At 8 am we watched church and my kids basically pretended they were asleep in order to not have to come into the living room. I know it’s hard for them to stay focused.
After church and breakfast, the kids started in on their schooling. I had a good conversation with Kate, from Scotland, because she had no idea where I was. While I was speaking to her, the kids caused all kinds of fuss with schooling. They spent most of their time trying to get out of doing work. It is definitely wearing on all of us.
I called my brother Russ and spoke to him for nearly an hour and a half. We had a Sunday roast dinner of beef, carrots and potatoes. After lunch, I napped. Jack went to the park with Pop for a while and then before I knew it, it was time for dinner. After dinner, we had a scorpion search again which came up with nothing. Millie was disappointed, but I assured her there would be other nights and certainly more scorpions.
When I started my evening of work, I decided to have a Zoom Meeting with a few of my pupils. I’m not the most technologically sound person around, so I’m pretty pleased with myself that I could figure out this Zoom thing. About a half hour after my Zoom Meeting I had a team meeting. We had to discuss what we were going to do to introduce our Term 3 topic, which is Star Wars.
I woke up later than normal on Monday morning, which kind of set me back a bit as I like to have most of my morning routine finished by the time everyone else is awake. Once Stuart was awake and working, he ran into a snag. His hard drive on his school computer crashed.
This was the scene as we stood in line to get into Sam’s Club in order to buy Stuart a new laptop. Like his mask? Grammie made all of us masks. Disappointingly, we walked away with no laptop, as they were all sold out. Three stores, two hours, and $650 later, we were home and setting up his new laptop.
Once lunch was over, we had a Zoom Meeting with the Pennell side of the family.
It was a bit chaotic. It was so good to speak to everyone. It’s strange how this virus has caused us all to communicate more and in different ways. There are some up sides to this time in our lives. I hope the positives, like family closeness, time to slow down, and quality conversations stay with us long after this blip in time has passed.
After we Zoomed, the kids went to the park with Grammie and Pop while Stuart and I got ready for our teaching that evening. Running around, trying to find a laptop in the morning was a time sucker and meant we didn’t work as much in the morning as we normally do.
Once the kids were home from the park, Millie was a bit sassy when she was getting ready to take a shower, which caused her to lose her card game for the evening. Then she ended up not going to sleep until around 9 pm. That child is a bit stubborn and sometimes has the ‘I’ll show you!’ attitude.
I had a Zoom Meeting scheduled for my entire class on Monday evening. It was hilarious. At first they didn’t say a word. Then they wouldn’t stop talking. I muted them all to say one final thing. I just wanted to tell them how proud I was of them and their efforts over the last two weeks. Well, I barely got that out before a few of my sassy ones figured out how to unmute themselves. Then the hilarity began all over again. I couldn’t do anything but laugh. I do miss their little personalities. I went to bed happy for sure.
I set my alarm for 6:15 am so I could get my work done before going to walk with Sue. We decided this would be a weekly therapy session, while still maintaining our social distancing of six feet. It was an hour of chatting. We don’t seem to run out of things to talk about at all, which is a sign of true friendship, and I’m not just writing this, knowing she reads this every week. 🤪
When I got home it was nearly time to start school for the kids. Jack finished his chapter book we had bought him the first day we got to Arizona, so I went to Target to get him another one and may have purchased Millie some clothes for her American Girl doll. I also purchased her a little camping set for said doll.
Stuart made leek and potato soup for lunch. It was amazing. We have started to get used to lunch being our hot meal and then just having either leftovers for dinner or something easy to make. It makes everything more relaxed in the evenings.
The kids did a little more schooling after lunch and then were off to have some time on their on. Millie played babies and Jack played on his PS4, which he had been grounded from on Sunday and Monday because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut while I was telling him how rude he was for riding his bike through people’s rocks in the neighborhood.
The kids, Stuart and Pop headed to the park while I attempted to work through a PowerPoint for my lesson, while I was in the picture. I felt so accomplished that I learned to use the program Loom to do so. I then joined the crew at the park.
As seems to be our routine now days, the kids had showers, dinner and a game of Mexican Train before scorpion hunting. I did my video for school then took a shower, but failed to remember I was video chatting with one of my students as well as having a team meeting. The team meeting was to record our video about The Force, and introducing Star Wars. I ended up not getting to bed until around 2:30 am. The nights I have team meetings I have difficulty winding down as I am responsible for typing up the minutes. I always want to get that completed before going to bed.
Wednesday I didn’t wake up until a bit after 8 am. As much as I like to be finished checking work before everyone is up and about, I do need sleep. Stuart and I did some work and then the kids were schooled. I actually sat with them at the table while they worked. It was their last day of school before the weekend. Four days is more than enough. Fortunately, Grammie works a lot with Millie. She has the patience. Jack is pretty good to get on with things but sometimes loses focus.
We had lunch and then did our normal, daily lazing around until it was time for the last half hour of school. The kids decided to paint. That was totally fine by me. We discovered their paints were total crap, so after school was over, Grammie and I went to Wal Mart for a prescription for Grammie and ended up buying some new paints and brushes.
We wore our masks, but shortly after we took this selfie I decided it was more important for me to not suffocate than it was for me to cover my face. Clearly there was an issue with how tight the mask was. They are cute, though.
When we got home and unloaded everything, we discovered that the kids had already been to the park and were back for showers. I had bought Millie some bath bombs and so I made Jack shower first so that Millie could take a bath. The evening routine carried on and a game of Mexican train ended our day.
Millie had finished her loom knitting on Wednesday and decided she needed to wear it to bed that evening.
Once the kids were in bed my mom and I watched a photo video of my Aunt Norma that was created by the funeral home. We cried and cried and cried. My mom cried for the loss of her sister. I cried for my mom. I can’t imagine being the only person left in my family, although it is likely going to be the way things will pan out for me as well. This mortality thing can rattle your warld for sure.
During our ‘work hours’, Stuart tried to Zoom with his class but not very many showed up. His participation has not been great from the beginning and dropped to about 45% engagement. We have no idea what Ramadan will bring, which is a little over two weeks away.
I Zoomed with one of my students that couldn’t get into Zoom when I Zoomed my class earlier in the week. I didn’t have many assignments to approve so I got my lessons planned for the following week. It was a very productive night. I also started watching season 6 of Shameless. I still get my trash television fix, but it’s not as comfortable because I am sitting at my ‘desk’ by my computer.
We were up Thursday morning around 8:30 am. Finished approving assignments and closed my computer until Saturday afternoon. Stuart had a Zoom Meeting with all 4 of his brothers Thursday afternoon. It was a first for them all and I think they enjoyed connecting with each other. They had a great conversation. Don’t we wish we would have bought stock in Zoom before this all kicked off? Why, yes we do!
My Aunt Norma’s funeral was to take place on Thursday. My mom was so sad she was not going to get to be there. It was a sad day for all of us. We really just stayed around the house for the majority of the day. Grammie, Pop and the kids went to the park while Stuart and I napped. By Thursdays we are wiped out and so look forward to the evening for a good night’s sleep.
We decided to limit our evening fun to one game of Uno before putting Millie to bed. Jack stayed up for another hour and we followed shortly. Stuart and I watched our iPads with our headphones connected. Then we were asleep just before midnight.
I woke up Friday morning with a horrible headache and back ache. It seemed to pass by the afternoon, thank goodness. Stuart and I headed to Fry’s for some ice cream that was on sale, clearly a necessity. We had our masks on so we felt better about our field trip. When we got back, Millie was painting. Stuart decided he would Skyped his mum. We seem to be connecting more often with family these days, which is a very positive thing Covid 19 has brought us.
In the early afternoon, Stuart fixed my bike tires with the ones that came from Fed Ex. Initially I only needed one fixed, but when I saw how white the inside of the front tire was I decided I wanted him to change both of them. It’s like a brand new bike. Now I just need a helmet.
Millie and I boiled eggs for coloring.
Jack wasn’t keen on coloring eggs so Millie and I did the job.
They were beautiful colors.
Once we had finished the eggs, we went to the basketball court. I rode my bike this time. Stuart and I decided to ride past the park and look at a house that was for sale. There are houses for sale
In the neighborhood and it seems they are mostly this same model. We like it. We are just hoping they are available once we decide to buy another house is 6 to 8 months. We shall see.
We went back to the park to join the family. When we got back to the house, Millie and I blew bubbles before she took a shower.
After showers we Zoomed with Louise and James. Their view was amazing as they sat on their back porch and looked out into the water. It was good to catch up with them.
We had dinner and played two games of Uno before Millie went to bed. We watched a game of Family Fued before going to bed ourselves. Stuart and I watched our own shows on our iPads again. I fell asleep just before midnight.
I woke up around 5:30 am Saturday morning. Since I couldn’t sleep I went into the living room and laid in the sofa, watching my iPad. As soon as everyone was awake, Stuart and I tried to sort out what we would need for our Easter dinner. We headed to Target to top up our supplies. When we returned everyone was watching a Sight and Sounds production of the Easter story. We watched about half of it and then recorded the rest of it in order to watch it at a later time.
Jack, Millie and Pop decides to go to the park to shoot baskets, while Stuart and I got on with our work for the evening. I also hid the eggs Millie and I had colored the previous day. When Jack and Millie got back they hunted them. Then they took turns hiding and finding the eggs. We had a fajita lunch and then the kids started their egg hunt again.
I worked on finishing my loom knitted scarf and was very pleased with the final product. It is a bit bulky, but I made it so I like it!
We had played dominoes before the kids showered. Then we all had a bite to eat. Stuart and I finished up our school work and sat down to relax for a bit.
After the kids were in bed, we started school. The beginning of week 4 was a bit surreal. I have really come on in my technology abilities and I’m not ashamed of bragging about it. In fact, Stuart has asked ME how to do certain thing a with some of the programs. That actually makes me feel really good because there is not much Stuart doesn’t know how to do, nor does he often ask me for my assistance. It’s nice.
Once Millie was asleep, Grammie and Pop helped me to put candy in the Easter eggs. Millie had actually found the plastic eggs we were going to hide for her and Jack. I asked her if the eggs were what she found under the bed, suspecting she had seen the Easter baskets that we bought them, which were under the same bed where she ‘accidently’ found the eggs. We had put all the plastic eggs in a bowl for the Easter Bunny to fill. Millie had written a letter to let the Easter Bunny know which color eggs were hers and which ones were hers.
When my mom went to tell Millie goodnight, before we filled the eggs, this is the conversation that went down.
Grammie: Good night, Millie.
Millie: Good night, Grammie. Tomorrow the Easter Bunny is coming and will hide the eggs for us. He will also probably bring Jack a blue basket and me a pink basket.
This she spied them under the bed when she saw the plastic eggs? I’m thinking she did. But we are going to beat her at her own game. If she mentions having seen them, we will say they are from Daddy and myself, and that the Easter Bunny was only responsible for stuffing and hiding the eggs. I’m all about keeping the lie alive!
Once the eggs were hidden, in plain sight, Stuart discovered his videos didn’t upload properly. This is a bad thing, but maybe not as bad as my video which started out with me announcing it was August 12th rather than April 12th. Fortunately I have a mother who is a friend and messaged me as soon as she saw my video. It gave me enough time to re-record my video.
Once everyone was in bed, I sat down to wait for assignments to come in. In the meantime, I caught up on some of my Netflix shows. I was tired before the week began.
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