March 29th, Day 16 of Isolation

The expected high today was 49F.

The day started out wet and chilly, but with no need to dress and hurry out the door, we 'attended' early service this morning.  It was communion Sunday, so we ate the sacrament in our home for the first time ever!  It is a very weird time.

But right after church service, the sun showed up with it's rays of warmth, Emily asked to go on a bike ride.  This was Billy's inaugural ride on the bike I procured for him last fall, so he aired up all the tires that were in need.

It was very windy last night, so while Billy filled up tires, my helpers and I picked up some fallen branches and sticks. = )

Emily rode up to the school with her training wheels, but had me take them off as soon as we got there.  She's now comfortable enough to keep them off!

It was a windy trip! We saw a tiny bit of sun, while we rode around the empty elementary school parking lot. But, by the time we were heading home, the clouds blew in and it started to sprinkle and get us all just a little wet!

There were lots of people out walking and biking and running. Also, a surprising number of people driving?! On a weekday I would expect more traffic, but everything is closed, and even places that are open somedays, tend to be closed on Sunday. Where was everyone going?

For lunch I raided the fridge to heat up leftovers from the week.  Now we have plenty of space for my grocery run tomorrow.

I reviewed lesson plans for the week and update our schedule.  Emily, William, Grace and Juliet all have Zoom meetings this week at one point or another.  This is our last week of school at home, next week it is time for Spring Break II and then back to school*?!

At 7 I chatted with some local moms via Zoom and it is so comforting!  And tonight the president issued an order that the country should continue distancing until April 30th**. 

It's shaping up to be an interesting year.

later days

*In an interview, the governor made some remarks that school would likely not resume this year, in a brick and mortar capacity, anyhow.  But as of right now the official word is that the will resume school on April 14th.  

**but as of the time of this post, nothing official has come from the governor or school district.

January 2nd

Today was a mostly sunny high of 46F with very little wind and no precipitation.

If all my days this year mimic today, I think I'll be okay.

My sister called me from a thrift shop (twice.) The first time to ask if I needed anything, the second time to let me know that she had collected the only thing I was after!

Alice got to enjoy almost the entire day with her friend Willow at her birthday celebration. Her mom kindly retrieved and returned Alice today, since I was homebound for my plumber window.  Alice came home full of sugar & exuberance.

I cleaned out some unused games and boxed up some German books to mail to a friend and knocked out 2 load of laundry.

Grace and Juliet decided to spend some of their Christmas cash on Minecraft (the Microsoft version) to play with the big kids.  I loathe the Microsoft Minecraft set up.  Once they are connected it is great, but the set up is brutal.  And to make matters worse, I bought and 'gifted' the wrong version - the xbox version.

So, I had to spend hours chatting to try to rectify my mistake, and also set up a Microsoft account, then an xbox account for each twin. Of course, setting everything to private and adding their siblings as friends and adding back up x2 just takes forever. Once the accounts were set up, I 'gifted' them the game, because we do not put any of our credit card info or sign ins on the kids' machines.

Since Alice was gallivanting, I took the opportunity to play with Emily and the twins for a little while.

The most exciting thing that happened today, by far, was that the plumber came to install our new faucet! The spray handle of our old one had some sort of failure inside, and was spraying water down into the cabinet. Billy and I both tried to see if we could replace it ourselves, but the people who redid the kitchen did a few questionable things. The repair actually required him to break out a power tool and saw off the old apparatus. Then he had to scrape off some sort of epoxy or sealant that they had used on the base. It was enough work to merit the price.

Thankfully, we were able to leave the handle pulled out and dangling*. I am sooooo happy to have a fully functioning faucet again. I do keep leaving the sprayer pulled out though. = )

Alice came back home and was quick to take over her computer and play Minecraft with her siblings, but it was time for me to start on dinner a-n-y-h-o-w.  

I made a macaroni & ham casserole with some leftovers from yesterday.  Not my favorite, but very few complaints.

And when Billy got home he got to start the fight with William's PC that has some sort of virus that kept kicking him off the internet and out of applications.   He's trying to avoid formatting, but it's not looking good. = /

Hoping to wind down the break tomorrow with a less exciting (and hopefully less frustrating) day.

later days

*The wait was because we had something leaking in the basement.Billy went down a few weeks ago and sealed off the water filter connectors in the basement, so I was waiting to make sure the basement dried out and I didn't need him for a double purpose before scheduling. 

Winter Break, so far

With Billy still working during the holidays, we do our best to keep a normal schedule, but have more time to play, since school is out!

Emily's gift from Uncle John and Aunt Diem, was the last one we were waiting on, and she was so excited when it arrived!

And we got our bill from William's mishap earlier this year. If I weren't posting about Christmas and other fun things, I would go on a rant about insurance costs and medical bills, but let's just say that I'll happily pay the $702.

My mom bought Juliet an Ariel shirt, because she *loves* the little mermaid. But then Grace found a hello kitty dress at the other end of the closet, and while it is a tiny bit big for her, it is a dress not a shirt, which meant that Juliet rejected the shirt.

So my mom found a skirt for me to make her shirt into a dress.

Both are knit material, so it is loose fitting, and kind of on the big side, but she loves it just the same.

And, with the leftover elastic band, I was able to make her a matching headband (with buttons also courtesy of Avia.)

William is usually a willing partner when Alice is looking for someone to play the Wii with her, but he's not necessarily helpful.

I think I bought too much ham.  The kids an I had it for lunches twice, and we had a full leftover meal with Billy, my mom put some in a breakfast casserole, and I put some in omelets, and still have some left. = O

I served up a breakfast brunch earlier in the week, which usually goes over pretty well with my crowd, because it is a come and eat as you are hungry.

They gathered up every blanket they could find.  I think they might be a little cold here in Michigan.

I installed my Christmas gift from Haley & Chris:

The twins got into my stamps, and stamped a bunch of empty envelopes.  I'm thankful that they at least knew what stamps were used for, and only wasted one by sticking one on a computer cabinet.

William and I ventured out to the dentist in unreal temperatures. = /

I saw this this line on our bill this month, and I'm so thankful for the people who made this happen.  It is too cold here to be without electricity!

I did finally get them to all sit down for lunch with me, when I made grilled cheese and tomato soup = )

And it snowed again.

Yesterday I got the urge to start on teacher end of year gifts, but had to clean off my sewing pile first.  So I mended a towel, and remade my bag.

I made myself a purse over the summer, but the material was thin and did not hold up to the stress of daily use.  It was literally ripping to shreds, but I'm proud to say my seams were holding up just fine!  I had to wait until I had a chunk of several hours, because I actually don't have a back up.

I cut out the inside lining, because it had all of my handy pockets and elastic straps, but I had to add fabric to the top, bottom and sides to make it the same size.  I had just barely enough to make a new one!  While I was adding fabric, I gave myself an additional pocket and sunglass loop, because I could. = )

Even my old strap was in poor condition, so I had to make a brand new one.  This time I used fusible fleece on all of the components, so I'm hoping it will hold up better than before.

The lining fabric puckered a bit, but the whole piece feels sturdier than before.  And I'm glad I made the cord for my Aldi quarter purse so long, since I had to cut it out of the old one.

I also cut out the pieces for the teacher gifts, so once the feeling comes back I'm already one step in. = )

later days