Friday, April 3, 2020

When Life Feels Catawampus Look Up

Three in a row...whoohoo! It's easier to keep at this when you have no where to go. Continuing today with the April A to Z Blog Challenge.

Day 3-C is for Collection 

As in a collection of words.
Chatterbox. Chaos. Cargo. Children. And my favorite-catawampus-brought to you by my word loving Daughter1 who is currently in week 4,822 of social distancing.


In an apartment.

In South Korea.

With a busy and bright 2 1/2 year old chatterbox, and his five-month old brother who is, in a word-chill.


Boy knows how to relax.

While I may have exaggerated the number of weeks they've been dealing with the virus there, I'm sure it  feels much longer than just a couple of months. Was January really just a couple months back? What in the world is going on with time?

In any case, the measures put in place by the South Korean government and our US military leaders stationed there seem to have worked, which tells me everyone here needs to stay the course. Or get on the course if you're one of those still not following the guidelines. ahem.



Daughter1 needed to call me to talk about her words. She had a whole long list and couldn't narrow it down to just one so I said throw 'em all at me and I'll make it work. She is in the heavy lifting years of child rearing so all her words relate to that most wonderfully exhausting, sometimes boring, utterly blissful season of parenting tiny humans.

What's cargo got to do with anything you ask? Well when you're mom to a 2-1/2 year old mancub who loves his trains you spend a lot of time talking about cargo. And tinder. And smokestacks, track repair, the station house, and a very cranky crane.

His other favorite way to pass the time?


Careening down a hill on his bicycle. Relax, this is a pathway to the playground, not a busy street. I swiped this from a video my daughter sent and in it she reminds him to look up.

A good reminder for us all, but I digress.

Is it strange to anyone else to see a two year old riding a bicycle? My generation had it all wrong. We taught our kids when they were five or six years old to pedal while we jogged behind them, awkwardly hunched over hanging on to the back of their seat. Only after they learned to pedal did we attempt to teach them balance. Now they teach kids to balance and add the pedals later which makes so much more sense. I don't know why it took us 30 years to figure that out.

And now for the piece de resistance. Catawampus. Who else is a fan?
There are certain words we love to say in our house and this one for sure makes our top ten. lf you're not familiar it means askew or awry. It can also be used to mean fierce-savage-destructive and conveniently both definitions seem to fit our current state.

Raise your hand if you think life is feeling a little catawampus these days.

I don't think my daughter meant for me to make this post about her, but sometimes I start writing and the words take me where I never intended to go.


Counting my blessings today, and my remarkable daughter who is cute as a button, coping with life in a foreign country during a global pandemic, capable-calm-and cheerful, showing me how it's done, rates right up there at the top of my list.

11 comments:

  1. I'm glad they're doing ok and yes balance bikes are definitely the in thing at the moment.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your grandsons are so adorable! I bet you miss them!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now who knew that facial masks could be a fashion statement? Yes, life feels bizarre (I can’t spell catawampous). I very much enjoyed seeing your daughter and her little boys. Last time I saw the bike rider, he was just a baby as his brother is now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I often wondered how she was doing since ya'll last visit. Thanks for the posting. I taught my girls how to ride a bicycle the old fashion way, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mama's with littles during this time are my heroes!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Those boys!!! It is great getting this update on D2 and family! I'm glad they are all well and doing their best to stay that way! That two-wheeler without peddles makes sense. Get the balance part down and the peddling will be easy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh this was a good one in that I got to see those wonderful pictures of ggchildren of mine again as well as my gdaughter and also how cleverly you wove the words all together. And yes this new world we are experiencing is very catawampus to me and I sure this too will pass in time. Thanks Joyce.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the word Catawampus! I have spoken it and I have heard it but I can honestly say never have I ever seen it in print. lol They look like naturals with the face masks. Go them!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have so much admiration for mom's with kids under 5 right now who get no babysitting breaks!! Hats off to your daughter!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What great photos - such life and joy in each one. I have to say that I love the watercolor image at the top of your blog. Did you paint it? So lovely. I found you through the A to Z challenge but I think I'm also a subscriber. I do enjoy reading your blogs. Keep up the good work. https://www.dianeweidenbenner.com/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes! South Korea has been dealing with this a lot longer than the US. You guys will get there eventually. Sooner or later even the dingbats will have to follow the rules!

    ReplyDelete