One month

Last week, we passed the milestone of having everyone staying home for a full month.  At times, the days have crawled by, but other times, we have genuinely enjoyed the freedom of having an open schedule.  Being quarantined still feels hard, and the kids have their times of being really down about missing their school routine, friends, and teachers.  It seems to be hardest for them after they have a Zoom meeting with their class, but then we get back to family life and they're okay.  Ups and downs - we are all feeling it.

We don't tend to take pictures of the "down" moments, but here are a couple to make you chuckle.  First of all, the dishes, gaaaaah!  So many every day!

Another funny, but not so funny moment was when I was trying to clean the kitchen sink after we noticed it was smelling a little funky.  I had a scrub brush, and then suddenly I lost a hold of it, and it fell down the drain. This led to a 2-hour project of Matt taking the drain apart to retrieve the brush!  Oops.  (But that drain is cleaner than it has ever been!)

Back to the fun times...Lacrosse has become a new hobby for the kids after their cousins gave them hand-me-down sticks.  Grandma and Grandpa surprised the kids with a rebounder, which has already provided hours of entertainment!

School work has taken on various forms, including music lessons, outdoor science, crazy hair day, and bathtub math lessons.  

Noah's shark in its habitat

Nature art

Crazy Hair Day

Lego Challenge

Evie gave us a whole presentation about Christopher Columbus.  Good job Evie!

We played lots of games!

We ate well.  One new recipe for the week was Spring Rolls (Evie's request).  They were yummy, but a little bit labor-intensive!

We spent lots of time outside, even though it was a chilly week.

Good thing we haven't planted anything in the garden yet!

The kids biked for almost 7 miles with us on Saturday.  I was very impressed!

Sunday family hike

Helping to fertilize the raspberry bushes

First fishing outing of the year!

Wiffle ball

I always try to plan a couple of surprises/treats each week to help us break up the monotony.  Fresh flowers, a special beer for Friday night, and a batch of Grandma's cinnamon rolls all brought a bit of joy to our days.  A big highlight of the week was a special online live show of Circus Smirkus on Saturday night.  We got take-out for dinner and hunkered in for an awesome live show!

Circus Smirkus!

One of the amazing circus acts