Week 3- Spring Break, Baby!

Oh yeah, we had a wild and crazy Spring Break this week.  Just packed with adventures and so different from our usual quarantine life.  Or something like that.  :)

Julia often begs me to dry her hair straight.  She was elated that we finally did it.  

Gray turned 13!!  He had Bojangles breakfast, then opened his gifts.  

 He had a box from Mimi to open and later got a properly distanced visit from Nanny and Pa.

A few good friends met for frisbee and tennis.  Staying apart of course.  I ran down to pass out packaged candy as "party food" and get a couple pictures.

Lemon meringue pie, by request.  Turned out weird because I had to use almond flavor instead of vanilla for the meringue, made too much meringue, burnt the meringue and had to scrape off and add another layer, and ended up with a layer of liquid between the meringue and filling.  Next time, we're going with cool whip.  Gray was too full from Subway lunch, hamburger and hotdog dinner to eat dessert anyway.  

Julia decided she liked basketball this week and loved giving us a running total of her "swishes" and "buckets".  :)

On a rainy Tuesday, we tried a social experiment in the midst of our social experiment life...unlimited screen time.  The girls holed away in the office to watch slime videos and figure skating.  By the end of the night, they had moved to the loft and were sharing the couch. The boys played mostly shooting games all day.  Joshua got a little restless at times and said if his friends were getting together he would definitely stop playing.  Gray made no such claim.  But by dinner, everyone agreed they were good to stop and play Gray's new board game.  Allie probably had the most fallout from this experiment, with a few meltdowns over stopping screen time for nap, etc. 

Someone got into some oily perfume and tried it on her hair.  Her crazy hair matched her crazy personality this day.  The girls were both just off the wall silly the day after screen time. 

They have fallen into mostly a good place of hanging out lots together and playing this week.

Thursday we broke out the Easter baskets and did a couple of egg hunts.  Besides the inevitable complaining of one who shall not be named, everyone enjoyed this a lot.

Trying to be so careful with our culdesac zumba class.  It is so much fun and always the highlight of my day.  This is how we walk there...keeping our distance the whole way.

Evening egg hunt.

Friday I let the kids each choose an "enrichment". We usually have one kid pick a random one each day.

Gray chose recreate a famous painting.  It was easy and fun.

Julia chose paint a canvas.  She and Joshua are still working on theirs and did a great job.  Gray was not a fan and gave up.  Allie just loved squeezing out too much paint and playing it in.  Joshua picked legos and it was fun to put together a Harry Potter set that Julia has had for over a year.  Allie chose a nature documentary, which was really cool.

Girls had been out taking a walk and I was on my way to pick up Raven from her playdate when I encountered the scene above.  Allie had to pee really bad, apparently, and Julia's solution was to push her in the doll stroller for speed.

Found these cuties in the backyard yesterday, swinging away.  What beautiful weather we have had!

The enrichment for today was to bake.  Julia and I made this cinnamon cake and this was her face upon realizing she should have controlled her impulses with the sprinkles a bit more.  

Happy Birthday to GrandGene!  So fun to see everyone's faces, sing Happy Birthday to GrandGene, and watch him blow out his candles (and eat his dessert).  We haven't seen each other in person since...Christmas I think?  :(

We are back to school this week and after a couple days off, Matt will work a lot.  I am so thankful he has a job that can (must) continue during this crisis.  I'm thankful I can teach VIPKID every day.  And I'm thankful to get to keep my BCP job for now too.  As of this week, will be preschool zooming Monday-Thursday at 10.  My class will go Mon/Wed and Allie's Tue/Thu.  Should be exciting.  It's funny the things you think are ridiculous at first...like having an online class with preschoolers...can seem so normal after living an abnormal life for awhile!  

My thoughts for the moment are that I don't miss all the running around.  I think it's been so cool to take time for all these family activities that we never have a moment for.  Some days the kids bicker, especially the middle two, and I have to send them for way too many laps around the house, but overall I think it's so good to take time to learn to get along and appreciate each other.  I think taking away the school stress from the kids is probably really good for their emotional health.  Not having to get ready to go anywhere with the kids takes away soooooooo much of our stress too.  I love hearing about the environmental positives of people slowing down.  So much good with this lifestyle.   I do miss watching the kids do what they love- lacrosse and skating.  I do miss sitting with my friends each week and talking for hours in person.  I am a little sad about  things we were really looking forward to getting canceled, the latest being the play Shrek, which we were going to for Mother's Day, and the boys' NC State basketball camp.  I do worry most about the financial implications of all this...for the out of work folks now and for everyone in the future.  We never really have control of life, but these days we are constantly reminded of that.  The only way to be okay with that is to remind myself that God is only good and brings good from brokenness and tragedy, should we experience that, because he loves us.  "It's God who sees beauty in everything", says Allie's song she's listening to right now.  Trying hard to keep seeing the beauty and positive in each one of these crazy days.

Week 2...AKA The Honeymoon is OVER

Week one of "extended break" was a little magical in some ways.  We hadn't really processed what was happening to life and it was kind of like a week of snow days.  The kids were getting along for the most part, renewing their relationships, getting creative.  I was marveling at my time to do things around the house.  Then came week two.  We were grouchy. Reality sunk in as the governor announced no school till May.  We hadn't seen our friends in forever.  I felt like I could never get any time alone and the projects I was working on were constantly getting interrupted by our most common form of communication:  bickering.  While I could very easily recognize that in the grand scheme of things, this was the good life, it was hard to be cheerful about much of anything.  Thankfully towards the end of the week, we had Matt's birthday, warm weather, friend sightings, and we are starting to settle in again.  Pictures from the week:

Saturday: Mo Willems' Lunch Doodles (we've done a few more since then and it's so fun!)

Julia has picked up the tennis bug.

Allie's own fun again... washing the car.

Driveway lacrosse.

Joshua discovered Matt's bike and enjoyed getting away a little.  Allie enjoyed cleaning the tires.

Sunday:  Zoom church.  Fun to see our church community and carry on with worship in the comfort of our homes.  As you can see, some were quite comfortable.

Zoom church communion= plantain chips and kombucha in medicine cups.

Sweet delivery from our friends of treats, jewelry, encouragement!

I took these rascals down to the park.  Gray took about 20 minutes longer than everyone because he ran in the house multiple times for things he forgot, then discovered that his rip rider is not the best mode of travel for a long sidewalk journey and ended up carrying it.  Boys enjoyed tennis on the basketball court and I left girls on the playground while I took a walk down the path.

Monday:  Gray and Allie's stuffed animal fashion show.  Which somehow included wearing each other's clothes as well.

Tuesday: Mask-making!  Between Monday and Tuesday I sewed 15 masks for Matt's unit.  I had to work with whatever I could find around the house and I'm not the best seamstress and I got so frustrated trying to work while the kids were so needy, but it's done!!

Bible Study girls Zoom meeting.  After more than a week apart, it was so good to catch up!!

Not pictured- Wednesday: I made Matt's birthday cake, which was a bit involved, cleaned, and kids made Matt birthday cards.  

 Thursday: Matt's birthday!  We did a teddy bear hunt around the neighborhood.  People had bears in their windows for us to find.  

Matt and I took a drive in his beloved car over to the gas station by the dump, where he picked up his favorite beer.  Then we picked up our order of wings and tacos from his favorite Wooden Nickel.

Birthday presents!

Oreo cheesecake for dessert.  :)

 Not pictured- Friday:  Julia started a book club via Zoom with her friend Addie.  They will read one of the Harry Potter books.  I went to zumba with a few friends in a culdesac of a neighborhood driveway, keeping 6-10 feet apart at all times of course.  Lots of fun, but getting HOT in the afternoon on that pavement.

Saturday:  Julia and Allie enjoyed making slime out of whatever they could find around the house.

We are now on Spring Break, so no schoolwork for the next week.  Not sure how the kids will keep busy, but Joshua's strategy so far seems to be sleep it off.  I finally got him up at 11:15 this morning after the kids spent a late night with Matt watching Back to the Future, which they loved so much.

TGIF!

We made it through week 1 of Coronavirus Homeschool!!  I don't mean to minimize one bit the serious medical and financial crises people are experiencing, but this social distancing has not been so bad.  I love having my kids around and seeing them spend more time together.  (Of course we have fighting too...not all rainbows, but still!)  They have done a great job keeping up with their work and even Allie has done well playing on her own--which is NOT her thing.  I am enjoying the time to just be home and do things like catch up on photos, read a book, exercise, clean out my emails, etc.  One major stressor in normal life is our ADHDers and their time management/organization.  This new lifestyle is waaaay more forgiving in those areas, so everything just feels less hectic.  I mean, this week the only thing I've rushed to do on time is log in to the Cincinnati Zoo live home safari at 3 so we didn't miss the sloth.

Do I want to continue this for months or take my kids out of school for good?  Nah.  We love the social aspects of traditional school- friends, sports, learning from other adults, etc.  But for now, it's going okay.

Tuesday:  Some got into the St Patrick's Day spirit.  Allie and I used our "green thumb" to repot all our house plants.

 I began making videos for preschoolers to watch since they can't come to class.  Our director is posting one a day on facebook.  So far I've done read alouds, step by step drawing, experiments, etc.  Allie had been a participant and videographer (which gets a little dicey) and the other kids have done some participation too.  Fun!

Gray pulled out 5 of his baby teeth.  Yes, 5.  This is the kid we called "gummy bear" b/c it took him a year to get any teeth.  Now he's almost 13 and finally getting rid of those pearly whites.  Apparently he has no qualms about inflicting tooth pain on himself.  Side note, he is often saddled with a mouth full of food at dinner that he can't chew due to lack of said teeth.  

 Wednesday, Allie continued to make her own fun, usually involving some kind of sensory experience.

 Matt made a fire and we enjoyed smores, some with peeps leftover from preschool experimentation.  Matt worked the first few nights but is home now.  His team has a meeting each night about the virus situation.  He is expecting to work more as cases increase.

 Every day, I read with Allie and have her practice some writing.  She has great motor control and has already improved her writing in just a week.  Kindergarten, we are ready for ya!  We also play a game.  Thursday, Gray took over the teaching and in typical fashion, the student was a little silly for the sub.

 More videos for preschool!  This time Allie was supposed to take a video and it ended up just a picture.  Oops.  Take two!

 We had lots of outside time and the kids are playing together lots more.  It's getting warmer so Allie is almost always in a swimsuit and they did a water fight Thursday.  The trampoline is getting a workout these days and they've broken out the laser tag guns too.

 Every day I take a walk in the neighborhood.  Thursday we went as a family and the kids played in the creek a bit.  It's nice to see people out and about too since we went to no playdates, even outside playdates, starting Tuesday.  We miss our people!

 The kids are having some online meetings with their class.  Julia's class began with an online chat on Monday.  They were cut off on Tuesday after Day 1 produced 815 messages, many silly and/or inappropriate.  ;)  She has enjoyed the meetings though.  Her teacher reads to them and answers questions.  She plugs in her headphones and goes in the office.  Her class is so chatty so they go on for an hour or so.  Julia has really enjoyed the homeschooling and requests we always do this.  Until I reminded her I can't work if we do this, so that might limit some of the activities she enjoys doing.  Plus she is super social and I think the novelty will wear off.

 Joshua also had some online meetings today.  He chooses to mute himself and turn off the camera apparently.  But I think he was kinda excited about this format, as today was the first day I didn't have to wake him at 9 to get going.

 And Allie, making her own fun again, posted herself in our shower to squeegee the door while listening to her Curious George book on tape, which we all just about have memorized now.