Week 7

The days are flying by! Seriously, I'm not bored at all. Lots to be done and I'm actually enjoying "The Great Pause" to check off tasks that I wouldn't normally get done. Most days are e-learning days with the highlight being going for a long walk with Sadie in the afternoon. When we are in Michigan, we see deer during our walk or we can walk on some pretty trails or take a hike on a dune. In CH, we have kept our walks relatively close to home which has proven to be challenging as there are a lot of people out and walking around the neighborhood and our parks.

The kids are surviving e-learning. Austen especially misses sports and his teammates and often recruits me to play Foot Pong with him. He's doing a lot of running and working out on his own coupled with some baseball and soccer in the backyard. Peyton and Hailey have been playing together for at least an hour every day (and most times they play nicely). This allows me to get some things done around the house too which is nice.

We are now required to wear masks inside stores or in public places where we can't maintain a 6 foot distance. Our first time using them was in the grocery store this past weekend. It was an experience! It's actually hard to breathe in those things! I think Tom was a little more reticent than I was to wear one. I thought I'd be more vain about it but turns out he is as he didn't want me taking a picture of him but I managed to snap one before walking into the grocery store this past weekend.

So it's e-learning as usual here with little breaks to Michigan (to see some gorgeous sunsets). Camps have all been canceled and I think we're going to continue a version of this into summer. What really scares me is that people are talking about the possibility of our schools being closed in the fall too! That's crazy. I hope some really smart scientist comes up with a vaccine soon or at least some drug to treat it!

Art for the Day - Radial Design with Nature (Hailey)

Teacher/Staff Appreciation

Masks!

Missing his Teachers and 7th Grade!

What a Sunset!

Week 6 of Quarantine

Porch Pictures

Six weeks! Can't believe it's been that long. It's gone by quick with lots of e-learning and cleaning. This past weekend, we did not travel to Michigan in order to get some things done at our real house. During the week is too busy with e-learning and work. We can tackle small tasks but not the big ones. It was actually enjoyable to be home this weekend and cross things off our list that we had been putting off - like finally getting started on finishing my workout room. That first entailed cleaning it out and then starting to put in the sub floor. Done! It only took us 6 1/2 years to get started on that project and I believe without what's becoming known as "The Great Pause" we never would have completed it. Ever.

Thank you essential workers!

The kids also got the news that school is done for the rest of the year. They won't be going back to school this year but e-learning will continue through the rest of the school year. That means that we aren't even halfway through our e-learning yet! Seven more weeks to go! Ugh! Lucky me. It's not difficult to keep my three entertained without any screen time til the end of the day. The morning and some of the afternoon is covered with e-learning. Then we usually take Sadie for a walk and then play outside for a bit before it's soon 4 or 4:30pm. At that point, they're allowed their screens for some socialization and break time before dinner while I try to squeeze in a workout or clean out another drawer or shelf.

Anyway, here's what we've been up to...

Bowling Subtraction

Disney Sing A Long

Thank you essential workers!

Boat pose for PE challenge

Week 5 of Quarantine & Easter

Easter Treats from BB Donuts

Luckily last week was a short week of e-learning as the kids had Good Friday off. So this week we begin Week 4 of e-learning. Austen and Peyton are on more Zoom calls this week as the teachers are starting to teach again. Hailey has about the same amount of work plus an additional Zoom call. Many kindergarten parents agree that the kindergartners sure have a lot of e-learning and sometimes more than those in other grades. I guess it depends on the teacher but our principal confirmed that they may have more than others but do what you can. Of course that's not really reassuring if we want them to be ready for 1st grade. We're only half day kindergarten so there was already a lot crammed into such a short day that I'm sure our teachers are in a panic about what they won't know when they arrive in 1st grade. Hailey is growing tired of the routine too. My normally excited to go to school child now complains every day about e-learning (maybe it's the teacher!). She would rather play with Peyton or do her iPad even though I try to explain to her that this is a normal school day and just because she's home does not mean that she is allowed to do her iPad. She must get her school work done and if she needs to take breaks, that's fine she can go and play in her room for 20 minutes or so before she'll need to return for the next activity. She also has been very vocal about not enjoying her Zoom class calls. At first she was excited to see her friends now she's just over it.

Subtraction Smash with STEM Homemade Play Doh

The other two are trudging along. A few technical glitches where I had to play tech support and a few reviewing of items but nothing too crazy with the older ones.

We just returned tonight from Michigan where we spent the past five days including two days of e-learning. We have a lot less resources there for e-learning (like a printer and play doh) so I don't like to spend the entire week there but my car battery died as we were leaving last night causing us to stay one more night until we could get another one today. That's an interesting story in and of itself amid the Coronavirus drama. Our neighbors in Michigan tried to jump it but nothing would make it turn over. Luckily I had called AAA pretty much right when it happened while Tom and our neighbors kept trying to jump it (using appropriate social distancing especially because they are older). After about 90 minutes of trying the tow truck showed up to try to jump it to no avail so he ended up towing it to a local shop. This morning, the owner of the shop confirmed the battery was dead, ordered another, installed it and had it ready for pick up this afternoon. The only problem was getting there. It was 6 miles from our house. I didn't feel comfortable asking our neighbors as they were all taking the social distancing pretty seriously as they should so I recommended that Austen and Tom run together to the place. They did and did pretty well too even when it started snowing and was almost white out conditions for a bit. They got there only to find that the guy had closed the shop earlier than he had said. Tom had luckily taken my set of keys and was able to take the car but imagine if he hadn't and they had to run 6 miles home! Anyway, all good now.

It certainly was an eventful 5 days with Easter too. Tom and I came up with some pretty great Amazing Race challenges for the kids' Easter Egg Hunt this year since they are binge watching episodes of the Amazing Race. It took them over an hour to complete 6 challenges but I think they had a lot of fun and were happy with their Easter baskets they received at the end.

Alas, life has been anything but boring for us lately. Looking forward to some quiet time now that we are back in CH!

Sight Words with Rocks

Can Stacking Easter Egg Hunt Challenge

Put Together Puzzle Egg Hunt Challenge...

...It's a Picture of a Pillow in Our House

Coloring Easter eggs

Lots of Candy, Books and Crafts!

I Found Mine by Sadie's Food!

Week 4 of Quarantine (and Week 3 of E-Learning)

Hailey on a Zoom call with her class

Where do I begin? I'm relishing the silence and my own time away from any other human being holed up in the office typing away. I was busy homeschooling my children from 9am until 12:30pm. Then I played waitress preparing them lunch only to clean up after them and rush to get Hailey on her 1pm class conference call. I had to pop in and out on her for 45 minutes as they were requiring them to manage the call (23 kindergarteners - sounds like a nightmare to me) but the kids still needed assistance. During that time, I managed a quick call to reschedule dentist appointments and cancel my hair appointment and I also fed the dog. Then I played art teacher for both Peyton and Hailey as they needed to draw self portraits. Then it was time for PE class so I drew an extra large tic tac toe board with painters tape and stuffed animals across my hardwood floors.

Afterwards, I needed to help Hailey create her new sight words out of Lego pieces. Luckily, I coerced the other two to help me so we could walk the dog by 3pm. Finally, we were done. We took a three block walk and rushed back at the end so we could drive to our local Starbucks (after a week of no Starbucks) and secure ourselves some drinks (albeit not the kind I really need these days) after a hard day's work and before their 4pm early closing time.

Once home, Austen roped me into playing Futpong (soccer tennis) and the girls into chalking the driveway with messages. I finally called it a day at about 5:15pm only to run inside for a quick conference with Tom to figure out dinner and make a 10-second funny video for a friend in the hospital. Only then was I able to seek the solitude of my workout room for a mere 45-minutes to do a Peloton boot camp before rejoining my family for dinner and then bedtime rituals which included reading and screen time tonight while Tom and I completed cleaning out the fridge/freezer. We scrubbed that thing down over the course of two days and threw out old condiments and freezer burned food. Can't say I'd done the full scrub down in 6.5 years. See we are getting shit done thanks to the Coronavirus! But I'm starting to get irritated with it mostly because these kids need all of me all of the time (well except for Austen).

Peyton loves to leave me notes...

Peyton had a host of technology problems today that I tried to work with her on in between when I was assisting Hailey. Tough. Then I needed to check her work. She doesn't sleep anymore either. I swear she's worse than a toddler. I can't count how many times that child gets out of bed. First it was her stomachaches - that miraculously have disappeared, and now it's I'm hot or I can't sleep. Oh wait, it's 10:30pm and she just came down again for at least the third time tonight after being in bed at 8pm. She's been doing this regardless of whether she sleeps alone or with the other two at the beach house. Seriously, that kid is by far our most challenging child. She's going to be something amazing when she grows up - the hard ones always do! Or at least that's what I'm hoping! Signing off now so I can put her back to bed. Til next week...

Sight words with Legos

Drive Thru line at Starbucks

Out of bed again...