Cleaning Up Trails & Missing Normal

Well, I guess it's not completely, totally empty.

What's this?

It's what I find in the refrigerator after I tell Child #1 to clean up his trails. He did clean it off the counter after heating up some leftovers. I just wasn't expecting to find the empty container back in the refrigerator.

We have to work constantly with the kids to clean up trails. If we're not on it, we can see exactly what happened after school with the trails: shoes, school bags, water bottles, masks, cheese wrappers, milk in cup, milk jug still out, crumbs from crackers, laptops, books, papers, bandaids...

Staying on them about the trails is a full-time job.

School is virtual until mid-January. Sigh. Kal enjoys virtual school, but Kara thrives in the classroom. She needs people.

I miss people, too.

I miss smiles. I miss friendly exchanges in the store. I miss kindness. I miss civility. I miss normal church. I miss school lunches with the kids and their classes. I miss school and church functions. I miss singing my heart out with the community choir. I miss my Grandma.

I miss normal.

I've seen lots of Christmas lights up very early this year, even starting at the beginning of October.

Maybe people were taking advantage of good weather, but I have another theory: I think a good number of people are just ready for something cheery. Christmas lights are cheery. They make a neighborhood look happy.

We didn't catch the early train on putting up lights outside our house, but we're doing it this week. If that helps cheer up someone (and us, too), it'll be worth it.