Grudgingly Using ChatGPT

after an extremely trying week involving head lice

Aug 27, 2025

First of all, Heelys are really making a comeback. Have you heard about this?? Finn, who is about to turn seven, earned $50 to buy himself a pair of his very own! This is the first major clothing item Finn has ever asked for. He doesn’t really care what he wears and usually grabs whatever he sees first in his drawer. So I was surprised by how particular he was about the color and style of his Heelys (and I’m glad he chose something cool because you know I *zoooooomed* past the section of character-branded shoes on the website. He is not spending more money for dumber shoes.)

Head Lice

I would not wish this on my worst enemy. Or, maybe I would, actually… since it’s not so much physically painful or permanent as it is psychologically devastating.

I actually cannot *overstate* the mental and emotional toll that this experience had on me. And what does that say about me? Maybe that I’m just a littttttle too tightly wound these days.

Anyway. The boys had lice and also gave it to me and so I spent a full eight hours going scorched earth on my entire house and our heads. Here’s what I learned, and may this help you too:

This comb worked so much better than the combs that come with the shampoo. I watched little nits (and even bugs 🤢 bleh) come out with this, but they passed through the other combs.
Lice shampoo from the drugstore DOES NOT WORK. Literally don’t even bother. WASTE OF MONEY!
Wash AND DRY everything (the sustained heat of the dryer is really what kills them).
Anything that can’t go in the dryer should go in a garbage bag, tied at the top to make a seal and left outside to bake in the sun for a few days.
Anything ELSE needs to be vacuumed.
They die after a couple days off the scalp, and can’t jump or fly.
They HATE peppermint. Add peppermint oil to your kids’ hair gel to be another line of defense in the world.
There are mobile lice ladies who will come to your house and check everyone, remove everything from your hair and leave a treatment on your hair just in case. It was especially nice to do this because she declared us “lice-free” and we didn’t have to worry about avoiding people. Text me if you live in Orange County and ever need her number. I pray you don’t. 🙏🏻
If you have boys, just shave their heads. Even if you’re obsessed with their sun-bleached Summer hair 😩. It gives so much peace of mind. (And if you shave their heads, don’t forget to put sunscreen on their fragile little scalps. I forgot this and their scalps are now experiencing post-burn peeling, which is gross).
Do NOT go 2007 Britney on yourself, like I seriously considered doing. Instead I covered my head in coconut oil and then saran wrap and then slept fitfully on a pile of towels, hoping to suffocate any and all living things on my scalp.

The highlights

Despite a harrowing week of combating lice and cleaning everything, we’ve had some good times, like grandparents being in town and a visit to the gem museum in Carlsbad. My cousin, Lucy, got married over the weekend, and Finn did a soccer camp and was named ‘Camper of the Week,’ for his good attitude and work ethic. I hosted Cookbook Club at my house tonight, and we spent roughly half of the past two weeks at the beach. All in all, a truly lovely life!

Going to the beach is my favorite activity. Whenever friends come to visit California and ask what they should do, my only recommendation is to go to the beach. And we have it so dialed in now that it’s easy and always fun. Finn and Lincoln are juuuuust competitive enough to both want to carry as much as they can to and from the car, and the last time we went to the beach, I ended up holding only Lincoln’s shoes — the boys had the chair, the cooler, the boogie board and all the towels.

Lucy’s wedding was soooo beautiful and special. This was my first time attending a large groom’s dinner, where extended family and friends were all invited and there was a program. It was such a great time to enjoy the wedding weekend before the madness of the actual wedding. Her reception was also lovely, and almost everything was gluten-free! (Lucy is GF). My favorite thing, and something I want to remember for my boys’ weddings, was when my aunt and uncle sang Lucy’s song to her, which they wrote when she was little. They added a verse for this new phase of Lucy’s life and sang that to her for the first time, and everyone cried. Everyone crying is my ideal wedding experience!

House updates

I want you to know that I am really looking forward to taking and sharing final photos of the house soon! But it’s just still not done! Both contractors are like 95% finished, and it’s created a bottleneck in my unpacking and organizing! Various boxes of things need to be opened and unpacked into built-ins that we are still waiting on. But everything is generally looking and functioning fantastically.

Of everything we’ve done, my most favorite feature is the foot pedal for our kitchen sink. It is seamless and I can’t even explain how much easier this makes my life, and it’s so nice that my kids don’t have to climb up on the counter to reach the faucet. They just push the pedal. TBD on how this goes if we ever have a baby roaming around!

What I’m reading

Michael is currently frustrated with me for being a faster reader than him. “I’ve been keeping pace with you, you just started before me,” he will say. Regardless, he was ahead of me, and now I am ahead of him in the Wheel of Time series.

He wants to talk about the books but is so wary of even a whisper of a hint of a spoiler, that we can’t really chat about it, since I’m further ahead. So I am *pausing* my reading for now, to wait for him to catch up, so we can freely discuss ideas and theories about what’s to come.

We’re on book number eight, The Path of Daggers. I am really enjoying the series, but I feel like boring things drag on forever while exciting things are over in a flash. And that’s not just a “time flies when you’re having fun thing,” it’s chapters and chapters being dedicated to the endless and inane search for something, and then two pages being given to the actual culmination of the thing, or the battle, or whatever. The book often alludes to the ultimate, epic “Last Battle” and I am not convinced that it won’t be two quick pages and then finished right then and there!

Homeschool Check-in

I decided to homeschool Finn and could not feel better about it. I am truly, genuinely looking forward to it and hope that we enjoy it as much as we expect to. My friend, Lizzy, is homeschooling for the first time as well and sent me a ton of info about curricula and routines; My friend, Aly, gave me her The Good and the Beautiful books; And, my friend Rachel told me about a class she teaches about organizing your own curriculum.

Also, begrudgingly grateful for ChatGPT, which is collecting and organizing the internet’s thoughts on curricula for me. Thanks to Chloé for this idea!

So far there are so many different options and I am really trying to get a solid plan in place, routine planned and curricula purchased and organized. I’m late to the game but it couldn’t have been helped (not by me at least). Lincoln will be doing a twice weekly preschool and I want to try and get Finn in some kind of tutoring or program during those two days.

Being new to homeschool, it’s all a little overwhelming. I tend to be someone who wants it to be done perfectly, as if there is one perfect solution out there that I just need to uncover (btw this is my interior design process and it is an exhausting way to tackle problems). But articles like this one showed me that you can use tons of different resources and curricula, and that each kid is different, so this is where ChatGPT is really helping me pick the most appropriate math, science, spanish, nature studies, etc. curricula to best teach each subject.

I want to give Finn a rich experience! My mom agreed to teach him sewing, and we will try to get him to her house every week for a lesson with Grammy. Need to ask my dad if we can fit woodworking or something else with him into those days as well. Shooting for the stars, we’d include music, a foreign language, sciences, history, art, nature studies, practical life skills, and more. I think we’ll have fun!! IF I can get prepared.