The COVID Diaries, Week 11

Monday

I've got another post on Memorial Day with pictures of the monuments and such, but here are a few other pictures I took at the state capital. 

I love rhododendrons. Gorgeous and so many beautiful colors.

Tuesday
Ben and I started our week of School With Mom. I went rogue the week before and decided to take over Ben's school education for the last three weeks as the daily nagging was tortuous. I decided to start with some Lewis and Clark. We did some research on the dimensions of their barge just so we could appreciate the close quarters early American adventurers subjected themselves to. While we were at it, we measured out the Mayflower, Santa Maria, and Victoria. Then we measured our minivan as it was the vessel of our own cross country adventure.

All of that was partly an attempt to distract Ben from the tooth extraction scheduled that afternoon. Ben had a collection of 7 baby teeth that were fairly attached to him in spite of the adult teeth that have already made an appearance. Ben is intensely opposed to change in his mouth. The impending threat of a needle in the mouth scared 4 of them out, but 3 remained.

The process was traumatic for everyone involved and at one point I thought that Ben was going to puke. Which is, I am sure, ideal for an office already dealing with Covid19 sterilization procedures. In the end, many pep talks about bravery, a substantial bribe (a blizzard and 2 hours of Wii time on a school day), and threats of an inevitable visit later his mouth was numbed, injected, and the teeth extracted. After all of that he had a numb mouth which was fun to poke and a funny smile.

Wednesday
Ben and I worked on writing up a lab report for a science experiment. I brought out my chemistry lab book and tried to trick him into doing some writing.

Ben did an experiment to see what should and shouldn't be flushed down the toilet. I sent him into my bathroom to collect items that he thought people might flush. He brought down toilet paper, cotton balls, band-aid, kleenex, q-tips, baby wipes, paper towels. One at a time, he put them in a jar with water and stirred for one minute to simulate the flushing action.  The results were expected but still interesting.

This was also Josh's birthday, but that is for another post.

Friday
As part of my educational rebellion, I forced my kids to play hooky and go on a hike. They weren't super thrilled at the start, but a beautiful day and the chance to throw some rocks in the water improved their spirits.

Saturday
We woke in the morning to the uncommon sound of booming thunder. Thunderstorms are quite rare here and in the morning more so. Seemed like not a great time to go for our weekly walk. Also, the NASA/SpaceX launch was scheduled for a little after noon. So we didn't make it out to the trail until later in the afternoon in an attempt to dodge the frequent rainstorms predicted all day. We did get in the first half in just a light drizzle, but wussed out when it was time to head back and had Mom drive us home.