Unseal the door; the danger has passed

Okay, so we are officially out of quarantine. The kids are still finishing up their antibiotic for the nasty ear infections, but the lingering cough is really nothing more than annoying. I've re-washed all the bedding (again), sanitized doorknobs, light-switches, and cupboard pulls, and finished up {almost} all of the laundry overflow.

Phew, it's been a busy day. Normally, I'm proud of myself if I do one load of wash from start to finish- (What's that? You mean you aren't supposed to let each load sit in the washer for a few days and get all smelly before rewashing with vinegar and drying? Huh- that's weird...) -let alone eight! Yep, I've folded and put away eight loads today. My mother would be so proud. I even paired socks; which is a pet peeve of mine. Why is it that I'm missing one sock from exactly half of all the pairs, but not one of the remaining socks match up at all to any of the other remaining socks? Every single one is a different size and color. It should be illegal to sell socks in colors other than white. Maybe I should plead my case to the Federal Government. Seriously, they can eliminate incandescent light-bulbs from my lamps, they ought to be able to eliminate oddball socks from my laundry! At least then we could say the government did something useful. Stupid, yes, but that would be different... how?

Zoe is hanging out with me tonight; sitting right here next to me, "reading" over my shoulder and eating a bowl of cereal. She took a late nap. She rode her bike today for the first time this season, (Praise this warmish, beautiful day!!!) so she was exhausted and fell asleep right after dinner sitting up at her little craft table. We figure its the weekend, and our schedules are non-existent right now anyway with everyone still thrown off by this round of illness. She feels like she's getting special treatment though, because Dad and the boys are all sleeping.

It brings to mind a time when I was little, maybe eight or nine. I couldn't sleep one night (although I'm pretty sure I was always a pain to get to bed, because I have always been a night owl) - and my mom was up late sewing something. I came into the kitchen and just sat next to her at the table, doing my best to watch without becoming too conspicuous or obnoxious- lest I be sent back to my bed. I could tell that my Mom was mostly glad for the company; she took off her "Mom hat" for a few minutes, and listened to my chatter about my friends and the progress on our latest treasure hunt. Ha-ha! My best friend and I used to write up these treasure hunts for my younger siblings, which were actually more like plays. They involved acting, and costumes and imaginary villains. Wow, I really don't know how my Mom listened to it without laughing at me, right out loud.

Zoe was telling me this morning about a crab nightmare she had the other night. She went into great detail about how this crab looked; with hair, and blue and green eyes, and a cut on his throat... (yeah, I know...) I admit I was only half listening, and then she said "Mom, isn't that unusual?" I snapped out of it at that point. What four year old uses the word unusual? And correctly? I'm not even sure that's a word I use much at all! "Um, yes honey, it truly is." She got a satisfied twinkle in her eye. I passed the test.