April 23rd, 41st Day of Quarantine, 22nd Day of School at Home

The expected high is 49F today.  It was really cold, and rained, and we never saw the sun.  Have I mentioned that I'm done with the cold? No, oh, well I am.  Totally done.

I used almost all of the browning bananas in chocolate chip banana nut bread this morning, and the loaf was gone by lunch!

Billy got an email this morning that his company is furloughing some people, including engineering. This would be an 8 week furlough, which is a long time. So that was a lovely stress that I could have done without.

William started itching his head again, so more lice treatment and more laundry.  We're past the two week mark, and all the stuffed animals are still in the basement.  I've sprayed everything, so I'm hoping that it was just an itchy head, since I didn't find anything with the comb.  Also stress I could have done without.

An email came later that Billy would continue working for now, thank goodness!

We did 'whole group' kinetics today.  They called for pool noodles, but gave some ideas for substitutes.  So, we used foam cups!

Grace used the final banana in a blueberry-banana smoothie.  It wasn't much, but she, William and Alice managed to split it three ways. = )

I found time to finish yesterday's hat and one more today for a nice pleasant 10 to send to Diem!

Grace and Juliet and William all had Zoom meetings today, then I had one this evening with Alice's teacher (and the other parents in the class) and then I had a MOPS Zoom for virtual watercolor painting.  It was really fun! Also, I totally stole Deb's group picture.

For dinner we had cheese tortellini in alfredo.

Now it is late, and time for bed after a ridiculously stressful day, that at least ended with just the right amount of art. = )

later days

Oven!

My oven is back!  The tech came out Monday and installed the replacement for melted piece.  In the first 24 hours we made cookies,

Reheated leftover pizza, made banana nut bread & muffins and prepared a side for our Christmas Dinner (on New Year's Day.)

It has been an expensive & tiring week, since we ate out many times that I would have popped leftovers or a casserole in the oven.  I'm so happy to have my oven back!

later days

Crafts and Cooking

Alice and Emily were making a stop motion video.  Grace came to me in tears because the big girls wouldn't let her play.  So, Grace and I made our own.  

She wanted to use Doc McStuffins, and I grabbed my Dean Winchester figure and they battled the giant rogue pig.  Spoilers: they won. 

I used some browned bananas for a banana nut loaf. I'm pretty sure Alice ate half of it all by herself!

For my sister's 30th birthday, I transformed a sweatshirt into a bag for her.  It was a bit more difficult than I thought, and I ended up with a broken needle halfway through! My machine and I persevered til the end. I went through piles and piles of change and threw in all the money I could find from 1989. It wasn't much.

I also sent her a gift from Amazon that she actually wanted.  So hopefully she had a fun birthday!

My 'something you've never made before' on our summer bucket list was an Ouzo cake.  I thought it came out pretty tasty, though the directions had a few typos that I've hopefully corrected for the next batch.

Lemon and black liquorice  is a weird combination, but it wasn't too bad. It was however very sweet. I may leave out the sugar in the glaze next time.

At least I used up some of the ouzo leftover from our party a year ago!

later days