Weekly Happenings: This was another week of school from home, little bits of silence-seeking, and some fun play-time.
The Weekly Weather: It’s been warm and sunny up until yesterday afternoon when a cold front moved in. It started raining last night and it’s still raining…and it’s supposed to rain for the next ten days. Wee, fun!
What Paul’s Been Up To: This week, he had to go into work (this next week he’ll be working from home). He also did what yard work he could while the sun was shining.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much on my front. I’ve mainly been helping Joseph with school and helping Abigail not go to stir crazy. 😉
What Joseph’s Been Up To: School from home, playing, and a little extra screen-time. 😉
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been getting used to having Joseph at home (she had gotten accustomed to having me all to herself during most of the day, I think). She also enjoyed digging through old costumes to have dress-up fun.
This Week in Pictures:
Joseph’s art teacher asked them to make a nature sculpture out of things they could find in their back yard. This is what Joseph came up with. I was pretty impressed!Dressed up as Mario from Super Mario Brothers (this costume used to belong to Joseph).One of those “then-and-now” pictures that Google Photos occasionally puts together. I think she was almost one in the picture on the left.She asked if she could wear a “spoooooooooooky shirt” so I dug through her shirts to find her Buc-ee’s Halloween shirt.Sometimes Momma needs to find silence amid the chaos that occasionally ensues when there are young children in the house…so she steps outside for a deep breath. I love our house, inside and out.Standing on the back porch and looking out over the back yard makes me feel extreme gratitude for the beautiful place we live.She wanted to dress up in her Vampirina costume.Here’s another on one those then-and-now photos. The picture on the left is from her first birthday. 🙂Once she had on her costume, she of course needed to watch the show. You can see Vampirina on the screen there.On another day, she asked for a “fancy dress” so that she could go to Minnie’s Masquerade Ball (the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode she was watching). She also insisted on a crown (thank goodness we still had an old Burger King one laying around) and her “pink butterfly boots”. 😀I changed my board out for April. This is a quote by Lady Bird Johnson and I think it’s quite fitting for what is going on in the world right now.I switched out the shamrocks for bunnies and eggs.I switched out the shamrocks over here for flowers……and switched out the shamrock door hanger for my spring one. We’re all ready for April!She loves lift-the-flap books.This is digital learning! Joseph is learning about man-made and natural resources, so he made lists of both.I then took his picture and uploaded the pictures so I could send them to his teacher. I am so grateful for technology!His music teacher asked them to tell her what their favorite instrument was. Joseph’s answer: “I like the recorder because I can make annoying sounds with it.” 😀She insisted on wearing her sparkly skirt. She carried around her baby doll a lot on this particular day. I told her she should give her baby doll a hug so that I could take her picture. This was the result.“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.”
Weekly Happenings: As my rather alliterative title suggests, we spent a lot of time together this past week. School is still closed (and will be until April 26th, unless they extend it even more) and Paul was able to work from home, so the only places we’ve been is to different stores to get groceries (Paul did go to Lowe’s to get me some plants so we can get our garden started again).
The Weekly Weather: Sunday was chilly, but the rest of the week has been warm, sunny, and dry…except for this morning when a random thunderstorm (that hadn’t even been on the forecast, as far as I could remember) moved through at about 4:00.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been working from home (thank goodness for his office!) and has been doing a few things around the yard in his free time.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been making sure Joseph’s been getting some of his assignments done online for school, keeping Abigail from getting too stir crazy (sometimes we just go for a drive around), and the like. Since San Antonio pretty much issued a stay-at-home ordinance, I’ve discontinued my piano lessons until we ride this whole thing out.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been doing work online, reading, playing with his toys, LEGOs, video games…it’s almost like summer vacation for him, haha.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: I think this has been the hardest on her since she’s too little to understand why our normal routine has been upended. She’s been acting out a little more than normal, but I try to remember and to be patient (and give her extra hugs and snuggles).
This Week in Pictures:
Snuggling on the couch while watching some classic cartoons (this is the Incredible Hulk).Getting stir crazy……they both were, so we loaded up and went for a drive.I got her this little unicorn that comes with its own carrying case (you can kind of see it in the bottom of the picture)…she decided she needed to try to ride it, haha.Riding her “couch horse”.We got (from left to right): cilantro, cherry tomatoes, and basil.We also got a couple more strawberry plants.This has been my view a lot this week. Thank goodness the tree is pretty. 😉I love this little air plant. It makes me happy. I had just watered it (it gets a spritz of water once a week) and I thought it looked pretty with the water droplets on the vase.Sometimes you gotta just make a tent.My mint has come back in full force.She wanted to see herself. 🙂She makes me laugh every day. I love this little girl!She’s channeling her inner ’80s rock star. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na…Batman!So, something cool we can do with our phones is search for an animal on Google and follow some steps to “see” a 3D version in our house (through our camera). Then, you can take people’s pictures. Here’s Abigail chatting it up with an octopus. 😜Here she is chillin’ with a panda… …and swimming with a sea turtle.
Weekly Happenings: Thanks to the presence of the COVID-19 virus, our spring break has been extended all the way through April 3rd, with Joseph potentially going back on the 6th. As we get closer to that date, though, they may extend it even more. Joseph’s regular teacher and GT teacher have both gotten us set up with remote learning, so thanks to technology, he’ll still get to do school work so that he doesn’t forget what he’s learned so far. We’re pretty much staying home. I did have students come, but only if they were well and believe me, EVERYBODY washed their hands (including Abigail, who had to have a turn every time, haha). I’ve only been to the store once and luckily got everything I needed. I hope that’ll still be the case when I try to go again on Monday.
Weekly Weather: It’s been beautiful lately: warm (but not hot) and sunny. It’s made it hard to stay home, but we’re doing what we can to make the spread of this virus not as bad. A cold front moved in yesterday and into today, so it’s been a bit easier to stay home today since it’s cold and rainy. 😉
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s still going to work. He has set it up so that it’s possible to work remotely, but there hasn’t been any word as to if they are going to start doing that. Luckily he doesn’t have to interact with too many people in too close of quarters at work.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I have had to find a way to get outside ever day (even if it’s just to water my plants). I always imagined myself a homebody, preferring to be home over other places, but this “social distancing” as the CDC has labeled it, has been harder than expected. I didn’t realize how much I was doing until I was told not to do it anymore.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s doing fine with his remote learning. Luckily, his classrooms (both regular and GT) were already heavy on technology-based learning, so it hasn’t been too much of a shift for him. He’s just doing it at home instead.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: I think this staying home business has been the hardest on her. She’s so used to our routine. There have been many, many times this past week that she’s asked if we could go in the car or if it was time to take Joseph to school. Thankfully, Disney+ (Disney’s version of a streaming service, similar to Netflix or Amazon) released Frozen 2 earlier than planned (they had originally planned to wait until June, but wanted to release it early to give people something good to look forward to during this hard time). We’ve watched it (and the first Frozen as well as other Frozen-themed shows) many times this past week. 🙂
This Week in Pictures:
While waiting for traffic to clear enough for me to get onto the access road, I noticed the hill in front of me was full of bluebonnets, so I snapped a quick picture.After I got home, I zoomed in on the picture so that it was easier to actually see the flowers.New neon-green leaves on the oak trees. 🙂My outdoor plants have been quite happy with the mild weather.This is one of my favorite sights.This is another one.I’m still amazed with how much these trees have grown in the almost-eight years we’ve been here.The kids still wanted to wear their St. Patrick’s Day shirts even if we didn’t go anywhere.Joseph was pretty happy that I managed to find one with Pikachu on it.One of my wildflowers (Paul planted seeds several years ago and they keep reseeding themselves). I’m glad I snapped this picture when I did because upon further research, I think this one is called an Asiatic dayflower and the blooms only last one day. I was so excited to see new leaves on my poinsettia. I had already moved it outside, thinking most of our cold weather was over, but then we had a few more days where the lows got below 45 degrees and it wasn’t too happy with that. I just kept watering it and it’s nice to see those new leaves sprouting!I was also happy to see new leaves on a couple of my plants in the back yard. Paul kept reassuring me that they had just gone dormant for winter and that they would come back with spring, but it was a bit hard for me to look at those bare branches and envision life still being present.This picture just oozes “San Antonio”…the Spurs shirt…the boots…I love this girl!She was digging through the storage bench and found Joseph’s cold-weather gear and insisted I help her put it on.Yup. That says $1.69/gallon. Using the drink carrier (which she originally absconded with in order to use as a tin for imaginary muffins) as a tablet stand. She’s nothing short of resourceful, haha.She asked that I take a picture of her with her “couch horse”.Soggy Saturdays are meant for relaxing…also, when did he get so grown?Abigail was playing hide-and-seek with Paul. Do you see her? 😉
