Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: This week ushered in July. It’s so hard to believe that half the year is gone. As for things we did this week, the main fun we had was two different trips to the zoo. We went on Thursday (just me and the kids since Paul was working) and then again on Friday with Paul (he had the day off since it was the day before the 4th of July). Today is Independence Day. Paul got up early and mowed both lawns. After lunch he headed out and got the kids a surprise: a silly sprinkler and some super soakers (say that five times fast, haha). They played outside for over an hour and just had a blast! Later we’ll grill up some hot dogs and pop off some fireworks (Joseph is especially happy about that last bit). I’ll try to get a video of the neighborhood fireworks. They never disappoint.

The Weekly Weather: July brought heat with it. We had a really mild June, though, so I suppose I don’t have much to complain about…besides, we have a nice air conditioned house to hang out in. On super hot days, I remind myself about our little rental house in Highland, CA. It was a bungalow built in the 1930s, and didn’t have central heat or air. It had a wall heater in the living room, but we needed window AC units in both the living room and the dining room (the living room opened into the bedroom and the dining room opened into the office). Most of the house would get decently cool that way (except the bathrooms: one that was sandwiched in-between the bedroom and the office and the other which was off the office…oh, and the kitchen, which was off the dining room was almost always sweltering in the summer). We were only there for two years, but it was long enough for me to be grateful that our new house had central heating and air!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He worked from home this week, which is always nice because he doesn’t have to drive to-and-from and he’s also able to help with the kids a bit here and there.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I have pretty much been trying to keep the kids entertained while in the house. The addition of the sprinkler and super soakers will make it easier to find ways to cool off, so that’ll be good.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Mainly just surviving summer, haha. He’s got his games, tablet, LEGOs, and toys, though, so he’s doing pretty good.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She came up with a new one this week when trying to convince me that it wasn’t time for her to go to bed yet. I put her to bed and then went to do something downstairs. I could hear her in her room and there was one point where I was pretty sure she was playing with toys. I headed upstairs to check. Now, she can hear the baby gates open and shut from her room, so I was about half up the stairs when I heard her running in her room. I opened her door and found her in her bed (but rather out of breath, haha). I asked her if she was okay. She said yes, but that she needed a drink of water. Nice try, kid, but nope. Go to sleep. 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: It’s hard to believe that we’re almost to July. We’ve mostly been staying home, but we did escape the house once to meet up with some friends at the zoo. We met up in the Tiny Tot Nature Spot (a sort of secluded spot that has a little river running through it, where they could just run around and play). We just stayed there and let the kids play for a couple of hours. They got soaked from head-to-toe (especially after Joseph and his friend found out that they could shoot water at each other from two outdoor sinks, haha), but had a blast.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been mostly warm and dry, but we did have a couple of rain storms come through, which was nice. Yesterday was a random cooler day with the highs only reaching into the low 80s. It was really nice! We have been dealing with increased dust in the air, since a huge dust cloud from the Saharan Desert came over via the trade winds. Luckily we knew it was going to happen, so we started taking allergy medicine a few days before it really hit.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy with work and with squeezing in yard work into the mix. He did me a huge favor and sprayed for bugs since we’d been getting attacked by mosquitoes (’tis the season, I suppose).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I managed to get the house cleaned (it’s a lot easier now that I’m back in my routine) and kept the kids happy (most of the time). That’s a win-win in my book.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He has been really good about playing with Abigail while I do “Mom stuff”. While I hope that he can go back to school in the fall (for the sake of everyone in this pandemic madness; wanting some sense of normalcy to be back by then), I’ll miss his help!

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She had an absolute blast getting to play in the water at the zoo. There was one point where I looked over and both kids had sat down in the river…I hadn’t thought they would get wet enough to warrant me needing to bring changes of clothes or towels…I should have known better, haha. They had fun, at least. We also left after that, so they weren’t stuck in sopping wet clothes for too long.

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: We broke up the blah of the week by meeting up with friends at the zoo. The kids had a ton of fun (my friend has a boy who is a year younger than Joseph and a girl who is a year older than Abigail, so it’s just perfect). Other than that, we kind of just hung around the house, working on projects.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been warm, but still relatively mild. Mostly sunny…I think there was one day where it rained a bit, but it wasn’t much.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He worked from home this week. He also has worked on some of his projects around the house. He made some cabinet doors for some shelves that he has in the office. He also assembled the other window seat bench and built the top for it.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly just keeping the kids entertained and happy…and trying to get my cleaning schedule back into habit. It kind of went out the window when I had Abigail (understandably), so I would do sporadic cleaning binges that always left me exhausted, because I would inevitably do too much at once. It was like that for a couple of years. I started getting back into it this year, but then our world was turned on its ear with this whole pandemic and subsequent distance learning. The housework took a back burner to making sure Joseph got the learning that he needed. Now that we’re officially on summer vacation, I’m getting back into it where I only do a bit of cleaning every day. I prefer to do it this way because then I don’t tire myself out and I still have plenty of time for playing with and doing fun things with the kids. Also, by doing it on a regular basis, the house is staying cleaner, so it doesn’t take as long to clean things, either.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been soaking up summer, haha. He was ecstatic to get to meet up with friends and is looking forward to when we get to do it again.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been keeping me on my toes. 😉 She has also been doing really well with continuing to go to bed on her own. She does try to draw it out and make deals with me so that I’ll lay on the floor in her room, but I’ve been able to reason with her (whaaat!!!) and she’s been going to bed resignedly happy. 😉

This Week in Pictures:

Bonus Video: Abigail singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”