Intentional Outdoor Hours: 30+ hours (of 1000)
We had an absolute beautiful day on Sunday and snagged a bunch of time outside that included even lunch on the patio (the kids' favorite!) Brandon pulled out the pressure washer and did the front porch and sidewalks and the kids danced joyfully through the mists. We are all so ready for summertime! The dogs even got a bath before the end of the day; a long and productive outdoor day!
Reading Nyxia by Scott Reintgen a little bit.
Toad-sitting for the summer. The kids' STEAM teacher, Mrs. Roxby who they adore asked if we would be interested in being the host family for the class's fire-bellied toads and they were thrilled. We moved the 7 toads and their habitat into the girls' room on Tuesday. We got to feed them the crickets and the kids were cheering as they watched the toads snatch up the crickets.
Meeting Studerbaby #5! I had my non-stress test and weekly appointment with our midwife on Wednesday where it was determined at 2cm dilated with a possible cord prolapse, there was no time to wait - we'd be getting our baby that day! As it was April 1st - I literally had to text a picture of myself in a hospital gown with the message, "We are getting the baby today - this is NOT an April Fools joke!" to make sure our family would believe us. (hah). It was pretty quick moving from there and our baby boy, Redland Adams Studer, was born by 5:22p at 7lbs 2 oz and 19.5 inches long! My midwife (and cousin) Meg was amazing, our surgeon Dr. Khouzami was incredible, my nurses and anesthesiologists were awesome, and Brandon was able to be there in the surgery with me. Not going to lie, I would never choose a c-section again if possible (hah), but Red is here and safe and I am recovering, so all is well.
Overjoyed that Redland shares a birthday with his great grandma; Mimi. He and Mimi are exactly 82 years apart in age. She was so sweetly excited and I cried about at least twice that day. It makes me so happy!
Isolating even more than has been normal with just Brandon, Red, and I in the hospital as the Covid-19 pandemic has restricted all visitors to the hospital. It was pretty eerie and lonely to be there for two days with no visits from friendly and familial faces like it was for all the other kids' births. We did lots of photos, texts, and video chats though to share Red's sweet face with those we love. The kids called every 10 minutes to see their baby brother again - but by day 2 I was ready to get the heck out of there and home so our whole family could be together again. Again, due to the pandemic, I was cleared within 2 days (as my healing was making good progress and Red looked great) and it was deemed probably safer for us to be quarantined at home than at the hospital with frontline heroes in and out of the room all day.
Social distance visiting. My parents came to our house on Sunday and we chatted outside and reminded the kids (with heavy hearts) that they had to stay 6ft away. It was so nice to see their faces though. Tasha flew to our house when it was c-section go time and traded off between her and Kayla to watch the kids for the next two days (hand-washing and Lysol'ing like crazy). My mom and Kayla were there when we pulled up from the hospital and stood several feet away to peek into the car seat and coo and smile over Red's little face. Then after Red was at home, Gigi and Pappy stopped by to deliver dinner and groceries. Gigi had washed down with surgical soap, wore her N95 mask, and got to hold Red for a few minutes before she washed her hands. All the rest of the kids kept their distance from her and Pap and Violet cried almost the whole entire visit because she cannot stand to see Pappy without hugging him. The whole family had bath night while Red had a little sponge bath!
Visiting the doctor's office for Red's first check up. What a strange world we live in right now. We were instructed to wait in the car until they called us and then just Red and I went into the building and straight back to our well check room. He did great for his appointment, but at no point was there more than 2 people in our room and I was getting a weird vibe from the doctor during the check up until I realized it was only because he was all the way across the room asking/answering questions - instead of on the rolling stool in a more personable way - but he was practicing social distancing in the appointment!
Managing the rotations of siblings that get to hold Red next because we have an obsession situation over here. I have to keep saying, "We don't have to fight over who gets to spend time with him - he lives here now; forever!"
College'ing with the addition of 2 more pages to my research paper. I emailed my professor on Friday to let her know that we had the baby and she was so sweetly excited about it in her reply message. She also informed me that due to the global situation - all of our papers have been pushed back one week which was such welcome news! So my research paper is due Easter instead - which gives me a whole week of "maternity leave" to get it wrapped up. Yay!
Homeschooling with some free printables (thanks internet!), keeping tabs on our caterpillars, and learning up on fire-bellied toads! The kids did some real Home Ec learning when my sisters and mom were here with them while we were in the hospital. They all pitched in to help clean and organize the house before baby Red came home. Grey vaccumed the whole house and even learned what a 'baseboard' is (hah). Thank you Abba, Kitty, and Uch!!
Virtual teaching with some comprehensible input stories and activities. Spanish 1 and 2 read about La Criatura and answered daily prompts for the week while Spanish 2 read Ratones en Mi Casa with corresponding daily prompts. Spanish 3/4 Honors read the same story (Ratones) but in the past tense and had their daily prompts due for the week as well. I announced LMA pass winners on Monday (congrats students!) and started working on our next week's lessons about Semana Santa. I am also still sharing a weekly música miércoles video on Wednesdays (this week was Marc Anthony's Vivir Mi Vida) and then my "maternity leave" started on Thursday since Baby Red had arrived.
Making lots of meals but also receiving so much love and support from our family in the form of food and groceries.
Breakfasts: sopapilla, cereal, chocolate crescent rolls, pancakes (twice!)
Lunches: buffalo chicken dip, chicken nuggets & tater tots, mac & cheese, chicken alfredo with roasted tomatoes (Hello Fresh), leftovers (twice!)
Dinners: burgers and roasted potato fries (Hello Fresh), cheesy chicken and rice in the crockpot, taco tuesday, meatloaf (from Gigi and Pap!), Fox's pizza (from Uch!), wings and chicken salad (from Brandon's office co-workers), pierogie lasagna (from Gigi & Pap!)
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