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.

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.

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

Happy Easter!

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

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.

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?

Clothing struggles

Keeping the kids clothed in stuff that fits is an ongoing struggle.  They keep growing.  The kids, I mean. Not the clothes.  Unless you count the bathing suits that stretch out from chlorine water exposure, but that's another problem.

Last night I sent Nathan with money to buy a new taekwondo uniform.  He looks so nice now in the new one.  He can bend over to touch his toes without showing off his underwear.

A couple of weeks ago I had to make an "emergency" run to Goodwill to replace Paul's shorts, which were getting a little too form-fitting.  We picked up 4 pairs so he could make it through a week of school without having to do laundry for shorts.  He wore one of the pairs this week for picture day.

I, on the other hand, haven't outgrown anything since 1992.  Several years ago, I bought a pair of blue jeans from Goodwill.  When I got them home, I realized they were missing the button, so I found an appropriate sized replacement button and sewed it on.  Since then the jeans had been patched in both knees (by my mother-in-law), had started tearing at the patches, and finally had been cut-off into shorts for me (by my mother-in-law).  The seams have started to fray, and there is a small hole above one of the back pockets.  Yesterday I came home from running errands and realized the button had fallen off somewhere. 

Steve says it's time to let them go.

Family Gig

The band Steve is in had a gig at a community event last Friday.  He played early enough in the evening, that I brought the whole family out for the first set.  I got some pictures of the kids playing with giant Jenga sets.  If you zoom in, you can see Steve on his bass in the background.

In sun and rain

When I got home from work on Friday, it was 50s and sunny, and my children were all inside playing on computers or hand held devices.  Before even saying, "hello," I told them that they could either go outside and play or do some chores.

They all ran outside.

Julia climbed on this and that, and asked about getting a ladder out so she could climb on the roof of the garage.  They took turns on the swings.  Nathan and Petra explored our spring runoff.

Paul decided that he would like to earn some money.  He and Steve had made an agreement that if Paul shoveled out a clearer main channel into the meandering marsh that our spring runoff has become, that Steve would pay him a certain dollar amount per wagon load of dirt he moved.  About halfway through the first wagon load, he and Steve negotiated a slightly higher dollar rate. 

They all got some badly needed outside time.

Saterday it rained, so Paul did not continue working on the creek.  Instead we agreed that it would be worth $10 to us for Paul to shovel out the section of the chicken coop that we use for young chickens.  He did it, and Steve and I were pleasantly surprised by how efficiently he worked without us even checking in on him a dozen times.  He's getting so big and mature, at least in spurts.

Steve also took Paul shopping for muck boots to help with further work on the creek.  (The boots are enormous.)  While Steve was talking over taking Paul shopping for boots and hitting Home Depot, Julia gave him a hard time.
"Wait a minute!  You're going shoe shopping?  In a store?"  (Steve dislikes shoe shopping and especially dislikes doing it in a brick and mortar store.)
"For muck boots."
"But it's SHOE shopping."
"For muck boots."
"Those are still basically shoes. From a store."
"But they have the word MUCK in the name.  I also want to swing by Home Depot to get the right socket piece to fix the light fixture in the dining room."
To which Julia said, "See I told you to get the porcelain one!  NUMBER 7!"
I looked at Steve quizzically.  He explained, "She thought I should get the porcelain the last time we were there, because she knows that porcelain is #7 on Moh's hardness scale.  Julia, you are fount of random knowledge."

While my older guys were out shopping, Petra played with Nathan and read to him.

Julia helped me make a "Caramel Apple Casserole" for breakfast for Sunday.  She helped core and chop the apples. It was good knife practice for her and it was good for me to take a breath and remember being that slow at cutting apples.

Julia chopping apples

Steve fixing the light - it only took 3 trips to the hardware store

Extra hashbrowns with that, please

Today I had to have some blood drawn, and because of bad scheduling on my part, my appointment wasn't until 10 in the morning.  They usually ask me to fast for this, and I hate missing breakfast.  It makes me sad, and cranky, and tired in the head.

Right after the appointment, Nathan and I went to McDonalds so I could make up for losing time on my favorite meal of the day.  Because Nathan can be a finicky eater, and he had just had breakfast a couple of hours before, I wasn't sure if I should get him much.  I ended up ordering 2 sausage McGriddle sandwiches (the bun is made up of syrup infused mini-pancakes), one hashbrown, juice (for Nathan) and coffee for me.  I figured that if he wasn't good for his sandwich that I hungry enough to eat two of them.

He was good for the sandwich.  What is more, he tried the hashbrown and asked for one of his own.  Halfway through our meal, I went back to the counter to order more food, because he and I were both hungrier than I had anticipated.

After he polished of a respectable meal (I did too), we did our grocery shopping.  As I finished unloading the car at home, I heard Nathan upstairs singing at the top of his lungs a song by Sandra Boynton.  "I NEED A NAP!  I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE..."

Monuments

A friend from Kansas sent me this picture from her drivings around and suggested that our farm needed one of these.

Who doesn't need a 15' metal rooster in their garden?

 Steve and both declined.

So I sent her a picture of my windowsill at work and explained that these monuments were really as much as I needed. 

This might be as close as I get to Paris

Although, the rooster could be fun if it were part of a climbing set with a secret club house in the body and maybe a slide down the back.

Civil Engineering on a Snow Day

Yesterday was MLK day and the kids and I had off.  The alarm rang in the morning for Steve, but when I looked out the window, I couldn't see the road.  "I vote we go back to bed until we hear a snow plow go by."

"Deal."

In the afternoon, I conscripted some forced labor from Paul and Julia to shovel the driveway.  Then they took some time to build a small snow fort.  Petra went out to join them.

Meanwhile, Nathan had a bit of a cough and runny nose, so I didn't encourage him to go outside.  He found his own building materials.

I sent Steve the message:  It's snowing faster than I can shovel.  I got the Jetta back in the garage, and I didn't break anything.  I can't say anything else good about that parking job.

Overheard today

Today we had snow day #3.  The kids are having a little trouble controlling themselves.  There were a few moments of levity, though.  Here are a few things I heard - 

Petra: Mommy what kind of mythical animal do you want to be?

Mom: How about a unicorn?

Petra:  You can be a zebra unicorn.

Mom: Okay, that sounds good.

Petra: You can be a zebra unicorn, and I'll be a zebra unicorn with wings.  A pegasus zebra unicorn.  And nobody can kill us because our hearts are in our horns, and it would burn their hands to grab our horns.  How old do you want to be?  We're both kid unicorns.

Mom: How about 9?

Petra: Okay, you can be 9, and I'll be 8, but I'm only one week younger than you.  We'll live up in a protected meadow in my room.  It's magic so we're safe there.  The wood floor is water with piranhas in it.  But don't worry, they're not aggressive piranhas unless somebody goes after one of their family members. Mom, you're standing in the water.

Mom: Is it okay if I can swim?

Petra: Unicorns can only swim about a 5 out of 10.  But if this is magic water then you are only a 4 out of 10.  But since you grew up in this meadow, and the magic water is a little diluted, you are probably a 6 out of 10 for swimming.

Mom: So I'm okay?

Petra: Yeah, you're okay.  I'm going to get some berries out of the bush.  Julia's bed is the bush.  Pretend I'm flying up there... 

(She rolled with this for about half an hour.  I think she stopped to breath once.)

-------

Meanwhile, Nathan was setting Steve up to play super heroes.  Nathan picked his 3 super powers, and asked Steve to spell them out for him so he could write them down on a piece of paper.  Then Steve had to pick 3 super powers of his own.  This took a while, because Nathan vetoed most of the things Steve picked.

Steve: How about super laundry folding?

Nathan: No.

Steve: How about shooting ice?

Nathan: No, daddy.  That's insta-kill.

Steve: What about laser eyes?

Nathan: No.  Insta-kill.

Steve: Can I have super spelling?

Nathan: Daddy, that's not a super power.

Steve: You say that now, but wait until you grow up.  Okay, how about super baking power?

Nathan: No, Daddy!  That's insta-kill.

Nathan's powers: strength, super jumping, super speed

Dad's powers: talk to animals, flying, invisible

Petra also likes to play.  Apparently the candy cane ropes materialize from nowhere and can tie up your opponent

------

Later in the evening, Paul was rooting around in the cupboard for something to eat.  "Hey, did you know we have sardines!?"  (This was not said with happy excitement.  It was more like incredulity with a hint of distress.)  "It says, 'sardines in mustard sauce.'  Ew.  Hey Julia, if the sardines don't get you, the mustard will!"

What to do in the ice?

The kids had another day off from school on Monday.  So far (Tuesday) we are 3 for 5 on making it to school for 2018.  Monday was a swirling windy mix of snow, rain, and freezing rain.

After hearing that the snow would be melting in earnest soon, the kids bolted outdoors to try to get in some last minute sledding.  After a little sledding in the rain, they discovered that the snow had become a great packing snow and worked together to build a snowman.

After we came inside, and drank some hot chocolate (all before 9:30 a.m.) I wrote up a list of chores for us to work on.  Long lists of chores are a vital part of my snow-day survival tool box because:
1.  Making progress on house messes keeps me from going crazy
2.  Having constructive work to do keeps the kids from making new messes
3.  Having constructive work to do cuts down entitlement attitudes
4.  After finishing a chore, the children slip off and play nicely and quietly together
5.  Because they know that if they start bickering I will find them and give them more chores

Julia and I cleaned out the fridge.  I was inspired in part by hearing some of my friends talking about cleaning their fridges and in part by the mystery liquid on the 3rd shelf.   Julia was a good helper and ended with a new appreciation for how gross a refrigerator can be and how nice it is to have a really clean place to put our food.  I was pleasantly surprised by how little old food I found to put in the garbage.

I set Nathan and Petra to clearing off our dining room table.  I couldn't believe what a good job they did.  I have clearly been underestimating my childrens' capabilities in the paper organization area.

Paul had to fold the dreaded whites load.  Poor guy.

In the afternoon we took it easy with a movie.

After supper Steve had to leave for a meeting, and Paul had to go out and close up the chickens.  Paul came back reporting that the driveway was even slipperier than it had been in the morning.  There was really only one thing to do.  We put on our coats, pulled out the sleds, and slid down the wet, icy driveway in the dark.  Crazy and fun.

What to do in the cold?

It would have been a perfectly good day to curl up with a book.  The morning started at -6°F.  I think we would have been perfectly justified in curling up by the fireplace with some good reading and hot tea.

We did start off the day with a slew of housekeeping chores.  Sort the laundry, clean the bathrooms, dust some ceiling fans.  But the afternoon was open, and I wanted the kids to get outside.  These children needed wearing out. With a high today of 16°F, I didn't figure we would last outside more than 15 minutes, but anything was better than nothing. 

We went out to sled in the yard before the snow started melting next week.  To my surprise, half an hour passed and nobody was complaining of cold.  And as I watched my children run up and down the tiny slope in our yard and urge their sleds to go further and further, and I saw how big my little children are, I regretted not driving out to a real hill. 

On the spur of the moment, Steve and I bundled them into the car with our sleds and we drove over to the Petra's elementary school.  We picked a slope that was maybe 20 feet top to bottom and steep enough to sled freely without being so steep as to be scary to Nathan or Petra.  We all sledded over and over and over again.

Steve gave everybody (including me) turns riding down on his back while he lay on his belly on a sled.  Nathan sledded in my lap several times and then started going solo.  Paul sledded until most of his face was bright red from the cold.  Julia rode down twice while standing on a "snow scooter."  She kept her balance the whole way down.  The same could not be said of me when I tried it.

The hill ended in a parking lot, and there was a bank of snow clods between the hill and the asphalt.  We slid up to, into, and sometimes over the bank.  Our sledding ended about the time the kids started having a snow clod fight.

I kind of wish I had pictures of Petra spinning on the round snow disk, or Nathan lying down with his scarf trailing behind him. 

But I was too busy having fun.

Winter coat shopping

Dear Steve,

I think that I should not be allowed to shop for winter coats for the kids anymore. 

Nathan's old winter coat was a size 3 and he now has a size 5 self.  Before we went out shopping I looked in the closet and found two boys coats: one size 7/8 and on 8/10. Too big. And Nathan didn't like the 7/8 coat.  It was the wrong shade of green.

But when we got to the store, I picked out size a 7/8 because I wanted him to grow into it.  Because my brain does not work properly in stores.  And if that weren't bad enough I got him 2 different size 7/8 coats. It made sense to me at the time. 

I don't think that this is the first time that I have extravagantly messed up a coat purchase.  I hereby abdicate coat and shoe shopping to you. 

I was going to recommend that we, by which I mean you, return one of the two size 7/8 coats and maybe pickup a coat for Paul that is heavy enough for his upcoming scout camp out.  Maybe something in a size 16.

Nathan really likes the reversible hat that came with his gigantic new redundant coat.

Love,
Sarah

At the park

Let's pretend

One of Nathan's favorite things to say lately has been, "Let's play we're pretend superheroes."  Today he was Brick Man, and I was Tree Woman.  He suggested that Maggie could be Wind Dog, and I thought that seemed appropriate.

This morning Petra and I pretended to be birds while she waited for the bus.  She did not like my idea of Andes Condor because she doesn't know them, but instead suggested we be barn swallows.  So we swooped and flapped and dived for a while until the bus came.

Nathan and I spent some time at the YMCA today.  In the block room we were approached by a little girl on hands and knees who was meowing.  She didn't really jive with Nathan's vision to build structures to roll balls down, so he walked off.  I asked her what kind of kitty she was.  This is always a winning question.  "I'm a kitty with white legs, and I have rainbow fur, and I have wings, and they are brown when they're folded, but when they open up they're..."
Yeah, I remember being that girl.

Nathan and I were dragons while we waited for the afternoon bus to pick him up.  I was a fire dragon with red wings, and Nathan was an ice dragon with blue wings.  He iced some cream and eggs into ice cream for us.  He made it snow and we sledded down the bank of the driveway.  He froze my nose, but of course I could melt it because I had fire breath.  He caught the melt off in his imaginary cup and drank it.  Mmmm... fresh nose water.

Some thoughts on delegating work -

I think I spent about 2 hours this morning delegating 2 hours worth of work to the students working in our lab.  I don't know that I'm going to call this one a win.

My biggest problem with delegating effectively is trying to be organized enough to know what tasks can be delegated.

The second problem, of course, is providing the explanation or training required to have the work done properly.  (Which is not even to say exactly the way I would do it.) The up front time investment usually takes a while to pay off.  At home, I am starting see that my workload is actually LESS when I ask the kids for help. 

For example, yesterday Paul hung two and a half loads of laundry out on the line for me.  Shortly after he had hung up the first load, I glanced outside to see some towels, shorts, underwear, and a single Bounce dryer sheet pinned to the line.  What a good little helper.