Day 47.

I am going to post about the things that I like that are happening in quarantine because today was really hard and I felt closed in and a bit Hulk-ish in that I wanted to break everyone and everything. I will blame a lot of it on two nights of terrible sleep, rainy weather, and my children being done being stuck at home.

I know you all have probably heard this 14 million times, but this is not how homeschooling works. We as homeschoolers are struggling, too. My kids miss our co-op. They miss their teachers and their classes. They miss seeing their friends. They miss the classes they take at the Discovery Center (which we miss going to on rainy days or days we need a change of scenery) and classes at the Forest Preserve. They miss the library and going on field trips around town. We are all ready for this school year to end. We're ready to see people again.

So, I am going to focus on things we like about being home.

All of the kitchen-ing!

Julia loves to bake and would gladly putz around the kitchen all day if allowed. She's very patient with the boys, who love to help in any capacity. This particular day she was making one of her go-to recipes, Chocolate Oatmeal Drop Cookies. No baking and no flour! 

My current read. If you haven't read any of Bill Bryson's books, I highly recommend him! The first book I ever read of his was A Walk In The Woods and I laughed until I cried through the whole book. Evan's listened to even more of Bryson's books and also recommends them!

A meeting of the minds.

 The kids are actually doing a great job of thinking of things to play all together. Yes, there are definitely days where they are frustrated and annoyed with having only their siblings to play with, but the majority of the time, they are really getting along and it's great to see.


When it isn't raining, the sunsets lately have been gorgeous!

Evan has made sourdough bread on and off for years, but when all of this went down, and I couldn't ask him to stop by the store to grab a loaf of bread on his way home from work anymore (which apparently I did all the time!), he made a new sourdough starter and we have been loving having bread bowls and loaves of sourdough for sandwiches and with meals. The kids love helping, especially when it's time to punch the dough.

He has seriously perfected bread bowls.

I went to a store in Wisconsin that sells grains by the bulk. I was able to get 25lbs of flour, 20lbs of sugar, and 6.5 of rice. Oh, and a couple small treat bags of gummy worms and gummy bears for the kiddos.

I had ordered containers to put it all in and am now ready to feed an army (convenient since we actually have a small army of which we have created).

On a walk the other night, I kept oohing and ahhing over the trees that are blooming around our neighborhood!

We have played with all the things in our house. Seriously. So, I am trying to rotate some things so they feel new-ish. Kinetic sand is one of them.

Tomorrow is the last day of April. I absolutely do not want to switch the calendar and look at another long month of quarantine. But, I said that at the end of March and we have made it through April. I keep telling the kids they can do hard things--they may not like it and they may not do it gracefully, but they can do it. I need to take my own words to heart.

We ordered a curbside pick up of things to plant in the garden this weekend. Tomatoes, beans, herbs, peppers, and some flowers to put in the planters by our front door that are still holding our faux evergreen trees. We're going to order mulch to be delivered and spend time in the yard working for the next few weekends. I ordered a couple of camping hammocks to put up in the backyard to give us another space for the girls to go to have some space and alone time. I'm planning on our summer curriculum and gathering what we need to get those subjects and projects going.

Here's hoping tomorrow is better than today. That maybe I won't holler so much that I have to put myself into timeout to avoid throwing a temper tantrum. That maybe I will have a few more ideas up my sleeve to help us not feel annoyed with each other and every little thing. And here's to hoping tomorrow the sun will shine so we can go outside!!

Day 44. Another walk in the woods.

Today was absolutely beautiful! The kind of weather we have been impatiently waiting for! We decided to go "hiking" at another forest preserve today, after a leisurely brunch of waffles and scrambled eggs made by our Julia.

Today's hiking adventure took place at Deer Run Forest Preserve. None of us had ever been to this one before and it was only 20 minutes from the house.

I have no idea why they are blocking all access to the parking lots of the forest preserves, but we parked in the tiny bit available and walked down the rest of the road to get to the trails.  These trails were more off road than the last ones. Grass, mud, rocks. The kids loved it.

There weren't near as many fallen trees as at the Severson Dells Forest Preserve, but the kids managed to find a few.

Vivian would like us invest in some fishing gear so we can fish in this river the next time we come.

We saw two prairie garter snakes on the trail and it was the first time I have ever seen snakes in the wild (and that includes living in Colorado and Texas!). David is all about investigating every living thing he finds.

One of the reasons I wanted to come to this preserve today was that I had heard the bluebells were getting ready to bloom! I think in a couple more days they will be truly spectacular!

This sign made the children very happy because Elisabeth is currently obsessed with frogs and really wants to own one. The rest of the kiddos did not need to be persuaded to follow her into this area to look for them.

They looked all around here for almost 20 minutes and didn't find one until the very end when Vivian found a baby frog. They all gathered around and watched it go into the ginormous puddle. They did, however, manage to gather every bit of mud they could onto their shoes. It was gloriously muddy.

Today is our 21st dating anniversary!!

I still like him. A lot.

These kids are total troopers. We used to go out on adventures like these a lot more in years past, but not really since we've had the boys. David asked me where we'd go next and I was happy to tell him that we have a few more forest preserves we'd like to visit. 

After our hike, we came home, watched Mass on the computer, and then Evan and I went out on a quarantine date! All of the coffee shops were closed by then, so we grabbed frosties from Wendy's and drove to the river.

We came home to find the boys had started a Worm Inspection company. As David excitedly told us, "We are inspectin' worms! We're keepin'em safe!"

David was digging for worms and then Thomas would pick them up (because David doesn't like to pick them up unless he has gloves) and depositing them into a bucket of dirt. Thomas would then shake the bucket all around because, and I quote, "Dey like it!"

When we got out of the car from our date, we heard a weird noise that was one of Evan's tires leaking air. David was THRILLED to be of service to such an important job as putting on the spare tire.

Thomas was giving me the play-by-play.

We had our Sunday Dinner Party tonight with the veggie (and grape!) tray, nachos, buttered popcorn, and cinnamon popcorn. We watched another episode of Lego Master Builders and it was quite the nail biter! Once we've finished this show, we're going to have to figure out another family show to watch that truly entertains all seven of us. We're open to suggestions!

Evan and I picked up curbside some local beer to finish off our date night.

It was a good day.