A Peek at the Poulsens

What a weird time this has been. I seesaw from feeling doomed and in despair to enjoying all of this time with no outside schedule. I love the idea of not having a million activities to zoom to every day. It makes life more simple. But I miss structure and friends and variety, and so do my kids. This past Sunday, we looked at the clock and it was only 9:43am but it felt like nine o clock at night. We were all restless and needed something to do. I told everyone to put their shoes on and get in the car, which some did grudgingly and some did excitedly, and I drove around for a couple minutes trying to think of where to go. I drove past the hospital and saw the parking garage that Jack and I drove to the top of last year after preschool, and voila! I knew where we should go.... The deserted parking garages downtown! We drove to the very top and let the kids roam free. It was hilarious. They were so excited to be up so high around all of the buildings and to have so much space to run ar...

This was my view on Easter morning. I woke up around 3am with a firm pressure in my right abdomen under my rib cage, and it wasn't a horrible pain but it was uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep. I finally fell back asleep around 7, woke up at 9 with a lingering aura of that annoying pressure, and decided to go get it checked out. This had happened two previous times within the last few weeks, so I wanted to make sure my kidney wasn't going to explode or something. I finally remembered that my mom had had her gallbladder out a few years ago and once I searched the symptoms I knew that's what I was having issues with! In this age of covid19 it is hard to go anywhere that isn't essential, but I felt like this was urgent enough that I could be seen. I tried to go to the normal urgent care place that we like, but it was completely turned over to coronavirus testing (when I tried to open the front door the receptionist literally put both of her arms out and ye...

A character in one of Natalie's books creates her own newspaper and it totally sparked this creativity in Natalie. It has been so fun to watch her create and work and get excited. One night before bed she made this poster in a frenzy without telling us what she was working on, and she was so excited to wake up the next day and start working on it. The Poulsen Times was born! I put a note in the "asking box" requesting a Book Review section in her newspaper. She obliged by rating the Dork Diaries books in order of how much she liked them. Jack was more than happy to participate in this project, and he and Natalie created their own "office" downstairs. The next step was involving the neighbor kids. They created the "Pouleick Times" and delivered little papers to the immediate neighbors. It was so funny listening to them talk about their different articles and what they wanted to be in charge of. Natalie often gets excited about things...