4/13
It was fun to see Charlotte get excited for her new bike! She looks awesome on it! Now Reed is able to use her old bike which has gears, so he can go up hills! The kids enjoyed searching for their Easter baskets in the house this morning. I love celebrating these holidays with them and seeing their joy. We did much of our work and learning in the morning,including an important Zoom for me related to senior events, etc. At lunch, I asked the kids to decide the rules to their egg hunt. It was interesting what they came up - they all agreed that each child should be able to find 10 eggs (out of the 30 we had to hide). Charlotte wanted hers hidden in a challenging manner in the front yard, while the boys wanted an easy-medium egg hunt in the courtyard. So, that’s what we did. The boys hid eggs for her and she hid their eggs. The boys hunted first, then we swapped. It was actually really fun! We had to play hot-cold for a few at the end, but it all worked out! Reed did his weekly class Zoom with Ms. Pearson and shared his journal writing and pictures with classmates. For exercise we’ve switched to a couple loops around the LFP Town Center Triangle as parts of the Burke-Gilman are closed to exercise at this point and supposedly only open to “essential commuters” which is incredibly frustrating. But we are making due!
Reed is enjoying the art wires I set up in his room. He turned his into a "store" with prices on all of his art. I set up a white board/ bulletin board in her room and she is now using it as a command center. She has also started to give math lessons to Reed using the whiteboard in the mornings.
Charlotte and Reed helped me with a big project to replace dirt with smooth, black rocks in the planters. They turned out so well!!! I got excited about getting the house tuned up and pruned some more in the front and the front walk and porch are really looking spiffy. Edison helped with prepping a planter area in the back yard for tomorrow’s project by digging down the dirt quite a bit. We were exhausted after a busy day!
4/14
We completed our home learning and my most of my work in the morning. The kids went to visit Nana at lunch, packing lunches and bringing bikes. They played over there (social distancing, of course), helped her by washing her car, and played in her camper, too. It was so great to be able to see her for a bit! At home, Edison helped me finish up the planting bed project and it looks smashing! More running the LFP triangle loops. We capped the day off with a wonderful meal of tacos cooked with Charlotte assisting in the kitchen and an evening stroll/bike ride through the neighborhood.
4/16
We woke up to a beautiful, sunny, warm day! Both Edison and Charlotte had class Zooms today and I had an ASB Budget meeting. We worked through all our stuff and had a nice leftover lunch - something I’ve enjoyed at home that could never happen with lunchboxes. We added more rocks to our planters, filled in the bark in the planting area we started earlier in the week, started arranging some new plants to where we like them, but haven’t planted them quite yet. The big work was putting up the camper again, cleaning it out, and then leaving it set up for a fun campout overnight in it. After we’d gotten that arranged, we had enough time to go on a four-mile hike in the Washington Park Arboretum and Foster Island for exercise today. Charlotte actually came up with the idea - we’d ridden bikes through last week - and it was fun to go on foot and see in more detail the blossoming trees and new flowers coming up. Heading out to Foster Island at the end was the icing on the cake - there were a ton of boats going through the Montlake Cut and it was cool to watch them parade through. Plus, the kids found a cool tree to climb - that has become our alternative to playgrounds, I am learning. After dinner al fresco, Edison helped make the outdoor campfire which was cool. Edison and Charlotte wrapped up the night with a book club zoom and then we had a nice time settling into camping out!
More home learning! I got a run in early, before all the meetings and emails started flying, and it was already sunny and beautiful. The kids have now started to create their own checklists based on the work their teachers are assigning, so that is neat to see them take ownership of their learning. They were very self-directed today. After lunch, we got to work putting the camper away, packing for the cabin, and doing all the last minute work to leave for the cabin. We stopped at Lake Wenatchee State Park on the way to the cabin. They were closed for cars, but open for people entering via bike or foot. We had the place to ourselves and the kids and I rode all through empty campsites, abandoned roads covered in pine needles and pine cones, and along the beach. It was a mild day, incredibly beautiful, and somewhat eerie. That is our new normal at present. It did start to feel like a break from the work/school week and I think we all were much more relaxed and thankful for the change of pace by the end of it. We tried “impossible burgers” for the first time tonight - big thumb’s up from the kids - they were pretty good in my opinion, so those will be our new burgers of choice for now. We put together a fun plan for Saturday, so looking forward to that!
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