Alone Together

Hello again! In this edition of Quarantining Today, we'll catch you up on all the happenings of the last two weeks. Online school is going well, and the kids are pretty much on auto-pilot. With the routine of school right after breakfast, they are easily done well before lunch most days. Sometimes they even learn each other's lessons!

There have been experiments in bread making. FYI, proofing dough in the InstantPot works a lot better on the 'yogurt' setting, than it does on 'porridge'. Oops. This rosemary bread was actually pretty tasty!

On a particularly hot afternoon, we broke out the sprinkler for the kids to play in while I had a Zoom call. They were having a great time, so I had to sneak some pictures through the upstairs window. :) We then celebrated successful school progress reports with some call-ahead FroYo.

Over a month into social distancing, everyone was in need of a haircut. Hadley got a summer length, and Owen got more of a fade (new skill for Mom!) on his short side, rather than a single length. Are pigs taking flight during this pandemic? Because even Dad got a haircut from his spouse! I definitely need to get a picture of that.

We've been trying to be creative and productive, too. This stained glass driveway project almost wiped out our sidewalk chalk supply. It's nearly impossible to find more chalk online, by the way. I guess that was among the hoarders' selections...

Hadley broke out the Perler beads and even entered a bookmark contest at the local library, where she placed 2nd to what looked like a professional graphic designer's entry.

And the house projects also continue. The most notable one this month was replacing our half-fence. It was very weathered and warped, and the gate latch was hardly ever closed properly because it didn't move like it should anymore. This is the gate that the kids, who used to come through it every day after school, started to avoid because they could never open or close it successfully. Much improved, right?

This project was all J, with a little help from Hadley. Luckily the posts seemed to be in good shape, so we didn't have to chip them out of the concrete. It just required all new everything else. It was still quite an undertaking, but it is so nice to have a gate that closes so smoothly. We even coated it in varnish to hopefully help it last a little longer.

The resident carpenter put his newly-acquired fencing skills to work again by replacing our side gate too. I didn't get a picture from before, but the original gate was nearly the width of the new wood you see here, so it was very unwieldy to open and close. The gate latch was installed incorrectly and missing a piece (Thanks, Per!), and when J was working on fixing it, the gate basically fell off because the supporting post had rotted through. So, this project required posthole digging and concrete pouring, as well as the regular fence and latch work. Now we have a normal-sized gate that actually latches and is stable and solidly built. Was that too much to ask?

The garage door handle became much more secure when J installed a new one. I don't think we ever got a key for the original doorknob, so our garage was never actually able to be locked. Nothing like a little peace of mind.

One of my favorite upgrades was replacing the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. The original fan had provided a noisy (think random metallic, scraping sounds) serenade for quite a while. While we are still figuring the remote lighting setup, the new fan is much more attractive, quiet, and powerful. Besides these photo-documented projects, we also got a new garage door opener (after the 20 year-old one finally died), pulled out another obstructive Sago palm, and covered a dangerous hole in the playset. Who knows what another month of home isolation will mean to our house to do list!

Still Quarantining, After All This Time

Quarantine log, Day 30. We're still doing this? Yes. Yes, we are. To catch you up:

• Neighbors are greeted with a wave and quick conversation from respective yards.
• Semi-distant friends, classmates, and relatives are seen through electronics only.
• There are no extra-curriculars, only essentials.
• Online grocery shopping has become an exercise in forecasting what you'll need for at least a week, at least a week in advance, because in-person grocery shopping has become strange what with wearing masks and keeping 6 feet apart and not touching things you're not buying. 
• Working from home is pretty much the same, except now we can have every meal together as a family, even lunch.
• To do lists around the house are getting shorter and shorter.
• Online school is going well; kids are fairly self-sufficient, and Mom is mostly in a tech support role, getting apps to work and reading directions to ensure that assignments were actually completed as intended. Recess time in the fresh air is mandatory!

On the upside, I've enjoyed not using an alarm clock anymore, and starting my day with a cup of coffee over a puzzle. We have surprised ourselves with how many puzzles we actually have, and we are keeping a tally of how many pieces we've combined - we're close to 4,000 now! The second picture is how I found the kids during a "scary" part of a Harry Potter movie. It warmed my heart to see them cuddled up together, thankful we haven't killed each other being together 24/7/30 (and counting).

It is also unusual to celebrate a big holiday, like Easter, under quarantine. At least we had plenty of time to make the sacred Easter sugar cookies this year! I thought they were tastier than usual, but I think the kids did not like the 1/2 vanilla, 1/2 almond flavoring, since we usually make them all vanilla flavored. Oh well, more for the adults.

The weather was a little sketchy leading up to Easter, but Hadley and I decorated the driveway before it got washed away overnight. She showed me a neat trick she has to color her hands in chalk and leave precious handprints behind.

The Easter bunny also managed to visit, even during social distancing. I hope he was wearing a mask while he hid eggs all over our house! Thankfully, he got the kids some new books and activities to help entertain during quarantine.

We attended a live stream of our church (some of us even dressed up) from the couch, ate the obligatory ham meal as a family of four, watched an Easter movie, and hid eggs several times throughout the house for each other, since that is our favorite Easter tradition. Though there were several changes to the holiday this year, at least the hunts were pretty much the same as usual. We even got a surprise hunt from DJAW!

Checking his list

All of this time at home in this gorgeous weather has made the Mister feel like checking things off his home to do list too. First, was the problem with 20-year old, rotten wood spacers in our driveway and sidewalk. Our HOA actually sent us a letter for the weeds growing in them last year! Problem solved with some joint filler and sealants (professionally done). 

Next up were the front flower beds. I don't have a good 'before' picture, but he wanted a border to help keep the lawn out of the bed. He ordered it online and installed it himself (with a little helper).

Then it was time for fresh mulch. New day, new helper. Much better now, though I think the plants inside still need some taming. (There were also a couple of stumps that had to come out. The old owner kindly left them for us, and they were regrowing spindly, diseased plants in our beds.)

Our backyard landscaping is a whole, other story that we're just starting to explore. (see loquats, bananas, overgrown jungle, and weathered playset) A common theme is that everything seems to have been planted 20 years ago and then left to grow as it pleased. The sago palm is a good example. It's an interesting plant, but probably not planted in the right spot, as it really encroaches in the back yard. Voila! Four hours later, we managed to trim off all of the fronds, dig up most of the roots, and roll the whole mess out in three garbage cans. Not sure what we'll do in its place yet, possibly nothing. And there's another sago palm on the other end of this line of plants. Ugh. Up next, maybe some fence replacement...? Really there are so many choices, and apparently we'll have ample time.