Quarantine Projects

What have you been up to to keep you busy these days?

I cleaned out the coat closet🌂🧥

Then the linen closet🧻

My bedroom, where broken and out grown toys and clothes go to die🛌🧸

My closet👗👜

The laundry room...even behind the dryer 🕸🧺

I logged allllll the books.  I sorted all the math and science books into one (great big) bin.  There is a separate one for general English and history.

Then there are three bins for the Tapestry of Grace books for each year we are not on.  Every book is in a spread sheet.  Tapestry has its own set of spread sheets with books listed with title, author, level, and the first week the book is used—list included in the bin.  I even made a purchase list for the high school books for years 2 and 3.  Year four we just finished with with high school level books.  And year one...well that’s next on my list of accomplishments.

I ordered our school books.  It is early, but we are opting to wrap our year...15 days to go, and then we may start back to school after a short break.  We aren’t sure what the summer has to hold here, but want to be prepared if we find summer is going to be quarantined.  Thankfully our book sellers are open!

And there has been mask making too

And even dropped off a few to family friends—only porch drop off, but we did get to play Uno by Zoom on Friday!

Day 39

Just to remember what all we did while we were here...

School

Making a cloud in a jar

Crustless turkey pot pie...since turkeys have been easier to get than chicken

My rose bush began to bloom amid some nightly frosts

We made dinner over a fire in our partially complete fire pit

Pizzas from the pie irons

Tents going up for the Trail Life National Backyard Campout

Failure of a tent...with the patch

 

We went ahead and roasted marshmallows

 Then moved the party indoors

Due to the virus, the local home school high school formal (aka prom) was cancelled, so Katie had prom in the living room thanks to the Some Good News show on YouTube

We took up mask making again...Gabby was pressing pleats here

Ellie helped stitch the layers together

Katie figured out if she reads on the front porch occasionally someone will walk all the way down to the end of our dead end street with their dog, and she can talk to them.

12 1/2

1. What is your favorite color? Teal or Purple
2. What is your favorite toy? Phone
3. What is your favorite fruit? Raspberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Cosby Show 
5. What is your favorite movie? LEGO Batman
6. What is your favorite thing to wear? PJs
7. What is your favorite animal? Guinea pig
8. What is your favorite song? “When I am Older”
9. What is your favorite book? “You could not do that to me!” “Legacy”
10. Who is your best friend? Teresa, Rubi, Daisy, Jacklyn
11. What is your favorite snack? Chocolate chip cookies
12. What is your favorite drink? Mug Root beer or hot cocoa
13. What is your favorite breakfast? Hot cocoa and homemade doughnuts
14. What is your favorite lunch? Fast food
15. What is your favorite dinner? Spaghetti and meatballs
16. What is your favorite game?  Clue
17. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Who can push the swing the highest
18. What is your favorite holiday? Easter
19. What do you sleep with at night? My bed
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Speech and Language Pathologist

Bonus Question: favorite quote:
“I’ve realized now that our world doesn’t define us.  We define our world.  And I hope you’ll fill yours with as much light and happiness as you can.” -Grady, Keeper of the List Cities: Everblaze

Things I am Thankful for Lately...in no particular order

1. Sunshine

2. A big back yard

3. Online books...seriously we ran out of physical books for history in school with weeks to go

4. YouTube...documentaries (see above), online church, and the Good News Show

5. Home school, so our days are fairly normal

6. A tripod: originally to get family pictures, but it has an awesome cell phone attachment which has been used a lot to record chemistry lectures

7. Grocery pick up: I already used Wal-Mart's service pretty regularly, but now I am extra thankful for it.  It has meant turkeys in place of chicken a couple of times, but that works out just fine for us!

8. That I like my family

9. Games

10. Zoom...church small group, AHG meetings, even playing Candy Land with a friend (each family with their own board 

Day 35

The day Justin finally decided he missed seeing (a few specific) people

Just for fun

What is something I say a lot?
E: That you love me
N: Stop
G: Be quiet, and I love you
K: In answer to the question of what is for the next meal—food.
J: I love you

What makes me happy?
E: When I clean my room so you can get in
N: The Cosby Show
G: Coffee
K: Peace & quiet
J: Visiting with friends & family

What makes me mad?
E: When I ask you something over and over
N: Bugging
G: Loudness
K: Not peace & quiet
J: The unfavorable aspects of parenthood

How tall am I?
E: 30 feet
N: 5’ 2”
G: 5’5”
K: 5’5 1/2”
J: 5’5”-5’6”

What's my favorite thing to do?
E: Do my hair
N: Sleep
G: Rest
K: Drink coffee
J: Reading

What is my favorite food?
E: Vegetables
N: Lara Bars
G: Salad
K: Steak
J: Butterscotch pie (*shocked look from me*) Chocolate Pie

What is my favorite drink?
E: Wine
N: Water, no coffee
G: Coffee
K: Coffee
J: Mudslide

Who is my best friend?
E: Miss Margie
N: Miss Margie
G: Mrs. Waters
K: Miss Margie or Mrs. Water
J: Me

If I could go anywhere, where would it be?
E: to buy toilet paper
N: The jungle
G: Kentucky
K: out of the house, because we are under quarantine
J: Caribbean Cruise

Do you think you could live without me?
 E: No
N: No
G: No
K: I think I could live, but I think I would be very upset...I can make food.
J: Yes

How do I annoy you?
 E: When you don’t let me have tablet time
N: School
G: Sending to my room without my phone at night
K: Just one? You call me George and you sing in the morning.
J:By acting your age

What is my favorite tv show?
E: It has an A and a G in it (JAG)
N: J-A-G
G: What's it called? I forgot the name.
K: The Unit (Dad's favorite), no...JAG!
J: NCIS

What is my favorite music to listen to?
 E: WAYFM
N: Christian
G: Straight No Chaser
K: Songs that are annoying, if played more than 4 times (?!)
J: Christian Pop Rock

What is my job?
E: To teach us
N: Home schooling
G: Teaching
K: Teacher, mom, not my maid
J: All things

 How old am I?
 E: 23
N: 41
G: 40
K: You don’t look a day over 25, but you are 43
J: 41

 What's my favorite color?
 E: White
N: Green
G: Blue or Green
K: White or green
J: You don’t have favorites

 How much do you love me?
 E: lots
N: a lot
G: On a scale of 1-10, 100
K: a lot?
J: More than I did 20 years ago

Easter at Home

We’ve always had a lot of traditions surrounding Easter at our home, so this year was not so different in some ways, but it is so odd not to be with our church.  We’ve missed Christmas Eve services due to travel or illness, but I don’t remember an Easter that we were not in (or beside, for sunrise services) a church.

Here is our at home Easter...

Our Seder/Passover/Maundy Thursday

I couldn’t find lamb this year, so I put back a turkey bone and served chicken.

Mail...excitement that there was something from the outside world.

Our church’s children’s ministry delivered eggs to our front yard on Saturday.

Since we were home and had extra time, I told the kids I’d make whatever they wanted.  The girls chose donuts.  I got up before everyone else to let them rise.

The girls and I put on scarves; brought oils, spices, and perfume; and came to the tomb early on the first day of the week.

Our tomb was empty.  Ellie and I made this from a cottage cheese container. Our Jesus was an old fashioned clothes pin.

Nate felt we needed a lego version too.

We didn’t see the sunrise with the rain today.

Homemade donuts

Church at home

Our Empty Tomb carrot cake

I hope your Easter has been full of joy and the reminder that Jesus conquered all.

Friday Funny

Katie, after reading about DNA modification in biology: Do not mess with plant or animal DNA because that could result in a batch of killer corn. 

Day 22

It’s hard to believe we’ve been home that long.

Life has mostly settled into a routine.

Breakfast 🍳
School 📚
Lunch 🍲
School 🧮
Some variation of the following:
   -Outside 🌺
   -Badge work (or Trail Life Home Activities) ⛺️
   -Read, Read, Read 📖
   -Snack 🍎
   -TV 📺
Dinner 🥘
Documentaries/TV/Music 🎶
Bible 📜
Showers 🚿
Bed 🛏

Justin has his office hours.  He writes notes, he films lessons, uploads digital exams.🖋📽🖥

Sundays: church online, call our parents, and small group by Zoom ⛪️  📞 👥

Wednesday: Katie is working on her sign language badge by teaching a younger girl to sign The Pledge of Allegiance through FaceTime. 🧏‍♀️ 🇺🇸

Thursday night the girls Zoom meeting with their friends. 👩👱‍♀️👩‍🦱

When we can get a slot: Grocery pick-up 🛒