Magic Feathers and Midweek Exhaustio

Today started a little slow. I’m not sure why—I just felt extra groggy. Honestly, it was probably the drink I had before bed. I don’t drink often. I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure when I gave birth to Persephone, so I’ve been cautious ever since. But for the past two nights, I’ve had a small drink with the guys—and I mean small. The night before was half a wine cooler, and last night was half a mixed drink with barely any alcohol. Still, I guess I was feeling the effects of it.

I threw on some comfy clothes and began the day. The Luminous Void deck called to me this morning, and I pulled The Hanged Woman—a firm and familiar reminder to keep working on breaking my old patterns. And deep down, I knew exactly which ones it was referring to.

Surrender and breaking old patterns.

It was time to dive into morning chores, though I shifted my routine around a bit today to make it more effective. I started by checking the weather—cloudy with only a minuscule chance of rain. That meant the goats could graze and the stand could open. Next came planning jobs for Dameion. With no rain in the forecast, we could finally tackle one of the many outdoor tasks. The garden hadn’t been weeded in over a week, so that became today’s focus for him.

After that, I picked out a couple of baking projects for Charlie—funnel cakes and crackers for today. Then I made the dinner plan: we’d use the leftover pork from last night to make pork fried rice, which would also give the girls the option of plain white rice if they preferred.

Next, I set up the girls’ schoolwork. It was their last day on shape work, so I queued up the August printable calendar and prepped the next packet to follow the shape unit. We were almost out of laminate sheets, and with over 500 pages to print today, I added printer paper to the Walmart order too.

As the printer worked its little mechanical heart out, I placed our full Walmart order—everything we’d need would be here in just a couple hours. Only one last thing remained before I moved on to my sourdough: clearing the stand camera from yesterday. Nearly 600 photos to sift through on a closed day—no visitors, just wind and movement triggering the sensor.

aria feeding snappy

Now that all the menial mental tasks of the morning were out of the way, I moved on to my sourdough starter—but today would be different. Today, Aria was going to help. First, I had to get her dressed for the day. She wasn’t exactly thrilled to wake up, but after some gentle badgering, I finally got her moving. Her mood turned quickly when she found out she got to help with morning chores—she was so excited.

She helped me keep count on the scale, squeezed in the honey, and gave it all a good stir. I gave it an extra stir just to be sure, then tucked the starter back into its hiding spot. With that done, we got ready to take care of the animals.

aria and harley

She helped me toss a handful of turtle pellets and two algae wafers into the fish tank, getting extra excited when Snappy swam right up to the glass—his little way of saying good morning and thank you for breakfast. Next came the dogs. She partially walked Harley and Freya and walked beside me for the rest of the pack.

After that, I prepped a bottle and she fed Jezebel all by herself. Then I filled the grain cup for the chickens and let her scatter it through the yard. Of course, she couldn’t finish without giving her chicken and duck friends a few pets. While exploring, she found herself a magic black feather—likely from our roo—and declared it treasure.

We fed Babushka next, and after that it was time to sit and breathe for a moment. She curled up to watch Little Bear with Sephy, and I soaked in the quiet while it lasted.

aria feeding jezebel

Soon after all the animals were fed, Dameion and Charlie were awake. I got the bed put away while Charlie made breakfast for the girls and Dameion started his rounds—refreshing everyone’s water, tossing hay, and putting the goats out to graze.

As the girls sat down to eat, I handed them their daily gummies to make sure they didn’t get forgotten. While they ate, I got started on my morning chores, beginning—as always—with laundry and dishes. Once breakfast was finished, the girls headed to their room to start their morning clean-up. I took my morning meds and got ready to continue my adventure for the day.

While the girls worked on their room, I kept cleaning—giving the bathroom a good once-over and starting a bag of popcorn for their snack.

Aria feeding Chickens

Once the girls were done with their room, I put on their dragonfly and damselfly videos for the morning while I continued my ongoing journey through dishes and laundry. Dameion opened the stand while Charlie double-checked his recipes for the day. Afterward, Dameion walked Little Harley, checked in on Mom and Dad, then came back up to handle the lunch walk, feed Jezebel, and change her bedding.

Charlie got the laminating done for the day, and Aria completed her dragonfly/damselfly worksheet. The girls finished their India flashcards and started on their picnic-themed ones. After picking up their blocks, they sat down and had corndogs for lunch.

Aria and Bushka

After the girls laid down for nap, I turned my attention back to the living room. I re-cleaned the areas I’d already finished earlier in the week, then braced myself to face that corner again—I was really hoping today would be the day I finished it.

While I worked, Charlie and I cut out the laminated games from today’s school prep. Not long after, our hay delivery arrived. I also went ahead and ordered a new set of counting manipulatives since my alien ones have completely vanished.

Harley’s tummy had been making odd noises all afternoon, so I gave her a dose of omeprazole just to be safe. Outside, Dameion took Jezebel along with him to help move and stack hay, then he headed to the garden to get more work done.

Charlie gave crackers a shot in the kitchen, but the results are still pending—mostly because we had to leave halfway through and leave Franklin in charge while we ran down to help Mom and Dad for a bit.

Dameion and his little lamb.

When we got back, it was time for the girls to get up. I jumped back into chores—and, of course, returned to the toy corner. The end was finally in sight. The girls got changed, grabbed a piece of cake, and got to work on their schoolwork. They traced their number 3s, read through the Day 2 informational in their India packet, and colored and labeled their India flags.

Franklin and I chipped in together to order a pizza for dinner while Dameion took the dogs out for their third walk of the day. Aria and I finished her glitter feather project just as dinner arrived. The girls happily ate their pizza and then headed off to their room for the night.

glitter feather

After the girls were tucked safely into bed, I returned to my cleaning routine. My energy was running very low, but I was determined to finish that corner once and for all. I gave it one last push, working a little more until the exhaustion really started to hit. Eventually, I accepted defeat and gave myself permission to rest.

I laid on the bed, watching Pokémon 4Ever with the guys, letting the day soften. When Dameion headed off to his space for the night, Charlie and I curled up together and drifted off to sleep.