New Life-Week 6 (Extras)

So I hear lots of people talking about all this extra time they have since this quarantine began and to be honest I haven't really seen it.  My days are packed with helping the kids, cooking, and cleaning. I haven't really felt like I have extra time.  Even the weekends have felt packed.  As I look back at this week though I realized that this is the first week that I have been able to squeeze in a few extras.  When cleaning the house yesterday I took time to sweep under the couch (scary!) and the kids and I started sorting the clothes in their drawers.  I also had a little time this week for extra cooking.  I made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies and was able to freeze some dough for later and I froze several dozen eggs from the batch of 15 dozen eggs I bought a few weeks ago.

Also this week I was finally able to get a handle on a project that I was needing to do for preschool. My co-teacher and I made packets for the kids with crafts, worksheets, and activities for them to pick up.  We also made videos with greetings and read them stories.  On Wednesday I sent out all the digital content and on Friday everyone came to pick up their packets (in a socially distant way of course).  It was nice to check that off the "to-do" list.

 

As for the kids and Jeremy, they spent the week working hard on school and work.  Merrick really tried to go the extra mile with his math homework this week.  His teacher assigned a worksheet that said to find the perimeter and area of rectangles.  Unfortunately, he didn't read his teacher's instructions to just do the perimeter as finding the area by multiplying decimals was well beyond where they are at this point.  So Merrick and I spent several hours finding the areas by multiplying decimals (after I re-taught myself)...all for nothing.  I am including a picture of some of his work and some of Carrigan's work from this week for your viewing pleasure.  Everyone is working hard!

Yesterday afternoon we all needed a break so we headed to a field at a park by the house for some family kickball.  Jeremy was kind of a ringer, but we still all had a good time.  By the time we got home though we all needed a break from our break...

 

New Life-Week 5 (Back to School)

Never a dull moment in this new life of ours, this week the kids started online school.  The learning curve in navigating our new normal was a bit steep.  On Monday morning a week's worth of school dropped into each of the kids virtual classrooms.  Monday and Tuesday I was in a bit of a panic trying to sort it all out and get on top of the mountain of work.  By Wednesday I was looking over things and realizing we didn't have a lot more to do.  Ooops!  Hopefully we will get the timing of things figured out a little better as weeks go on.  Here is a drawing that Carrigan did for art this week.

The weather this week was beautiful so we were able to spend a fair bit of time outside.  Elsie discovered a love of skateboarding with dad, and Merrick has been working on his skateboarding skill as well.  While Carrigan tried her hand at skateboarding this week as well, she prefers her scooter.

As the weeks have rolled on in our new life I have spent a fair bit of time thinking about the future.  I wonder how long it will be until life is normal again?  Will it ever be the same again?  Do I want it to be?  How do I take the good parts of this and hang on to them?  What do I hope my kids learn from this?  More than anything I hope this cements in their heads that they have a safe and secure place at home ALWAYS.  I hope this is a time that builds up their confidence and self-esteem.

This morning I was getting ready and Elsie came in and grabbed my mirror.  She looked at herself and said "oh so beautiful and amazing".  To me it was like she was saying "Good job, mom.  You are teaching me the important things".  I hope all of my kids come out of this feeling like they are beautiful, amazing, and capable.

New Life-Week 4 (Easter)

This week (or at least the good part) was all about preparing for and celebrating Easter.  Early in the week Merrick and I made a salt dough.  We rolled it out, cut out egg shapes, and baked them.  Over the next couple of days during Elsie's nap time, Merrick and Carrigan painted each egg (there were 50 something all together).  On Friday we plated them up and made little cards to go with them.  We then ding dong ditched and left them at houses of several friends and all our local family.  Merrick commented several times that he really liked the adrenaline rush of trying not to get caught, ringing the doorbell and running away, we might be in trouble when he is a teenager.

Friday afternoon, Lora who I used to teach preschool with, brought the kids an easter egg making craft.  Carrigan got right to work and she and Elsie had a really good time decorating.

On Saturday the day was monopolized by doing taxes (booo!!!) but we did sneak out for a "Social Distancing Easter Parade".  The parade went all over the city and the idea was for people to just sit outside their houses and one of the parade teams would eventually pass by you sometime between the hours of 3-5.  We sat outside for all two hours (thankfully it was a beautiful day) and eventually we were rewarded just after 5 when the parade finally made it to us.

Today was finally Easter.  The Easter bunny came first thing and in addition to tons of candy, Merrick got a baseball biographies book and the card game "Exploding Kittens", Carrigan got a unicorn tape dispenser (that girl loves tape) and a cupcake bath bomb, and Elsie got Frozen II nail polish and a cupcake bath bomb.  As for Jeremy and I, the Easter bunny brought us  toilet paper, a priceless commodity these days.  We had a big breakfast with funfetti pancakes, eggs, sausage, and fresh squeezed O.J. and a good talk about the timeline of event of the days leading Christ's resurrection.  After breakfast we had a family Zoom call with Jeremy's family.  It was so good to see everyone.  We then had church with the sacrament and an Easter lesson.  The rest of the day we hung out, played outside, played our new "Exploding Kittens" game, watched a movie, had a big dinner, ate junk, painted each others nails (Merrick was a super good sport) and just had a great day.

Under the circumstances it would have been really easy for Easter to have been ruined, but I am so thankful we were still able to have a wonderful, memorable day.

New Life-Week 3

This week was all about the comfort of routine.  With everything so crazy and ever-changing in the outside world, there has been a lot of comfort this week in routine.  In the mornings we get ready, read, play games and go for a walk.  After lunch we do school work, play outside, have freetime and electronics time. We try to shake it up a bit but things are pretty routine around here...at least until next week.  Next week the school district will start increased enhanced learning and the week after we will start full online school.  I am hanging on to our routine as long as I can.

Here are some random pictures from the week.  The first pictures are from last Sunday evening.  All the family did a drive by at my parent's house and talked to each other from our cars.

Today we got outside for a bit;  and took a walk along the river.  It was good to be in nature and to pretend (just for a moment) that things are normal.

 

New Life- Week 2

This week (and really this whole experience actually) can be summed up nicely by A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".  I feel like I am on this crazy roller coaster and I can't get off.  For example, Thursday morning was particularly difficult for several people that I love.  I was overcome by worry for them and their future and ended up having to hide in my room for a bit while I cried my eyes out.  Fast forward to Friday late afternoon and I am making homemade pizza for my family while they get their cars ready for our drive in movie (more on that in a minute) and deciding on what movie we are going to watch.  In that moment I am overcome with gratitude for my family, all that we have, and for this special time I have to be with them more fully.  It's really the craziest thing and for those of you reading this right now, I am sure you get it, but for anyone in the future, I don't have words to truly express what it is like.

Anyway, so what did we actually do this week?  The weather was poor off and on this week so we had to miss our daily walk a few times.  We typically go outside in the afternoon everyday as well so this week we cleaned out the garage and spent lots of time playing in there with balls, chalk, and scooters.  Also this week we made homemade playdough, played with Legos and made muffins.  Thursday was Brendon's birthday so we heart attacked his front door.  We tried to be sneaky, but their dog, Trixie, started barking before we even made it to the door...not so sneaky.

Elsie found a bunch of bloomers in her drawer this week and decided she wanted to start wearing "underwear".  Everyday she insists on underwear over her diaper and under her pants.  We are almost out of diapers and I really should bite the bullet and potty train her, but honestly I can't bring myself to take it on right now.

Probably the best thing we did this week was our "drive in movie".  I don't have a lot of brilliant ideas as a parent, but this was one.  On Friday afternoon I got out old apple boxes for the kids to decorate as cars.  Merrick made a Lambo.  Carrigan made an Audi, which she called an Olympics car.  Elsie made, well, I am not exactly sure, but she had fun.  Car decorating turned into car racing.  Eventually we watched a movie and the kids sat in their "cars" for a "drive in movie".  Between the decorating, racing, and movie watching, we had hours and hours of entertainment...genius!  The only downside was that Merrick was really too big for his car so he ended up having to cut the box so his legs could hang out.

Just like that it was another week in the books.  Jeremy and I asked either other after week one if we could do this indefinitely and both said "no".  We had the same conversation this week and both said, "probably".  This is definitely getting more comfortable.