Weekly Happenings: It’s hard to believe that it’s already May. Time continues to march on in our new kind of normal. We kind of just chugged along, getting our normal things done. Nothing too out of the ordinary for this week.
Weekly Weather: It’s been pretty average spring weather: sunny, warm, and breezy. I do think that spring in South Texas is my favorite…in spite of all the things in the air that I’m allergic to. 😉
What Paul’s Been Up To: He was at work this week, so his time was divided between work, working around the house/yard, and family time. He had the sprinklers’ piping repaired, but the sprinklers still weren’t quite working right. He decided to check the water pressure before seeing if there was a different leak and came to find out that it wasn’t as high as it was supposed to be, so he tweaked the PRV and was able to get the pressure higher. Lo and behold, the sprinklers work now. Yay!
What Sarah’s Been Up To: We’re in survival mode at this point, haha. I’m just keeping Joseph caught up with his school work, trying to give Abigail her share of attention, upkeep the house, laundry, and the like…I’m looking forward to when things are able to open up again!
What Joseph’s Been Up To: Mostly just school work and playing around. He says he’s bored with doing school at home (I knew the novelty would wear off eventually), but we’ve just got to make it through May before we get to have a real break.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: I switched out her clothes so now she’s wearing 4T clothes. I suppose it’s about time since she will be four in December. One funny story: she had dumped her barrel of monkeys game out and was reenacting “10 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed”. She would sing a verse and then as she got to the part about the monkey falling off the bed, she would toss the monkey over her shoulder. Then she would have me do the doctor bit of saying “no more monkeys jumping on the bed”. It was pretty funny.
This Week in Pictures:
Watching her favorite movie…again.He made a rain stick by putting a twisted piece of foil inside a paper towel tube and then putting some rice inside (and sealing both ends). It doesn’t sound exactly like areal one, but it still makes for a good shaker.My May decorations. I’ll leave them up until Fall, since they cover Memorial Day, Flag Day, 4th of July, and summer in general. To be honest, these come out in January as well, when I don’t have any other holiday decorations.She wanted all of her Buc-ees. 🙂This girl sure loves those beavers!My board for May.Mom gave up and let her have as many snacks as she wanted.I’m still not sure what’s going on here.She wanted her snack left in the bag. I stayed close by to make sure she didn’t upend it. She did pretty well.If one is going to find the car one wants, one must dump out ALL of the cars. It’s the law.Teeny new tomatoes.My basil lives! It got a pretty bad fungus infection and I had to basically cut all of it back except one little stem that still had about three tiny leaves. I was hoping that it would grow back if I kept watering it and it is!One of my favorite views.If I fits, I sits…how come nobody warned me that having a toddler was a lot like having a cat? 😉
Weekly Happenings: Well, we’ve made it another week. Not much out of the ordinary was accomplished, so there isn’t much to write about. I’m looking forward to the passing of more time so that we can hopefully get on the other side of all of this and start to be able to return to normal life.
The Weekly Weather: It’s been warm and dry. I’m trying to think if it rained at all. I think it might have sprinkled a bit one day, but that was about it.
What Paul’s Been Up To: This past week was a work-from-home week, so he spent his time divided up between working and doing yard work. This seems to be the new normal for these weeks.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: It was another week of helping Joseph with school and helping both Joseph and Abigail enjoy this extra time at home. I’m looking forward to June when I can toss the schoolwork out the window, though.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s divided his time between school and fun. It’s fun to have conversations with him as he’s getting older (even though the majority of them are about video game facts right now, haha).
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been fighting bedtime hardcore right now. At first we thought it might be that she wanted a bigger bed, so we traded out her toddler bed for a bigger mattress (when Paul has a spare moment, he’ll build a simple frame for the mattress just like he did for Joseph). That worked for one and a half nights. Then I thought that maybe getting her cool new bedding might work. She LOVES her new bedding…but not enough to go to sleep on her own in it. This is the kid that has wanted to put herself to bed since she was six months old…and now she’s wanting me to hold her or be next to her on the couch until she falls asleep and then I carry her into her bed. This worked for a few nights and then last night she randomly woke up at 1:00 and was awake until almost 5:00…I’m not going to miss whatever stage this is.
This Week in Pictures:
Abigail came up and wanted to show me the “bracelet” she made. 🙂Right after we moved into our house (almost eight years ago, for those that may have lost count), we were walking down our street and noticed this prickly pear cactus growing in a huge oak tree. It’s still there, y’all…probably a good 20 feet from the ground.She told me she was sitting in her beach chair and drinking her beach juice (her “cup” is the lower half of the barrel from her barrel of monkeys and her “straw” is a cylinder block). I can’t make this stuff up, people.Just a boy in his natural habitat. 😉Her balance and ability to multi-task (snacking, balancing, and watching a show) amaze me.She asked to wear her black boots because they were “so sty-wish”. I agree…they are pretty stylish.She asked me if she could watch the “Jack what’s this movie”. Considering the fact that she’d only seen about ten minutes of it over a week prior, I was surprised that even though she couldn’t remember the title, she could remember lyrics. This is the bedding she loves, but not enough to go to sleep in. 😉Just a boy playing video games and a girl in her Vampirina costume watching her tablet…nothing to see here.Paul gave her some Greek yogurt with a bit of chocolate syrup mixed in. She really enjoyed it.
Bonus Video: Here’s a video that Google Photos compiled of a bunch of videos we took of Joseph through the years!
Today was my mom’s birthday and the kids sang her Happy Birthday!
Weekly Happenings: It’s getting to the point where it’s a bit hard for me to remember what day of the week it is. We just got word that Joseph will continue his distance learning plan until the end of the school year, so I guess this is our new normal (at least until summer break, which starts the first week of June). Meanwhile, we do school, try to get out of the house to play or take a walk, and pretty much just try to make it through. I’m grateful that Paul is still able to work so that we have income coming in and that we have a comfortable home to live in. It makes it so that we don’t feel very “stuck”.
The Weekly Weather: We’ve had a little bit of sun, a little bit of rain…typical spring weather for San Antonio, it seems.
What Paul’s Been Up To: This past week was one where he had to go into the office. His commute is a bit lighter because not as many people are on the road, so that’s nice. He’s also been doing yard work since everything has woken up (grass needs mowing, mulch in the flower beds, etc.).
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been helping with homework, doing a bit of yard work to keep my body active (and to give me a few quiet moments here and there), and doing what I can to keep the kids happy and healthy.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s rocking school work and loving the extra time he has to play with toys, his LEGOs, and video games.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been her normal pleasant self for the most part (sometimes there are tantrums, but it’s part of life at the age of three, I suppose). It’s funny to hear her repeat certain phrases that she’s heard us use or has heard on TV. The other day, she was asking where a certain toy was and I told her to look in her toy box. She opened the lid, stuck her hand in, swished it around (while not even looking in the box) and then said in a very concerned voice, “I can’t find it ANYWHERE!” I looked in the toy box and found the toy sitting right on top, haha. Silly goose of a girl.
This Week in Pictures:
My tomato plant has gone through a growth spurt!Indulging in a bit of screen time.Joseph has been learning how to tell time using an analog clock. He’s getting really good at it! This was a picture I took of different clocks that he drew so that I could email his teacher to show her. This distance learning stuff is interesting, to say the least.I had taken a moment after dinner to prop up me feet in the recliner. As I looked around, I was struck with a wave of gratitude for this beautiful home we live in.Joseph grew a crystal from a kit. It took a couple of weeks to fully grow, but I think the results were pretty impressive.The larger one is the seed rock (the rock that’s placed in the container to give the crystal powder something to start growing on). The smaller one is a cluster of crystals that grew on the side of the jar.I love the back yard. It really is a fun place for the kids to play.She wanted to take her football for a ride on the swing. 🙂Using the brush-burning can as a drum.Perks of homemade pizza: yummy crust (that is so easy to make thanks to my mixer), and personalized toppings: pepperoni, mushroom, and olive for me and Paul, mushroom and olive for Abigail, and plain cheese for Joseph.Taking a walk around the neighborhood.Snuggling up to watch a show. She loves her little Sally doll (Sally is from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas).Paul got me some more large containers to match the ones I already had and got a couple more plants to go in them. We spread some fresh mulch and it’s looking really great.Paul got me an itty-bitty sewing machine which will be perfect for small mending projects. I spent a bit of time watching YouTube videos on how to thread it and then tried it out on some scrap fabric. I think it’s going to work out great for the occasional jobs I have and it won’t take up a whole lot of room.Going down the slide. She loves our back yard (in fact, she calls it the playground). Checking out the new flowers.
