Quarantine Week 2

How has it only been 2 weeks of quarantine? It seems like it's been forever with no end in sight. It makes me think of the AA mantra..."One day at a time." Ha. This last week was more difficult for me. I just feel the ups and downs of being with my kids all the time and feeling like a bad parent and all the things, plus the uncertainty of the virus outbreak and the economy. It's a lot. Sometimes I feel it more times than others. Sometimes I feel like I enjoy the break and other times it feels very weighty. Starting this week I think I might have to work from home? I'm not sure what that will look like. I guess the principal is calling me tomorrow. We'll see. The district isn't starting home school work until April 13th. I may try to think of my own stuff to do with the kids and honestly I may not. We will see. I might paint my laundry room. Up to this point I've just been trying to hang out with my kids a lot but I might need to start doing my own projects so I don't lose my mind.

It was technically our spring break last week. We watched a lot of movies in the shed and played board games, card games, and the kids spent endless hours playing roblox on the computer. We are still doing our jumping jacks every  hour. The weather was COLD last week and I could not make myself or my kids go out in it. It was nice yesterday though and I forced them out. Scott and I did some yard work and I went on a run. It felt really good.

I've still been cooking with my kids and that has been good. I went to the store today and although it's very eerie to be there the shelves were more stocked and it felt hopeful. I was able to buy some paper towels and toilet paper. Everyone is really quiet and cautious around each other. It's so WEIRD! For now everyone in our family is healthy and happy. Scott is still working everyday. They shut the doors to the bank and they've kept the drive through windows open.

Piper has surpassed Ryan on the bike. She is completely independent now and actually enjoying it. Praise be!

I've decided to celebrate Easter early. We are living in the twilight zone right now so why not? I bought Piper and Ryan scooters for Easter and I need them out stat so next Sunday Happy Easter to the Cannons. I couldn't find any Easter dye kits at Winco and eggs are in limited supply so we might skip Easter egg dying this year.

A book my book club read is a mini series on Hulu. We are watching it as a group. We had a message thread on Facebook so we could comment live while we watched it. It was fun. Next week we will watch together again! Friday night we watched a movie with our friends and messaged throughout the movie also. It was fun. Of course it's not as good as being in person but it's better than nothing!

My book club event. 

I watched Freaky Friday with my kids. They loved it! I also watched the 1961 Parent Trap with Corbin and Gabby. I love that movie! 

Gabby helped me finish this puzzle off. A 300 piece puzzle with a lot of different colors and patterns I can sort of do! 

I busted out my old Barbie Queen on the Prom game and played with my kids. It's from the 1960's. Somehow I ended up with it. I think it was my aunts' game when they were kids. I love it! I also taught Corbin and Gabby how to play Phase 10.

Quarantine Week 1

Wow! This is crazy stuff. It's very eerie to go to the store and see so many empty shelves. It's hard not to get panicky and continue to go to the store. I went last Friday, Sunday and then Wednesday. I am not letting myself go out again for at least another week. We have plenty of food and I need to stop going out!  Last Sunday Scott and I decided we wouldn't have our kids go to school for the next week. Luckily around 9:30 pm school was canceled. So far we have had an easy time hanging out. My kids are pretty used to hanging at home. They have been loving their time on their computers vegging out. I have set very minimal goals that will hopefully be sustainable. They have a checklist of things they have to do each day. Corbin gets his done immediately so he can have the rest of the day. I have to force them outside for just a few minutes. I've also set an alarm on my phone so that we do 10 jumping jacks every hour. Ha. Some movement is better than no movement. As for me I'm doing fine. I'm used to being a stay at home mom. I always have tons of projects I could do (if I want). I was also raised in the middle of nowhere and we stayed home always so I'm used to finding ways to occupy my time. I'm not too worried about school work yet. I'm not doing that unless the schools shut down for the rest of the year and they send us work. I'm teaching my kids how to cook. They've had to make dinner with me. If I get bored and ambitious I could teach them how to sew but I don't know that I will get that bored or ambitious.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's day so I tried to make it a little fun since they weren't going to be at school. I found a really easy craft and then we made sugar cookies with green frosting. I taught Ryan how to ride his bike. He was really close last summer but he didn't quite have the peddling down. He was able to do it immediately this last week. He's been riding his balance bike for a few years so he's great with balance and now he's more coordinated to do the peddling. He can turn and stop and get off. The only thing he can't do alone yet is get started. He has surpassed Piper in her biking skills which are not good. She cannot turn yet or start on her own and can barely keep her balance. I've been making them go outside and practice everyday.

The weather this last week was beautiful. I'm really glad the quarantine is happening in March and not January. I need to do more yard work this week. We can probably start planting some of our garden as well.

Scott's work was busy all last week. They are closing the doors this week and just leaving the drive though window open. I got paid last week but it's unsure if I will be paid if we don't return back to work. I think they will have to petition for that money somewhere. I am glad I have a full time job with the school now as I will be more likely to get paid. I could technically still teach at VIPKID but I got rid of all of my online teaching stuff. I am just done with that. I would rather be poor for a few months. I am working hard at getting a teaching job and when I get a teaching job I will have to work like crazy so I'm just not worrying about a few extra bucks right now. I had a screening interview with the Boise School District. I hear it's very hard to get a job with them. I put my stuff in their system and they interview you before you are even an eligible candidate for any position. I have no idea if I passed their screening or not. I figure either way it was good interview practice. It was just over the phone because of the quarantine.

Alright well that's all from here.

Sugar cookie time. (With neighbor, maybe not a good idea).

Piper making dinner. She loved it!

I'm so happy for the shed. I can take a total break from the kids! Ha.

I'm so glad the weather has been nice!

We've also been doing puzzles.

Corbin's dinner night.

Piper started coughing so Corbin put on a dust mask. Ha.

Pi Day = Pie Day

Well life is interesting right now to say the least. As of a week ago I wasn't worried about the Coronavirus at all and then in a matter of days things changed drastically. At this point I'm still not worried about losing any loved ones or anything like that I'm mostly curious how much of a devastating impact it will have on the economy. It will be really interesting. We ended up refinancing our house because the interest rate dropped so low and Scott in addition to that gets an additional employee discount so that actually benefited us. Our mortgage was already low and now it's amazingly low. That gives Scott a lot of peace of mind. He really stresses about finances. I really think the schools will be closed tomorrow. I think now that I'm a full time employee I will still get paid (I think). Fingers crossed! We will see...  

In non virus news Corbin had a spring band concert. I love the way this teacher does her concerts. They are short and sweet. I also just love how she handles teaching the entire 6th grade how to play instruments. I think it's pretty cool. Corbin doesn't like band enough to carry on with it next year but I'm glad he got the experience. He wants to take coding and home ec again next year. He really liked consumer science. 

The elementary kids had their annual Bingo night. Only a few tears were shed with dealing with the inevitable feelings of not winning. Ryan was struggling a bit off and on. Overall the kids had fun and it was a good experience. Piper and I did end up winning a Bingo prize. No raffle prizes though. I really wanted that Y month membership and the $100 Winco gift card. Oh well! 

Corbin's math class celebrated national PI day (3.14) a day early on Friday. I decided on Saturday that maybe we would celebrate as well. I have only made pie once I think. The last time I made pie crust was YEARS ago with my sister in law Anna, I'm very intimated by pie crust for some reason...turns out there's a reason! I looked up a few tutorials and jumped in. I bake and cook a lot so I really thought I could do it...NOPE! The crust crumbled like crazy when I tried to roll it out. I just grabbed the pieces and shoved them in the pan. The crust was no good. I didn't want to go to the store and had pumpkin puree already so I just made a pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie in March is a little weird. Overall it wasn't my most successful venture. Oh well go me for trying to do something fun which I don't always want to do. Ha. 

This morning I took Corbin and Piper out to a special breakfast. I don't tend to hang with them as much because they are major home bodies so I thought we should get out (although I am questioning if we should go out in public). We had a great special time. 

Bingo Night!

Ryan made himself a trail of cheerios for some reason. Ha.

I talked Gabby into going on a 3 mile run with me on her scooter. It was fun.

Pie crust disaster.

Not winning any blue ribbon pies here! 

Breakfast at Dennys! 

Shed Sleepover

Nothing much to report from last week. The temperature got up to 70 degrees on Thursday I think. It was nice! The temps were pretty decent through the weekend although kind of cloudy and crummy looking. I'm so glad it's March...that much closer to better weather. 

Ryan has been wanting to sleep in the shed forever. It was finally a weekend and I remembered to make it happen. Luckily Gabby was willing to sleep out there with him. It was so cute! He was so happy. Gabby said they had fun. Corbin sleeps out there any chance he gets. 

Not much happened over the weekend. We got together with some friends Friday night. My sister and her family came over to Boise to watch the state basketball tournament. Trisha was able to come over for a few hours with her boys and hang out. We had a fun time chatting and the kids got some cousin time. Today I forced the kids outside. We went to the park and walked and played. It was a good time and Piper survived even though she wasn't sure she would. Well that's about it! 

Phew more plants sprung up. 

Scott getting a stiff Ryan hug. 

One happy boy! 

Nice sister! 

We had a competition who could scooter around the playground the fastest. Scott beat Gabby by a few seconds! 

Corbin resting? Lol.

Piper made the brownies tonight. 

Clearing out the Crap

We decided to have Ryan miss school for the whole week. I'm not sure at what point he's not contagious but we decided to play it safe. I took work off Monday and Tuesday and Scott took off work Wednesday and Thursday. We didn't have school Friday so also no work for me. Ryan handled being sick like a champ. Really he didn't seem sick at all for several days but he had a crazy rash everywhere, that couldn't have felt great. He will go back to school tomorrow. I got a giant stack of papers to cut from Gabby's teacher while I was off of work. I didn't feel like cleaning or organizing but I wanted to do something. I love watching shows while working on something so it was perfect.

I was happy to be back at work Wednesday and Thursday. It's a hard job but I like it. I was proud of myself because I introduced myself to the principal. I've been wanting to but haven't had an opportunity that didn't feel weird. For some reason they fed the staff lunch on Thursday and he was there and available so I went up to him and told him who I was. He said he knew who I was but I told him I was a teacher and he didn't know that. He told me he would help find me a job. So that was awesome. The teacher I work talked to him later about me and he said, "she's awesome I'm going to find her a job." So that felt great to hear. Hopefully he will! Ha.

Scott has been in project mode. He cleaned and organized our closet and the closet in the boys room that was full of his stuff. He's been getting other things done on his to do list as well. We have seriously gotten rid of so much stuff in the last few weeks. It feels good!

I started to feel sick on Friday but I was still able to do some work around the house that I wanted to get done. By Saturday I felt really down and out. I was either laying in my bed or on the couch all day. It really helped to rest. I still have a runny nose today but my body doesn't feel beat down like it did yesterday.

I had brunch with my girlfriends today and we all made it. It was a miracle. We haven't been hanging out with our friends as much lately. I think everyone is just busy and in a winter funk. I am so ready for spring.

I got all geared up for the week. I menu planned and went grocery shopping and had the kids help me clean the house. We are ready! Bring it!

Ryan's rash. Yikes! 

We had some hang out time.

My plants are not coming up! EEK!

I redid the bulletin board.

I forced Piper and Ryan outside on Friday. They had to exercise with me and then compromised with just sitting outside for 30 minutes. It was freezing. Corbin would rather get it done and freeze than go later when it was pleasant. Whatever dude. I didn't make Gabby because she plays outside all the time. Ryan the sick boy was off the hook. 

I've blown my nose a million times! OMG!