Friday: done

I was rather done today.  We did all our stuff because what else is there to do, but it was annoying.  But I also know that I have a ton of support here at home.  There's internet and our ratio of computers/screens to people is absurd.  (It's usually a bit absurd, but thanks to some loans from Hope College it's really absurd.  That also doesn't count the ones Ben brought from Gentex because he's only using them for work.)  The kids are really good, even if they are getting way too much time on screens.  (Math on the computer for an hour?  Sure...it doesn't really count as a screen, right?)  Overall, it makes me feel annoyed at myself because we have all the structure in place and I still am grumpy.  What about the people that don't have the structure that they need??

Joshua's lego challenge was to build a spider and a snake, both of which could actually move.

We picked up our crazy amount of groceries today.  Of course, I could only think of the things I forgot, like hot dog buns.  We are also out of muffin liners, so I might try using our silicon molds without the liners and see how it goes.  Isaac was able to get the cake mix and frosting that he's been asking for for several weeks, so stay tuned for a cake.

Thursday: lost

Joshua came in this morning complaining about his wiggly tooth.  (It started wiggling a bit less than a week ago.)  That's Ben's department, and Ben said he'd look at it when he got up.  Ten minutes later Joshua comes back.  Ben eventually got up and said it was almost ready but not quite.  At breakfast Joshua put way too much granola bar in his mouth but managed to get the tooth out.  He was so excited.  It's a good thing that Gov. Whitmer said that the tooth fairy is considered essential personnel.

Joshua was sleeping in the tent but the tooth fairy can't get in the tent.  So he put it under a pillow in his bed along with a note in case the tooth fairy goes to the tent first.

Isaac had a meeting with his class.  It's the first time they've tried this and it went better than I was expecting.  The students did a good job muting and unmuting themselves, so that helped a ton.  Isaac only went a little crazy at the end.

Joshua's challenge was to built a flower and flower pot, a ducky, or a person in a sleeping bag.  He put the ducky in the sleeping bag too.  (Does anyone have some challenge suggestions?  I have some from the internet but a lot of them aren't quite what I'm looking for.)

There was also a complex story that involved a carrot sword hidden behind flowers in case bad guys came.

Ben reminded me that I could use a blanket while teaching, so I used our zipper blanket.  It was much nicer.  Also, "teaching" was much nicer today...I gave them time to work on a small project but no one asked any questions so I was able to get some other school work done.

Wednesday: today

I went to the grocery store today.  We just needed a few things as we couldn't pick up our groceries until Friday.  (I placed the order on Saturday.)  Anyway, the two items that really caused me to go to the store were sliced cheese (I forgot to put them on the order) and tampons.  Since I was there I also picked up some yogurt, toilet paper (in case it doesn't come on our order), Mountain Dew, and fizzy water.  I'm going to be honest...I'm having a hard time going from groceries every week to groceries every two-three weeks.  I can't quite wrap my head around what we're going to need that far out.  I'm sure that I'd get better at it if I needed to do it for a while, but it's hard.  Oh, flowers were on sale and since I couldn't get them for Mom's death day I picked them up today.  Also, I was surprised at the number of people not wearing masks...maybe up to 60%.  It's possible that it's been all over my news feed because of the sewing aspect of it, but I really thought more people would be wearing something.

When I got home I found out that my boys had been turned into rocks and barricaded themselves in Isaac's bedroom.  They did a great job of it; I couldn't open the door.  So we had a late start to school, but it was nice because I was able to get caught up on a few house work things.

It snowed off and on today.  Not enough to play in, just enough to make it cold.  I was cold yesterday too and it was rather annoying.  When it's cold I don't want to go on the walk that I really should take.

Isaac made cookies for his life skill again.  He did a much better job.  He's also becoming less afraid of the oven.

Joshua made a dragon and a venus flytrap.  It's a bad dragon that breathed fire on the Venus flytrap.  I find it interesting how all his animals (unicorn, horse, dragon) look about the same.

Joshua also made scribble monsters for art.  They're trying to give you a hug.

Tuesday: made it

Well, I made it through the day.  I guess it wasn't that hard, but I was especially feeling the lack of work/home/school balance today.

It's probably in part because I didn't feel great about the lecture today.  It was a good topic, but super short.  The boys did a good job of giving me some time in the morning and later in the afternoon to finish up some stuff though, so I feel mostly prepared for the next several classes.

Horizon came to help me teach for a few moments.

Joshua had a lego challenge of a horse or a tree house.  He made a rainbow horse and a treehouse.  The person took all the leaves off the tree though.  The tree house has an inside floor and a roof floor that had a rope for climbing up to.

Although the window is at the same height as the horse's back, it is not for getting onto the horse.  Apparently that was a silly idea.

Joshua and I also got on each other's nerves tonight.  I was telling him to hurry up with the chores and he basically told me that he didn't want to.  (I'm not sure exactly what he said.  It hurts to do chores perhaps?)  So I told him that we'd have to stop screen time with Dad after dinner if that was the case.  This of course sent him in to tears.  And he spilled the Legos he was trying to put away.  I was helping him clean them up but he wasn't sorting them well (it was an easy sort) because "he couldn't see" through the tears.  I told him to finish his chores and he cried all the way through them.  He finally came up and sat on my lap and said that he was sad because it seemed like I was mad and he didn't want to do his chores because he has done them so many times.  I told him I was mad.  And that I do the same chores all the time too.  But I did agree with him that they're boring.  Anyway, all that to say something will need to change tomorrow and he won't like it.  I think I'll give him a choice though: nap, no screen time, or sleep in his bed instead of the tent.  I expect he'll choose nap, but we'll see.  At least, that's what I hope he chooses as I'm pretty sure he hasn't been getting enough sleep.

Monday: back to school

I thought Isaac would be starting the school packets that he got over break this week, but it turns out that it doesn't start until next week.  In anticipation I set up a table in his room so that he could not be as distracted.  Of course, he also hasn't been using his bed lately so he moved it over for a chair.  And a room would be incomplete without a ducky chair for reading time.

Joshua hit a whole bunch of Lego challenges: an empty tomb (that is empty inside), a lake (top part) and a chair (with a person watching a battle)

Sunday: Happy Easter!

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

We had church on-line.  It's still a bit weird, but getting normalish.  They did a nicer job with the playlist today so we didn't have to go back and forth between different webpages.

Joshua made ...oh, what was he calling them; I can't remember...ginormousized snakes.  With a little snake on top of them.

The day was a bit rough...I was a bit grumpy which was probably the main problem.  Joshua wouldn't make up his mind about what he wanted to eat.  I don't want to decide what cereal he wants!  (Mainly because I always choose incorrectly.)  Then he couldn't decide what he wanted for lunch.  The boys always ask for things that aren't really options like pancakes and it gets so annoying.

I finally put candy in the Easter eggs.  The boys were very good about not asking too much about the Easter egg hunt.  They did a good job of both finding eggs...Isaac was a bit faster than Joshua but not by as much as in the past.  Afterwards they made an Easter egg hunt for us and it was the best they've ever made!  There were several eggs that we weren't able to find.

Saturday: Easter parade

We had and Easter parade in front of Grandma's house today.

The boys made cards to go in the mailbox.  They both put more effort into them than I was expecting.  I didn't get a picture of Isaac's, but he was making an intricate maze.