Violin Lesson

 My purple girl in braces on a sunny day is tuning her violin over Facebook with her instructor.  She frowns in concentration and her bangs hang past her eyes.  The grandma violinist tries to channel this rushing spring creek in the proper violin techniques.

The scanty overwintered geranium by the window glows red in the sunshine, and the violin squeaks and grinds out the notes.  I wrestle with embarrassment over my daughter's practice habits, pride at how she picks out the notes by ear, and pleasure over how she has stuck with this instrument.  The lesson is not about me.

"Wrist straight, watch your pinkie."

"Ode to Joy" takes shape.  "One more time, take a deep breath.  Let lots of oxygen in."

The little violinist is honest about what she has practiced and what she has not.  The grandma chides and cheers in turns.  We may be a little exasperating, but today we are also providing a needed distraction.

Witches broom mulberry branches divide the blue sky outside the window, while minuets are pieced together.  Music vies for my girl's attention, competing with worlds that dance in her head.  Sunlight defies the world-care in my gut and teases out a smile.  The woman child on her violin defies my self-imposed busyness and teases out half an hour of sitting, seeing and hearing.  She is so beautiful.

Snow Tubing

 A week ago, we went snow tubing in Indiana.  It was one of Paul's Christmas presents.  He had fun, but he was funny, so laid back about it.  I never saw him go down on his belly.  He seemed to enjoy just flopping down into the seat of the tube and letting the lane manager get him started down the slope.

It was above freezing and mostly sunny.  After a few rides, Steve and some of the kids shed a few layers of clothing because they were overheating.

Petra enjoyed the exhilaration of whisking down the hill.  She didn't love dragging the tube back to the escalator belt, and became tired and thirsty sooner than the rest of us.  I think she was also reveling in the independence of directing herself around. 

We were allowed to grip handles on each others tubes and go down the hill in chains of up to five people long.  Nathan rode tandem the first three or four times before he worked up the courage to fly solo.  Once he tried it by himself, he never looked back.  He would get to the bottom of the slope and start right back up whether there was anybody he knew around or not.

Julia has been hungry for some high adventure activities, so tubing was right up her alley.  I think she was the first one to fly down the hill on her belly.  She did keep an eye out on Nathan after we all had a snack break.  She led him to some newly opened lanes when they became available.  While tubing, she was also eyeing the ski slopes and agreed with Petra and me that we should try those someday.

Late October Notes from Home 2020

 Nathan is learning about measuring things in different units in math this week.  Yesterday, he was supposed to estimate then measure the lengths of things in meters.  The problem is that he doesn't want to estimate lengths, because he doesn't like being wrong.  We had already measured how high a meter was on him and determined that the pumpkin decal on his shirt was just one meter up from the floor.  So when asked to estimate the length of the hallway, he inch-wormed across it to get the number.

Today the weather is misty and dreary, and I was dreaming of being someplace else.  My imagination was gravitating to Colorado and someplace that I could soak in natural hot springs.  I asked my kids where they would like to take their imaginary vacations.  Julia stated that she would like to visit Canada with her friend A.  

"You know Canada is like half of all of North America, right?  Can you be more specific."

She started describing what she had in mind, and I called up pictures of Banff.  When she saw the images she said, "Yes!  There!"

Dress up night

I decided it was time to pull my old formals out of the closet for a look.  The girls and I had fun trying them on.

Petra looking Majestic

This dark dress has purple highlights.  I got it for my senior prom and wore it for several dances in college.

Julia looking lovely

Mommy in Julia's Renaissance dress

Julia bought this Renaissance style dress for herself.  She usually gets to go the Renaissance Festival with her buddy, A.   She likes the dress so well that she wore it for her school pictures for fun.

Do you recognize this dress, grandma?

Pretty girls

Under the best of times we don't have many events that such fancy dresses would be appropriate for.  So it seemed like a dress up day on isolation was as good an excuse as any to get them out.

My boys

Nathan likes Minecraft.  He likes playing Minecraft video games, he like building with Minecraft themed Legos, and he likes pretending he's in a Minecraft world.  One of the mobs (monsters) in Minecraft is called a Creeper.  They are green and have four stubby legs and can explode.  Here is Nathan with his Creeper hat, Creeper shirt, and Creeper stuffy.  

It's safe to say that Nathan first learned to love Minecraft from Paul, although really all the kids have played it at some point.  It's unusual for a video game because it is not all about eye-hand coordination, or jumping on evil mushrooms, or shooting bad guys.  In the game, you kind of just get dumped in a very squared-off world and decide what you want to do with your time.  You can explore, kill monsters, or build castles.  You collect resources to craft what you want.  It's a lot like playing Legos on a screen. 

Paul's video game of choice lately is Legend of Zelda.  The kids often spend their evening "cartoon" time on Mario Cart (racing) or Smash Brothers (brawling).  It hasn't been a bad way to spend evenings while we've been on isolation.  Playing.  Together. 

Yes, he's really this big now

Camping out

Several weeks ago we toyed with the idea of taking the kids on a camping trip to Red River Gorge during isolation.  The thought was that the campgrounds would probably be fairly empty.  The prediction of bad whether caused us to reconsider, which was well.  In the meantime the governor of Kentucky issued orders closing the trails, and a friend of ours had to cut his camping trip short.

Last weekend we did a little bit of backyard camping.

My Intrepid Boy Scout

Daddy is in charge of the fire

Steve tutored the kids in good tent etiquette, as well as how to build and maintain a pretty little cooking fire.

We roasted hot dogs and then had s'mores

We got to relax with nothing we had to do

My favorite place to be

Steve set up the tent with the kids, while I finished working.  He and I planned to sleep in our own bed.  I suggested that we could just send the kids outside while we had date night, but we ended up staying out with them for the evening.  We had dinner over the fire.  I read the kids a chapter from "The Silver Chair."  When it was dark out, Steve pulled out the telescope and we looked at Venus and the moon.

Between story time and telescope time, Paul and Julia took Petra and Nathan on a snipe hunt in our back acre.  I went along to make sure things didn't get out of hand.  Paul broke off, purportedly to scope out a different part of the trail.  Meanwhile, Julia went on at length about how a snipe was a black, flightless bird with a long beak.  As we came to a bend in the trail, Julia said, "Where can Paul be?  We should have caught up with him by now?"

Nathan grabbed my hand as we entered a darker part of the trail.

"There's his sweatshirt in the middle of trail.  Oh NO!  What's happened??"

Just then a black, flightless bird trotted out onto the trail.

Petra and Nathan were surprised, but the suspense hadn't scared them too much.  I think they appreciated the practical joke.  Paul got his sweatshirt back, saying, "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to hide in these bushes."  Then he put the black chicken back in the barn.

The kids didn't sleep well, and by 3:45 am they were all back in their own beds.  We were all a little bit out of sorts the next day, but I think it was not too high a price to pay for a memorable evening.

Math study

How to study fractions:

1. Watch a video with a silly robot learning about fractions
2. Work a couple of problems on a worksheet about fractions
3. Work a couple of fraction questions on an online learning website.  Shade pies.  Find halves and quarters.
4. Let mom make a play-doh snake and divide it in halves and quarters.
5. Run off with the play-doh, divide it into much smaller pieces.  Make a play-doh smiley face.
6. Forget about fractions for a while.

Art class

While home, Petra has been getting assignments for music, P.E., art, and technology classes.  I'm afraid we've allowed several of these assignments to slide.  There is only so much we can keep track of in a day. (If you count the kids' specials teachers, we have been getting notes, instruction, and directions from 21 different teachers, and they all have slightly different ways of communicating what they would like students to do.  Plus I'm still working ~6 hrs per workday.)

One of Petra's art options three weeks ago was to create an illustration that tells a story, much as Normal Rockwell would.  Two weeks ago, the art project was to create a Jackson Pollock style painting.  For the uninitiated, like me, Jackson Pollock was an artist who flung and spattered paint onto his canvases.  

It took me the whole week to work up the energy to set Petra up with a Pollock painting project.  Each day I would say, "We can paint this afternoon," and each afternoon the idea of making that level of mess was too much for me to jump into.

Finally, Saturday afternoon rolled around, and I got out the paint.  We set Petra and Nathan up with paper and paints outside on the driveway.  They each picked three colors to work this, and we dribbled rather than splattered the paint.  

First we Pollock painted our paper.  Then we Pollock painted some of the surrounding rocks.  Finally, we were running to the apron of asphalt running from the road to our driveway and Pollock painted that too.

We are so creative and artistic.

Just a little late

This is a picture of Julia finding the last candy Easter Egg in the house.  Yesterday.  Only 10 days late.

It was hers to find.  Easter morning, there were enough plastic eggs for each child to find a dozen, and Julia found 11.  Her siblings beat her to the easier eggs, I suppose.  None of us could find that last egg.  Easter afternoon, the kids got to hunt for eggs at their grandparents' house.  Guess who came up short that time too?  It was not a stellar time for Julia.

Then Tuesday, while lounging in our guest room "doing her homework," she noticed the last egg on the floor by the fireplace.  VINDICATION!  There was a Cadbury Cream Egg inside too, which made the find all the better.

And here is a picture of Paul today.  We'll say that he is celebrating Earth Day, just a day late.  One of his teachers gave the students an assignment to send in a picture of themselves doing something Earth Day related.  So I made him go out and clean some trash out of the creek.

Paul, Nathan, and I started at the culvert by the road and followed the runoff ditch down the yard, picking up litter as we went.  Deep in the brush at the lower end of the property there is a patch of land, littered with really old beer cans and broken glass.  It looks like it was once a dumping ground for the farm, as well as a spot where guys had a beer party and just dumped stuff.  It has looked like this for decades, but since it is hidden away, we never got around to dealing with it.  Today we cleaned out two grocery bags of junk.

During our explore along the creek, we balanced on stepping stones, found half of a robin's egg, and saw moss blooming, or whatever it does.  I got seeds in my hair and had to comb them out.  Crossing the creek once, Nathan said, "It's time for some parkour."  

Now Paul is trying to persuade me NOT to go back and clean out the tire we found. "It's been there so long now, Mom.  It's part of the ecosystem.  It's growing things."

Me with nose wrinkled, "Yes.  Like mosquitoes."

Thursday in isolation

It was a pretty average day of COVID19 isolation for us.  

I worked for just over an hour in the morning, then at 8, got the kids started on getting dressed and having breakfast.  My goal is to be starting school work about 9am, after the kids have walked the dog and fed the cats.

School work went a little quicker than usual and we were done in the early afternoon today.  I had a teleconference meeting at 10am and another at 3pm today.

Nathan cutting up for a selfie with me, while we work on an online leveled reader for him.

Thursdays are math and science for Paul and Julia, math for Petra, and Nathan had a bunch of little tasks on various subjects.  We just got our educational hotspot from the school so that the competition for our scrappy little internet bandwidth is a little bit relaxed.  It's a little frustrating, because the educational hotspot has blocked certain websites, like YouTube.  But the kids' teachers sometimes use YouTube for content, which is where we have the most struggle for bandwidth.

The kids miss their friends and "normalcy," but this daily routine is beginning to feel more normal (I think.)  Petra has started doing the online Google Meets with her teacher each afternoon, even though she mostly understands the math material.  She likes seeing her friends and showing off her pet rabbit to them.

Today the boys had peanut butter and jelly for lunch, and the girls had baked potatoes with cheese. Each day we have a little outdoor recess after lunch, preferably outside, unless the weather is awful.  Monday the cold, cold wind persuaded me to let the kids play sports video games instead.  Recess today included a running, tackling, wrestling game until I was afraid that one of us was going to get broken.

Petra, tackling me, while Nathan sweeps in to steal my hat

Julia enjoying being outdoors in the sun

Julia realizing that I am taking her picture

The kids were done with their school work early today, which allowed me to get back to work earlier in the afternoon.  Otherwise, I'm struggling to get my 6 hours of work in before 6 in the evening.  Today they walked their Easter baskets back to grandma's house and stayed to watch a movie.

Steve came home and made dinner.   I've discovered that he's a lot more comfortable with making meals if I plan things that don't require the cook to make up the recipe as they go along.  

After dinner tonight we had game time rather than TV time.  Steve has been playing Dungeons and Dragons with the kids.  It has led to Steve talking in a sort-of Scottish accent as a dwarf cleric and interesting discussions like this - 

Paul: Vive le Revolution!

Mom: Wait, you're a bunch of wondering adventurers.  What's your motivation for starting a revolution?

Julia: It was on Paul's bucket list.

The family had time for DnD after dinner

Frost

It was freezing out this morning.

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower,

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

Easter Morning Egg Hunt

Happy Easter!

We are greatly blessed and deeply thankful to our Lord and Savior.

Egg coloring

The plan had originally been that we would be on our way home from Florida on Good Friday. I hadn't thought through how we would celebrate Easter yet.  But plans changed, and we did our egg coloring on Good Friday like we do most years.

Twelve eggs were not quite enough for these guys.  A couple of the raw eggs from the fridge were colored too before we were done.  I might have had to spin a few of them to verify whether they had been hard boiled yet or not.

It’s just a t-shirt

We got PJ this t-shirt because we thought it was funny.  We didn't intend for it to be prophetic.

Distance Extra Curricular Activities

Our home has been using the internet almost continually here lately.  I'm working remotely, the kids are doing online schooling, and now some of our after school activities are going to online instruction.

Petra is taking lessons over a Facebook live streaming application with her teacher, Miss Barb.  This lesson mode might go on through July because Miss Barb is at high risk to COVID19

Our tae kwon do school has started offering live stream and recorded lessons.  Here is Nathan working on sit-ups for warm ups.

Nathan and I are grinning for the camera during a scheduled water break

I tried out the first tae kwon do recorded lesson on Tuesday.  I was in a real funk that evening.  The lesson did me good, but it also made me a little sad to know it had come to this.  Exercise helps me work out the kinks and stress of the day.  After the workout, I had a little quiet time reading and napping and then I was ready to act like an adult again.

Violin Practice

Petra was a little put out at the timing of when she had to practice her violin, so she plopped on the kitchen floor to play.  I still enjoyed hearing her work.

Sunday afternoon at home

We took a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Here is Petra, age 10, leading a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

Meanwhile, Julia was chilling on the couch with her phone.

Selfie with Julia

Later in the evening we all watched Rogue 1.  This after watching Solo the day before, and Star Wars Episodes 1, 2 and 3 last weekend.  Can you guess what is on the docket for next weekend?

Home Learning

Nathan made a LEGO dice all by himself.  See 1, 4 & 5?

Friday morning and Paul and Julia were both indulging in some caffeine to help them make it through their studies

Petra sneaking a peak at classmates during a Google Meet session.  Her language arts teacher read them a Story.  Nathan listed in too.

Having sufficient bandwidth for their online learning is a constant problem.  We're muddling through, but we're hoping for an educational hotspot from the school to help ease some of the tension.