Bored, Not Bored, Busy

That's how things are at the house here.   My daughter is bored.   She wants people to play with her, but there is no one.   My son is not bored, provided we let him do screens in various incarnations.   And my husband and I are busy, trying to get our things done in-between managing things as they come up with the children, the dog, the phone, the house, and other commitments we have. 

My husband is working on a technology project.   It is one of those "projects" that's turning into a "PROJECT" from an effort standpoint.  Every time he thinks he has configuration files working together, firmware updates firmly updated, and software settings set, he has to start the testing process all over again.   The testing takes time and he doesn't know if things have worked until the end, which can sometimes be hours.   In the meantime, he's doing research online to see if other people are experiencing the same specific issue with the combination of hardware and software he has going and if so, what they did to get everything happily working together.   Technology is complicated.

My son wants to play Minecraft lately, and today we let him have more hours of screens than we should ideally have let him.   It's a rainy, dreary day here for the nth day in a row.   Everything is soggy and cold outside, hovering at just enough above freezing that it's miserable out, even for the dog.  

My son, like my daughter, wants our attention.   He wants to show us what he's done or is doing and how amazingly cool it is.   When he goes on some of these servers, he can go into creative mode and do whatever he wants to do.   So while it's interesting, it's not really impressive other than he knows what to do to cheat the game into his favor—something those servers are there for.   Telling him you're not available when he asks if you are, and then launches into some explanation, even after you say you're busy and not right now, has gotten him in trouble more than once today.   He doesn't understand, "just a minute, I'm working on this."

My daughter is the one who is the most frustrated today.   Her main friend, Keira, is out of town for the long weekend.   Nora, next door, and Madison, the other aren't available either.   She put on her rain gear and went out in Nora's yard to yell her name for a bit in the rain, hoping Nora could come play, only to come back inside with no response. 

We did what we could with the children, but we also had to save some of our day for us.  Things will be easier when COVID-19 is under control.   For now, this is just what we have to do.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has his very own Minecraft server.   It's named and anyone in the world who knows its name can come in and work on the world at any time.   My son doesn't really understand how cool that is—that his father put up a server on our Threadripper machine.   My son likes it, but it's frustrating to him because he has to play the game for real and can't rely on cheats and automatically making himself nigh invincible with all the supplies he could ever need.   That's the way that server is staying though.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I asked my daughter if she wanted to make valentines for her friends on the street.   If she did, she could deliver them with her mask on tomorrow and I'd go with her to help.   It was an activity and something I thought would be fun with some things from the Dollar store.   She prepared twelve little bags wit candy and other treats.   She was sad she wasn't getting one of the candy necklaces herself because, 'there weren't any left over, Mom."   I told her to count how many bags she'd made (10).  I reminded her we had set out ten bags and sets of items from the start.   She had filled one of the bags for herself.   When she realized that she relaxed and had the biggest smile.