I am sitting on my back porch. For some reason, my laptop battery is not charging, so I only get about twenty minutes of battery life before I have to go back inside to plug my laptop in. It is a bit cool and breezy outside. Birds can be heard chirping in the background, but the rustling of the tress is mostly what I hear. I do not remember the last time I felt a little cold in Houston on a day in May.
I had five different invitations from friends for lunch, dinner or visiting over at their houses today. I turned all of the invitations down. The “New Normal” has taught me that I love having a day to myself to spend time working on pet projects for work, fixing things around the house and writing. My productivity is off the charts both from a work perspective, and from a getting things done around the house perspective. I think the foundation of this is my Saturdays, which I spend reflecting, planning and recharging. At least this is what I am striving for the foundation of my hyper productivity to be. I suppose that the eight hours of sleep every night, absence of alcohol and intense amount of exercise are also drivers.
The Storey family has had a good week. I love that ordering fajitas for Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday, and a pizza delivery later in the week were considered huge treats. We used to eat out more than we cooked at home, and we stopped enjoying it. For me, it was rare that a single day went by without me eating breakfast, lunch or dinner out. Now, we truly enjoy the luxury of dining on food we did not have to cook. We like to deep clean the kitchen on Thursday nights, and then declare the kitchen closed on Friday. The boys then pick up something inexpensive for lunch, and we order out for dinner. I love waking up to the spotless kitchen on Fridays knowing that it is going to be that way all day.
We did cook at home last night, even though it was Friday. We had already had the fajitas and pizza out earlier in the week. I woke up this morning to find the kitchen spotless, even my French press coffee pot was thoroughly cleaned. Brainy Bird was in the “classroom” studying for his physics advanced placement (AP) exam next week. Brainy Bird has six AP exams in the next two weeks. I am secretly hoping that the teachers stop assigning work in these classes after the exams. I know that is terrible, but I am tired of policing Brainy Bird’s progress on his school work. I am making him get up at 6 AM every morning until all of his missing school work is done. My new methodology appears to be working.
It fascinates me how he maintains a 100 in computer science III, engineering III, Calculus, Physics II and English III, all advanced courses, but he can’t seem to even turn his work in for American History AP and Spanish IV AP. Moreover, he is pretty sure that he will get a 5 on the American History AP exam, which is the highest score, and he is always sharing bits of interesting facts that he learns in the class. Clearly, he is engaged in the class. Can he not just turn in his freaking homework? He reminds me of one of the guys on my project team at work that can literally design and code anything a client can imagine, but he cannot seem to enter his timesheet on Fridays.
Spanish is another matter; Brainy Bird hates it. His enunciation is pathetic; exactly what one would expect from a super tall, skinny pasty white kid. The only thing that keeps him going in that class is that he has a really good teacher this year. She is encouraging, deeply invested in their success. She keeps telling those that struggle with being up in front of the class, trying to speak in Spanish, that it gives them something to write about on college applications when they are asked to share about a time that was challenging for them. Brainy Bird is hoping for a 3 on the Spanish AP exam. A 3 is the lowest score that is considering passing. I am hoping he gets a 4 because the teachers are judged by the student performance on the exam, and we owe her at least a 4.
If Brainy Bird completes all of his high school work and AP exams with the scores that he expects, he will not have to take a single liberal arts class in college. He would start college as a junior with all of his “basics” complete. This means that his schedule would be freed up to minor in music, culinary arts or psychology all of which are his non-left brained passions. This is a huge motivator for him. He could sit all day in a class in one of his areas of interest and still go home and want to do his homework. I just hope that we get through these two weeks of testing without anything going wrong. The testing at home is a recipe for disaster. We are an internet outage way from failure.
The boys have packed up their laptops and headed off to their dad’s house for the weekend. Little Chirp is getting lasagna for lunch at Dad’s house today. I saw his face light up with Brainy Bird mentioned this. I happen to know that their dad is making scallops for dinner tomorrow. The boys are definitely eating like kings this week.
The house is now quiet as I am back inside thanks to my dead laptop battery. The only sound is the clicking of my hands on the computer keyboard. I once could not stand the silence, now it comforts me.
So much has changed during the “New Normal”, and so many bad things have happened, but there are definitely positives. Positives in a new appreciation for one’s time, an appreciation for things that we once took for granted and my new found ability to routinely take time to hit pause and to appreciate everything in my life.
It is the little things in life.