Weekend bullets - Feb. 20, 2021

Since I was having a little pity party for myself yesterday, it seemed best to just avoid the computer. I'm feeling more balanced now and it seems safer to blog.

• Living during a pandemic can make you feel as if you have no friends. I'm an introvert, but I hate living in my little bubble never seeing anyone. It does make one wonder, "If I were to disappear would anyone even notice? Other than my immediate family, of course." So that pretty much sums up yesterday.
• Today was warmer and sunnier. We were invited to a sledding party to celebrate the birthdays of some friends and we all got to see people. My children played with other children for the first time in I don't know how long. For a few hours life seemed almost normal and it was good.
• I received my first Covid vaccine on Thursday. My arm was sore, but that was probably due more to being jabbed with a needle than anything. I'm not really looking forward to dose number two. But I am looking forward to having the series done. 
• R. has had a much better week. A few days ago she even stopped having 4am nightmares which would wake her (and then us) up. It looks as though it takes her body at least three if not four weeks to fully process the increase in medicine. This is going to be a very long titration.
• After a conversation at dinner the other night, where we were discussing the durian fruit and our experience accidentally ordering durian pizza in China, W. decided on a whim to order durian candy because some people felt left out that they didn't get to experience durian. It was not really a hit. (You didn't expect it to be, did you?) Even my children who will eat anything because they still don't quite believe there will always be food chose to spit out the candy. That tells you a lot about it. H. thought everyone was calling it dirty candy because that is what it tasted like to her. K., though, decided he loved it, so he now has the entire package all to himself.
• Sometimes things take a long time to bubble to the surface. Out of the blue earlier in the week, Y. mentioned her foster mother doing needlework and how much she [Y.] loved to watch her do it and wished she could try herself. After some investigation, I figured out that Y. was talking about cross stitch. This was something I could help with. We went to my stash and found some cloth and a pattern and some thread. I showed her how to read the pattern and make the stitches. Ever since then, she's been off, working on it for several hours a day. I love that she has found something that she really enjoys doing. 
• For the past three days, K., G., L., and Y. have been playing endless games of Life. I personally think just one game of Life is endless, but they've been playing back-to-back games. I can't decide whether they have finally found their vacation stride or that they are so bored they have to resort to this. 
• We start back to school on Monday. I have had no difficulty filling my time and will probably be most sad at all about this.
• I finished Frankenstein a few days ago. There are some classics that I missed reading somewhere along the way and I've decided to try to fill in the gaps. This was one of them. What a tragic story! I find it fairly amazing that Mary Shelley wrote it when she was 19.
• I'm trying not to think about how long it is going to take all of this snow to melt and how much of a mess it is going to be in the process. 
• We have started reading The Picts and the Martyrs by Arthur Ransome at teatime. It is another installment in the Swallows and Amazons series and we are enjoying it very much.
• Finally I want to share a quote with you from a book I recently finished.

"Children who are punished harshly or inconsistently, or who are frequently threatened with punishment, are prevented from developing the internal controls they need to discipline themselves. Punishment demeans its target and diminished self-esteem necessary for true moral strength. It is an act of retribution that demonstrates power, authority, and superiority over the victim. We punish others because we want to make them hurt more than we want to help them change. People who are punished for their wrongdoings typically feel ashamed, resentful, and angry Rather than focusing on the changes they need to make, they focus on the harm that was done to them. Their only motive for changing their behavior becomes the fear of punishment, rather than an internal mandate of conscience." (p. 156) from Teaching Tolerance: Raising Open-Minded, Empathetic Children by Sara Bullard