Mother's Day 2023

Over a month before Mother's Day, Grace and Emily were on the ball making some Mother's Day art for distant moms that we celebrate!

A few weeks before Mother's Day, I started looking at the special events that nearby eateries were offering for Mother's Day.  The one that caught my attention was a Tea Party.  It was a nice sounding menu, but it was $35 a head, and since we got to celebrate with Avia this year too, would have been almost $300. = 0  

Still, I liked the idea of tea, and so asked my children to plan it out.  I bought special cookies, and some macaroons, and mini eclairs.  Emily made finger sandwiches and set the table with the tea service. = )

The twins and William made me some sweet cards and a few special items.  Alice made me up a drawing (of the two of us in a field which has never in our lives happened. lol)  But she spends so much time making them that I felt very special. = ) And Emily also made me some stars to decorate my computer cabinet.

And, while the tea was nice, it wasn't terribly filling, so Billy ordered some Chinese food, which we don't get very often anymore (ever since our favorite place closed down when they razed the building in which they were housed.)  It was wonderful and we had plenty for leftovers that night!

I felt very loved and hope my mom did too, surrounded by many of those who love her!

later days

edit: written 6-16-23 backdated for continuity.

Other Noteworthy Events

For Valentine's Day, Billy braved the cold, and a line outside the door, to get me some local made dark chocolate coconut chews!!  They were really good (I actually still have some) and made me feel very loved.  I bought him a box of Reese's cups, along with a small heart box for each of the kids.  It's probably a good thing he got what he wanted while he was at the chocolate shop.

Grace woke up looking like she'd partied all night!

But we were able to tame that hair.

The twins asked how small they were when they were born.  I told them they could fit into Daddy's hand.  He didn't remember them being that tiny, so I broke out an old picture from when they were just a few weeks old.

Upon seeing it, they decided that they wanted to recreate it.  I don't recall who is who in the first picture, and looking back at my blog, I didn't say!! If I were facing the way I think I was, it should be Grace/Mutti/Juliet in the first picture. But the second picture is for sure Grace/Mutti/Juliet.

 

Grace did up her hair in three buns for Three Kings Day

They all got some small treats from Mutti and Daddy.

William built his Lego set after school.

And I got my Christmas gift in from Billy.  They are super cute alligators "biting" my ear, but they are really heavy.

We had the Cornishes over for a game day.  I was participating in dry January, and it was the first time I'd been tested, and stuck it out!  We played this really fun interactive pirate game, that we actually played the next time we hung out with them too!

Juliet made and avatar family and sent it to me.  In the small version, I thought William was blowing a bubble, I didn't realize that it was a cursor.  Oh well.

Alice and Emily thought the can in the Sam's parking lot was a meme, and wanted me to take a picture, so I did.

Juliet's hair was really pretty after coming in from playing the snow one day!

Christin and I sent one another pictures of our breakfast one day.  So now it is going here too.  Buttered toast and black tea with milk.

My mom has already travelled to Texas/FL/OK this year, but she will be leaving again this weekend, since my grandpa fell over, while petting a dog, and broke both of his shoulders (and several other bones.) = (  

I'm hoping for a less eventful end to the month.

later days

2nd Week of September

183rd Day of Quarantine.

The high today was 75F.

Today was an exciting day for my Grace; Molly came home from the doll hospital!

She arrived in her hospital gown, complete with ID band, discharge paper work, and a tiny get well soon card.  Grace was so happy and loved on her all day.

Is it Grace and Juliet? Nope, it's Grace and Molly, twinning!

For dinner we had Mac and Cheese, since that was what Grace and Juliet wanted to make.

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182nd Day of Quarantine.

The high today was 73F.

9/11 is always a somber and reflective day.  As of today, I've spent as much of my life post-9/11 as I had pre-9/11.  

We finished our Alice in Wonderland read aloud. It was a nice end to what seemed like a really long week, despite the Monday holiday.

Once we were finished with our school day, I drove down to Charlotte to go to a rummage sale that I caught wind of.  I picked up another sale on the way down, and stopped in at the <cheaper> Goodwill to shop for some Halloween costumes.

For dinner I picked up Rally's and McDonald's on my way back from Charlotte.

I saw this sign posted at the taco bell, and this type of advertising on a "now hiring sign" just feels so appropriate for our current political/economic/pandemic.

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181st Day of Quarantine.

The expected high today was 63F.  It was overcast and chilly.

Today was our last day of extra subjects to make up for having Monday off.  During the Alice in Wonderland read aloud, we did some watercolor painting.  It was a big hit.  Today's subject was Ward*.  

After lessons I went to the farmer's market and bought dinner, some flowers, produce and popcorn!  We had chicken satay, pad thai, and Billy had a burrito with chips and salsa.  I also bought a gourd for the kids to see, since it came up in our lesson on the purple martin today. 

*My poor plant that the chippunk, that lives under our porch, almost killed off by pulling off the leaves and digging up the roots!  It's doing well in recovery, inside our bathroom now.

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180th Day of Quarantine.

The expected high today was 63F.

The only things we added to our curriculum today were the composition part of Language Arts and Nature Study.  Strangely, that ended up adding hours to our day.  

For Nature Study, we were doing the Moth 'extensions' and it called for listening to "Autumn" by Vivaldi.  The kids were silly and tired by the time we got there, so it didn't go as well as I thought it would, but it was still pretty pleasant to lay on the floor, close our eyes and imagine floating leaves and cold wind.

Science called for the making of a shield, in true da Vinci style.  So, the big girls set to cutting and gluing and taping dragons on their shield.

Grace was the self designated "materials manager."

Today was also poetry day, so we had a particularly full afternoon!  The kids really enjoy the tea and biscuits though, and it is nice to see them so excited about 'poetry' even if it is only because of association.

After tea time, the big girls worked on step two of their shields: paper mache.  Truly, we could have skipped this, and my kitchen would have been so much cleaner and they wouldn't have minded even known the difference. But they really enjoyed it, and had so much fun. I just can't wait to see how their shields turn out!  (step three is to paint, and so we are now 'waiting' for them to dry.)

And, once our long day was winding down, our cleaning lady came a day early*! = 0  Usually I prep everything and tuck things out of the way, make sure A/E have their clothes hung and everyone folds up their blankets, but she caught us unprepared!

So, we had a mad rush, lots of things got tossed into computer cabinets and we tried to say out of the way.  She had been coming during the day, but with all the kids out of school, we are back to an evening schedule.  Of course, that is immaterial to us, since we are here all day, every day.

For dinner we had Salisbury steak and potatoes, which is not the worst meal to try to clean up before my kitchen was thoroughly cleaned.  But the dishwasher was full of our tea dishes, so my little tub that holds the dirties was working overtime.

After dinner I cleaned off my desk, and worked on a few more loads of laundry.

*this was the first time she's been in since March, and while I try to keep things clean, I would have been better prepared tomorrow.

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179th Day of Quarantine.

The high today was an exceptionally cold 58F.  The twins broke out scarves gloves and ear warmers for recess.  We are all in for a long winter.

In science the big girls tried to make a 'floating animal' from the da Vinci book.  It didn't turn out so great.  Emily's kind of floated once it dried, but Alice's was just a sticky mess.  At least we had fun.

For dinner we had pork and beans with the leftover hotdogs. 

I finished watching a netflix romcom Love Guaranteed.  It was sweet and completely unremarkable.  

I also worked on ordering books, or tracking down the websites that we will be using in the near future.  I am finding it very hard to believe that we are already in week 4 of our school year!

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Quarantine 178th Day of Quarantine

The high today was 79F. It was a rainy morning, and still pretty cool in the shade.

The Crockers left before noon.  I snapped a few pictures so that Brenda could have a recent one with each of the kids.

I enjoyed a leisurely shopping trip to the VOA before driving to Grand Ledge to pick up Dairy Queen for dinner.  

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Quarantine 177th Day of Quarantine.

 
The expected high today was 71F.

Church had a few issues this morning, but I did get to see the end of service at least.  After church I went to pick up the groceries and then stopped at a garage sale.

Billy and I went to menards and dollar tree in grand ledge to try and track down a hinge that was out of stock at the one closer to us.

After our errand we found a Dairy Queen.  It is a proper Dairy Queen with chicken strips and white gravy!

For dinner Billy grilled out hot dogs, sausages and barbeque chicken.

He also broke out the heat lamps (for the 3rd time ever.)  And it was really chilly out/

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later days

3rd Week of July

134th Day of Quarantine

The high today was 87F.

I spent a good portion of my day reading. I've almost finished Ghost Story, from the Dresden Files.

Emily cooked Salisbury steak and potatoes for dinner.  She's been on a cooking kick, and I'm not going to complain!

Watched the Jim Gaffigan special and the first few episodes of Upload.

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133rd Day of Quarantine.

The expected high today was 82F.

Our art project this week was spirographs.

The twins got in their new shoes. They decided to dress up as "unicorns" including fairy wings and painted nails? Oh, and their new shoes.  Speaking of which, I brought them over separately to show them their options, and they picked the same ones.

Emily made egg fried rice for dinner.  = )

We ended the day with a Kim Possible and Tea marathon.

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132nd Day of Quarantine

The high today was 81F.

Billy comes home today!!!!!!

Sarah came over to mow the lawn and also retrieved the tomato cages (that I couldn't even pay my children to collect from behind the shed.) She Brought seven, and he was none to happy that she "left" him.  William tried to console him as best he could.

The three little ones had their yearly follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon.  It took less than 5 minutes. I am so thankful for these virtual appointments!

My current, slow, project is renaming all of the pictures that cycle through my frame with names, locations and years.

Billy wants to get a digital frame when he returns to work, and this might help if he wants to know more about the picture that cycles through. = )  Plus, eventually, I'm not going to know all of these things any longer.  Some of the pictures from a few years back are starting to fade in clarity.  Thank goodness for pictures!

For dinner we had honey chicken.  Billy surprised my by coming straight home and actually eating my cooking (so I had to reheat it.)  I'm so happy to have him back though!

Tonight I finished Charlie's Angels, this time with Emily.  Grace fussed at me as I was cleaning up that I didn't "tell her."  I guess I thought that carrying the teapot through the living room was obvious. = )  There was enough in the pot left for her though. = )

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131st Day of Quarantine

The high today was 83F.  We are expecting some heat this weekend though.

Sarah came over with Seven and donuts this morning.  She played games with the kids while I went to the dentist.  I also had to wait in the car for a screening, but my dentist office answers the phone and is not ridiculous. They have all sorts of protection in place too!

I paid some bills and worked on gathering the paperwork for the kids' insurance appeal.

For dinner we had chicken noodle soup (Campbell's.)  William decided it was so bad he would rather sleep at the table than to eat the terrible dinner that everyone else really liked.

Once the kitchen was clean, I watched Twilight and Grace and I shared some tea.  I miss Billy.  We started Charlie's Angel's, since I hadn't seen it in years and years.  But I started the sequel first, so now they are both partially watched in my queue. lol

Grace snagged Billy's spot for the final night of his trip.  Or as she told aunt Rocky, his "vacation." haha.

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130th Day of Quarantine

The high today was 83F.

We managed to get out the door with much more time to spare than I thought we would, so we drove a goodbye gift out to the Mitterling's before Emily's appointment.  It was a bucket filled with items that you always seem to need (and can't find) the first day of a move! (toilet paper, scissors, writing utensil, etc...)

Emily's dentist appointment was just after 11, and we made it there with time to spare.  I really am annoyed every time we go.  I sent them a text when we arrived, didn't hear anything back, so 10 minutes before her appointment i called, and no one answered, and then they came to the door in a huff.  Since William and the twins go to a specialty dentist now, I really need to move the big girls.

For lunch we went to Chick fil A.  They were busy, and got busier when we were parked and eating our lunch.

I finished watching the ABC murders, and when Grace saw me in the room watching the show she talked me into another pot of tea. = )

For dinner we had quesadillas and grapes.

William lost tooth ($10!)  He was excited to sleep with the tooth pillow.  I was sad that I had to stay up late to be the tooth fairy.

Alice and Emily fought over Billy's spot last night.  I ended up laying a row of pillows between us, so that I didn't wake up to knees or elbows in the night.

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129th Day of Quarantine

The high today was a pleasant 83F.

I picked up groceries, it was uneventful.

When I cam home Billy was all packed for his trip.  He left just before noon, and I felt restless the rest of the day.

For dinner we had tortellini and ravioli with tomato sauce.

I finally watched Hamilton, I definitely get the hype, it is quite good.

I also watched a new adaptation of the ABC murders. It was well done, but David Suchet will always be Poirot to me.
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128th Day of Quarantine

The expected high today is 82F.  It is currently dark and rainy.  Once the rain cleared it was a perfectly lovely evening.

We called Avia and sang a happy birthday before we ate a birthday cake, in her honor of course.

I made oven chicken nuggets and corndogs for lunch, then packed them up and we took them to go.  I made up paper bags with an entrée, yogurt, pretzels, cookie and prize for my little ones.  Apparently food tastes better out of a paper bag and in the car, since I had no complaints. = )

Billy needed to run to mendards for some screws, and I was assembling a goodbye gift for the Mitterlings who are moving "up north" this month.  I also did some shopping for Grace and Juliet's schultüten!  I cannot believe that the twins make for my last round, already!  I feel like Alice just opened hers.

For dinner we had a combination of leftovers and individual freezer meals.

later days