Monday, Self-Isolation Day #52
We request continued prayers for my husband's mother D. She has been sick with COVID-19 for about five weeks (now negative, but still sick) and today transferred from ICU to a long-term, acute care facility. She is still on a ventilator, and we are told this facility specializes in breathing therapy to get her independent of the ventilator.
David (2) currently has a passion for cutting paper, so I let him sit on my lap during school time and snip paper into little bits.
I opened a window during our beautiful, cool morning to let in fresh air, but what I ended up letting inside was a huge hornet. It flew into a kitchen cabinet, where we have trapped it to buy time while deciding what to do. Spray poison in our kitchen where we and our children eat? Try whacking it with a broom until it stings us? We're not sure of our best course of action, but we've been told by somebody in pest control that a hornet could live in there without food for weeks, so just leaving him to starve while my family of eight cannot access any of our drinking cups is not a good option either.
At least I know it's not a murder hornet--ha!
My large flower pots by the pool were filled with coleus in the fall and pansies over the winter. I have purchased geraniums for the summer color, but I noted that my pansies are really flourishing right now, so I may wait to switch over the flowers till the heat truly arrives (in a few weeks?) and the pansies begin to die.
We harvested Joseph's radishes and were about to plant his little vegetable garden kit from Grandpa when we noticed the strangely late cold snap coming for us this week. Daytime temps will drop back into the low 60s and the overnight as low as 39. I think we will wait till next week just to be safe.
Back to school after the weekend! I find that Monday is never an easy transition, no matter how many hundreds of Mondays we have experienced. Today wasn't the first Monday that I cried, nor will it be the last.
Joseph (7) has started writing his first story and has been bitten by the bug! I was so tickled today to see that even when I turned on a cartoon for the two littlest boys while I was cooking, Joseph preferred to work on his story.
David (2) currently has a passion for cutting paper, so I let him sit on my lap during school time and snip paper into little bits.
I opened a window during our beautiful, cool morning to let in fresh air, but what I ended up letting inside was a huge hornet. It flew into a kitchen cabinet, where we have trapped it to buy time while deciding what to do. Spray poison in our kitchen where we and our children eat? Try whacking it with a broom until it stings us? We're not sure of our best course of action, but we've been told by somebody in pest control that a hornet could live in there without food for weeks, so just leaving him to starve while my family of eight cannot access any of our drinking cups is not a good option either.
At least I know it's not a murder hornet--ha!
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| Geraniums happy and ready to be transplanted |
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| David helping Mary make homemade guacamole for Taco Night |
I finished reading two books in one day today: satisfying! I finished reading aloud The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs to the 2-, 4-, and 7-year-olds. This book did contain a thread of--not Southern Gothic--but Southern, backwoods mysticism, for lack of a better description. It was a bit of a fairy tale. I was not expecting that and it made me slightly wary, but I would explain it to Joseph as I went along. There was only one chapter I skipped because it was a myth about the devil that would have been way too frightening. That all sounds negative, but the book was mostly extremely sweet and entertaining: it taught the lesson that we are all surrounded by wonders, even in the seemingly most boring and mundane lives.
I finished reading (in only two short days) Walking the Road to God about Fr. Carney, the Catholic priest who walks the streets praying his rosary. This was a lovely read filled with meaningful meditation throughout. I advise that this book is available for ages 12+ to read: its only mature content is discreetly and respectfully mentioning certain people on the street who do drugs or drink alcohol to drunkenness. I give this book two thumbs up!
Katherine,
ReplyDeleteWe use the long wand attachment on our vacuum cleaner to suck up hornets, wasps, and other stinging insects. Ours pulls out far enough to give us at least 5 feet of distance from the pest. They get sucked into the canister where they die a quick death. Good luck.
Ashley