So what exactly have we been in our house DOING for two whole weeks? This.
If I had my way we would be in full blown Scharman Boarding School Mode, with matching uniforms, whistles, two straight lines for PE walking the yard, etc. In days gone by I would have colorful charts and schedules...in fact something along those lines is still coming. But early on I recognized that with the dynamic we have now, that just isn't going to happen. We need structure but flexibility. I laid out some expectations and allowed the kids to come up with their own "block schedule". Even that is slushy so it will be moved to more of a "everyday, do this" kind of thing and they will learn to pace themselves. The kids are fairly good at self governing with some gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) reminders along the way.
The day looks kind of like this right now: Abby and Mia both have seminary on Zoom conference calls every morning. Depending on those times (they are different classes and vary from week week depending on which teacher is teaching) I have everyone up by 8:30/8:45, we do a devotional/spiritual thought from Come Follow Me then family prayer and breakfast. At 9am we try to watch the our elementary school principal who does the morning anouncements on Facebook from her office at the school - she does the pledge, birthdays, good citizenship announcements, reads them a book then gives them a challenge for the day. Then its kitchen jobs, make beds and get dressed.
Then the girls get pretty free reign of their day. I take the boys and do workbook, school assignments, Jonah reads me a chapter of his book and they get computer school (ABC Mouse or Adventure Academy.)
One of the trickiest things is to find time to do what I need to do, without six people needing me, and to have a moment or two during the day to breathe and take a moment.
I decided to finally do the little laundry room renovation that I have been thinking about forever. It took several weeks to buy things here and there but I finally did it and I love it. Laundry is a necessary evil and now it feels just a little more welcoming. I would love to wait and take a picture when its completely finished but that may be a little while longer, so this is where is started and what it looks like now at least.
I have also gotten a couple of orders for signs so I think that will be nice to work on, as long as I can find that elusive "moment" that I mentioned above.
We've done puzzles, made lots and lots of bread...
Had family councils...made schedules...
Yard work...we are having more warm days which is nice because we finally got rid of the giant pile of mulch that was dropped on the driveway about 6 months ago...
One of the first days we made lunches for CAST, a local homeless shelter but even after that day I felt like we needed to be home and quarantined to avoid spreading anything we may have or get.
There are so many good things out there is it sometimes overwhelming, another reason I need to take a step back from social media. I love that musicians are streaming concerts from their homes, artists are doing how to's, authors are reading to their fans as well as countless other resources for schooling and entertainment. On this particular day we were watching my sister Amy live stream story time from her library in Utah.
We have plenty of time to acquaint ourselves with the great musicals of broadway. The singing and dancing happening in this kitchen are memorable. I love having fun with these kids of mine. So far we have hit In the Heights, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Secret Garden and Jekyll and Hyde...with plenty more on the list.
Their sidewalk chalk art is getting impressive...
Jonah has a fascination with geodes so we made our own one day. They sat on the windowsill for a week and a half before I emptied the liquid and moved them up to the boys room...someday they will just disappear and no one will even notice...
Fits and tantrums are almost daily, but we are trying to take them in stride and move on...sometimes its the boys but more often its the teenagers...
I mentioned that Clark is still going in to work most days...we were brainstorming on the best work from home scenarios....this may be the best he can hope for, folders for a little extra privacy? He sure isn't going to have peace and quiet.
My favorite has been movie night every, single, night. It's pretty much my favorite thing to do, almost. Heaven help us if the store ever runs out of popcorn. Then we would really feel the weight of the pandemic.
On their list of things to do each day is an activity with a sibling. These two refused to do anything of the sort so instead I mandated together time by holding hands and staring into each others eyes for two minutes. I love being a parent.
Girls got bored and asked to dye their hair...seeing as how we are going nowhere and seeing pretty much no one, I gave in...then dyed the boys hair because I was bored. We will be lucky to escape this time without prison tattoos and self piercings (speaking of....one daughter has already seen fit to double pierce her own ears. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach to think of sticking anything through my ear and the parenting side of it is something I would rather not talk about...its one of the reasons blogging has fallen off the planet, teenagers and their privacy and whatnot. Really its more a function of parents putting it out there that we have no idea what we are doing and we mess up and kids mess up and things aren't always easy or perfect.)
I built planter boxes this weekend. I didn't think I was going to be able to have a garden for some time still so it was a delightful project to be able to work on. Now I just have to decide what to put in them...also in my middle age I have become a shapeless blob of frumpy mom'dom. I keep telling myself that this quarantine is the time to seize the day and get down to it so I can emerge a beautiful butterfly instead of a chubby caterpillar...maybe I will start tomorrow, too many treats and loaves of homemade bread.
I love watching these girls together. I love the dynamic of my family. It's not always easy to see the divisions by age or circumstance but when they play together it is true bliss...even when they are conspiring together. Yesterday afternoon they all convened in the "nest" (an area I finished under the stairs.) They were whispering and telling secrets so I sneakily slid my phone under the door while recording. My plan would've worked beautifully except they saw it when coming out and deleted any gossip I might've captured. So they were promptly separated to avoid collaboration and forced to tell us one confession and one tattle. It was quite entertaining. Here they are ganging up on poor Hazel who was pulled in for questioning first.
It's all in good fun and I hope my kids recognize that 1. We really love them 2. We are funny and 3. We will never give up talking to them.
I am rather proud to say that none of the tattles came as a surprise...except for the ear piercing which ironically is the only thing in plain sight...
If I had my way we would be in full blown Scharman Boarding School Mode, with matching uniforms, whistles, two straight lines for PE walking the yard, etc. In days gone by I would have colorful charts and schedules...in fact something along those lines is still coming. But early on I recognized that with the dynamic we have now, that just isn't going to happen. We need structure but flexibility. I laid out some expectations and allowed the kids to come up with their own "block schedule". Even that is slushy so it will be moved to more of a "everyday, do this" kind of thing and they will learn to pace themselves. The kids are fairly good at self governing with some gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) reminders along the way.
The day looks kind of like this right now: Abby and Mia both have seminary on Zoom conference calls every morning. Depending on those times (they are different classes and vary from week week depending on which teacher is teaching) I have everyone up by 8:30/8:45, we do a devotional/spiritual thought from Come Follow Me then family prayer and breakfast. At 9am we try to watch the our elementary school principal who does the morning anouncements on Facebook from her office at the school - she does the pledge, birthdays, good citizenship announcements, reads them a book then gives them a challenge for the day. Then its kitchen jobs, make beds and get dressed.
Then the girls get pretty free reign of their day. I take the boys and do workbook, school assignments, Jonah reads me a chapter of his book and they get computer school (ABC Mouse or Adventure Academy.)
One of the trickiest things is to find time to do what I need to do, without six people needing me, and to have a moment or two during the day to breathe and take a moment.
We've done puzzles, made lots and lots of bread...
We have plenty of time to acquaint ourselves with the great musicals of broadway. The singing and dancing happening in this kitchen are memorable. I love having fun with these kids of mine. So far we have hit In the Heights, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Secret Garden and Jekyll and Hyde...with plenty more on the list.
Their sidewalk chalk art is getting impressive...
Jonah has a fascination with geodes so we made our own one day. They sat on the windowsill for a week and a half before I emptied the liquid and moved them up to the boys room...someday they will just disappear and no one will even notice...
Fits and tantrums are almost daily, but we are trying to take them in stride and move on...sometimes its the boys but more often its the teenagers...
I mentioned that Clark is still going in to work most days...we were brainstorming on the best work from home scenarios....this may be the best he can hope for, folders for a little extra privacy? He sure isn't going to have peace and quiet.
My favorite has been movie night every, single, night. It's pretty much my favorite thing to do, almost. Heaven help us if the store ever runs out of popcorn. Then we would really feel the weight of the pandemic.
On their list of things to do each day is an activity with a sibling. These two refused to do anything of the sort so instead I mandated together time by holding hands and staring into each others eyes for two minutes. I love being a parent.
Girls got bored and asked to dye their hair...seeing as how we are going nowhere and seeing pretty much no one, I gave in...then dyed the boys hair because I was bored. We will be lucky to escape this time without prison tattoos and self piercings (speaking of....one daughter has already seen fit to double pierce her own ears. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach to think of sticking anything through my ear and the parenting side of it is something I would rather not talk about...its one of the reasons blogging has fallen off the planet, teenagers and their privacy and whatnot. Really its more a function of parents putting it out there that we have no idea what we are doing and we mess up and kids mess up and things aren't always easy or perfect.)
I built planter boxes this weekend. I didn't think I was going to be able to have a garden for some time still so it was a delightful project to be able to work on. Now I just have to decide what to put in them...also in my middle age I have become a shapeless blob of frumpy mom'dom. I keep telling myself that this quarantine is the time to seize the day and get down to it so I can emerge a beautiful butterfly instead of a chubby caterpillar...maybe I will start tomorrow, too many treats and loaves of homemade bread.
I love watching these girls together. I love the dynamic of my family. It's not always easy to see the divisions by age or circumstance but when they play together it is true bliss...even when they are conspiring together. Yesterday afternoon they all convened in the "nest" (an area I finished under the stairs.) They were whispering and telling secrets so I sneakily slid my phone under the door while recording. My plan would've worked beautifully except they saw it when coming out and deleted any gossip I might've captured. So they were promptly separated to avoid collaboration and forced to tell us one confession and one tattle. It was quite entertaining. Here they are ganging up on poor Hazel who was pulled in for questioning first.
It's all in good fun and I hope my kids recognize that 1. We really love them 2. We are funny and 3. We will never give up talking to them.
I am rather proud to say that none of the tattles came as a surprise...except for the ear piercing which ironically is the only thing in plain sight...
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