Around Here Week 16: 04/12-18

A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this minute - week 5 of the covid-19 lockdown.

boys clothes: size 0-3, size 4T, size 10-12

physically distant cousin visit with Caleb

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  36+ hours (of 1000)
Our weather has kind of a been a downer this week with chilly and wet days for most of them. Brandon and the kids moved the picnic tables and benches into the garage and worked on staining them on downpour days. Gemma was such a big helper and came up on Thursday night a total stained up mess (she was so proud!) the tables all look great and I can't wait until the weather is consistently warm so that we can enjoy our meals on the patio daily!

Reading Dig by A.S. King which is a borrow from my work bestie (who I miss so much during this quarantine - hi Renee!) and I read just a few pages and was so happy to read that beautiful writing! A.S. King is truly brilliant (I read her Still Life with Tornado last summer) and I my quarantine/sleep deprived soul is rejoicing in her incredible skills!) I did attempt to read a different book (self-published) and was immediately put off by the amateur writing style (ugh, BOOK SNOB) but I can't help but read with a writer's eye and I get so distracted by poor writing that I can't even focus on the story. If anything, that book inspired me that if this author could self-publish (and be a contributor on many big time sites) that geez louise, I need to stop being such a scaredy cat and try.

Celebrating Easter as it appears the bunny does not have the coronavirus (hooray!) Abba and Chum actually played hippity hoppity for us since there was no way I was prepared for Easter baskets. (THANK YOU! holiday lifesavers!) The kids got to sleep in some new (matchies!) jammies for Easter and we had Easter dinner delivered by Gigi and Pappy that afternoon. It was delicious and we were so grateful to get a traditional Easter meal without having to make it! Then we headed over to Abba & Chum's backyard for some socially distant Easter visiting around the fire. Abba got to hold Red for the first time (decked out in gloves and a face mask). The kids were so thrilled to run and play outside with Chum and their aunts (and ride the zip line a million times) and then everyone cried when it was time to go home. Oh, covid-19, we are so very tired of you and how you make us miss our family and friends.

Crying it out as week 2 of the rotten 8 hit hard. Red went through a growth spurt at the beginning of the week so it was a lot of nursing and not much sleep - compounded with all the schooling (homeschool, virtual teaching, and college'ing) and oh, ya know - the global pandemic...I just needed a good cry. I'm also pretty frustrated with the recovery situation of a c-section. I know lack of sleep and breastfeeding is contributing - but I also feel super weak and hyper aware of my incision (which is healing up beautiful and will barely be a scar!) Thank you to my sweet friend, Haley who sent the kindest support email and my thoughtful friend Loni who mailed me some healing balm. I know what I need is rest and patience, but try getting that through the thick skull of a First Born-Virgo-Enneagram 2....yeah, worst combo ever for recovery. Hahhaa, I'm working through it!

Checking off milestones for Red! With a healed belly button, Red was able to get his first proper bath this week and the verdict is in - he doesn't hate it! The kids all huddled around him marveling at his every movement and accidental splashes in the water. What a loved baby!

Cheering on our butterflies as they emerged from their chrysalises. We had one caterpillar die before it even formed its chrysalis and then another chrysalis fell from the top (excited little hands grabbed the jar at the sight of the cocoons!) So we had three beautiful painted ladies and one more little busted-wing butterfly who is still hanging on, but can't fly.

Weirdly happy about our new kitchen garbage can like only a mom can be. Gem used our trash can as a seat last week and as it was already several years old and kind of hanging on by a limb - that was it for the lid. So I ordered a new one (20 gallon!) and it arrived and brings me so much joy in all of it's clean, functional newness. It also came in a huge box which provided plenty of fun for the kids until they flattened it like we hope to do to this curve (lol, pandemic humor).

Feeding our foster toads and cheering on the little one that was being bullied by the bigger ones. He got a few crickets even though the big ones were hopping around and in his face.

Switching the girls' bedroom around and unbunking the beds at the girls' request. Daddy and Gemma did all the heavy lifting and they had a reveal for me at the end since I was strictly on the no assist list.

Getting through this quarantine. Somedays feel super relaxed and easy - like a relief that the schedule is wide open and all the time in the world together. And other days...just so heavy and weird with no end in sight. We miss our friends and family, we feel guilty for having it so easy while other families with frontline heroes are doing so much more than us. It's such a strange time, so I'm trying to take it one day at a time (one hour at a time some days!) Whatever you're feeling out there, it's valid.

Homeschooling my two bigs to finish their two-week packets so that they could turn them in on Saturday. Their school did a fantastic job of setting up the drop off/pick up of new packets; so organized and efficient! The little kids worked on some packets sent through email from their preschool and I am continually grateful to have work for them all to do (we limit to only an hour a day of school work) that I don't have to create/find myself. My order arrived too - I got new chapter books for the big kids and workbook activity books for the littles too just to keep things new and fresh.

College'ing and turning in my research paper (yay!) and working on my next assignment; reading articles and starting on reflection assignment for working with paraprofessionals in the classroom. Only two more assignments after this one to go and I'm done!

Virtual Teaching again and back from "maternity leave" (lol).  We only had school from Wednesday to Friday as our school calendar is still in effect since we've been virtually teaching since the very first school day since the schools closed. My students worked with a leveled reading and had questions to answer daily. We unfortunately had to officially cancel prom for the year (bummmmer) but we are trying to work on an alternative option. I was able to reach out to our vendors, prom committee, and the senior class officers to let them know the news. I also graded assignments, posted to google classroom, checked in with non-responsive kids who need to turn in work, and updated my teacher webpage too. I keep thinking about these two very important messages about kids and school and the world:

  

Making meals and cleaning up from those meals all day, everyday. We run the dishwasher a minimum of twice a day during these quarantine days (I refuse to use throw away dishes, our family is too big to create that much trash!)
breakfast: ham & egg crescent roll-ups, toast, cereal, eggs & sausage breakfast burritos, poptarts (thank you Abba!), homemade coffee cake (my first try and it turned out delicious!)
lunch: Frozen pizza, lunchmeat sandwiches (twice), broiled burgers, chicken nuggets, taco salads, leftovers
dinner: frozen pizza, spaghetti, pineapple meatballs over rice (thank you Carli!), tacos, beef tostados (Hello Fresh), spinach & chicken sausage ravioli (Hello Fresh)