Memorial Day

The COVID Diaries, Week 10

Monday

I worked really hard to ruin Isaac's alphabet skills by busting out a set that was missing F. He thought that was so funny that he now sings the alphabet song without the letter F.  #kindergartenready 

In happier news our little garden plants are doing great. According to the little chart on the seed packets we should already be harvesting the zucchini, but I am just excited to see happy green plants.

The lovely weather was beckoning so we went for a family walk (or forced march depending on your perspective) in the evening.

Tuesday
On Tuesday I got an email inviting us to Rachel's house to celebrate Doug passing one of his cybersecurity exams.  (Oops, was I not supposed to say that?) Also, it was a surprise going away party. As in, we were surprised when we found out he was heading back to VA.  We knew this day would come, we just didn't know it would be so soon. So I asked, or rather bullied, everyone into letting me get some pictures. They aren't the greatest pictures, but they are some of the greatest people (including the guy behind the camera).

Psst. Shhhh. Don't tell my mom this picture is here. She'll be mad.

Thursday
I vacated the premises for the morning and brought the three younger boys to the garden because this was the morning of the big AP World History test for Josh. With many states under Stay-At-Home and social distancing restrictions, the College Board made some pretty drastic changes to the AP exams. Apparently they weren't completely unprepared as they have administered these tests in parts of the US after big natural disasters before. It sounds like the roll-out was a little bumpy, but the planning and good communication really helped. The upshot was that Josh took his test at home on his computer and was allowed to use sources such as his notes, books, and the internet. Also, the test was only 45 minutes long. I felt a little cheated. I told him that we paid $100 for an excruciating, intense three-hour test, so I wanted 2/3 of my money back if the test was going to be that short.

He didn't think I was very funny.

This is also the day that I went rogue.

Yeah, I am crazier than I look.

After 5 torturous weeks of nagging Ben (yeah, unexpected since he isn't at all a trouble kid at school), I decided we are going to do our own thing moving forward. We'll continue with the usual school subjects, but the online format was not working well.

Saturday
Another Saturday, another walk. Rachel is trying to convert her friend to our walking group. And since she came also wearing Hot Chocolate Race gear, I think it is safe to say that she is one of us. Well, one of us from 6 feet away. As a side note, Ben is interested in doing the Hot Chocolate Race again, but he is waiting to see next year's jacket before he wants to commit.

The COVID Diaries, Week 9

It was a strange feeling to have this week start with no construction going on in the house. I still forget that the boys don't have to shower in our bathroom or, well, do anything else in there. It's a relief every time I remember they have a fully functional bathroom. 

During the shared bathroom time Isaac picked a new trick: After one of us brushes his teeth, he now puts his toothbrush and toothpaste under the blankets on Jason's side of the bed.  I haven't decided yet whether or not that means Jason is his favorite. 

Monday

I started some new wifi policies this week. Now both Josh and Michael's devices lose wifi at 9:30pm and it doesn't turn back on until 9am, with exceptions made if they have all of their before school stuff done early. Hasn't happened yet, but I guess there's a chance. Also, wifi turns off between 1:30pm and 4pm because otherwise they just sit in front of their computers all day. Some of the time they are doing school work and some of the time they are chatting with friends - both important but so are real-life human interaction and moving their bodies around. I am going to tell you that these wifi policies are not incredibly popular with the teen crowd, but luckily I did not become a parent to be popular.  Well, lucky for me, not so much for them.

Tuesday

Ben had his yearly check-up and this time he scored some awesome immunizations and a popsicle. They even let him take off his mask to eat the popsicle. He is still growing and gaining weight on his own growth curve. He has been wishing of late that his growth curve was in a higher percentile, but none of us can control that. I don't remember how tall his brothers were at his age, but I know they both shot up at 13 so there's still hope. I don't think he dreams of being in the NBA, but I think he'd like to get dishes down from the middle shelf on the kitchen cabinets without having to climb up on the counter.

One of the best purchases I made shortly after the schools closed was a whiteboard. The boys have used it to plan essays, write the number pi, draw pokeballs, and draw mazes. This week we've done a few family games on it. Monday we played hangman (not seen here) and Michael taught us all the word "yoooooooom" - by the traditional rules we were dead and hanged long before we guess that word. Tuesday Jason and I played dots and boxes with the younger two (Josh and Michael were back on their computers after going through withdrawal in the afternoon - see Monday). I strategically sat next to Isaac who thought giving me opportunities to make a box was great fun, much to Ben's chagrin.

The final scores are a testament to Jason's strategic abilities and my knowledge of my children. Poor Ben.

Wednesday
One of Ben's assignments this week is to make a Rube Goldberg machine. If you don't know what that is, just think about Doc's house at the beginning of Back to the Future....or go to YouTube where there are scads of cool videos. Pretty much everyone thinks this is the coolest assignment...except Ben. I think it is a little overwhelming to get started so I had him gather a bunch of items from around the house that he felt had some potential so he could get inspired.

In the meantime, I found yet another activity for Isaac that involved toilet paper rolls. This time we made constellation projectors. Not sure if he grasps the idea of constellations (not surprising I guess for a kid who lives in a place where we don't get to see the stars for a significant amount of the year), but he was excited to take them into the bathroom with a flashlight. He was confused about how the constellation for Pegasus is supposed to be a flying horse.  I know, buddy. I know.

Another evening of whiteboard fun. Jason showed off his drawing skills and then Isaac drew a picture of Jason.

By way of interpretation, Jason's smile goes all the up to his unibrow and the shorter lines Isaac is drawing in this picture are Jason's freckles.

Thursday
It was time to get out and get some exercise. I realized that the littlest man probably gets the least since he rides in a trailer for our bike rides and doesn't go to swim classes anymore. So we went for a walk.

It turned out to be a much, much longer walk than I expected. The distance is what I had planned, but the time, well that was something else. This little guy takes the admonition to stop and smell the roses (well, any flower really and worms and dead worms and birds and chunks of paint on the pavement) quite seriously. So seriously that I had to hurry him along the last part because I had to pee. Small children generally have no respect for their parent's bladder.

It took us 70 minutes to do a walk it takes me and Ben 40 minutes to do.

Though it took us longer than expected, Isaac seemed to enjoy our adventure and his endless commentary provided a hilarious look into the workings of his mind. Little flowers are baby flowers and they are sooooooo cute! Worms are nice.

There was some drama, a lot of stress, and a few cookies eaten before Ben's Rube Goldberg machine was finished Thursday evening (due Friday so he was cutting it close). For a while there were strings and dominoes all over the dining room and kitchen as Ben's grandiose ideas got away from him. When Jason the mechanical wonder dad helped out Thursday evening, he brought order to chaos and Ben was able to pare down his ideas to a working machine all (well, mostly) on the table.

As ever, Ben was very strategic and designed a machine to bring him a cookie. Which meant that, poor child, he had to eat a couple before the design was complete and a good video of it was taken.

Friday
I took a kid with me grocery store for the first time in NINE weeks. I hadn't planned on doing it, but I had a small face mask in my bag and dropping him at home in the middle of my errands didn't make a lot of sense so I took him to Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's has definitely been diligent about safe practices for customers and employees from the beginning, so it was not a huge surprise that there was a line going down the side walk and around the side of the building of people standing 6 feet apart waiting their turn to go in (only 30 shoppers at a time). But I wasn't exactly thrilled about it either. Luckily, it gave us some extra time to work on getting Isaac's mask on just right. It was his first time wearing it and he could hardly wait for me to put it on him. He really did very well with it, but I couldn't get him to stop touching the front of it while it was on.

If the public schools make wearing a mask mandatory may whatever gods they believe in have mercy on their souls. No one deserves the chaos that is trying to get a class of kindergartners to wear masks properly.

Saturday
We decided to mix up our Saturday walk a little bit and walk to the garden instead of to Rachel's house (and all the goodies therein) and then home. (Rachel did bring a couple of small Snickers to that Ben wouldn't feel completely deprived.) It's 4.5 miles there and we arranged for Mom to meet us there. Ben was more than happy to get a ride home. But I had planned to walk back home too and Rachel decided to join me.

It was a total of 9 miles. She probably would have eaten breakfast (and not just a couple snack size Snickers) if she'd known what was in her future.

The garden is a mixed bag. The one bed with carrots and peas has been making very little progress lately.

On the other hand, we replanted the second bed after giving up on the cucumbers and broccoli and now the purple beans, peas, and carrots seem to be doing great.

All I know is we are going to end up with a LOT of peas and carrots this summer.

The COVID Diaries, Week 8

Monday

On Sunday we did a repeat art project and made more window clings. So Ben and Isaac were very excited to put them up Monday morning. We learned a few things from our first time around - the colors like to bleed and the sun bleaches some of the colors out sooner than others. Jason joined us and created a beautiful bird and a peace symbol. Ben went to his math roots and went for pi. He has memorized something like 67 digits of pi and is still working on it. 

Ben has been struggling to be motivated to do schoolwork so we went on a field trip in the morning. I texted his friend's mom and asked her to keep him busy while Ben, Isaac, and I made some chalk art in his driveway. It's difficult not seeing friends and play soccer.

Our bathroom renovation continued this week. It was the last week so we were able to see exciting progress almost every day.

Tuesday
Another bike ride to the garden where I had to come to terms with the fact that one of the beds just wasn't going to grow...anything. My friend dropped off some purple string bean seeds so we planted some of those and more carrots and peas.

Slow but steady on the other bed.

A quick stop off at Aunt Rachel's house on the way home. Hopefully she doesn't mind these little invasions during her work-at-home day.

Wednesday
Paint and floor! Since we couldn't find any bathroom paint in our garage collection of buckets-of-paints-that-came-with-the-house, we had an excuse to get it painted in a new color. A trip to Lowe's and we had a lovely light blue for the painters to use on the walls and ceiling. I love it!

By the end of the day we had vinyl flooring (new!) and vanity (new top!) put in.

Wednesday evening is also when an unexpected but always welcome visitor arrived! Uncle Doug!

Thursday
Uncle Doug made us a lovely fajita dinner. Then jet lag caught up to him and the rest of us played Uno Flip. Also there was some arm wrestling during which Jason schooled the older boys.....

....and was vanquished by Isaac.

And the bathroom was soooo close to being done I could almost hear the boys using their own shower instead of mine.

Friday
The state parks had opened up at the beginning of the week, but we opted to wait until later in the week to avoid the hiking-starved crowds. We headed to Mima Mounds ever hopeful that we'll make it there during the peak of spring flowers. I can't decide if our expectations are too high or if missing the peak of spring flowers will be our new thing (sorry missing the peak of fall in Shenandoah). There were some pretty flowers, but it wasn't as stunning I was hoping.

And this time "we" included Doug! In case you are wondering who is my mom's favorite child, check out who she is allowing to take MULTIPLE pictures of her with him.

Just saying. ;)

Also, do these mounds look like they are covered in wild flowers? Yeah, didn't think so.

Saturday

Our marvelous contractor and his crew finished the bathroom on Friday, but we waited until absolutely all the paint was dry before putting up the curtain and rod. We are going to paint the vanity white, but otherwise the room is looking great. Silver lining to cost and mess of unexpected house damage during a pandemic.

And I am supposed to record the following for posterity:
--Isaac was the first to pee in the new potty
--Michael was the first to poop in the new potty
--Michael was the first to take a shower in the new bathroom

Ben and I continued our Saturday morning walk tradition sans Rachel (something about drill...likely story!). We stopped off at Rachel's house though to raid the candy currently residing in her kitchen.

We saw several bunnies and scads of flowers on our walk. Sadly only the latter hung around for pictures.

This weekend is turning out to be a little taste of summer weather and I have to say I'm okay with the rain and cooler temps coming next week. It is exciting to have the ability to get and hike, but I am not ready for us all to be home (still) in the heat.

The COVID Diaries, Week 7

Monday

If your bathroom doesn't look like this, are you even doing this pandemic right?  Just a question to think about.

Right, so at the beginning of the week the bathroom didn't look like much. Luckily, one contractor and one plumber and two painters later it improved quite a bit by the end of the week.

Random Facebook post inspired a craft project. That and the crazy amount of toilet paper rolls we've accumulated. We actually save them to make fire starters, which is not so weird. But we just kept on saving them long after we had enough for a summer of camping, so then it got weird. But then I saw this project and I knew we were back to being cool again.

A bag full of markers and the shoe box kept Isaac busy while I meticulously removed every last scrap of TP from the rolls.

Which is just about as fun as you'd image it would be.

A couple of glue sticks later and we have a car garage.

 Later in the afternoon I did some weeding and planting. Two upsides - kids left me alone out of fear of getting roped into it and the lilac bushes a friend gave me might actually survive. Might. Setting my expectations low.

Wednesday
There was a lot of banging and sawing and just noise, but by the end of the day we had a new bathtub.  Super exciting.

Saturday
Keeping the tradition of our running/walking/whatever group alive! The weather wasn't great when we started.

But Ben was determined to make it to Aunt Rachel's house because there was a crazy rumor spreading about a lemon meringue pie. Usually we take a chocolate break at her house, but he was willing to change things up for lemon.

And lemon it was.

Mouth puckering lemon.

It turns out she used ONE MORE CUP OF LEMON JUICE than the recipe called for. She is going to try redeem herself next week.

The skies were grey and foreboding, but Ben was insistent that we finish our walk. We did so. And it took days for our shoes to dry out.

Ben may not get to make any more walking decisions for us for a while.

April on Facebook

While I am incredibly grateful for the size home we live in now, for the past 6 weeks the house seems to be getting smaller every week. 😆 Anyone else experiencing the same phenomenon?

There's something both frustrating and reassuring about the fact that no matter how much I weed, there will be more to pull tomorrow.

Michael: Dad, I feel like in the future doctors will find out that vegetables are as bad as smoking. Farmers are just paying doctors to say vegetables are healthy.

In case you're wondering how we're doing: the trampoline is covered in pollen and 5 out of the 6 of us are on claritin.

Only 3 of us have seasonal allergies.

Sometimes a superhero is a mysterious recluse who drives a batmobile to save Gotham City. And sometimes a superhero is your Aunt Rachel who drives a small blue car to rescue you when you get heat exhaustion 5 miles from home on a bike ride.

September 14th. Promises were made. Isaac IS going to elementary school. September 14th

God bless the teachers, staff, and administrators in our school district. They all kept posting and emailing that they missed their students, but I guarantee they didn't miss my kids as much as I missed all school employees for the last 4 weeks.

We have now spent how-you-chew-your-food-really-irritates-me days together.

If your children have spent the last 3.5 weeks growing closer and creating beautiful memories to last them a lifetime, I salute you.

If you've spent the last 3.5 weeks wondering how the Lord of the Flies/survival of the fittest scenario your children play out daily is going to end, I see you.

Musician arguments (trying to tune Ben's cello):

Ben: Your (electronic) piano is flat, Michael!
Michael: You don't know what notes you're playing, Ben!!

Ben: Can you hand me my rosin?
Michael: Stop making up words!

Ben: I just thought 5 year olds would be more logical. 🤔

For some, sewing is therapeutic and a creative outlet.

For me, it's more of a post-apocalyptic battle of woman versus machine and the machine usually wins.

Trying to plan for alternatives to hand shaking for the long term. Some options:
A) Vulcan salute
B) Buddhist Anjali Mudra
C) Japanese Ojigi

Any one have another idea?

Anyone else think there's going to be an America's Funniest Home Videos: Covid19 Zoom Meetings edition? 😆

Me: We need to be careful because COVID19 can be especially dangerous for people over 60 years old.

Boys: Good thing Nana is only 29!

Pandemic Pro Tips for Parents

1. When everyone else is stocking up on (insert random item here), stock up on your favorite treat. Then have someone in your house hide it all (preferably someone who can't eat it or doesn't like it) and supply you only on rough days. Kind of like the energy stations at a race - you're going to need your happy food to keep you going every once in a while.

2. If you haven't already, now is the time to delegate chores to the kids. Now more chores. Seriously. Whatever work there is normally to do in your house, there will be so. much. more. when you're all home all the time.

3. Regular times are for dieting. Pandemic times are for putting on your Covid 19 (pounds). Plus, if we all put on 19 lbs then it maintains balance in the universe. Otherwise the rotation of the earth will be seriously off-kilter and the climate will warm up at an unprecedented rate. Oh, wait....

4. Need some time away from the kids? Develop a hobby they hate. For example, I've started working on the yard a bit. The kids hate doing yard work so now all of a sudden the people who will follow me to the bathroom or wake me from a power nap stay far, far away for hours if coming near me means being conscripted into the cause of weeding. Voila! Alone time.

5. "Eating take out" may feel like splurging, but "supporting local businesses" is helping your community.

6. Start everyone in the house on allergy meds. It will save you a lot of unnecessary worry if your pandemic comes with some respiratory symptoms. It will save you even more unnecessary worry if epic amounts of pollen are falling from the sky and flying in your face when you walk and bike.

7. Buy a bike helmet. If you already have one, buy one and donate it to one of the teeming masses who are spending their newly found free time biking with bare, unprotected heads on local trails. If the pandemic doesn't get them, a head injury probably will.

8. Try as best as you can not to need emergency home renovations. I'm sure a pandemic is less stressful without one, but I can't speak from experience.

9. If there is ANY chance everything will be closed down, make a RUN on the library and check out a bunch of fun stuff and RETURN any super irritating kid DVD's that might get stranded at your house when the library stops taking returns.

10. You do you. If learning new skills makes you happy, do that. If binge-watching old TV shows makes you happy, do that. Just remember the goal is for everyone to be healthy and still like each other when life reaches its new normal.

Down and Dirty Tips:
11. Put everyone on an ear hygiene schedule. Trust me, you'll thank me when your child urgently needs to use your bluetooth earbuds for a class video chat RIGHT AWAY.

12. Is it crazy if everyone stock piles toilet paper? Yes. But if you don't buy some right away too it may be 5 weeks before you can get some more. And everyone is home. All the time. If you think you have enough, you don't.