Waiting.  Big snow storm predicted for the day. Over the past two days, the outlook changed from hour to hour.  I think it was supposed to begin overnight and that got edged up and up until I decided that we could do Julia’s volunteer time at the library.  It is raining and it is chilly, but not cold enough for serious snow.  A few flakes were falling during our ride to the library but if I wasn’t expecting snow, I might not have identified what fell as snow flakes.

And things were cancelled yesterday—many school districts, Julia’s day program, CRI rowing tonight.

Even my phone said it was snowing this morning long before there was anything but rain coming down.  

And waiting to see if my persistent cough is a flu.  I’ve been coughing—sometimes more, sometimes less—for months now.  Covid recovery, dry buildings, maybe a cold.  Just on and on.  However, today I woke up with more—heavy eyes, feeling like it was a bad night’s sleep even though it really wasn’t, maybe a bit warm, and now sitting in the library, my skin is beginning to hurt and all I want to do it go to bed.

I hate to just nap because that will leave Julia to her own devices—hours trolling the internet or horror movies on tv. 

Last week, we went through the last of her boxes—moved a year ago from the blue house in Newton.  Books mostly.  Books that she didn’t want to put back up.  I held out  . . . held out for a year. Admittedly, I was hoping she would wants those books on her shelves.  But she doesn’t. And so, over the last week or so, we’ve gone through the six book boxes.  She picked out some, like yearbooks and anime related information, and I picked out some I didn’t want to part with. Four boxes left the house last weekend. There is a certain relief to let go of the hope, the slim possibility that she would change her mind and need to keep books the way that I do. 

So much of the holding onto those boxes for a year was about me, not her.  Maybe all of it?

And I no longer think I am jumping the gun or the shark, to say that Julia seems to be settled in Bay Cove, her day program.  She continues to go three days a week and everyday she comes home in a great mood. Sometimes she is exhausted —which I consider a good thing. She doesn’t always eat all her lunch, but she mostly enjoys what I pack.  It is time very soon to get her packing her own lunch which she did regularly in the 10^th grade. She likes a number of the Trader Joe frozen products, especially fried rice.  I could make the rice from scratch but I think I will continue to use the Trader Joe’s variety and teach her how to prepare it.  In time, she will go to the program 5 days a week, but for now she is enjoying a slow transition which is great.

And for a last bit of excitement, Wilbur will be getting a sibling for his second birthday. Julia insists it is a girl, but we are all waiting for the official test.