April

It was another month will with home activities.  As a homebody I can honestly say that aside from the sibling fights I'm handling the "shelter-in-place" pretty well.  I go out once a week for groceries, but I don't feel like I'm going stir crazy just wanting out of my house.  I consider that a blessing.  We had a cooler than normal April with quite a few mornings with a dusting of snow, but we were able to get out most days to go on a walk/bike ride for exercise.

I forgot to post the last two months about books I have read recently.  In February I decided to finally tackle To Kill a Mockingbird.  Yes, I made it all through school and college without ever needing to read it.  I felt like I wasn't a good American not having read it, so I finally decided to read it.  It was good, but I kept waiting for a good plot and it just didn't have one.  Once I finally realized it was more of a narrative, I enjoyed the book more.  There were some good messages in the book and I would say that once I finished the book I liked it, but I didn't love it where I would want to own a copy of it.  

The next book I decided to read was Gone With the Wind.  I know my mom loves this book so I decided to brave the almost 1000 pages and give it a try.  This book was very wordy.  I felt like the author could have cut out 1/3 of her words and still had a very good story.  I found this book a little discouraging and depressing, especially since I was in the middle of it just as COVID-19 started to take over our country.  I couldn't escape to a good book to lighten my mood because GWTW was more depressing!  I didn't love the ending, but I was prepared for the unhappy ending since I had seen the movie.  This is another book I'm glad to have read, but won't worry about reading again.  I did watch the movie, and my two big kids enjoyed watching it with me. 

Very thin pages and very fine print!

We enjoyed General Conference weekend.  I love this picture of Lincoln suddenly watching so intently!

Conference smiles!

I was one step ahead of the mandatory mask order.  One day I made masks for myself and all of the kids.  The kids loved picking out their fabric.  Rebecah is the only one who has actually needed to use her mask when she went for a physical, but the kids like feeling part of things, and if I needed a mask they did, too.  I'm sure they'll need masks eventually.

 

 Reading adventure

School work continues at our house.  The decision was made April 30 to continue distance learning for the rest of the school year.  I have mixed feelings about it, but we have a pretty good system working for us.

Since Joseph has been home more he has had some time to work on various projects.  He did some tune-ups on the bikes, painted Kimball's room, worked on some outside projects and paining window frames.

Lincoln and Annika hear Kimball and Rebecah practicing their instruments 

 so they built their own horns so they wouldn't be left out.

We celebrated Easter.  It was a wonderful Easter Saturday coloring eggs and hunting for Easter eggs and baskets.  On Sunday we had yummy food and enjoyed some spiritual messages at home and special music on the violin, bass clarinet and piano from Joseph, Kimball and Rebecah.

I've baked even more bread than usual lately.  I thought I had a good supply of yeast in my pantry, and I do, but at the rate I'm making bread, I'll quickly go through my 3 lbs.  Yeast is one of many things that is in short supply these days and when it IS available, it is really expensive.  I have found a few bread recipes that call for minimal yeast.  My family really likes this no-knead bread.  I guess when I run out of yeast if I can't buy more I can always transition to sour dough bread.

I love these little cuties.  We made crowns for an activity one Sunday and the kids love to wear them.  The kids have gotten a lot of good use out of them.

For our anniversary in March, Joseph bought me a toaster oven.  It is pretty big, but I wanted one big enough to hold a 12-cup muffin tin or a 9x13 pan.  I love my mini oven.  I don't plan to use it for toast because toaster ovens take too long to make toast, but I love it as a mini oven.  I have made quite a few things and it will be great to use this summer.  

Check out those hands!  I love my littles and how loving they are with each other.  They frequently hold hands, hug, and snuggle with each other.  Lincoln and Annika always loved it when they could sit next to each other at school.  

We do daily Gospel study.  Some study sessions are great and others are a struggle.  I love it when everyone is engaged, happy, and learning the Gospel.

Joseph's big project for the month was trimming our maple tree and arborvitae.  He had to rent a huge boom lift, but he manged to figure out how to drive it and not hit the neighbor's fence.  Joseph was able to accomplish a lot the first day we had the lift, and then the weather took a turn for the worse.  We had two days of strong winds and then 1 1/2 days of rain.  Joseph returned the lift and will have to finish trimming the maple tree another time.  I'm glad he was safe being so high in the air.  All of the kids enjoyed having a little ride in the lift bucket.

 

 

March Madness

Our month did not turn out how we anticipated.  Coronavirus/Covid-19 kind of changed our plans drastically.  We had Kimball's musical (Frozen) and an orchestra concert that were going to be the highlights of our month--but both were cancelled.  Depending on if/when we go back to school the director will try to reschedule the musical, but it was a huge blow to the cast and crew to have the show canceled the week of the performances.  The orchestra concert won't be rescheduled and I'm really disappointed because I had missed this particular concert the last two years.

Here are some activities that we participated in before the "pause."

Donuts with Dad:  Joseph was able to take all three preschool kids to the special "Donuts with Dad" night.  The kids decorated and ate donuts, played games, and made a craft.  The kids had a great time!

Rebecah went to a birthday party for her wonderful friend Melanie.  These girls have been good friends since Kindergarten!

Eden had a dress up day at school and all of the girls joined in.

We registered Lincoln and Annika for Kindergarten.  I can't believe my two tiny babies are old enough for Kindergarten in the Fall!

Public church meetings were canceled starting March 15, so we now have church at home.  Our last 3 weeks have gone really well with the Sacrament, fun activities, lessons and Church-related videos at home.  

The first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in our county on March 16, so the schools in our county closed March 17, and we are uncertain if/when we will go back to school.  Home schooling is difficult.  I am a stay-at-home mom, but being a SAHM and a home school mom is tough.  I have to keep up with the housework, laundry, baking and stay on top of everyone's school work now, too.  I'm trying my best to not let anything go, so we can maintain our normal life.  One of the highlights of the day is when we go outside.  We are in the rainy season, but we have been lucky to get out most days even when it's chilly.  I'm surprised that the kids are out in short sleeved shirts when it hasn't been warmer than 55, but warmth is all relative when you live in a colder climate.

Out on our daily bike ride around the neighborhood.  Someone asked me if we were a parade!

Lincoln and Annika with some of their "guys."

The kids broke out the Legos about a week after our social distancing started.  Everyone has had fun building various creations.  Here was a special one that Eden made by herself.  

Here is Eden all dressed up.  Me:  "Oh my!! Look at this scary dragon coming."  Eden:  "I'm not scary, I'm pretty!" 

Here are a few more outside pictures with chalk.

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and had our traditional dinner.  Good thing I don't care about going out to eat on my anniversary since we would have had to eat at home anyway!  The cheesecake I made was delicious!!  

Lincoln will do just about anything for popcorn.  I made plain popcorn one afternoon for a snack and while everyone complained at first they all devoured it!  We have also had buttered popcorn and two batches of caramel popcorn!  Kimball is a good caramel popcorn maker.

Joseph brought home some masks from the hospital that he 

had briefly used, so we tried out the masks.

After being home for two weeks, other than weekly grocery shopping trips for me, we went on a family outing.  I think the kids were so happy to be in the car and out of the neighborhood.  We went to Palmyra to visit the Sacred Grove to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the First Vision when Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith.  The record states that this vision occurred in early spring, so we wanted to experience the grove in early spring.  No buds on the trees, just a few green shoots of daffodils coming up. It was a peaceful walk and I hope the older kids at least will remember our visit and its significance.   We all enjoyed getting out of our house.

While I am happiest at home, I will confess that at times our sheltering in place does have it's challenges.  It's hard to find quiet times throughout the day, there is a lot more fighting than usual, and I miss my moments when everyone was in school.  Joseph's work had to make a lot of changes and while he is still employed, he only works three 24-hour shifts a month.  We are grateful that he has kept his job, despite a reduced salary, when so many at SOS had to be let go for the time being.  We are grateful to have savings, food storage and faith.  Joseph has been working on some projects around the house and practicing the violin a lot since he has more free time.

Kimball decided to take up the bass clarinet about a month ago.  He had one lesson with his teacher, and a few tutoring sessions with friends before school closed.  He has taught himself the rest of the notes and has picked it up quickly.  He is also tinkering with the piano and doing very well.  He continues to play the string bass as well.  

Home school is going fairly well after three weeks.  Kimball gets more assignments as each week passes and more teachers have set up Google Classroom accounts.  Kimball now submits bass practice videos, takes quizzes on the computer, and turns in assignments through  Google Classroom.  Rebecah has Zoom class time twice a week in addition to assignments that she turns in on Google Classroom.  I'm grateful that Kimball and Rebecah are our only kids that need daily computer use.  It must be so difficult for families with multiple children in higher grade levels.  The little ones and I do preschool circle time at least 3 times a week, and work on other preschool skills with letters, patterns, etc.

February

February felt like a fast, busy month, but I didn't take very many pictures!  

We started the month attending an Interfaith World Harmony Celebration that was held at a Jewish Synagogue in Syracuse.  It was a wonderful opportunity for our family.  The World Harmony Celebration is a gathering of various faith groups in the Syracuse area who come together each year to worship in our respective ways through word and song.  It was really interesting to see some of the other faith groups and learn more about them.  Part of our church congregation sang a song called "The Miracle" about Christ and how He works a miracle in each of our lives as we are rescued through His sacrifice.  Some of the other faith groups that participated were the Sikhs, Episcopal church, Catholic church, Hindus, Haudenosaunee Nation, Islam, and Unity church.

We have had such a mild winter.  We are two feet below our average and it hasn't even felt very winter-ish this year.  We did have one good snow storm in February.  We got about a foot of snow and the kids had the day off school.  To celebrate the snow day we made homemade soft pretzels and they were a hit.  We dipped them in cinnamon and sugar and the kids loved them!

We celebrated Valentine's Day with school parties, play groups and special food for breakfast and dinner.  The kids love Valentine's Day, and I love spreading love.  

The kids had a week off from school for Winter Break.  We tried to do some fun things while also taking care of business.  Kimball and Rebecah went to the dentist and they got new glasses.  The little ones went to story time at the library, had a play date with friends and we all went to the movies.  I was going to take them to a bounce house, but Eden randomly got sick the morning we had it scheduled, so we saved that for the following week.  Kimball had musical rehearsal two days and he and Joseph went night skiing one evening.  The kids had a nice break, but they were all ready to get back to school after their week off.

New glasses.