Quarantine day 161

 The kids finished their first week of online school. It’s going great for Timmy and Lexa in middle school. They log into each class for a virtual meeting and then have some time to do an assignment before their next virtual class meeting starts. Lexa and Timmy were happy to see some of their friends in their classes with them. It’s been going really smoothly and they’re pretty happy.

Will is another story. It’s really hard for Will to pay attention to his screen. He’s moving all around, messing with anything around him. I’m constantly asking him  if he knows what his teacher just said. I kind of think I could engage him better homeschooling him myself. We had some headphones come in this weekend, so we’ll see if those help any. Although without me being able to hear, I won’t be able to try to engage him, and I won’t know everything he missed in the lesson to reteach it to him.. He’s been learning to use the programs and type a little bit though.

I’ve been getting up early and taking the little boys for a walk before starting school. 

I’ve been trying to teach Hugh some letters and numbers while the others are busy.

 (Hold on, Will is trying to run off to his room during his reading lesson..)

I think I’ll stop here and do another post of other picture from the past couple of weeks.

Quarantine Day 147

 I’m practicing/timing my morning routine for when school starts in a few days and we have an actual time schedule. I’m thinking of including updating this daily journal, so we’ll see. I seem to love planning and starting routines, but don’t necessarily stick to them that long.. especially if they involve getting up early in the morning! I’m sitting out on the patio with my coffee, reading the news. Will and Hugh are “making a potion”. It’s so nice to get out here before the late morning heat. I’m reading the news, but trying to keep it to just 15 minutes or so. Challenging! Ha ha. I’m also thinking writing on this every day may make for some boring posts.. 

I never got to cleaning yesterday. I decided to do napping and reading books instead. 😁 It was a great Sunday.  Lexa made pizza rolls with a tube of crescent rolls for dinner. We’re going to do Lexa’s fairy party this morning, I think? 

Potion making in progress:

Quarantine day 146

 It’s Sunday. Patrick is cooking a big lunch with corn on the cob and potatoes. Lexa found a book from Grandmom about how to set up a fairy tea party. So she’s been busy crafting and decorating the back patio. I’ll take sone pictures whenever that goes down. Hopefully not anytime soon because it’s 100 degrees out there now.

Patrick’s also got Timmy doing dishes and Will sweeping. I think I’ll finish cleaning upstairs today maybe. It’s taking me 3 days just working on the little boys’ room. I really don’t think I’d been up there or thought about it much all quarantine! Out of site, out of mind. Add to that they’ve been in the house all the time so they’re always busy making messes! 

Here’s how the schoolroom landing is coming together so far. 

Lexa had the idea to play clue with Aunt Sara. So we we got that set up yesterday. It was fun! It actually didn’t feel that different from playing in person. I even kept stopping myself from starting to hand the dice to the laptop after my turn!

Quarantine Day 145

 Yesterday we picked up Lexa’s school laptop. She can home and logged in and got it all set up, including a pink web browser template and kitten screen saver, and a bookmark bar for all the school websites she’ll be using. The middle school also had some new student power point slides up for her to look at. Timmy was inspired got his school laptop out too and sat at his school table making pictures on it. I keep checking my email multiple times a day for any word on their upcoming virtual schedules and teachers. 

We found out our next door neighbors are moving. They have a 7 year old boy and a 9 year old girl who were good friends with Lexa, Will and Hugh. Before covid they would play together everyday. We’re so, so sad. The parents are really nice too. The very first day we moved in the dad came out and offered us his moving dolly. They’re wedding photographers, and there aren’t any weddings anymore. They’ve been hit really hard. They’re moving to their family in Mississippi. I wish the best for them, but I’m bummed for our cul de sac. They were kind of the thread that kept all the cul de sac kids together. Even though the kids couldn’t play with each other anymore, I had thought they’d still be there when we came out of this. 

It sounds like someone is bouncing a basketball in the house, so I better go!

Didn’t take any new pictures this week, but I see I saved the kids’ online school schedules in my pictures.., So I’ll share those! 

Quarantine Day 142

It’s been a weird summer, here at home. I’m ready for the heat to subside. I’ve been kind of in a rut lately. I’ve even gotten bored of my daily walks after 140 of them. I can’t think of any new neighborhood routes to add some excitement without going on busy roads, no different nice parks within walking distance. I may look into an audiobook. That would work. 

I’m so looking forward to getting back into a routine with their virtual school starting in a week. I think about it everyday. We’ve gotten the landing upstairs set up with tables and desks for them. They’ve set up their school supplies on their desks. I keep thinking of more things to put in there: a blanket, earphones, a trash can! I’ll be in there all day logging them into each class at specific times and then making sure they’re working on their assignments. Will keeps asking when they get to start. Lexa is happy that she’ll get to take choir and dance online. 

Patrick’s back to a full week schedule on the computer in our office. 

I’ve been reading the Little House on the Prairie book series to Lexa, and we just finished The Long Winter. It was about them having to stay inside their house, school indefinitely cancelled, the store running out of stock, the days all the same  during the almost constant blizzards of that winter. It was so prescient to our current situation! We definitely could commiserate with getting through a difficult time. We were able to step back and be grateful to not also be running out of food, coal for heat and kerosene for light like them. 

I was thinking about some of what the kids have learned. They’re leaning how to live  through a crisis, how everything can change in an instant. They’ve learned, as millions of less fortunate kids around the world know, however sometimes you don’t want to have to go school, it’s better than having no school at all. 

Here’s some of our activities the last couple of weeks. 

Hugh really wanted to have a picnic in the backyard.

Will found a big leaf on a walk.

Lexa made a chocolate pie for Patrick for his birthday.

She also made a cake one day after she watched the show Nailed It.  

Will finger-painted a board with mud. 

Timmy made this out of sticks with hot glue. I love it and took several pictures when I discovered it.

Lexa braided my hair. Interesting. 

Quarantine day 125

Tonight Lexa made chicken nuggets in the deep fryer. Last week she made fried pickles. Her little brothers helped her with the dipping so there was flour everywhere. 

Timmy emerges from his room everyday around 5pm after reading all day. 

Patrick’s short work weeks for the summer are over. He has to start back up with zoom meetings all day every weekday bright and early in the morning.

 I’ve been so worried that I was having trouble sleeping about him being forced to go back in person as the Texas Education Agency was going to force all schools in the state to completely reopen in a few weeks amid the raging out of control pandemic here. But they’ve at least stepped back a little now after so much backlash. The school at least can be all online until September 7th now. A few weeks respite, I guess. It’s still very scary though. We can’t really think of anything else he could do though, he’ll have to go in and put himself, and therefore our family, at very high risk of catching it every day.

We’ve chosen to at least have our own kids do the all online school option until the virus cases are way down locally. I feel a little sad for our kids socially. At least they have each other. I hope I can keep them learning as well as they would in person at school too. I’m a little nervous about that also, but I’m so glad I’m able to stay home and do that with them. 

My birthday last week was nice. Patrick gave me a flowery shirt and pants and some shoes which I love. I spent the day outside in the kiddie pool with the kids and reading in the hammock with my summer songs playlist going and a smoothie and chips and guacamole. Patrick grilled me steaks for dinner. They were great. Lexa baked me a key lime pie too. 

Quarantine day 113

Lexa had her quarantine birthday. She’s 11 now. 

Timmy was so sweet. He stayed up late putting up unicorn decorations and wrapping her presents. He hung ribbons from her bedroom door and made a paper trail to the kitchen table where her presents were. He also made her a unicorn horn out of clay which he painted gold. He seemed to really want her birthday to be special. He also wanted to give her his last package of soft pretzels he’d saved from his birthday. 

Patrick decorated an angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries for her. 

She wanted to order pizza, and we watched the Princess Bride. 

She got a phone call from Granddad and also from her friend, Emma, from school, who she hasn’t seen or talked to since it school was canceled in March. 

Sara and Kenny dropped by to leave a gift for her on the porch, and we talked awkwardly from a distance on the porch with masks on while our mosquito swarm bit them. They noticed how much all of our hair has grown. They gave her a Lavender vanilla cupcake making kit and a watercolor book and paints. She baked the pretty cupcakes and I’ve been painting a lesson a day with her from the book.