April 21st. Day 36.

Day 36.

Here in Georgia, we are getting ready for a soft opening.

My pedicure from my recent trip to Poland has grown almost halfway out. It's truly how I'm keeping track of my time on the inside. But when my nail salon opens on Friday for business, I won't be there. Because in my gut, I have a bad feeling about all this. I think this just about puts the nail in the coffin for our dreams of summer camp happening.

Sigh.

Little E had a class zoom call at 9AM. He set himself up (EARLY!) at the kitchen island. Big E came by at the sight of a computer and the two of them recorded themselves fake farting and replayed it over and over again. Everyone found great humor in this, except me. How can two seemingly intelligent children also spend time doing this?

BOY MOMS: I NEED A VIRTUAL HUG. THIS VIDEO DOESN'T ACTUALLY WORK. BECAUSE I'M AN ACCOUNTANT, NOT AN IT SPECIALIST.

We moved up to the playroom to work. Big E and I read from his World War II Atlas. Today, I learned that during the war, Germany sent over a bunch of submarines and sunk the sh*t out of our merchant ships. Look at all the red dots! They were off the coast of Georgia! What?!

(HISTORY = CHECK!)

The boys did some work on their computers, there was a stupid fight between them that ended with Big E turning off Little E's computer in the middle of an assignment, just to be nasty, and loads of screaming. He earned himself some additional Switch time-out, which he brushed off. This is key to remember as it comes back to haunt me later.

THE BOYS ALSO DID SOME HOME-EC WHEN I MADE THEM CLEAN UP THIS PLAYROOM. IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING THEY'VE BEEN INTO THIS WEEK.

In the midst of cleaning, Little E rediscovered his microscope. Frog blood and fly legs weren't enough. He wanted to make more slides so he brought everything downstairs and began ripping leaves off of plants and petals off of roses. He tried to make a slide with blue dye. Unfortunately, the only thing he dyed was my new kitchen table. I tried to remain calm, as he WAS learning. 

BUT. IT'S. NEW. AND. NOW. TINTED. BLUE. 

But today's main event, was at dinner. Big E had a Hebrew call with our Rabbi a few minutes earlier, and I felt he was being disrespectful. Big E disagreed. I then watched him slam the back door mere moments before the poodle tried to walk in the house causing her to walk straight into the glass. It was mean spirited. I brought up his tacked-on Switch grounding and he lost it.

YOU DON'T LOVE ME! WHY WOULD YOU TAKE MY SWITCH FROM ME! I'M BORED AND THAT'S WHY I'M DOING THESE THINGS TO EVERYONE!

This replayed on a loop for almost an hour. But I'm here for my medal. I didn't raise my voice AT ALL. (Even though I wanted to put my head through the drywall)! I remained totally calm. I was so proud of myself. He asked me the same question over and over again. He argued. He used all of his inherited lawyer tactics. But I stayed true to the course. I do think it's the screen addiction talking and causing these emotional outbursts. Coupled with the quarantine. Really, it was a perfect cocktail of real, raw emotions. 

I explained to him that boredom is good. It's the source of creativity. I don't think he believed me, but he's got a lot of time to find out if this is true. 

I finally got him to calm down. Just in time for my Synagogue board call.   I even made it through my meeting without any interruptions, which is an act of g-d.  I'm pretty sure the two rabbis on the call had a little something to do with it...

Mr. Yoy just got home and he's putting the Yoys to bed.

And I'm off to dreamland.

Good night!