV today than usual.

They played happily outside for about an hour and half while I slaved away in the kitchen, and neither came in to file a complaint about the other's behaviour - not even once!

We made ice cream together, we had a little spa day with face masks and nail painting and we had a movie night when dad finally got home. It wasn't without its share of bumps in the road, but it was a nice break from Google Classroom.

I was grateful for a few things:

Free ice cream novelties from the grocery store for spending so much money!

Getting a solid chunk of time in the kitchen to deal with the 5lbs of ground beef I procured earlier this week. Lasagna, chili AND burgers. BAM! BAM! BAM!

Finding several hours of warm sunshine on a day that was supposed to be grey and rainy.

Along with the trifecta of beef and fresh strawberry ice cream, I also made a loaf of bread in the breadmaker and a double batch of brownies. So it's safe to say that I had my fair share of kitchen therapy today. I hope that the girls got what they needed today too.