...a date! I put on earrings for the first time in 3 weeks and Matt and I picked up dinner, leaving the kids to fend for themselves:) We did have a little trouble finding a picnic place. Not many places are open for this sort of thing, so we drove around a bit and ended up in our neighborhood at the big field. Fun to be "out", even if we were 2 minutes from home.
Preschool Zoom! Monday was my first one with my class and I was so surprised at how much it got me, seeing those little faces on the screen. I missed them more than I realized. When one sweet little girl got a turn to share something with me and said, "I miss you!", I nearly cried. It went pretty well and I was again reminded what a great group of kids I have. It was a busy morning because I start at 6 with VIPKID, then get finished at 9, get everyone up and we do a short Bible time, then get set up for Zoom, then do some school with Allie, then whew--it's already lunchtime. Thankfully the oldest three are pretty independent with their schooling and rarely need my input. It is verrrrrry challenging helping Julia with concepts she doesn't understand, so I am thankful that, with her schoolwork being review, she has mostly managed alone.
On Tuesday, Allie did her first Zoom meeting with her class and loved it! Above, she is showing her painting to her teacher. Gray sat by her side so I could work out and he told us that the word "bachelor" came up in their fairy tale. When her teacher asked if anyone knew the word, Gray whispered to Allie "It's a boy that doesn't have a wife." Allie relayed to her teacher that a bachelor is "a boy that doesn't have a life." :)
Every day we do our enrichment and this is becoming a popular one. My blood pressure rises when taking posed pictures of all of my kids, so I won't say this was that fun for me...you get one person right and another moves, like a game of Whack a Mole. Other enrichments we did this week were learning about the ocean from a video, viewing more zoo animals from Cincinnati Zoo's live home safaris, toddler dance class (yes, even the boys have learned ballet dances to Moana and Frozen), and baking.
On Thursday, I made masks just about all day and only stopped to intervene in a couple arguments. The middle two have been quite a challenge. They have such a pattern of bickering. When one says anything, the other MUST criticize, argue, make fun, etc. Interesting that this week when I wanted to go on a walk alone to listen to an encouraging parenting podcast, these two insisted on coming along and heard the whole thing. There's gotta be some fruit coming one of these days.
Beautiful weather has had us outside a ton. Everyone's enjoying tree climbing and I have spent hours and hours pulling weeds, which is my happy place on a nice day. I love being alone to sort out my thoughts and also see some progress when I'm done.
On Easter morning, Matt came home from work and we had "choose your own crepes" for breakfast. Kinda labor intensive, but really good.
No one complained about getting dressed up and we got a few pictures. Our church was having everyone make crosses from materials in the yard, which was a fun family effort.
We did Zoom church on the porch.
Then we egg hunted. I hid 120 eggs and we're still finding them. We have done multiple eggs hunts almost every day since Spring Break, but we have finally used all the Easter candy. Then we had a traditional Easter dinner, that was untraditional in that I'm the only one who cooked it and it was only us 6 for eating it. As far as I can remember, I think we have only had one Easter that wasn't spent with extended family...2006 in Dupont-- I think we had just moved out there at Easter.
I miss our families, but it was also nice to not have anywhere to go. Generally Sundays (and Sunday holidays) have not been my favorite because Matt often works, so after church, we may spend some short time with extended family but then Matt has to go sleep and I have to get ready for Monday morning, which is usually very early teaching, then getting kids ready for school, and going to work. Sunday holidays always feel rushed and tainted with the dread of responsibilities and crazy Monday. Today was better. Not having to go anywhere relieves so much stress and enables me to start teaching a little later in the mornings too. I think after a month on this new schedule, we've settled in enough that it would/will be a huge adjustment to go back to the school schedule. I'm thankful that the virus continues to be less difficult in our area than anticipated, but still don't think we will go back to school this year. Since we don't have the anxiety that some have because we do have our income and the virus isn't prevalent where we live, I feel like this situation is, for now, an opportunity for us and I hope we use it well! Here's to learning, loving each other, and growing in many ways over the next month together. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment