Hello, Friends. How are you? How was your week? It’s a birthday week at our house. Flora June turned 10 yesterday, and Betty turns 14 tomorrow — plus we’ve got Mother’s Day on Sunday — so lots of stay-at-home celebrating around these parts.
Have your kids had birthdays during quarantine? These are the first ones for our family and of course it feels strange. Typically we would do a few traditional things with the family (breakfast in bed, light candles, open presents, etc.), and then do something fun with friends and cousins — a party, or bringing a treat to school, or going out to dinner, or maybe going on an adventure. Obviously the celebrations are really low-key this year, but we’re hoping the girls feel celebrated and loved.
For Mother’s Day, I asked the kids to make me cinnamon rolls. : ) I plan to sleep in, eat cinnamon rolls, and if the weather is good, maybe we’ll go for walk out in the countryside. I know Mother’s Day can feel absolutely fraught for so many people, so I hope you’ll be gentle with yourselves this weekend.
One other interesting thing I wanted to note: Flora June will return to school on a modified schedule starting Monday. Half her class will be attending Monday and Thursday, and half the class will be attending on Tuesday and Friday. (They have Wednesdays off with or without quarantine.) On the days they aren’t in the classroom, they’ll continue with digital assignments. But Betty and Oscar don’t start again on Monday — I’m still unclear on if/when they will return to school. And like you, I’m very curious to see how all of this works out.
Ready for a link list? Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share:
–Father and son charged in the killing of black Georgia jogger, Ahmaud Arbery. This is a good first step, but we need to remember: this is not justice. Not yet.
-“It’s not that women leaders are doing better. It’s just that strongmen are doing worse.”
–Canada banned the sale of assault weapons less than 2 weeks after its deadliest mass shooting killed 22 people. The ban affects 1,500+ models including AR-15s.
–Jeffrey Epstein had his own office at Harvard and visited dozens of times in the years after he was released from his 2008 prison sentence — visits that continued until 2018.
–The DOJ dropping the charges on Flynn is so discouraging and depressing. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. The evidence against him is overwhelming.
-Comparing Yourself To The Perfect Instagram Mother (She Doesn’t Exist)
Here are a few tweets I saved for you:
-Ben Blair is the homeschool hero at our house, but this tweet still made me laugh.
-I agree with the Rabbi.
-Yes please to wide testing! It’s not too late to test, trace, isolate, and save lives.
-A thread discussing the fact that “we don’t know the full scope of what COVID does. We have learned it causes lung lesions in even the asymptomatic, strokes, death, changes in fertility, hyperinflammatory shock, and almost certainly other serious issues.”
-Hahaha. Note those dates.
-So much corruption and injustice.
-The responses to this tweet are amazing. I need to ask my kids what our version of “Billy Dinner” is .
I hope you have a satisfying weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.
kisses,
Gabrielle
