TGIF

Hello, Friday. I'm greeting you with open arms as this felt like a long week! I found out this week that I will be working from home for the remainder of the year. I suspected that I would since I'm high risk due to RA but I thought maybe some of my colleagues would go back in the fall. I guess not! We have all gotten pretty good at collaborating while working from home but I sure miss being able to print things! We are not allowed to print anything due to information security rules at my firm. You WILL get in trouble if you try to print something. I'm not a huge printer but there are times when you really need to look at a document in print so that is one big downside of working from home! 

Here is how our week shaped up!

The book I'm reading is How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. I only read one chapter of this each night because it is not a book you speed read. He devotes each chapter to an issue, such as ascribing behaviors to a group instead of to the individual (Black people are angrier than white people, for example). He also talks about how he was racist up until his 20s when he realized the faults of his ways. It's an eye-opening read and is making me think about unconscious biases I carry and need to fix. To offset the heaviness of that book, I am also reading In Five years by Rebecca Serle which is a total page turner. If I wasn't disciplined about my bed time, I would stay up late to finish this book as it's tough to put down. It's about a woman who has a vibrant dream the night after getting engaged. In this dream, she is married to another man. She wakes up and it kind of shakes her and makes her question what her future holds.  

The high of my week was ... crickets ... There wasn't a real high this week. Some weeks just don't have highs and nothing stands out this week as being a high to be honest. 

The low of my week was continued heaviness and sadness about the state of my city/state and our country. My company hosted a really great call about 'being the change' and had various people of color, including our CEO, speak about their experiences with racism. At the end, they read a speech Bobby Kennedy gave when MLK was assassinated in 1968. It's a great speech. I think some things have changed since 1968 - but not enough change has occurred in the last 52 years. We can do better. We must do better. There was a message of hope and optimism during this conference call but considering how little we've accomplished since 1968, it's hard to share that optimism so I can't imagine how people of color are feeling right now. 

A recipe I made was chicken and vegetable kebabs. In the past I've followed a recipe and made a marinade for the chicken and veggies but I took the easy route this week and just used Italian salad dressing as the marinade. We paired this with baked potatoes. Picky Paul refused to eat any of this. Go figure. 

The best money spent was on books for Paul that feature people of color and are written by people of color. I started following @theconsciouskid this week - they have posted about the importance of discussing race with your child from a young age. Studies show that by 3 months, babies look at faces that match the race of their caregiver. By 2.5 years, most children use race to choose playmates. It's not a topic parents can ignore. So I ordered 4 books for Paul to give us a start on acknowledging race and making sure we raise a child who is antiracist. Luckily there are tons of resources out there to help you select books! Paul goes to Spanish Immersion daycare so all his providers are LatinX; we hope that is helping him be a more open-minded kids but I know we have work to do at home as well. 

My plans this weekend include a play date with our daycare friends on Saturday morning and going out to Phil's mom's for take out on Saturday after Paul's nap. We don't have any plans on Sunday but I am hoping to do some weeding at my garden and re-plant the things that haven't grown, like some lettuce and cucumbers.

Bonus Paul photos!

We are definitely getting our moneys worth out of this water table that we purchased last summer. We filled it up the last 2 nights when he got home from school. He loves playing and splashing in it so much. I think this will be a part of our post-school routine on days when it's nice and warm outside.

How was your week? What was your high of the week?