We've Got This!

We are doing amazingly well with this Stay Home, Stay Safe mandate. We are learning so much about ourselves. This certainly is an opportunity to grow and, I hope, to thrive for many. Anne is adjusting well to not having a very busy schedule. She is really starting to enjoy her downtime, and I am seeing a return to her loving crafts and wanting to spend time with her brothers. It is not that she disliked spending time with her brothers before, but more that she was ever so busy. She was so worn out by the end of her long days that she resisted giving them the attention they wanted. Their relationships were strong before this period of crisis, but I see so much more joy and fellowship shared by them. I hope we can find a better balance when life returns to more normal levels of activity.

Anne made a flower wreath one warm spring day.

We had our first Quarantine Birthday this week. It was Tim's 30th birthday. How is that even possible?! He had a fantastic day of gifts, movies and take-out food. At his request, we watched the three original Star Wars movies over two days. Anne had never seen any of them, so he was very eager to share them with her. She still isn't a huge Star Wars fan. Fortunately, I suspected that this crisis was going to impact many weeks so bought his gifts and a cake mix in advance. We were able to give him what he wanted. Honestly, he is the least fussy person. He never wants to be a burden in any way and is very content with the small things in life. We made his day perfect with take-out from Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack, which is his very favorite restaurant in our city. They had a great system of ordering online and then pulling up to the curb for our order. They opened the back door of the car, popped our order into the back and waved us off. It was great social distancing.

Carrot cake ...Yum

I knew that having filling and fun meals would be important to my crew's mental health. This has proven to be a key to a happy crew. They know the schedule of which days they can have treats, and they look forward to a dinner with movie night every few days. Here was one of our movie dinners.

Sweet potato fries, pizza, popcorn, red pepper slices, apple slices, and Sour Patch Kids for dessert.

Board games are very popular, too. We played the following in the past week:

• Monopoly (3 hours)
• Spoons (card game)
• Clue
• Noggin card games ~ Rainforest, Wonders of the World and Earth Science
• Quelf

We also decided to leave home and go on a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It wasn't crowded and exercise is encouraged under the mandate, so we decided to hike an unpopulated trail on Mount Pisgah. It was lovely to get outside and see our beautiful mountains. We even found ruins of an old lodge. It was a refreshing adventure.

School is moving along at a smooth pace. I was a bit worried last week that I was running out of materials to finish off a few subjects. I had known pre-pandemic that there wasn't enough but assumed that I would just pop out to the library or local bookstore to wrap up our studies. That is not to be and I felt just a tad panicked. However, I combed my shelves and the Internet and we are squared away again. Yes, I am using a bit of curriculum that isn't a perfect fit and we are tossing out bits and pieces here and there, but that is the joy of homeschooling. That is why the public school parents who say they are homeschooling (but really aren't) are so stressed out. They don't have the autonomy to make their own choices. They are trying to squeeze into a box and meet expectations that someone far away has told them to do without knowing the pressure and needs of individual families on any given day. I do feel for them and wish they weren't all going around saying they are home-schooling. Really, many regular homeschoolers are crisis homeschooling. This is not what our normal homeschool lives look like. There are no field trips, co-ops, meet ups, out-of-the-home classes or library trips. This is certainly not normal homeschooling. Oops, I got on my soap box..ahem.

A last note and perhaps a chuckle for you all ~ I love grocery shopping. I have for a long time. I have resisted going to once a month shopping which might save money, because I so enjoy going out on the hunt for food each week. However, I stocked up a month or so worth of food when I saw this pandemic was going to be an unusual experience. It turns out I forgot what I bought so am having fun "shopping" from my emergency pantry and freezer each week. It sure doesn't take as long to shop and I can stay in my pajamas. This may become my new way of grocery shopping. HaHa.

Stay safe everyone.

Blessings, Dawn