TGIF!

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm back to feeling more excited about weekends now that we have more options to entertain Paul. For awhile there, weekends were really hard as it's tough to entertain an energetic toddler with limited options. But now that parks and the beach are an option, I'm more excited about our weekends. Here's how our week shaped up!

The book I'm reading is American Royals by Katharine McGee. In this book, the author re-imagines the history of our country. Instead of Washington becoming our first president, he became our first king and our country is ruled by a monarchy. I am not very far into this book but I think it will be a pretty delightful read. 

The high of my week was hearing the baby's heartbeat at my OB appointment on Tuesday and sharing our exciting news with all of you! Thanks for all the kind and excited comments and emails!

The low of my week was getting a really bad RA flare in my thumbs. This is the worst flare I've had during this pregnancy. I tried to go in for steroids injections but the soonest they could see me was Monday and I called on Tuesday afternoon... I understand as clinics are still not fully staffed. So I ended up having to go on oral prednisone. I was really really hoping to avoid prednisone during this pregnancy. It introduces risks to the baby and also will cause me to have gestational diabetes because steroids raise your blood sugar. I'm really hoping this is the only time I need to be on it this pregnancy!

A recipe I made was Chicken Tikka Masala with Cauliflower and Peas in our instant pot. This is SO good! The instant pot is a great gadget to use in the summer as it doesn't heat up the house like an oven does. I mean, it does get steamy in the kitchen when you did a quick release of the pressure but it's not as bad as having the oven on. 

The best money spent was on the book White Fragility, which I ordered through Frugal Bookstore, a black-owned bookstore in Massachusetts. I am working on educating myself through reading and I felt like I needed to own a copy of this book. My library is actually giving unlimited ebook access to White Fragility, Me and White Supremacy, How to Be an Antiracist, and The New Jim Crow through August 31. I think that is really awesome! I plan to read The New Jim Crow next, but I want to own copies of White Fragility and Me and White Supremacy (which is a workbook so something it seems like you need in print). 

My plans this weekend include working in my garden on Saturday morning. It is a HOT mess. I have so many weeds and it just does not look good at all but I've struggled to get over there as regularly as I would like. Phil is going golfing on Saturday afternoon if the weather cooperates as his Father's Day gift (I gave him the gift of time off to golf which is his favorite activity) so Paul and I will have to entertain ourselves. If it's nice out I am sure we will be outdoors most of the day. Sunday is Father's Day but we don't have much planned. I will make Phil's favorite meal (lentil enchiladas) on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, he will swim across the lake by our house and Paul and I will play at the beach. He needs to go out to his mom's to help her with some things around the house so Paul and I will be on our own again for part of the day... which is fine! I do wish I had a hobby or excuse to be gone for like 4 hours on a weekend... but I do take a nap when Paul naps so I get a nice break then. 

Bonus Paul photos!

When I am making dinner, Paul likes to spread out a bunch of bowls and uses this wooden spoon to either play them as drums or to pretend to make something. In this picture, he's "eating" some pasta he made. He is allowed to play with anything on the bottom shelf of this cupboard and will usually entertain himself pretty well. 

On Wednesday night, he ran down the sidewalk in front of our house and fell. He has a nasty abrasion on his forehead. It looks really, really bad but does not seem to bother him. That night he was trying to do somersaults and headstands on our couch and when Phil dropped him at daycare the next day, he proudly showed off his owies. But gosh he looks tough! Also note that he is still eating with his left hand. He does everything else with his right, like throwing balls/toys/etc. Phil also eats with his left hand and uses his left hand for a bunch of other things like brushing his teeth and using his computer mouse. His parents are/were both lefties so we figure he picked it up watching them but I don't know why Paul eats with his left as I right handed! Maybe he sits next to a leftie when he eats meals at school? Who knows!

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

Our Growing Family

This has been a heavy year so far with COVID, the resulting economic hardship many are experiencing as a result, and the social unrest from the systemic racism that has plagued our country for so many years and is finally getting the attention it deserves. But in the midst of all this darkness and difficulty, we have some good news to share...

 Our waving baby at 11 weeks.

WE ARE EXPECTING!! 

It's been a much harder road to a 2nd child than it was having Paul. For those who haven't read my blog for a long time we got pregnant with Paul the month after we got married in 2017. We knew we were incredibly lucky then but now I really know how lucky we were after having a harder time having a 2nd child. Longer-time readers know that we had a miscarriage at 8 weeks in October which was a very difficult and heartbreaking experience for us. And then the path to getting pregnant again was not easy as my cycle was impacted by being on and off steroids to treat RA flares.

But... here we are - expecting our 2nd child. I do not take for granted how lucky we are and my heart goes out to those struggling with infertility. It breaks my heart that the ability to grow a family is out of the hands of so many couples. So for those you dealing with that - I see you and I have so much compassion and empathy for what you are going through.

Now for the details!

How far along are you?

I am 15 weeks along!

What's the official due date?

December 8th, 2020 but I will have a scheduled C-section around 39 weeks so baby S will arrive in early December. I'm opting for a scheduled C-section as I can't handle repeating what happened with Paul - I labored for over a day, got to 9cm (without an epidural as I wasn't allowed to get one due to being on blood thinners) and then needed a C-section because his head wouldn't descend and his heart rate was dropping. Also, having a scheduled C-section makes sense since I am on blood thinners again due to a genetic mutation that makes me prone to clots (I had a massive blood clot at 34 weeks with Paul). It's just easy to manage all around as being on blood thinners really complicates things. I know I don't need to defend our decision to have a planned C-section but I do feel a little defensive about it. I would have to NOT have to have major surgery to bring a child into the world but after discussing it with my OB, we feel it's the safest decision all around.

Are you showing at all?

Yes, this time around I am showing. I have a fairly small bump. With Paul I did not show until closer to 18 weeks so this is a very different experience for me! The lighting in this picture isn't great but it shows you my little bump. I'm in that awkward stage where it's hard to tell if I am pregnant or just eating a little too much ice cream. Ha.

How did you tell Phil?

Once again, there was no pomp and circumstance to telling Phil. I had to do a lot of monitoring when we were trying for #2 so he knew exactly when I was going to take the test and was anxiously waiting in the bedroom while I was in our master bathroom. Earlier that week he had said, "you know we are going to have a positive test now that COVID-19 is happening!" We found out I was expecting in late March right when things were starting to get bad.

How did you tell your family?


I called my parents the weekend before the 8 week ultrasound to share the news. I was extremely anxious about the 8 week ultrasound as that's when we found out our last baby didn't have a heartbeat and I had to go to this appointment (and all appointments for this pregnancy alone). So I needed the extra prayers and support of my parents. I also told my little sister via text the day we got the positive pregnancy test as we are very close and share everything. I told my other siblings via text after the 8-week ultrasound. Again, it's on the early side to tell people but I knew they'd keep it to themselves and we wanted the extra support and prayers.

Phil wanted to wait until we had the genetic testing back to tell his mom so we told her when I was almost 14 weeks. We went out to her house for the afternoon and had Paul wear this shirt (it says Soon to be a big brother). She quickly read what was on his shirt and was so excited!

Will you find out the sex of the baby?

We decided to do things differently this time and found out during the genetic testing (we did not find out the gender with Paul). Drumroll..... it's another boy!! I was not the least bit surprised because this pregnancy is exactly like my pregnancy with Paul. Plus, Phil's family tends to have boys. I was obviously open to either gender but I've kind of always pictured myself as being a mom of boys. We would have of course been excited to have a girl but I never felt strongly about really wanting to have a daughter like many women do. Now we need to figure out a name though - having a girl would have been nice as we had a girl named picked up if Paul had been a girl. But we've got 5 months to figure that out!

How have you been feeling physically? 

Overall, I've been feeling pretty good. My RA is much better managed this time around. Back in February I was able to go back on the drug I was on before getting pregnant with Paul as there is more evidence that it is safe for pregnancy. My RA definitely isn't in remission (it goes into remission for over 50% of women) but it's not terrible. I've been able to manage all of my flares with a topical anti-inflammatory gel.

I did have the same bleeding issue that I had with Paul - it's called a subchorionic hemorrhage (SCH). It's a area of bleeding that develops around the placenta. I had some bleeding the day I put in my garden fence so that scared the heck out of me. I was able to get in for an ultrasound the next day which confirmed I have an SCH. Being on blood thinners complicates things as it's harder for the bleeding issue to resolve. So I have been taking it easy and sticking to just walks as heavier activity would likely result in more bleeding.

But as far as pregnancy-specific symptoms, I am pretty lucky. I had the same aversions as I did with Paul (coffee and sweets). They are getting better and I'm back to treating myself to the occasional coffee (I packed away my coffee pot during the 5th week when the smell was making me gag). There are still things I can't/won't eat like yogurt and hard-boiled eggs, which were staples in my diet before. But overall, I'm incredibly lucky and my nausea has been very minor and I have not thrown up!

How have you been feeling emotionally? 

Oof. This has been the hardest aspect of the pregnancy. After having a miscarriage with no signs in the fall, I was so anxious it would happen again. Plus 2 good friends had miscarriages in Feb/Mar around 12 weeks after hearing the heartbeat at 8 weeks. So I was so paranoid that was going to happen to us. Now that I'm 15 weeks, I'm feeling more confident in things and trying to trust it will all work out.

How have you been sleeping?

My sleep has been hit or miss. The exhaustion during this pregnancy is unreal, but I think chasing a 2-year old around is way different than being pregnant with no kids in the house! Also, COVID has really turned life upside down and we had Paul home with until I hit the 8 week mark of pregnancy. I purposely waited until we saw the heartbeat at 8 weeks to send him back to daycare as I was worried I'd have another miscarriage and would need my mom to come watch him if I needed a D and C. And I wouldn't have felt right having her watch him if he'd been at daycare and exposed to who knows what. This is just an example of where your mind goes when you've experienced a loss...

I definitely live for weekend naps and nearly always nap while Paul is napping.

Have you had any aversions or cravings?

As I mentioned above, I had an aversion to coffee and sweets but that's getting better. I don't really have any strong cravings although I have been eating a lot of pickles but that's not super abnormal for me since pickles are one of my favorite foods!

What have you been doing for exercise?

Just walking! But my OB wanted me to take it easy due to the SCH issue and I feel like I can still get a good workout with walks as there are lots of hills in our area that get my heart racing. I do really miss running and now is when I could easily fit it in since I'm working from home. But I just keep telling myself that this is not the season of life for running. Some day I will return to that sport but not in the near future.

So there you have it, a long post with lots of details. I think I will post every 4 weeks like I did with Paul, starting at 18 weeks. I know pregnancy posts are not everyone's cup of tea, but I know some like to read them (I really do!) and I love being able to look back on the posts from my pregnancy with Paul. 

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. This past weekend felt like the first truly 'normalish' weekend since COVID struck in March. We are still being super cautious so I don't want it sound like we are back to life as usual. We wear masks when in indoor public spaces and we don't take Paul to any public indoor spaces since we can't get him to wear a mask. We are mostly seeing daycare friend and if I see other girlfriends, we meet for outdoor walks or coffee dates. But this weekend we went to a park and to the beach so it felt normalish, which was really nice. Here's how our weekend shaped up!

On Friday night, Paul played with chalk in the backyard when we got home from school. We had leftovers for dinner so it was a low key night!

On Saturday morning I headed out for a long walk with Paul while Phil did our weekly grocery shopping.

My favorite walking buddy!

 We saw a beautiful blue heron (I think that's what it is?) taking a leisurely stroll along the creek!

I had done some research and found out that our parks aren't closed anymore. As this sign says, it's 'play at your own risk'. There was only one other family there (a father and daughter) and they were not remotely close to what Paul was interested in so it felt pretty safe. I just wiped his hands before, during, and after and made sure he didn't put them in his mouth.

He was in heaven! His favorite thing to do was the tornado slide. He went down it over and over and over again. Of course there were tears when we left. He never wants to leave the park.

When we got home, I threw together this egg bake for lunch. We make a couple of modification such as using ground sausage instead of sausage patties and getting tator tots with onions instead of chopping green onions. I also find it needs to bake for an hour instead of 45 minutes. It is not a 'light meal' by any stretch of the imagination as it has a pound of sausage AND a pound of bacon and 3 cups of cheese!! But we figure we are very active in the summer and can handle the heavier meal. Plus the leftovers are so good. I forgot to take a picture because we were both starving so we dug right in!

I laid down for a nap when Paul went down for his nap as I had slept really poorly the night before. Phil got Paul up for his nap so I headed out to our (newly-finished) deck to do some reading. I think part of the reason I did not sleep well on Friday night is due to this book - "The Island of Sea Women." A read a really horrible, heart-breaking section right because I stopped reading for the night and could not shake it from my mind. But I think that's a sign of a talented author - she really made me feel things when I read this book (I finished it on Saturday night).

On Saturday night, we grilled a pork tenderloin and had that with asparagus and a baked potato. In case you were wondering, Paul ate none of this. His eating is getting better, but he only likes ground or shredded meat with the exception of turkey. He also does not like asparagus, nor does he seem to like potatoes? I don't get it. But we just keep offering him things and hope he will come around soon. In his defense, there are things he loves that I don't think many toddlers would - like lentil enchiladas that are made with a jalapeno!

We woke up to a super windy day on Sunday. Phil is part of a local swim club that sets up a course so you can swim across a lake on certain times during the week, one of which is Sunday morning. Phil was planning to swim that morning, despite the wind, but we could not find his swim goggles! We both looked in so many places and just could not find them. We had already told Paul we were going to the beach and he was all dressed to go so we still went. In March, our parks and rec dept said beaches were closed for the summer but they provided clarification that by closed they mean no lifeguards. We obviously don't need a lifeguard so it's nice to have this as another activity to entertain Paul. It was not the nicest morning given the wind but Paul still enjoyed playing in the sand. Hopefully next week it's warmer/less windy so we can play close to the water. The beach is pretty large and it was not at all crowded. So again, this seemed like a very safe activity for us to do.

We also stopped at the park on the way home so it was a very full morning for Paul!

Paul went down for his nap and I read my latest read - "The City Baker's Guide to Country Living." It's such a cozy, delightful read and just what I need in my life right now!

After Paul's nap, we went over to our friend's house for some play time. We ordered takeout Indian for dinner.

We were mostly outdoors but we did go inside to eat dinner. The boys all go to the same daycare so are exposed to the same stuff so it seemed low risk to eat indoors. Plus, in Minnesota we are allowed to gather indoors in groups of 10 or less so we were following the rules!

Paul was definitely exhausted when we got home after all the play time and time outdoors!

I closed out my night by logging into the Brandi Carlile Live Stream event. This is her 2nd live stream event this month. She's been playing one album in it's entirely. She started with her most recent album a couple of weeks ago and will be moving back through the years over the course of the summer/fall. It's only $10 to access the live stream. She's putting on these concerts so they can continue to play their band/staff despite not being on tour. The events are around 1.5 hours so more than worth my $10 (you can pay more or less. I paid $30 for the first one as I felt like it was a worthy contribution since Brandi is my all-time favorite artist).

And that's a wrap! So all in all a really good weekend full of time outdoors and some time with friends!

How was your weekend? Is your life starting to feel a bit more normal?

Weekend Recap

Wow, summer has arrived! It's going to be 94 here today which isn't typical for June in Minnesota! Usually we don't get these hot temps until August! I'm very thankful for air conditioning today as sleeping would be quite uncomfortable without a/c! It was a warm weekend, too, so we spent lots of time outside. This is how our weekend shaped up.


On Friday night, we played in the backyard when we got home from daycare pick-up. Phil had taken part of the day off to help his cousin with the deck. As you can see, it's a large deck so a very big project. Paul had fun playing with remnants from the deck project! I needed a break from cooking so we got take-and-bake pizza for dinner.

 

On Saturday morning, while Phil and his cousin work on the deck, Paul and I had a playdate with the daycare families we hung out with 3 weeks ago. It was a beautiful morning and the kids had fun playing outside although there was some battles over toys between the 2 year olds - go figure! I hadn't slept well the night before (work stress) so I napped while Paul napped. I slept in our basement guest room as it's quieter down there and nice and cold! That nap definitely helped and was necessary! We woke Paul up around 3:30 to head out to Phil's mom's house. We are trying to see her every couple of weeks to help with the loneliness. She's a widow and lives alone. It was a short visit but we got Mexican take-out and Paul enjoyed playing outdoors in her driveway.


On Sunday, I got together with 2 girlfriends for an outdoor coffee date. We went to a beautiful garden close to a lake. I hadn't seen one of the girls since late January so we were very over due for a catch up session. I had to set an alarm at 10:15 to remind myself to leave as Phil needed to leave for Home Depot with his cousin at 10:30. I was sad to go and we could have talked for way longer but it was nice to catch up for an hour!


I took over Paul duty when I got home and Phil and his cousin headed out. After Paul went down for his nap, I headed over to my garden to do some weeding. My plot looked HORRIBLE! I spent 1.5 hours weeding and then put some grass clippings down to hopefully prevent the weeds from overtaking things again. I also had to replant some lettuce, cucumbers, and beets that didn't come up. My green beans are growing the best out of everything! After all that gardening in the heat, I had a cool shower and enjoyed a raspberry bar that I had picked up from a GF bakery on Friday. They re-opened on Friday and I am so excited as I like going there for the very occasional treat!


After Paul's nap, I set up the splashpad sprinkler attachment I bought this spring. Overall, he wasn't a fan... We turned the sprinkler jets way down which helped and he did splash around a bit but he didn't like standing in the cold water!

 

He kept asking for his water table so I gave up on this toy and got that set up. Maybe when he is a bit older he will enjoy this splash pad. But at least he loves the water table!

 

By this point, the deck was done and they were finishing the clean-up. The finished product looked great and I am so glad it's done as I've done a lot of solo parenting on the weekends over the last several weeks!

The finished product

That evening we enjoyed some leftovers. And then the hair-cutting scissors I had ordered from Amazon arrived so Paul got a haircut after dinner. I was very nervous about this as blond hair is hard to cut and shows everything little snip. But his hair was getting so long and was getting in his eyes. I watched some youtube tutorials but I can't say they were all that helpful, especially for hair like Paul has! Hair salons are open again here but we opted not to go since there were COVID cases in another room at daycare a couple of weeks ago. It seems like the responsible thing to do is to social distance. All in all, the haircut went pretty well. The front doesn't look great but it's not terrible and no one cried. Ha. Here are the before pictures - you can see it was quite long and shaggy!

 

And after

 

I'm sure it feel much better for Paul - especially in this hot weather!


After our full weekend, I collapsed into bed at 9pm and got more deep sleep than I usually do. I guess all the outdoor time and socializing took it out of me!


How was your weekend?

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? 

What We Read in May

May was another slower month for me. I mean, I read 5 books, which is a decent amount but less than I usually read in a month. Work was super busy in May and the month sort of flew by us, even though some of the days felt long. I still try to fit 1 hour of reading in each night but I definitely am reading less than I did pre-COVID when I could read on my bus commutes. But I'm fitting in what I can!

I'm happy to say that I didn't read any duds in May!

Hits:

- Know My Name by Chanel Miller - This is my book club's July read. It is a very heavy read as it's written by the victim of sexual assault by a swimmer on Stanford's campus. She remained anonymous until the trial was over and then went public with her experience in the trial. It's very awful to read about how we treat victims - you can see why women are hesitant to report sexual assaults. In this case, 2 men on bikes came upon the crime and chase her assailant away and yet there was still a question of whether an assault had occurred. It was sickening to read about, but an important read.Her assailant ended up spending 3 months in jail for this crime - the judge felt that Brock Turner was young and had such promise so he gave him an incredibly light sentence. So infuriating.

- This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger - This will probably go in my top reads of 2020. It's set in Minnesota and follows 4 orphans who leave a school where they are being mistreated and float down a series of rivers to get to family in St. Louis. It's so beautifully written. I plan to read more by this author.

Paul's Reads:

I haven't been good at taking pictures of Paul lately but here a couple of our little reader. In these pictures, he's reading an Alpha Block Book and 10 Little Lady Bugs. He's really into Llama Llama books right now so I need to pick up more from that series. He still loves board books but is able to pay attention for longer, more involved stories which is fun for us as I'm kind of tired of his board books! I ordered some new Usbourne books last month and have been slowly taking out a book occasionally when I need something new to entertain him. We've been really happy with the Usbourne books we've ordered. We must have 15 of them by now!

Did you read anything good in May?

A Weekend of Fear and Anxiety

Well, my bad week did not get any better over the weekend. I'd say it got worse. If you watched the news at all over the weekend, I am sure you saw coverage of the destruction that occurred in Minneapolis. The worst night was Friday night when there were so many fires set to property across the twin cities. The hardest hit area is an area that is mostly owned by minority/immigrants and is one of our most diverse areas of the city. It is devastating to see the destruction to that area - entire blocks are basically gone. It's like looking at coverage of a war zone, honestly.

During the day, people would come out to help with the clean-up efforts and it reminded me why I love this city. However, when night fell, conditions would change and the destruction would start. After the destruction on Friday, Minneapolis residents basically felt like we were on our own. The police were so overwhelmed by the rioters that they couldn't respond to 911 calls in residential areas, and the rioting got scarily close to residential areas on Friday night. On Saturday, Phil and I had a serious conversation about whether we were safe in our home. We live a block south of the county attorney in charge of the case against George Floyd's murderer and there has been a lot of rioting in front of his house. There is a creek between our blocks so that made us feel a little bit more safe, but we had heard rumors that there were plans to set his house on fire. Ultimately, we decided to stay because we didn't really feel like we could go stay with Phil's mom now that we know Paul may have been exposed to COVID at daycare. We followed the instructions of bringing trash cans in our garage and removed anything from our yard that could be thrown. We are in the midst of rebuilding our deck, so had a huge pile of wood in our backyard but a neighbor brought a tarp over so we could cover it up.

I had friends in our neighborhood who chose to leave their homes on Saturday night to stay with family/friends outside of the city. I say that to explain that our fear wasn't an over reaction. Things were SO BAD HERE. We had the news on all day on Saturday so we could monitor the situation and were encouraged when we saw that the 8pm curfew was being more seriously enforced on Saturday night. The curfew started on Friday night, but they did allowed peaceful protesters to remain out past curfew but then that resulted in confusion over who was peaceful and who was out to destroy property. Our governor made it very clear during a news conference on Saturday that if you were out past curfew, the police and national guard would have to assume you were part of the problem. As a result, Saturday was a much more peaceful night with no fires/destruction.

So things seem to be calming a bit, but the situation is still precarious and the violence and looting is now happening across the country. I imagine that the economic hardship and social isolation are making things extra bad. My city has a lot of work to do to improve the racial inequality and our police force has a long, sad history of mistreating people of color. I think/hope that we will see real change. There is a lot of work to be done and I'm starting by educating myself on how to combat racism and detect any unconscious biases I might carry.

The weekend wasn't all bad. I had a great socially distanced coffee date with 3 of my college girlfriends on Saturday morning. Paul continues to be a source of laughter and lightness.

How are you doing? How are things in your community?