Seventy, sanity, and staying home

Dad is a septuagenarian

Dad, congrats!

We have some fun memories, and often, they still come up in my dreams. Yes, I even had dreams about Merriewold this week.

Work took you to Greensboro a long time ago. You had no idea that it would turn into an awesome home for me and my brothers to call home, and grow up in (and now call home for another generation to grow). For that, I am thankful.

Summer trips to Merriewold were something for any kid to be jealous of. Swimming all day, par 3 golf, fishing, ping pong- it was a dream. Thanks for those happy memories.

Living in Budapest was amazing. Those are some of the happiest days of my life, and that experience still has an impact on the way I view the world.

Divorce sucked. But, God is in control, and Kiyoe popped into the picture. How did you get so lucky with her? Despite things, Matt Jake and I are full-grown men. And none of us are in prison. By the grace of God, you did awesome!

Hope your birthday is amazing. Love you,

-Luke

Staying home

Mercy (1 1/2) goes to an awesome daycare. They have a great playground, give the kids healthy food, and spend lots of time outside.

Last week, a few kids in her class got Covid, so we got some messages about this topic. Because I am bad at reading all of my emails, Taylor keeps me updated about the “need to know” messages like the ones from daycare, so I am adequately informed.

When I picked her up Wednesday, they said Mercy was coughing a little bit after her nap, and had a temperature of 99* (they are a little more on edge about these things this week). Wednesday night, we heard some coughing on the baby monitor, and gave her an at-home covid test.

Since the daycare counts infection “day zero” as the first day she gets a professional covid test, we went and got a covid test on Thursday. The daycare policy states:

“He or she can return to FACP when they have completed a 5 day isolation AND it has been at least 24 hours since they have had a fever without using fever reducing medication. They can then return if they are able to wear a properly fitting mask successfully for the next 5 days with monitoring. NOTE: If they are not able to properly mask for the remaining 5 days they will need to continue to isolate for the full 10 days and return after day 10 of Isolation.”
Friendly Avenue Christian Playschool Covid Policy

Since Mercy cannot wear a mask, start the clock: we will be juggling working from home AND sharing parent duties, and likely not doing a great job at either, for the next 10 days 🙁

Sanity

So the caption of this blog is “proud supporters of fun and failures”, but I haven’t shared many “failures”, so here goes.

Mercy has covid. So, for 10 days, either Taylor or I have to be home with her, and sanity seems to be running short. I know there are various views on Covid, but Rosie has continued to test negative, and neither Taylor nor I have had any symptoms.

I had an idea to pick up Rosie from camp, and do something a little different: while Taylor was out, rather than go home and eat dinner and go to bed, why not go to a park and enjoy a picnic? It seemed like a great idea, but it was a great fail. Mercy convinced me she could sit alone on a picnic table bench (through her many screams), and I reluctantly gave in. And failed.

A few bites into her food, she face planted on the concrete slab the bench was sitting on. It was terrible. She screamed, then I screamed. Then two minutes passed, then she asked to go on the swing. Then we went home. Then she wanted a sandwich…

Several google searches told me there were not any bad symptoms of a concussion, so we carried on. Just enough of a shiner to make dad feel bad, but she went on being Mercy, and hardly missed a beat.

Since we are slowly losing our minds at home quarantining with a 1 year old, we did a few more things to get out of the house: