Going Live

It's a rainy day here...the girls were all snuggled on the mattress.  I enjoyed a cup of hot tea on the porch while the rain came down...so very peaceful. The girls slept until almost 9!!

Caroline's science teacher loved her hands on learning so much that she asked Caroline to do a live demonstration for her class.  She did so well with the first one, she asked her to also do the afternoon session.  I loved watching her do her thing in the kitchen.  She was so comfort showing off her cooking skills and was able to answer questions like why did she mix dry ingredients in a bowl vs her mixer?  It was a fun day for her!! 

We have lots of yummy cookies in our house...the neighbors are super thankful for the yummy goodness! :-)

eLearning isn't soo bad...

The girls have started sleeping in the den on the air mattress.  I thought they looked so adorable this morning!

This week in science, Caroline is studying chemical and physical changes.  She had to create s'mores, with a twist, to demonstrate this. She decided to bake chocolate chip cookies to use for the graham cracker cookie and chocolate.

Once she finished, we asked Daddy to set up the fire pit for us to roast marshmallows.  This might be our favorite day of eLearning yet!

Tuesday Fun

My front porch has become one of my favorite places!!  I enjoy a cup of hot tea, some time with the Lord and a few minutes of quiet before the day begins.  I am extremely grateful for the gorgeous weather we have had.  The cool mornings truly feel like spring weather...the birds have been singing so sweetly!

Maggie prefers to do her school work in her fort with a flashlight...I say whatever works!

Caroline changes spots daily...her chair, her desk, Daddy's chair, the kitchen table, etc.

Maggie came in the den today packed and ready.  She looked at us and said "Bye, I'm leaving.  I'm going to live with Matt and Avin cause they are nice people."  And out the door she went.  I took a picture and told her they weren't home so she turned around and came back in.  Bless her heart!

What a Monday powerwashing

Today while on our mid day walk, the wheel came off of Maggie's stroller.  She has officially walked the wheels off!  While she looks heartbroken in the picture, she thought it was funny to push her babies like this on the way home.

Once Andy got home, we began working on power washing the house.  This is one of my favorite yearly chores.  (Andy might disagree.)  It takes a few hours and instantly the house looks amazing.  After dinner, we took a quick field trip to the local car wash to clean the dried bird eggs off my van.  (I washed it yesterday and today a birds nest fell from the tree and they all cracked...so sad.)  On the way back, we wanted to admire our work.  We went down the street, made a u turn and headed towards the back of the house.  The only problem was the passenger tire met the storm drain and blew immediately.  No fun at 7 PM.  But we can always find something to be thankful for in difficult situations.

• I am thankful for a husband who knows how to change a tire.
• I am thankful for a neighbor (who is also a cousin) who offers to help.
• I am thankful for a brother who found a tutorial on YouTube to help find the spare tire.  (It is in the most odd place ever!!!)
• I am thankful for a friend who owns the local service shop who took my phone call after hours to make sure he had the tire I needed the next day.

This is definitely NOT the way I wanted to end today but we have SO much to be thankful for!

 

Weekend Fun

Caroline helped Maggie with school work a few days ago.  Maggie decided she liked her substitute teacher and actually prefers sub Caroline vs. Mom.  I am 100% ok with that! :-)

Maggie was "moving" to the tree house on Saturday.  This is how she prepared for her move.

On Sunday's Andy has been going early to set up for drive in church.  The kids have learned if they go early with their dad's, they can line up beside each other and chat for the 45 minutes before church starts.  It has become the highlight of Caroline's week to see her friends face to face, even from a distance.

We ended this weekend with a stroll around the neighborhood.  We do that a lot these days.  Earlier today while playing outside, Caroline thought it would be fun to race the neighbor to the end of the cul-de-sac, twirling as they went.  B got close to catching up with her and she decided to run/twist to the finish line.  It didn't end well...she took out both knees.  For those of you who know me well, you know I don't handle blood all that well.  But I am proud to say that we got it all nice and cleaned up.  So anyway, when it came time for us to go for our walk, she said her knees hurt and I am sure they did.  So we got the wagon out and Andy pulled her through the neighborhood.  We both left our phones at home and I was sad that I didn't think to get a picture.  It was so sweet!!  I told Andy that although he thought he had pulled her one last time, he got another opportunity. :-)

A fun day!

 Today was mixed up day for Mr. X with Maggie's 5K class.  They had a virtual class meeting to show off their mixed up day.  Maggie struggled at first to figure out what to wear but it came together nicely.  She especially loved her unicorn hair.  I am so thankful for all that her teacher is doing to make this time as much fun as possible.

 Last night Maggie 'sprained her wrist' while playing with Andy and Caroline.  Except it wasn't her arm...it was on her foot an was actually her ankle.  Good time to point out the difference.  Today she used her tights to provide a brace for her ankle.

 A few weeks ago the girls placed seeds in a ziploc bag with a paper towel to provide moisture.  We have watched them grow.  We knew it was time to plant them before their got moldy and died.  So the girls planted them this afternoon.  We shall see what happens from here. :-)

Tough day...we knew it was coming

Today was the day...the day we knew was most likely coming but deep down we had hoped for a different outcome.  School buildings are officially closed for the remainder of the school year.  School is still in session but we won't have the opportunity to really wrap up this school year.  We left our schools on Friday, March 13 thankful that we had survived the time change, a full moon and Friday the 13th all in one week.  Never did we dream we wouldn't return to the classroom this year...if we had known, we would most certainly ended the day differently.  We would have hugged out babies a little longer, we would have had more center time and playtime, we would have enjoyed the day a little more.   Personally, I'm struggling because my baby girl and I had our last day together and I didn't even know it...more on that later...I tell folks this process has been one big ball of grief.  Just when I think I have cried all my tears and I am ok, something else comes up and the tears return.  

So all this to say, today has been an emotional day.  The girls were struggling with attitudes towards each other.  I kindly, maybe a wee bit sarcastically said, "Can't y'all get along for 5 minutes???"  I walked away to do something in my room.  I came back a little later and found this.  Caroline had pulled Maggie's school material and was helping her. Maggie said "Don't worry Mommy, Sissy is helping me with school today."  I wanted to cry again...I feel like I have the tendency to remember the hard struggles of the day-the arguing, the fighting, the yucky attitudes.  But this caused me to stop in my tracks...THIS is what I need to remember.  When it counts, they can work together and they do want to love me well.  

Around 11:30 I received a phone call.  I accidentally overlooked a very important document for our local school distract.  The document was due on April 17 and they hadn't received mine.  They needed it by the end of the day. However, the sooner the better.  So since it was my mistake, I wanted to get it to them.  I had 1 hour to get to the office, print the paperwork, scan it to my email, email it to the district and get home for my virtual staff meeting.  We walked in the door with 5 minutes to spare.  I told the girls to make their lunch and watch tv until I returned.  I set up everything on my front porch.  I joined the meeting 1 minute late...shew.  It was SO good to see everyone's face and hear their voices.  It was good to catch up and hear what has been happening in their lives over the last 6 weeks. We ended our meeting an hour later.  I walked in to the kitchen to find my lunch on the table.  Cue the tears...how thoughtful that they not only made lunch for themselves, they also made lunch for me.  I tend to see my daily failures but today this gave me a little confidence that I must be doing something right. My green chocolate chip pancakes and fresh strawberries were delicious!!

Andy and I did a little yard work.  We had planned to power wash the house but in the last few days, I think there is still pollen in the air.  So we will try again this weekend or wait until early next week.  So I'm calling it a day...I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted! 

Tuesday

Today was a gorgeous day!!!  Caroline finished school around lunch time and we headed out for our mid day mental break.  Caroline took Charlie along for a walk.  Of course, Maggie had to bring Lala with us as well. 

One thing that we have enjoyed since being home is cooking.  The girls and I are trying lots of fun recipes.  Because strawberries are fresh in season right now, we are enjoying ALL things strawberries.  Today we made homemade strawberry cream cheese bread.  It was delicious!!  It made 2 loaves so we shared with neighbors leaving door step delivery's. 

We laughed when we saw this. We forgot, since we aren't out and about these days, that if you put this girl in a car after 3 PM for any length of time, she is going to sleep!  This is good sleep right here!!  We enjoyed supporting our local medical staff at the parade tonight. The girls made a sign this week.  It's a fun activity, were we socially distance ourselves, to support our community.  I am amazed at how many people attend.  This week we had a police escort so it was a fun little parade.  We are thankful for our family and friends who are part of the medical field right now taking care of so many in our community.

It's Monday already...

Week 5 of eLearning and week 6 of being at home.  We are getting the hang of things slowly but surely.  Today we made homemade pizza crust for our pizzas for lunch.  It was SO yummy!  The girls and I are excited to try it again!

Maggie wrapped several gifts for us as well as herself.  She had so much fun.  I got a book I am currently reading, Andy got the remote to the tv, Caroline got some markers and Maggie got a few Shopkins, crayons and a notepad.  Glad she had fun working on hand eye coordination. :-)

Caroline used my Daddy's recipe to make Red Rice.  It was fabulous!!!

Sunday Fun Day

We enjoyed a gorgeous drive in church service this morning.  The message on true repentance was beautiful and it left me pondering, do I seek true repentance or  ask forgiveness to make myself feel better???

We came home and began cutting up fresh strawberries for some homemade strawberry ice cream.  I am so thankful for these little helpers!!  The ice cream was delicious!  Next on the list, strawberry bread!  YUM!

And this little unicorn has officially mastered riding her bike all on her own!!!  She doesn't need any help.  She is SO proud of herself!!  We are too!  Now I will say that she looks like a hot mess...she has lots of scratches and scraps, aka Battle Scars, but she is determined!  She rode around the block earlier.  She pulled in our drive way and said "my legs hurt...I'm done with that!"  Only to pull out minutes later and do it again and again and again!

Freshman year roomies

I came across this 20 year old gem while cleaning...Williston Roomies- look at these ladies, not even 20 yet...heading to the spring BSU banquet and then heading to ADPi Spring Formal...good times right there!

It's finally Friday!

Today I broke out my sewing machine, I found some elastic that I didn't know I had, grabbed some random material and found a mask pattern on the CDC website.  I was pretty proud of myself. I ran to the grocery store for a few items and wore my mask.  I caught myself smiling at people like I typically do only to realize they couldn't see it...boo!  I hated wearing a mask and pray that this isn't our new normal for too too long...

This evening, we enjoyed being outside. After months of working with Maggie, she can finally ride her bike without training wheels.  She needs help to get her balance and to get started but once she starts, shes off!  We are so proud of her!!  I'm sure we will spend lots of time practicing this weekend!

Daddy's Home!

Andy had scheduled to take the week of spring break off with us to camp.  When those plans changed and the craziness at work trying to complete tasks due to COVID 19, he decided to cancel his vacation time off.  Instead, he decided to take today off to be with us.  Thursday's have been really tough for me so I was so thankful to have him at home today. 

Caroline's school has asked for all library books to be returned to be properly cleaned before reselving.  So that was our field trip for today. :-)

We came home, ate lunch and Caroline finished her school work.  Then we headed outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather!!

The girls have LOVED sleeping in their fort every night.  They argue for about the first 5 minutes but then they settle down...it is so precious to watch! :-)  I pray that these are the memories they remember when they get older...

Happy 70th Birthday Granny

Happy 70th birthday to my amazing momma!  We had big plans to celebrate her but COVID-19 had other plans.  So instead, we made her favorite pie and made a list of 70 things we love about our Momma/Granny.  We are so thankful for her...she loves big!  She has a servant heart and is always willing and ready to help others.  We look forward to celebrating her soon!

Welcome to Wednesday

Today we had a school parade.  Parents and students were invited to our drive through carline to pick up school learning packets.  It was so good to see so many sweet faces.  Maggie was thrilled to see her teacher and a few of the letter people friends. 

Later this afternoon, we made yummy strawberry shortcake.  Maggie cut up the strawberries while Caroline make the shortcakes.  This was a yummy dessert for us all!  We are loving this extra time for baking and such.

Tuesday

Today started with curls for Maggie...she slept in curlers last night and was so tickled!  We had to take something to Andy at work and saw this sweet sign!

The girls helped me create a sidewalk obstacle course for me to post for our school website.  They did a great job and enjoyed hours of fun doing the same thing over and over again!

Later this evening, we supported our local medical staff at a parade.  It was really neat to see so many in our community support our health care employees.

On the way home, we saw this beautiful sunset.  A beautiful reminder that the God who created this gorgeous sunset, is the God who controls the universe and is BIGGER than this crazy pandemic.  The perfect ending to a great day!