Day 58. Mother's Day Weekend Recap

Today, the day after the celebration of motherhood, was like a compilation of what makes motherhood so very hard sometimes. The boys seem to be in a perfect storm of disequilibrium and chaos. They bicker constantly until they are either crying and screaming in frustrated anger or fist fighting. If they aren't bickering, they are playing so well and so passionately that everything is said in a manic holler.

There is no inbetween. 

Today, it was too much. Every decibel their noise making ratcheted up, the more a dull thud in my head would pound. All through breakfast, through trying to drink my (needed) coffee, through doing school with Vivian, through lunch, through school with Julia, I could just feel my headache getting the best of me. 

I asked them nicely to talk quieter, to play in other areas, to go outside, etc, etc. Finally it got to a feverish pitch where I lost it, burst into angry tears, and had to go upstairs to get myself together. 

Thankfully, Elisabeth swooped in, got Thomas dressed, and tried to get a (stubborn and very contrary) David dressed. 

Eventually, everyone went outside, I got dressed in real clothes (like, legit real clothes, not just another set of loungewear), cleaned up the kitchen, and the day kind of got turned around for the better.

We just need to see our people. We need a break from each other, to see and play with our friends and family. We need our community. 

In other news, our cat decided to actually act like a cat and sit on the couch by Vivian. (This is so rare, because he usually avoids us at all costs, that I took a picture to capture the moment.) 

Let's talk about this weekend, which was lovely, and move on from my "Being a Mommy is Difficult" day.

I started Saturday pretty early (due to the boys waking up earlier than even Vivian) and decided to make bagels:

I made 14 and these were all that were left by the time I could snap a picture.

They weren't too dissimilar to making pretzels, so I am sure that I will make them again, but they aren't anything I will be making weekly. Also, I will be making them a smidge smaller so they will maybe be thicker. But, they were well received and tasted great!

Vivian putting away a scooter in her roller skates. Captain Safety.

We decided to do our weekend hike on Saturday since Sunday was calling for rain all day. We headed to Lowden State Park to visit the Black Hawk statue.

State parks have only recently opened up, so we figured there might be more people than at the forest preserves.

However, there were a lot more people than we had expected, and the trail that leads down to the river is very narrow. Between the narrow and steep trail, the number of people with dogs and families with strollers (??), we decided to turn around and go to the Byron Forest Preserve instead. Evan was able to get a few pictures of Elisabeth, Vivian, and David on the Lowden trail, though:

The Byron Forest Preserve is where the girls take science classes during the school year. Once a month we drive to the education center at the preserve and drop off the girls for the day and it's one of their favorite places to take classes. I'd never walked the trails before, though, so I was very excited to see how beautiful it was there. Plus, it was almost completely empty.

You can Byron's nuclear power plant from the trails. It always reminds of The Simpsons.

It was so nice out! And by the time we had gotten to actually walking, the sun was at that perfect spot where the lighting is magical. So, I used my phones portrait mode:

Thomas is not great at holding on for piggyback rides.

Their album cover:

Vivian never stays with us for long. She just jauntily takes the lead...

 until she is a speck in the distance. It's why I encourage her to wear bright colors on our hikes.

For Mother's Day, I asked to spend the day upstairs, alone. Everyone thought I was crazy, but since I get no alone time anymore, it's all I wanted. I did come down for the waffle breakfast Julia made (complete with bacon and scrambled eggs!) and I came down to open gifts and cards around midday, where Thomas insisted on being helped to put on his rain gear so he could pick me some flowers.

Otherwise, I read my book in bed, sewed some masks, and listened to The Office Ladies podcast. It was a great day.

I did come down to set up our Sunday Dinner Party meal because I wanted to have make-shift charcuterie board(s). The kids thought I was a flipping genius for making this for dinner, so I think we'll do it again soon. Thomas was especially cute picking out tiny foods to put on his plate with his dimply bear paws.

However, it is now Monday, and it was quite the Monday, and I haven't menu planned for the week yet and basically am unprepared for our week. Sigh.