Enumerated Update

Helllooooo Friday!

As my niece and all of the cool kids are saying (or were saying... did I miss it?), it's been a hot minute since I did a Friday post. Obviously, no explanation is needed to explain this return to daily blogging. Like the ENTIRE WORLD, we are finding ourselves with a lot of free time on our hands these days (except for those brave "essentials" who have never been busier - God bless and keep them safe). Even with distance learning and Skip working harder due to an expanding workload, we are finding some extra time where all of the extra curricular activities, commuting, and all of the year-end school business used to be.

So... hi there. We are back to the daily posting versus trying to update every month or so.

Here's a few things from this week:

1) The First Modern Pandemic: Bill Gates' thoughts about the pandemic, treatments, vaccines and re-opening.

2) Abridged: Here's an abridged version if you want a quicker read.

3) Explaining the pandemic to your past self: Y'all. This really tickled my funny bone in such a big way. "While we're being proactive, if you could just do a Costco run real quick."

4) Shuttered theaters: Last week's entire box office report is from a single drive in theatre.

5) Quarantine Etiquette questions answered: Earlier during the quarantine, one of George's friends' moms called me to give the boys a chance to talk. She started the call with a polite, "Hey, are you busy?" To which I could only reply, "Most definitely not." Because, after all, what could I possibly have been doing? So "how to end a zoom call" is definitely my favorite etiquette tip. No longer will a simple "gotta run" suffice.

One of our tips for these times is to be overwhelmingly polite. Everyone's a little on edge, learning to do things differently (or frustrated that their work does not have a technological solution), and trying to reconcile this situation. Be kind. Be patient. Be understanding. That's our new motto.

 Have a wonderful weekend. See you back here Monday.

Making Bread

As a family of five, when we have bread or make sandwiches, we easily use half a loaf of bread. During this time of social distancing, lunches became more challenging, although I'm not sure why that is, because all five members of our family have always had "home" lunches every day. Perhaps it was made harder due to spacing out shopping trips more, limited bread availability (at least for pick up/delivery) and limits on how many items can be purchased (e.g., two loaves of bread for a 7-10 day period). At any rate, our simple, basic lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit became a little more complicated because we felt we were always being mindful of bread.

We had picked up a bread machine at the beginning of March and have now officially made a few loaves so far. Although we had some ingredients in our pantry, those items quickly disappeared from the shelves of most stores. Fortunately, Costco came through with both flour and bread flour so that we have plenty for a long time, what with bulk packaging. (Let us know if you need either of those things.) While I applaud everyone making bread by hand, the bread machine is a lifesaver for bread novices (like me), and we love just putting in the ingredients, setting the cycle and letting the machine do the work.

Ease of use aside, we have had to be flexible with ingredients at times. For example, we do not have bread machine yeast, but I read that regular yeast works almost as well. Also, when we were out of bread flour, we used regular flour, and that worked also. When the warm, aromatic bread is removed from the oven, there are no complaints at all.

We have tried the basic white and an Italian bread, and I can definitely see the latter becoming a staple with lasagna night and spaghetti night in the future, even post quarantine. We like the option of making a loaf to accompany dinner to elevate home meals during this time. While no southerner would prioritize the bread machine over their beloved cast iron skillet, the bread machine is helping me keep our active family fed.

These Weird Times

Sunrise at the bus stop 

The trio last attended school on March 13th, meaning it has been 40 days since we have seen a sunrise. 

These are such weird times. We try to focus on the positive, and we keep news light around the house, especially with the family. However, I have the national and state COVID dashboards running on my iPad at all times, and it's just such a weird and stressful time in a lot of ways.  We focus on the positives but are constantly aware that there are so many variables creating a long road back to normalcy.  

We try to focus on the aspects of this situation that we like. We like having everyone home. We actually like distance learning, although I know how much they want to see their friends. We miss people... family, church, friends. They do miss their sports and extracurriculars, but we love having time to ride bikes, play board games, cook, etc. 

Some things we don't miss at all... like getting up at 5:30am.  

Bob Ross

Last week I was sitting out on the deck with Grace and George when Skip came out to say hello during week. He mentioned that he needed to dress up as Bob Ross for a conference call in about two hours. Out of the various wigs we have accumulated over the years, we do do not have anything in the brown, curly variety.  

Lauren's curiosity was peaked when she saw me going through our craft supplies. I was thinking that we could just make the props out of construction paper and hope for the best. Fortunately for me, Lauren was up for the challenge and helped out with all props. We made the hair and taped it to one of Grace's headbands, and we made a pic to prop on a tabletop easel. Basically, we just needed a few sheets of paper, tape and crayons to transform Skip into Bob Ross. 

During the project, Lauren asked, "How long has dad known he needed to do this?" 

They might have been asked that very question a thousand or so times when working on a project for school.

Special thanks to Lauren for heading up props.

Here is Skip in character: 

Weekend Update

Happy Monday!

The weekends really do blur right into the rest of the week now, don't they? 

We have reached that part of the quarantine where certain grooming practices can no longer be ignored. Because I gave myself a slight trim last Wednesday (which backfired, by the way, because my hair took that slightest of trims as a sign to rapidly grow), Skip started requesting a hair cut. Some backstory... Skip thinks that all women have an innate talent for cutting hair, and he has argued that I could "cut hair" over the years, despite having no training nor experience whatsoever. Skip and George were both getting a little shaggy, and I was hopeful that I could just follow their past cuts. Also, and this is clutch, I followed the tutorials demonstrating how to do a man's hair cut and a boy's hair cut posted by Kate from The Small Things Blog. Those tutorials were incredibly helpful.

I did ok with the clippers and pretty good with the top, but I need to work on blending the two areas together. Our stylist is greatly missed, and we cannot wait to see her again soon.  

We had some procurement errands Saturday morning. We had our regular Wal-Mart shop delivered, but we also had our monthly Costco shop delivered. My mom and I last went to Costco on March 6th so we definitely needed a few things now. The combined shops necessitated a little inventory management, but we knocked it out quickly. Costco is still struggling to stock the bigger, in demand items (toilet tissue, Lysol spray, Lysol wipes, etc.), but they still have plenty of food, for which we are thankful.

We took a family bike ride Saturday afternoon to enjoy the gorgeous weather. The temp was 53, sunny, and just a spectacular day. There will be a lot of reports of bike riding here in this season of downtime.  Our family has always been really into bicycles, and we are fortunate to live in a bike-friendly little neighborhood. Our city at large is not so bike friendly, but our neighborhood and the surrounding streets are perfect for biking. Skip, the girls and George love it, while I just try to keep up. Skip and the kids routinely bike anywhere from 7-10 miles per day, and we are really embracing these opportunities as a silver lining to these times. There is scenario in which we would have normally had time for even the briefest of afternoon rides so we are counting ourselves lucky to have that outlet as a way to work in some physical activity.

After a long bike ride, we grabbed some take out for dinner. This is our first restaurant food since March 14th, and we were close to having a mutiny if it continued. We want to support local businesses, but honestly, there just hasn't been any excuse not to cook. I certainly cannot say we've been "too busy" because we clearly have plenty of time to cook each afternoon. We have been spending a lot more time on our deck so we decided to spruce it up a little with some solar lighting along the railings. We have probably spent more time on our deck in the last six weeks than we did all last year so it's nice to have it looking a little more festive. 

Sadly, our state had more severe weather on Sunday. We mostly had rain and thunderstorms, but we were sad for our more southern neighbors, who had to deal with storm damage. Lauren and Grace actually had a couple of projects to work on for school, and they choose to work on them Sunday when the weather was bad. Their science projects involve making a product that will help with COVID19. Lauren is working on a portable hand washing kit, and Grace is developing a "no sew" mask. Those world-changers were busy all afternoon.  

We really are grateful for the continued learning opportunities. Staying busy and keeping our minds engaged is helpful, and those activities also keep the connections with their friends strong during these times. The girls have a classmate who lives a street over, and George does, too, so biking by their houses and getting to wave hello is something to look forward to each day. We also have some good friends from church that we get to visit with frequently (outside and from a distance). We remain thankful for good neighbors.

How was your weekend? Were you able to spend some time outside?

Procuring Food

We have all had to rethink how we procure food and other supplies so as to keep contact to a minimum during isolation/quarantine. We have always utilized Wal-Mart pick up service, but getting a time slot for pick up became increasingly challenging. We switched over to Wal-Mart delivery. Their policy is to leave items at the door, but we have taken to leaving our wagon out so that they don't have to hike up and down our sidewalk multiple times. 

These are crazy times. 

Jabra Elite Active

Buying presents is always challenging, but Skip is definitely one of those people for whom shopping is hard. He tends to have very precise ideas about what he wants, and he would rather go without than have something that doesn't work exactly right. He has a few things he really enjoys, such as reading, music, tennis, etc. As such, he is always on the search for the perfect pair of headphones, whether wireless or wired. He has attempted several pairs over the years with mixed results. All were disappointing or inferior in some way.

Last fall he looked into the Jabra Elite Active 65t. He liked them, but had some reservations. When Christmas came around, we got them for him. He gave them an honest try, but he felt like the headphones "popped out" of his ears at times. Now, reader, he had to make some exaggerated facial expressions to cause them to pop out, but if he wasn't totally and completely on board it was fine with me if they were returned. For the record, I held firm that they wouldn't come out, unless you engaged in [insert crazy jaw maneuvering].

Unfortunately, the return window was much shorter than I realized, and they did not make it back in the mail in time. After that he tried them a couple of more times, but became disgusted with their performance. Although I did not intend to hijack his gift, he encouraged me to try them out to see if they might work for me. They worked great! I have been enjoying them for weeks, and they do not pop out. Now, I don't play tennis while wearing them like he was planning to do, but they stay in when walking and moving about.

Fast forward to yesterday. The trio were working on school projects, and I was making lunch while listening to an audiobook. I went to get something out of the oven, and one of the ear buds popped out. It bounced on the floor of the oven and rolled to the back, right under a hot coil.

Normally, we try to be a pretty drama-free household. However, there was a good bit of commotion to try to get the ear bud out of the oven. I may have shrieked I couldn't bear to watch it melt onto the floor of the oven. I sent George to get Skip, not realizing that George had no idea what was actually happening. After he ran off, I got the lower rack out, grabbed a pair of tongs and miraculously scooped them up on the first try.  In the meantime, George had no idea all of the commotion was about ear buds, thought I had been burned and was injured, and ran to get Skip who came up assuming someone was hurt. Then George panicked, ran outside and was very upset. He thought there would be a fire, and he knew to run outside. Poor little guy. We got him calmed down quickly by explaining that the sense of urgency was to move quickly before the ear bud melted... not that help was needed because of injury or danger.

George stayed close for the rest of the day and got lots of Minecraft time while snuggling close. I also shared that I have the same feelings when I see him wreck on his bicycle. The good news is that no one was hurt in the least, and George can laugh about it now. Also, the ear bud was saved as well.

Happily, I can continue to enjoy the Jabra Elite Active ear buds and listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and music all while being active.

However, as it turns out, they do pop out.

*Obviously not sponsored by Jabra. For the record, they are fantastic headphones, but maybe it's not advisable to wear them when cooking.  

ExtraCurriculars (Remote Edition)

We are grateful for the opportunity to continue our schedule as much as possible. 

Lauren and Grace have fallen into a comfortable routine of having their dance classes on Monday and Tuesday now via Zoom. This has been a great way to keep in touch with their friends from dance, stay active with stretches and technique and to try to learn the routines they were going to perform at the recital in May, which has been postponed indefinitely.  

The good news is that they still get to dance, and Grace is getting to use the new pointe shoes we purchased at the end of February (versus her just outgrowing them during the downtime). But seriously, they are enjoying continuing their schedules as much as possible. 

When school abruptly ended on March 13th, Lauren's instrument was left behind. We were able to go to school Tuesday for a "zero contact" pick up. The band director had left the instruments spaced apart on the sidewalk and was overseeing the pick up from approximately twenty feet away. In addition to dance, they have resumed instrument practice. 

Seeing the school closed and quiet was a little weird for them, but Lauren was excited to have her flute back. 

As mentioned previously, George works on robotics at home on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

Lastly, George has gotten the girls involved in Minecraft so they spend some time working on that together. This has kept them busy for hours on end, and we can see some of the educational benefits of that particular game. 

How are you staying busy during the quarantine? Have you picked up a new hobby, or are you enjoying more time with a hobby you rarely have time to enjoy? 

Pixie

A funny thing happened this past weekend. Lauren, George and Grace decided they wanted to create an Instagram account for Pixie. They see lots of pet accounts, and they wanted Pixie to have her own. Lauren, who LOVES instagram, and George, who is not yet allowed to have an account, have taken an especial interest in creating Pixie's brand...

...which I supposed must be based on naps, turkey bacon and barking.  

Weekend Update

We had a long weekend, and we had a special treat because Skip took Friday off. That's still such a big event... for example, it was his first day of vacation all year. George had a WebEx at 11am, and the girls had some assignments to finish up. After that, we loaded the bikes and went riding on a bike trail. We were in compliance of all safety recommendations and even had masks on hand, but the trail was pretty deserted. We had a nice, 7 mile bike ride in some spectacular weather.  

Speaking of, the bikes came out on the very first day of disruption. Skip and the trio have risen miles and miles each day, and George's bike, which is about a year old, has taken a beating. He has started riding super fast and is literally wearing out the components. He has sheared the hand brake. He broke off the chain guard in an off-road wreck. His chain needs tightening, and he has a flat tire. He has taken to pedaling as fast as he can downhill to see just how fast he can go. Skip said he easily beat him one day, and Skip had to move to a faster bike.  

As the mom, I have had to ban any additional off-road/trail riding, and I have given strong cautioning against pedaling downhill.  Now is not the time to go to the ER. 

As for the girls, they are as strong as ever. Lauren moved up a bike, taking over a bike from cousin Riley, while Grace continues to enjoy the Giant.  

Classroom WebEx

Side note: If you have an iPad case/stand that tilts back in a way that is not suitable for video conferencing, a couple of Post-It note pads tucked behind the device creates a tilt that is more aesthetically pleasing.  

After the bike ride Friday, we came home, and I think they may have biked some more. 

We knew that we had some bad weather arriving on Sunday so we moved all outdoor Easter activities to Saturday. After lunch they got dressed, hunted eggs with George and did all things Easter. After that, we had some sweet friends stop by with Easter bags for the trio, and we had a good visit with them. We compared notes on remote schooling, discussed introversion and about how some aspects of remote learning are actually preferred e.g., no early awakenings. 

After visiting, the trio rode bikes while we grilled hamburgers, and we topped off the evening by eating on the deck. 

We had the Easter portion of Sunday (see prior entry), but then we had some really severe storms with tornadoes throughout the day. We had storms after attending church via live stream, and we had storms again in the evening. We spent some time in the basement until the storms had passed through, and our power was disrupted for several hours. We were obviously thankful to have had no damage. 

 Overall, we had a great weekend. 

How was your weekend?

Easter Weekend

For people who are quarantined at home, Easter ended up being a very busy and eventful weekend.  Let's talk about Easter first. Because bad weather was expected for Easter Sunday, we decided to do all of our outdoor celebrating on Saturday. Grace, Lauren and George put on their Easter clothes, dusted off their Easter baskets and hunted for eggs. 

You're never too old to hunt for eggs, especially if your younger brother is competitive and keeps challenging you. 

After lunch on Saturday, the scoured the yard for eggs. Again, this is a competitive hunt, and gone are the easy days of the eggs being readily visible. This is egg hunting 2.0... phase two... whatever label you want to attach... we're keeping it interesting, especially when quarantined at home. 

The initial hunt went well, but there was a rematch challenge. George removed his shoes so he could run better, as one does.  

In the end, the second match was a three-way tie, an ending that would be impossible to replicate so we decided to end on a high note.  

The next morning we discovered that he Easter Bunny visited, with a heavy emphasis on outdoor games. The Bunny always knows what is needed.  

We were able to attend virtual church. In a time when life is so altered and everything seems upside down, we are grateful to celebrate a truth that has endured for 2,000 years and will endure throughout eternity. The tomb is empty, and He has risen. 

How was your Easter? 

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Like many of you, spring is usually a busy time for us. We have spring break plans, baseball and the numerous activities that fall at the end of the school year.  

A casualty to all of that business has been the dyeing of Easter eggs. Under the circumstances (global pandemic + strained supply chain), we would not have dyed them this year either. However, eggs are not regularly on the menu for us, and therefore, I happened to have had some eggs that were past their expiration date (win for belatedly cleaning out the fridge).  

Also, when we cleaned and organized Skip's office, I found a couple of old egg dyeing kits that my mom had given us several years ago. 

These fortuitous finds could only mean that a Sunday afternoon of egg dyeing was in order. 

The initial excitement level was restrained, I will admit, because they felt this was something that only little kids do. But since the girls have only done this on a couple of other occasions, and since George has never dyed eggs (he was allergic to eggs until he was cleared with a negative test last June), we pressed on.  

  

George is kind of excited, but the girls are skeptical

The "I'll do it for George" face

"Ok... I'll do it"

"Finally! Let's see those eggs!"

Before you know it, everyone was taken with the pretty spring colors and were focusing on getting the color just right. 

The kit was a fun foil technique that was acceptable even to the teenage demographic. 

They had a good time, and there were genuine smiles at the end. We are glad to have had the right supplies on hand to make George's first egg dyeing experience fun.   

Past egg experiences

2010

2011

Pixie, Late For the Groomer

Pixie is having the time of her life. Although she is late for the groomer (she was scheduled to go at the top of the self-isolation period) and not looking her best, she is still loving all this extra time with her people. I'm totally feeling her. My scheduled hair appointment was this week, and things are going to start getting interesting. However, I'm grateful for this extra time with my family.  

First Day of Remote Learning

All of you have lived through the evolving schedule that the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated. However, for the purposes of our remembering later, hopefully when this situation has long past, bare with me on restating the way this has unfolded. 

School began looking questionable back on 03-09-20. We were busy making plans for upcoming events, e.g., a 5K run and book fair at George's school; a spirit night at Urban Air and service day at the girls' school. We were paying for a field trip to Chattanooga and a ceremony for the girls that seemed unlikely to happen. Beginning on the 9th, all of these activities started looking like they were very much up in the air. By the 12th, the 5K had canceled. Although the book fair had been delivered as planned on the 13th, it was looking increasingly doubtful. The girls had a band field trip on the 12th that happened as planned, which was ludicrous, but since they were still going to school at that time, it seemed pointless to question the field trip. It was a weird time of proceeding with plans, even though it was beginning to feel like maybe we shouldn't. 

The first school cancelation announced on the 13th called for school to be canceled on 03-19-20 and 03-20-20, ahead of spring break. Basically, students would attend Mon-Wed and then be out through spring break. This policy was quickly amended on 03-14-20 to state that school would be out 03-16-20 through 04-06-20. Later, of course, on 03-26-20, onsite schooling was canceled through the end of the year. Remote learning would begin on 04-06-20. In the interim, work was assigned - thankfully - to keep students engaged.  

I would be remiss if I did not commend the teacher and administration for their quick scrambling to get work to students and also work to get everything in place to begin working remotely. There are so many students and just as many unique situations to accommodate. They did a fantastic job on short notice. 

Yesterday was the big day... the start of remote learning, and by now, everyone was excited to log on, connect and get back to work. Now, it would be disingenuous for us to say that we miss our 5:30am wake up call. We don't.. AT ALL. They love getting up at 7:30am, doing a little work and being ready to start class via WebEx at 10am. The girls have a full schedule, and they love working from the comfort of their own desks (so much space!) and not having to schlep all around the whole school with their possessions. Of course, they miss their friends (they would much rather be there in person to see everyone), but they kind of like the new level of comfort. 

Logistically, the girls have 1-2 daily WebEx calls, and they have assignments posted daily via Google classroom. So much of their work was already completed online that this isn't a big adjustment. 

George's teacher uses the Class Dojo platform and has posted numerous references and assignments there. All of her assignments are posted with a daily schedule, and his class regroups on Fridays for a class-wide WebEx. Obviously, George misses his friends terribly, but he has connected via Facebook and phone to keep in touch. 

I'm sure all three would prefer to resume their normal schedules tomorrow. However, we are choosing to focus on the upside of the new normal (snacks while you work! sleeping in!) instead of focusing on what has been lost. That being said, you better believe they are ready to reconnect with their friends. 

What does your new normal like look?