A Long Time Coming

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[alongtimecoming]

What is wrong with me that “please describe your child’s strengths? Weaknesses?” on forms leaves me going duurrrr I’ve never met these kids

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All four second graders on our street are in the same class this year.

Every single other parent was like “can you believe it?!”

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2 Aug 2026

Children truly have incredible timing. The school doing things way differently this year and having school photos taken during meet the teacher night. And the children just colored mustaches on their faces with black marker this morning.

And I have been unable to do literally any of the other back to school prep I had planned and HAD HAD plenty of time to do.

C has held down the fort incredibly well, but teamwork definitely makes the dream work.

[alongtimecoming]

Fainter and not immediately dark positive, so heading in the right direction, I guess.

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1 Aug 2026

Today is day 10 since I started feeling sick. Day of aches and sore throat, then a long weekend of congestion cough and fatigue, then most of this week lingering congestion and fatigue/easily tired by the stairs and absolutely feral children who have played as much pokemon on the switch as I did laying up in my bedroom isolating.

I took a test on Tuesday night because my symptoms had lessened (but def lots of congestion gunk still) and the covid test line came up immediately again like it did 4 days before (initial on the Friday).

I am afraid to test again today and have it say I’m still positive. Because is my lingering gunk in my throat my regular everyday side effect throat gunk or is it still covid gunk?

What is it like to just have a body and brain that just IS, works, no overthinking, no pains, regular predictable?

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28 July 2026

While I think the fatigue will be hanging around (omg more than one up and down the stairs, stupid), I think I finally feel markedly better today, day 6.

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I’m at the stuffy face mouth breathing part.

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25 July 2026

Somehow the pharmacy can’t figure out how give me the Rx without my insurance trying to apply OVER $1,000! to my deductible, and +$400 OOP, so I didn’t pick up the Rx and if I felt worse today I’d take the remaining 5 days from C’s January course (that he got for free!! and I can’t find any record of it on either insurance or pharmacy portals) idk if it’s just because I didn’t go pick it up and show them the copay card the doctor’s office gave me or what (we got C’s at an after hours/not our regular pharmacy and he went in person with his paperwork/discount card the doctor’s office gave him))

Thankfully (knock on wood just because I said something doesn’t mean I’m going to turn worse thank you brain), I feel fine aside from increased congestion and cough, which has kind of been like the other times we’ve had it, so I think I’m going to just treat with Tylenol/ibuprofen again.

But for real, my kids cannot handle me being shut in my bedroom. “Can I read you a book? Will you play a card game with me? Can I have dessert? I didn’t get to hug you this morning like usual” going out of their way to come upstairs and talk to me instead of the parent already downstairs. Like, its sweet, but like, what part of “let’s not spread this around the family if we can help it” is unclear? They do fine with C shut in the bedroom for most of a day!

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24 July 2026

Why does it ALWAYS feel like the nurse forgot to tell the doctor they’re done taking history and vitals.

And then there’s the bustle of people working right outside in their nurses/admin spots and it’s like Hellooooo anyone going to pick up the rope for this room?

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23 July 2026

Playing “Am I tired or sick?” C was up at 5:30 to make it into the office by 7:00 (so, so was I). Given that B has complained of a sore throat since yesterday afternoon and we spent the last week in and out of family houses… I’m leaning toward sick.

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I did not realize how - not quite claustrophobic - it felt with the smoke until it moved away and I could see clouds and sky again this evening.

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It is super annoying to come home after a night away with the kids to a grouch! You just had two entire evenings to yourself to do whatever the fuck. Who cares that the kids came home with trash from my Aunt we’re downsizing! Be happy the kids had a great time with their second cousins!

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15 July 2026

Give me all the back pats and encouragement with this one for the Buy Nothing group.

I loved cloth diapering. Another of those unexpected things of parenthood.

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13 July 2026

My shrimps!! Goooood luck

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9 July 2026

I ordered some tiny shrimps on Amazon because neighbor said that’s where she got her surprisingly cute multi colored shrimp for her tank when I visited and the seller inputted an “invalid” tracking number and normally that’s a “label created, item not in possession yet”, so it’s dumb and annoying because live critters and ALsO this aquarium hobby is so SLOW and I get it, it’s nature and time is what makes nature exist, but hoooo boy.

Want drift wood to sink in your tank? Boil for 3 hours. Three times. Then soak for days. The silicone for resealing takes SEVEN days to completely cure before I can leak test for 24h again. Want plants? They grow slowly. The bacteria that processes fish waste grow slowly. Oh, but don’t shock your fish with temp and parameter changes, that’ll kill them fast. You can also spend money REAL FAST. And I have no fish yet!! I should still be like at least 3 weeks away from fish! But maybe I can get away with shrimps in the meantime.

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9 July 2026

You want to know what literally every video makes look super easy? Caulking. I’ve spent the last two days scraping old silicone out of a used fish tank because it leaked.

Taping is annoying (but don’t skip it!! think ahead for making the layers pull the next one off as best you can), laying the bead what the heck balancing squeezing of the trigger while moving the tip impossible to make an evenly sized non-blobby bead. Oh, don’t worry you’re on a time crunch to get it smooth, and tape removed without getting it everywhere you don’t want it. You used too much? Too bad, figure it out, it’s also starting to cure and get not smoothable anymore halfway through removing tape. Oh and it looks super bad because glass is transparent.

Gosh, and this was a small 20 gallon tank. Idk how anyone reseals anything bigger in one go.

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3 July 2026

It appears that my dad has been doing laundry at the lake with exclusively fabric softener. The sheets I pulled out of the dryer felt unwashed and greasy/oily. No wonder all the towels feel gross. I tried to run a load and wouldn’t you know it, the very little bit of liquid detergent is BROWN. It didn’t smell bad but it didn’t smell like it ought to, but it made bubbles.

Unfortunately I basically woke today with a headachey migraine thing on top of it being so hot and the lake air. I will go into town and buy some ding dang detergent and wash all the towels I can while I’m here. And the sheets for good measure.