Morning, fellow hermits.  How goes the social distancing?  It was a long week of being stuck in the house, although I did escape for a couple of runs around my neighborhood, which helped.  I’m trying hard to be gentle on myself; my Type A perfectionist side needs to unclench and realize that she is not going to be the perfect parent, teacher and lawyer all at the same time.  I’m trying to do three full-time jobs here, and it’s tough.  I’m lucky in that I have a job that allows me to work remotely, and so does Steve (in fact, he works remotely all the time – so as he told his colleagues in an all-firm videoconference they had, the luxuries of working for a small boutique instead of for Biglaw, and I can’t imagine if all 900+ lawyers in my firm tried to Zoom at once – it’s just a regular Monday for him).  But trading off kid-duty, making sure they don’t murder each other or fall too far behind in their reading and math skills, and respond promptly to every email I get is… well, it’s challenging.  All the more reason I have been looking forward to weekends, when I only have one job (Mom) instead of three (Homeschooling Mom, attorney at law).

This weekend was much of the same, obviously.  It rained cats and dogs on Saturday, so going out wasn’t tempting at all.  Steve and I each escaped for a run, in turn, during breaks in the precip.  The rest of the day I spent baking bread and breaking up fights between the kids.  Sunday dawned misty and gloomy, but not raining, so we drove out to Manassas National Battlefield Park to hike a different bluebell trail (recap on Wednesday).  The rest of the weekend – again, more of the same.  Cooking up a storm in the kitchen; talking to our next-door neighbors from opposite ends of the porch; and curling up on the couch for comfort reading while the kids watched cartoons (this week: Miraculous!, and Jim Henson’s Word Party, neither of which excites me much).  Sunday Scaries hit hard yesterday afternoon, as I wonder afresh how I am going to juggle everything this week.

Reading.  I know we are all having trouble concentrating – tell me it’s not just me?  In stressful times, I always turn to books for comfort; that’s nothing new.  But it has been hard to stop scrolling through my phone, reading the news and checking in on folks through social media (now that’s the only “social” we have).  When I do read, I’m looking for something none too taxing.  I finished Lucia in London mid-week and then turned to Meet the Frugalwoods, which was on my library stack.  Not particularly urgent – with the library closed, all deadlines have been extended until late April – but some fast-reading nonfiction seemed right for the moment.  I ripped through Frugalwoods in a day, then spent another day on the latest issue of Slightly Foxed before returning to E. F. Benson’s perfectly-tuned comedic world.  I’ve been waiting four books for Emmeline “Lucia” Lucas and Elizabeth Mapp to have their cataclysmic encounter, and it has finally arrived.  A good way to close out the weekend and gin myself up for the coming week.

Watching.  I always say “um, nothing, just whatever the kids watched” but I keep forgetting to mention that I have been tuning into Miranda Mills’ delightful BookTube videos.  For true bookish comfort, there is really nothing better than watching Miranda wax poetic about her favorite reads, against a backdrop of her beautifully curated bookshelves.  I highly recommend the classics episode, and the episode on cozy mysteries.  I’m saving her latest videos, on comfort reads and books to read while social distancing, for when the situation gets more dire, as I know it will.  I also nominally watched – although I admit my attention was sporadic – the first episode of “Continent 7” from the National Geographic Channel on Disney+.  I’ve been dreaming of a trip to Antarctica for years, but for the moment, this is the closest I will get.

Listening.  A few podcast episodes – I finished up an old back episode of The Book Riot Podcast over a run this weekend; I may unsubscribe as it’s starting to feel repetitive.  I know they’re just covering the news, but there are other things that are more enticing.  Other than that, the main listening has been to Jim Dale reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – excellent comfort listening, and I’ve been putting it on while the kids do art projects midway through our homeschooling mornings (just about when Mom really needs a break).

Making.  The quarantine kitchen remains open for business!  This weekend I baked a loaf of rosemary sourdough bread (recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour) and stocked the larder with leftovers for the week – tofu stir-fry with kale and broccoli on Saturday, and the kids’ favorite goulash on Sunday.  We’ll be eating well this week, but we’re getting low on green veggies – just half a family-sized bag of broccoli florets and one green cabbage left – so I foresee a trip to the grocery store in my future, wish me luck, friends.

Blogging.  Taking you with me to the bluebells on Wednesday – and local friends, take note, there’s a good week of blooms left – and sharing the first Poetry Friday post of April 2020 on Friday.  If you’ve been reading for more than one second, it will not surprise you at all to see that I am opening this year’s National Poetry Month posting, as always, with e.e. cummings.

Loving.  This will likely not interest ANY of you at all, but in a week that was mostly devoid of joy, the thing that brought the biggest smile was: Camp Little Notch, where I spent many a happy hour falling off boats, shared a copy of the camp songbook on Facebook this week.  I downloaded it and promptly spent several days walking around humming the theme song for Tall Timbers, the tent unit where my group nearly always bunked up (as it had its own private dock and was near the fleet of sailboats).  Somehow I didn’t realize that every tent unit had their own theme song – likely because Tall Timbers was home, so its song was the only song that mattered.  Little Notch belonged to the Girl Scouts when I was a camper there, but it’s now privately held by a foundation established by former campers when the Girl Scouts put the camp up for sale some years ago, and I have a newly-hatched dream of taking Steve and the kids there for one of their Family Camp weekends.  We will, of course, be sleeping at Tall Timbers, and everyone will be required to sing the song.

Asking.  How are you holding up, and what are you reading this week?