April/May 2020 - Quarantine Life

School was originally supposed to start back up after Spring Break.  Not so much.  We were all home, schools closed, offices closed, church clothes.  No play dates.  Not much of anything except trying to figure out how to do all of the stuff we usually do, but just trying to do it from home.

There were a few things we did to keep ourselves busy.  Cora was pretty bored a lot of the time, and wanted some sidewalk chalk.  Amazingly I found some at the store, and one sunny day in April we decided to draw a big Easter bunny on the driveway (you can't really tell from this picture, but this Easter Bunny is like 6 feet tall and used up 3 full pieces of pink chalk).

Now my chalk juices were flowing and I decided to write some messages on the sidewalk.

I may have gotten carried away.

While working from home, we suddenly had to have all of our meetings virtually.  "Zoom" became a very familiar word.  We had some fun with filters and backgrounds...here is an example of a meeting where masks suddenly became a thing (not the masks we would all soon become familiar with, but actual masks).  I work with weirdos.

Loki and Olive were NOT sad that everyone was home.  They liked to follow me around, and one day I was sitting in a chair in my bedroom trying to get some stuff done on my laptop, but before too long a couple of black fuzzy things decided to join me on a chair built for one:

Preston had a couple of lock down projects.  First, we needed to redo the deck, including putting the deck supports into some bigger footings.  Preston got a couple of bids he felt were ridiculous, and decided we could do it ourselves (i.e. 90% Preston, 10% me).  I believed him until we had to carry all of these bags of cement into the backyard:

Our across the street neighbors have their own cement mixer (I know, right?) that they let us borrow, and Preston and I became expert cement mixers.  Here he is, finishing it up:

It turned out really well and hasn't fallen down yet.  

Preston, like many others, decided to take the opportunity to become sourdough bread makers.  He got himself a "starter" and nursed it along many a day, and made lots of bread for us:

We decided that the kids were old enough that we didn't really need a "play room" anymore (sad!).  The kids decided they would rather have a "game room" where they could continue their newfound chess traditions and stuff.

Goodbye, crazy colorful playroom (*sniff* *sniff*)!

Hello sophisticated and grown-up game room!

All races were cancelled of course, so I found myself enjoying the trails a lot more, and not worrying about running fast on the roads.  

Olive was happy to come along.  

And Covid or not, birthdays still happen!

Cora turned 11!  She liked to watch baking shows on TV, and made this cake herself!  (Arden was apparently in a picture-bombing mood this day)

Cora with her birthday lamb (and Arden's disembodied head!)

Dax's birthday was in May, he turned 12!  He is ginormous!

Cora decided she wanted to make his cake also, but she wanted to try out fondant.  Dax requested a Star Wars cake, and here is what she delivered (I did the writing, but the rest was all Cora):

She figured out that fondant isn't as easy as they make it look on TV, but it was not bad for a first attempt!

School at home was...a challenge.  I would usually help Dax and Cora in the mornings (while Arden slept innnnn), while also trying to get some of my own work done.  Here we are, working away in the play- oops, I mean game room (Diet Coke is an essentially part of helping with home schooling):

I could usually be done helping the little kids by early afternoon, at which point Arden would decide to join the land of the living.  After an hour or two of trying to get some solid work of my own in, I would Arden out with her homework in the evenings.  It made for LOooNG days for me, but somehow we all survived.

The kids really missed their friends!  After a couple of months of seeing only their family, I decided it would be okay to go play outside at a park with some friends.  Even though they were getting a little old for playgrounds, they had the place to themselves and had so much fun!  It felt so nice to sit and talk with a friend while the kids played  Friends are so important, not only for kids but even for moms, right??

I was a super happy mom when they decided that no new assignments would be made the last official week of school.  We were all at the ends of our home-schooling ropes!   

At least now we could stay home together all day and fight about things other than homework.  Bring on summer!