Room rearrange, trees, and a hammock

For 2 months or so Lydia had been asking us if she could rearrange her room.  It all started with her baptism.  She ended up with 3 5 x 7 picture frames with cute sayings and pictures and had no where to put them so I bought a shelf.  Mark started to put it up one night shortly after I bought it but it wasn't going well so he took a break. A month long break.  Every few days Lydia would ask Mark when he was going to put up the shelf.  Mark said he would only hang it up if she got rid of some of her stuff so she went to work.  As we were cleaning we talked about how she would like her room to look.  Mark agreed that she had thrown enough stuff out and got enlisted to help rearrange her whole room instead of just put up a shelf.  When she told us what she envisioned both Mark and I shook our heads thinking it would not look good, that it would make her room feel smaller and we were totally wrong.  It turned out great.  It feels larger and much less cluttered which I love. She is really happy with it too. I am really glad we did it. I loved rearranging my room growing up and am glad we said yes to Lydia and she finally got her shelf up! As we are home for the foreseeable future we hope to get new ceiling fans in her and Jared's room.  Their lighting has been awful the almost 5 years we have lived in this house. Mark put a new one in our room so while it won't be fun it is a project we can manage.

Before: 

After: the shelf that started it all is next to the rainbow pom poms. Having her storage cubes vertical instead of horizontal has made all the difference with clutter and space.  Now there are no large surfaces for her to put stuff on! I love it. 

Another big project we have been needing to do is get some trees taken down.  These were huge trees that would likely fall right on the house should they be knocked over.  When we refinanced our house in late February we got cash back from the escrow and mortgage company so we used that to have 5 large trees taken down.  One in the back that was growing into our deck and actually moving the railing. One outside Lydia and Mark and mines room and 3 in the front.  We had the company cut down the trees which was cool to watch and then just leave the mess for us to take care of because it would save money.  It is a huge mess.  They came last Thursday and we have done some good work but have a ways to go.  Mark mentioned this to a guy in our ward and he offered to let Mark borrow his log splitter which is a cool machine to watch.  Mark has been greatly enjoying this part of the project.  He is not a "toys" kind of guy so its funny to see him enjoy something like this.  We have more wood than we would use in like 5 years so there are going to be piles all over the "yard".  We had one family in the ward (just the Dad) come pick up some of the big pieces and they may come back for more. It will be a days long project. But hey, we are home with plenty of time. We also finally bought a real, heavy duty, backpack leaf blower.  This has been on our to buy list for years but it was just a lot of money but this year was the year we broke down and just bought one.  So we will be out in our yard, doing yard work which I hate, for the rest of the stay at home order.  Which by the way got intensified today but the Governor so I am glad we did our bike rides when we did.  It was really just a matter of time and we did not feel like we were exposing anyone on those rides. Bikes are pretty good for social distancing as is riding in our car by ourselves.  

Before: 

After:

Don't let this picture fool you.  She was not a happy helper.  We told Jared he could listen to some podcasts and he did awesome.  Podcasts are a powerful tool for Jared and we are so glad to know this.  We put on some music for Lydia but she was not happy to be out there. 

On Sunday Mark hung up his hammock which provided not only a relaxing place to read and talk but a new play spot for Jared and Lydia.  Today it was a swing for Lydia and a pirate ship for them both in the afternoon.  Based on the Icelandic flags it should have been a viking ship but we will go with what they said. They also spent a good amount of time playing with buckets of water and squirt guns this afternoon. It has been lovely to see how well they are getting along with each other.  They get irritated and need breaks but overall they have had a good time together which is a lovely outcome thus far of being home together. 

Marathon in a month

Marathon in a month 2020 started this week!  Jared is all in and Lydia is participating but it is unlikely she will run many miles, scootering seems to be her preference this year which is fine.  It will work great for PE.  We went to Forest Lakes for most of this weeks miles and did a walk on Berkmar Saturday.  There are always 10 - 12 people walking around the Lake at Forest Lakes so I don't feel its a great option this year with Social Distancing but we can maintain 6 feet from others and people are very spread out. I hope we can map out some other routes. We also went to Baker Butler one day to use the new track there.  The next day we got an email saying all school facilities (tracks, playgrounds, sport courts and fields) were closed so that is no longer an option.

Lydia is getting fancy with her scooter tricks

Baker Butler Blooms

When I made Jared's 10K medal I went ahead and made the medals for the end of marathon in a month.  Only two this year.  We will miss our last mile party but we will still celebrate with medals and popsicles. 6 miles down, 20 to go!

Home Learning during the Corona Virus

Lydia and Jared's teachers have done a very nice job communicating with us and sending an activity or two for them to consider doing each day.  None of the assignments are mandatory and we have done a few of them and skipped a few.  We have our own schedule and its working really well.  Mark, Jared and Lydia are doing a great job.  Jared is good either way, going to school or learning at home.  He got a decent amount of time playing Minecraft in school which Mark and I didn't get so he misses that.  We are trying to decide it we want it to be an option at home.  Lydia wants to go to school to see her friends and teacher but other than that she is good at home.  We are very grateful for their good attitudes.  Jared has a zoom meeting set up with his teacher tomorrow and Lydia's teacher set up time slots for kids to zoom with other kids in her class which Lydia will love.

A few projects they have worked on:
Lydia built this fort in response to a prompt from her teacher.  She recorded a video about it and posted it to her seesaw class site.

This was her escape route.  She is reading a book about fossils in there. 

Marble run inside Magna Tile building

Jamestown:  they were studying Jamestown before school ended. He did this all by himself and had a great time.  He also completed a WW II google slides project he was working on at school.  He loves Social Studies and we were happy to let him do what he wanted with these. 

They spent hours playing with our marble runs one day. I am so glad I kept a lot of toys from preschool.

Tangent: A friend posted a really great article the other day about schooling during the Corona Virus.  I appreciated her words so much.  Homeschooling is NOT the same as Crisis Schooling 
Since this (Corona Virus) began I have struggled to answer people when they ask how home schooling is going because I do not feel like we are homeschooling.  I feel like I am doing a disservice to families who homeschool if I say I am homeschooling.  People who homeschool most often choose (for various reasons) to home school and nobody in this situation chose this.  Homeschool families think long and hard before choosing to homeschool and spend hours planning and preparing how they want to teach their children. Choosing curriculum and activities outside of their home. I have been calling it home learning but crisis schooling sounds more correct.  I don't know why this has bugged me so much but I thought this writer explained it really well.

Peak Bloom Bike Ride

After weekly check ins on the National Park Service cherry blossom website we saw that the cherry trees at the tidal basin would reach peak bloom (where 70% of the trees have bloomed) on March 20, a week earlier than originally predicted.  We had planned to go into DC this year but were foiled by the Corona Virus.  Our original plan was to drive into DC and I would get out of the car to check out the blooms if it didn't look too busy (I'm really the only one who cares about seeing them at the Tidal Basin) and Mark, Jared and Lydia would pick me up a bit later.  But too many people went out over the weekend so the mayor of DC closed every access road and exit to the area.  There was no way to get near the Tidal basin.  I think this was a really good idea and we will try again next year.

Lucky for us the second part of our plan was to drive to Kenwood, MD and bike around that neighborhood like we did last year and it worked perfectly. Last year we were a week or so early and this year we nailed it.  It was incredibly beautiful.  It made me so happy.  We drove up on Tuesday which meant there was plenty of parking and very few people out.  We biked around the neighborhood enjoying the blooms and beautiful houses.  Lydia was not the happiest of bikers (too many hills (it was nothing like the neighborhoods in Charlottesville)) but she did admit that the trees were beautiful.  I am so glad we went.  A very kind lady was out walking her dog and she offered to take pictures of us on her phone and then text them to me which was really thoughtful.  We enjoyed our ride and then headed out.

So many of the streets looked like this.  We would ride down a street and think this is amazing and then the next one was just as beautiful or even more full of blooms.

This was my favorite tree in the neighborhood. 

 It was like a cherry blossom weeping willow. 

We stopped at Costco on the way home to grab a pizza to eat in the car (called ahead and then went in to pick it up (just me)).  This Costco, in Manassas, felt way different than our Costco in Charlottesville.  There was a line of people waiting to go in (they were limiting the number of customers in at a time) and this sign by the door.  Our Costco also has a sign but not like this one.  I waited outside for 10 - 12 minutes and grabbed our pizza real quick.  Our next stop was Moo Thru which we all enjoyed.

 

Corona Virus 10K

On Friday Mark and Jared ran their 10K.  They both did amazing.  Mark had gotten faster and faster as he trained often running a comfortable 8 minute and 30 second mile.  His fastest mile was 7 minutes and 30 seconds!  I can't imagine running that fast.  It is so impressive that after only training for 6 weeks he could run like that.  And he had a bad injury that took him out of training for a little over a week.  Jared was getting a little burnt out about 5 weeks in so we had him start listening to podcasts as he ran and it turned him into a whole new runner.  He did so well.  He was more around a 10 minute mile which means he and I could run together comfortably.  At least until he grows another foot which seems likely for him.

Jared started around 7:45 Friday morning.  Because Mark runs a much faster mile we had Jared start about 10 minutes before Mark.  Mark planned a route with Jared that would have them pass by each other a few times.  The night before they went on a drive around the route so Jared would know where to go.  He did great navigating it. We picked a spot around 3 miles for a Gatorade break which they both appreciated.

Lydia and I had fun cheering them on.  We would drive ahead to spots, park and ring bells and blow horns as they ran by.  Each time we drove by Jared onto the next spot we would honk the horn multiple times and I will forever remember the smile that lit up his face.

Their finish line was at the bottom of Lewis and Clark at UVA Research Park.  This meant their last mile was all downhill which is always nice.  Races should never end with hills! Lydia and I watched Jared come around the round about onto Dickerson and then raced to beat Mark to the finish line. He had ran by us awhile before so we were nervous about parking and then getting set up before he finished.  We couldn't park that close to the end of the road so we started walking down the path and when I looked back I saw Mark coming so then Lydia and I broke into a run.  We quickly got set up and were in place before he finished.  He actually had to run past us and then loop back to get to the full 6 miles bit it worked out.  He finished in 54 minutes and 30 seconds.  Impressive.
A little bit later we saw Jared coming and got ready to cheer him on.  It all worked out great and while it was not as cool as running in Budapest I know it made Jared really happy.  He loved running at his own pace and being cheered on.  He ran the whole time and looked really comfortable while running. When he finished we asked if he had fun and he said he did and that he could keep running so he did a great job with his training and pacing.  I was really happy to make their race as special as they made mine.  Jared is not a demonstrative kid and the amount of thank you's he said and the smiles he gave us were so rewarding.  I am so proud of him and Mark.

Medal Ceremony 

This finish line is now hanging up in his room. 

He wore this medal all day.  He requested fancy chocolate milk and 

peanut butter blossoms for his post race meal. 

PE Corona Virus Style

Bike Riding at Baker Butler.  Mark took them the first afternoon of home learning which was Tuesday for us.  The school recently finished a nice track there and they rode around there and played some soccer.  They were under strict instructions to stay away from the petri dish playground equipment.  I was at UVA all day and Mark did a great job working with Jared and Lydia.  Tuesday was actually my last day going into UVA.  I will only be working remotely for the foreseeable future.

One day we went on a walk around the paths at Baker Butler.  We had wanted to walk the Monticello Trail but found out after we drove there that it was closed.  We knew the house would be but did not expect the trail to be.  That was a bummer.  Riverview Park is near there and has a nice path so we drove over to check it out and when we got there the parking lot was full so we turned around.  Too many people for us to feel like we were properly "social distancing".  So we ended up back at Baker Butler and did a quick loop on the paths around it.

Thursday night we headed to Chris Greene Lake and kayaked which was great.  I was not super excited to go as it was getting late and we had things we needed to do but it was beautiful out and it was a really good thing to do. Kayaking is great for social distancing!

Once the water warms up we will have Lydia use the child's Kayak that was Jared's.  For this night we borrowed a kayak for Jared from the Shaw's. 

Three in a row, 6+ feet apart

Today we only did PE.  I had heard about the Virginia Creeper Trail awhile ago and we decided to check it out.  The trail was really fun and easy.  Its not close, we drove just under 4 hours there and then back in one day but we did it. The whole trail is 34 miles and is perfect for bike riding.  It's all downhill or level so you mostly just coast down. I think I braked more than I pedaled. The trail is part of an old Railroad track.  It is now mostly crushed limestone and has beautiful boardwalks you ride across.  They are really fun.  You ride next to the river for the majority of the ride and it takes you through state parks and private farms.  There are rapids and waterfalls and cool  rock walls. We were worried about rain but only got a few sprinkles which was really lucky.  The temperature was perfect and it was beautiful. It was a little long for me, we rode for 17 miles but we are glad we tried it out.  Mark and I rented bikes from a shop there and Jared and Lydia used their bikes. We took a shuttle from the same shop up to White Gap Station and then started our 17 mile ride.  There were a lot of positive about the trail/experience and I recommend people do try it out. The negatives (for us): Jared. That's pretty much it.

I started a little behind the group (just our family) because the shop worker had me wait a minute to get a tire repair kit to take with us.  After about 5 minutes I caught up to Mark but Jared and Lydia were nowhere to be seen.  A few minutes later we caught up with Lydia who was waiting for us but no Jared.  We three rode together and we did not see Jared again until the end of the ride.  He rode the whole thing by himself.  17 miles in a place we had never been before.  I was livid. 
1. I worried he would get hurt or lost the whole time.  The trail is well marked but there are a few tricky spots where one could take a wrong track pretty easily.
2.  Injuries.  We were riding next to the river most of the time and any time I saw a skid on the path my mind jumped to Jared skidding over the edge and tumbling down rocks into the river
3. I was so mad and had to use a lot of energy to control my anger and enjoy the ride, it was not easy
4. This was supposed to be a family outing and he was not with his family the whole time.
5. Would he stop at the end?  We had no idea if he would ride right through the end and keep riding.
6.  We wanted to stop and enjoy the scenery and boardwalks but never felt good about doing it because it meant Jared was getting farther away from us.
7.  There were very few people, we maybe saw 5 the whole time but we did ride by some houses and campgrounds and someone easily could have grabbed Jared. 
8. He did not seem the least bit concerned about going ahead and caring about how it might make us feel.
9. I was constantly telling myself be calm about how you react to him when you see him.  It was so hard to not let his actions control my experience
LIVID

Around mile 11 Lydia was pretty done.  She had fallen a little earlier and cut up her elbow and was just tired.  It was not a hard ride but we are not regular miles long bike riders so it was a big thing to take on.  When we reached the end we finally got sight of Jared.  He was riding towards us all smiley and happy to see us and when I could see he was perfectly fine I said in a very calm voice (I had many opportunities to plan what I was going to say to him when I saw him) "The first thing you need to say to me and Dad is "I'm sorry"." And you need to figure out why and apologize for those reasons.

There was some definite silent treatment and blatant ignoring going on because I was so mad at him.  Once we turned in bikes we had a real discussion about his actions. I am so thankful he was safe and that we met up at the right place.  Mark and I both offered many silent prayers for him.  Jared could have talked to us.  He could have asked about going ahead when we started.  He could have ridden ahead and waited for us or ridden ahead and then ridden back to us.  It was just mind boggling that he never once thought he should stop going ahead. Independence is good. We encourage that but there has to be parameters set.

Onto pretty pictures of the 3 of us riding together. 

The only picture of us together

Red barns and a Christmas tree farm