Good morning, and happy Friday! Normally I write my weekly newsletter on Thursday, but it is in fact Friday morning as I sit down to write this.
It has been an absolutely wild week, and I thought I would go off-topic for a change and tell you about what’s going on in my family and show you photos of what is new in the shop at the same time.
As many of you know, my husband and I have seven children, and now that our four oldest children are young adults, I can tell you that in my experience parenting does not actually get easier as the children get older. We have wonderful children. It isn’t that anyone is in serious trouble, but what I mean is that the things you worry about as a parent become larger the older the children are in my experience. As a mom, one goes from going without sleep because the little ones aren’t sleeping to going without sleep because you are concerned about one or another of the older children. A mother’s heart never stops being a mother’s heart.
The major cause of stress this week has to do with our younger daughter who is a sophomore in college and just an amazing young lady if I do say so myself. Today she was scheduled to leave for a college semester abroad in Rome, but until just a few hours ago, we weren’t actually sure if she would be able to go.
She had to have a negative PCR Covid test no more than 72 hours before landing in Rome, so she got one Wednesday morning. She couldn’t get it any earlier, but it has been a nail-biter ever since. Without the negative test results, there would be no leaving for Rome.
Here she is:
See? All ready to go! She’s old enough, right? Oh, wait. Here’s a slightly more recent photo of her modeling a scarf I designed.
Maybe she actually is old enough for this!
Fortunately, she and I decided on Wednesday afternoon to also make an appointment for a rapid-antigen test at the airport for 5 a.m. this morning before her 8 a.m. flight just in case the PCR test didn’t come back in time. The acceptable window for the rapid-antigen test was even smaller though. It had to be done within 24 hours of landing in Italy, and her trip was to take 21 hours!
Well, it’s a good thing she made that appointment because as of 7 p.m. last night as she was finishing up the last bits of packing for 4 months, she still didn’t have the PCR test results, and she could not board even the first leg of her flight without it.
Needless to say, the pressure of getting all ready to go and even going to the airport without knowing for sure whether she would be able to go was pretty high to say the least! The good news is that she was able to get her rapid-antigen test, obtain the negative results 45 minutes later, rush to a different terminal with my husband for her flight, get through security, and get on the flight. I hope she has a wonderful time, and I am sure she will even though her semester abroad will surely look very different because of COVID.
As if all of this weren’t enough, our second-oldest son just moved to his own first apartment near his new job on Wednesday. It’s only 15 or 20 minutes away, but it’s still a big deal. I keep waiting for him to walk into the kitchen to make an espresso or grab some lunch.
As I write this, our daughter is still in the air along with many of her classmates. I hope they all have a fantastic semester, and I hope you have a fantastic weekend and find time to make something beautiful!