1. Yes, we did school on Labor Day, and no I still haven’t taken any “official” first day, or 13th day of school photos. I have taken photos of some of our history themed art crafts, and items at JoAnn’s that I want to go back and snap up once Addie finally gets her employee discount card, but otherwise I am too busy educating my offspring and conversely, finding places to hide from them when it’s not school time.
2. For once I am not overwhelmed with outside commitments I should’ve said no to, but instead only juggling the occasional drop off and pick up of various children. So life is good because it’s safe enough for me to make a four hour sanity saving run to Target when necessary, and my mental space isn’t always taken up with all the things I need to be doing for other people.
3. However I keep trying to find more work for myself. Things like “Maybe I should volunteer to run this church event!”, or “Perhaps I should organize an online conference!”, or even “Now would be the perfect time to start a podcast!”. I guess old habits die hard. So far I’ve managed to keep myself from starting any new projects. Instead I’ve been trying to just relax, read a book, maybe scrub the toilets a bit more, and keep on top of all the school things in the least stressful way possible for a change. It’s nice and I’m finally understanding why most people don’t volunteer for everything or take on ambitious personal projects. Besides, I still have a piano bar to finish, a vintage bike to restore, and numerous photo albums to assemble if I’m feeling bored.
4. The first full week of the month in our town is bulk trash pickup which I think Tony is coming to dread since I love finding “treasures” to bring into our home. I am not a crazy trash picker who collects anything I think I might possibly use at some future time. Instead, I look for things I know we need. I scored an excellent condition desk for Byron’s room early this year. We also have a lovely faux leather couch and chair I rescued a few years back. This week I finally found replacement dining chairs. Our IKEA chairs all started falling apart after ten years of hard use. I didn’t want to buy new IKEA chairs and have the same thing happen, and I didn’t want to buy an entirely new dining set since I really like our table and bench. Thankfully, this week someone left out three sturdy vintage dining chairs. I’ll probably never find a matching fourth, but I was quite pleased. In addition, there were four like new outdoor chairs with cushions and some vintage Christmas decorations. Sure, you sometimes get surprises, like that mysterious pair of pants mixed in with the decorations, but all in all, I like to think I’m doing my part for the environment.
5. This week we finally got to resume the process to become foster parents. One of the few silver linings to come out of all this COVID stuff is that we will get to do all our training ONLINE instead of hours of in-person classes that were going to be difficult for Tony and I to fit into our schedule due to the distance and times offered. There’s still months between us and a potential placement, but at least things are moving forward again. I was told by our new case worker that no new foster parents recruiting is happening for the rest of the year, and that we are one of the few families that got our paperwork in right before things shut down. In between then and now, offices have been closed and reorganized and we were assigned two new people to handle our case. There was also a brief window of time where I thought they’d lost all our paperwork but thankfully, it materialized.
6. Our ultimate goal is adoption, however the ages of children we will be able to accept will change given that Addie turns 18 at the end of this month. So the spacious girls’ room upstairs will be off limits to foster kids because they can’t share a bedroom with a “random adult” even if it that just happens to be our daughter. We can take a child aged 0-2 years who would share our room, and a boy to share Fulton and Teddy’s room. Honestly, I’m not sure how it would work to have baby or toddler in our house right now, and we’re not sure we want another bed in the boys room even though “technically” it could work. But we’re going to go ahead with everything, get licensed and perhaps try emergency or respite care first and go from there. It will be easier to stop accepting placements, keep our license up to date, and restart later, rather than scrap it all now and restart later. I figure we’ll just keep going at whatever pace we can and trust that it’ll work out the way it’s supposed to.
7. As part of my French lesson plans with Fulton and Teddy, we’re watching Cartoon Network shows in French. I don’t know how much it’s actually helping us learn anything, but but the shows are still funny which has to help the learning process… or at least that’s what I tell myself anyway.
What randomness is happening in your homes? Write it down then link it up below. You can use a link from your blog or Instagram. Be sure to include a link back to this post, or the hashtag #SQT or #sevenquicktakes, so your readers and followers can enjoy the rest of the Quick Takes. I look forward to reading your posts!