First official day of home learning and Saint Patricks Day

Lydia, Mark and Jared had a very successful first day of home learning. I was at work all day and enjoyed hearing updates.  Jared and Lydia's teachers have done a really good job providing ideas and resources for their classes.  The school in general has been as helpful as I think they can be. I was so glad to read about nutrition plans being set up and hope the kids who need them are hearing about it. I can only imagine the work elementary school teachers are doing behind the scenes trying to provide help and stability.  I have been so inspired and encouraged by all the resources educators, artists, and organizations are providing for free.  At least that is what I have seen.  Because of preschool I have subscribed to a lot of personal education sites and am getting multiple emails a day full of activities and resources all for free.  It's been really awesome.  And slightly overwhelming.  Since I am still working I have stepped aside and let Mark lead this.  It has been hard for me to not go into major planning mode.  We made a schedule, it covers what we think is most important and I need to just let go, to not give into this feeling of planning every minute of their day.  Sometimes the sheer volume of ideas is just too much so I think its really good Mark is taking the lead.  An hour of PE today? Great, Enjoy the nice weather!

I was a little bummed to be gone all day on a holiday. I love holidays! We did a few things the days ahead of St Patricks day too so I wasn't completely left out. I planned a few simple activities for them to do today and they had fun.  Most of it involved unhealthy food, apparently that is how I celebrate. They all appreciated it though.

Lucky Charm Pancakes

Pot of Gold Brownie Bites

Gold sprinkles inside.  They were a hit. 

 Morning surprise: Furniture turned upside down by a visiting leprechaun and a treat? 

Saint Patricks Day Float: Sprite and Lime sherbet I look forward to it every year.

Rainbow Snack Mix: Fruit Loops, Rainbow goldfish and marshmallows.  Easiest ever. 

Two art projects one went well, one didn't.

And Irish music and dancing

This was really fun.  They really enjoyed the music. We watched a few videos of dancers the night before.  They were impressed with the dancers skills and tried it out only to move onto their own moves shortly after.  Next to Jared is the Leprechaun house Lydia built. Not a trap just a house to stop by. 

Personal Half Marathon

7:00 am, I started my race right at our house which was very convenient. 

Back in December I signed up to run the Budapest Half Marathon.  I have long wanted to visit Budapest and adding a race to the trip would make for an even cooler vacation.  I was really happy to run in Iceland last year and was really looking forward to running in another international race. Enter COVID_19.

It quickly became apparent that our Spring Break trip (One night in Amsterdam to bike ride to a tulip farm, Budapest, and Croatia) was not going to happen.  I was sad to not get to visit these fun places and incredibly disappointed to not be able to run the race I had been training for.  I started training in early January and was really looking forward to running my first half marathon.  Mark and Jared had signed up to run the Budapest 10K the same weekend and were making great progress with their training too.  We can easily visit these countries another time but putting in all that time training could not be gotten back.  So, Friday evening I decided I was going to run my own personal half marathon here in Charlottesville.  Based on the rapidly changing circumstances here and the weather I decided the sooner I run the better.  There is a chance we could be told to not leave our houses and I wanted to make sure I got this run in. So Monday, March 16th became the new date for my half marathon.  The longest run I had completed in my training was 11 miles so I was pretty nervous about being able to do the full 13.1 and I was moving up my run almost 3 weeks.  The last 2 years I did the Charlottesville Ten Miler I ran a full 10 miles before the race. The Budapest race was described as fast and flat, which really attracted me to it. It's almost impossible to plan that kind of course here but I tried my very best to find the least amount of hills. 

I wanted my run to be as much like a real race as possible so I asked Mark if he would be willing to help me out. He went above and beyond. We planned gatorade "aid stations" where we could meet up, a finish line and what food I wanted after I finished, just like a regular post race meal.  He then contacted a few friends of ours without me knowing, making sure to keep it between 10 - 15 people, (COVID_19) to see if they would be willing to cheer me on as I ran and then meet me at our finish line.  It was awesome and made me feel so loved and supported.  I talk a lot about not needing deep friendships and being fine by myself.  (To Mark that is) Taking pride in not being dependent. That its easier to just not get involved, especially here in Charlottesville as everyone ends up leaving but found myself so grateful for these amazing friends today. It was so nice to have their support and have them drive by and get out of their cars and cheer for me in the chilly weather.  It was a good lesson for me to relearn. I so appreciate Mark's support.  He is the best.  He listened to me and encouraged me all along the way.  He knew how disappointed I was to miss out on the official race and did everything he could to make this a memorable, worthwhile experience.  I look forward to creating a fun memory for him and Jared in a few weeks!

I was really pleased with how I felt while running.  I felt the best between miles 7.5 and 9.5 and the worst between 10 and 11.  I accidentally skipped one section of my planned course right at the beginning and had to improvise a little while running.  It felt so amazing to see my phone tracker (Strava) show 12 miles on the screen.  Only 1 mile to go!  I reached 13.1 miles a little before the set finish line and felt great.  Mark was just a little up the road and it was nice to look up ahead and see him coming towards me.  I then quickly ran ahead to where the line was set up.  As I trained for my first 10K 5 years ago my friend who helped me set up my training plan told me that I would know I trained correctly if I still felt like I could keep running at the end.  I am happy to say that I did feel like I could keep running today.  I did not feel like I was going to die when I got to 13.1 miles.  And that was the best feeling. 

Mark had a donut and chocolate milk (and a banana) waiting for me at the finish line which was great.  We all chatted for a few minutes and then headed home where Mark presented me with my "medal" for completing the run.  I still find it hard to believe I ran 13.1 miles.  I really had no ambitions to do such a thing 5 years ago.  I am not sure I would ever run another one.  It is so long.  You are just running forever.  People who run marathons are so mentally tough.  Many people told me that once I had run 10 miles jumping to a half marathon would be easily attainable.  I was slower than I had been on my longer training runs but part of that was waiting at a few lights and taking my gatorade breaks which I definitely needed.  My average pace was 10:14/mile so not fast but I did it.  On my training runs I was right around 10.  I listened to a few podcasts (Planet Money and Through Line) and quite a bit of music.  The music was really helpful.  I had made a new playlist and tried to not listen to it too much outside of running so it would be fresh.  I am so happy I went ahead and did this race here in Charlottesville, hills and all.

13.1 miles later! 

I will proudly hang this medal up next to my other ones. 

Notes from this race:
Favorite songs this time around:
I forgot that you Existed: Taylor Swift
New Light: John Mayer
Not Giving Away my Shot: Hamilton

Snacks: I had a few snacks with me.  Two pink starbursts and some almonds covered in Dark chocolate.  They were really helpful to have.

Pre Race breakfast: I read so many articles about the proper way to "fuel" your body for your race.  They quickly became too complicated for me so I decided to use what I had done for my 10 miler last year plus a little extra. I got up at 6:30 (after a not so great nights sleep which I expected) and ate some granola, half a banana with peanut butter and a hard boiled egg.  I made sure to hydrate really well the day before which I am sure helped a lot. 

I am still not exactly sure how I got to this point. From casual, sporadic 5K's to a half marathon but here I am.  I always struggle with what to do running wise after finishing a race.  I still have at least a month of good running weather (I hope, it feels like Spring came really early this year) and have gotten high in miles its hard to just stop and lose that.  We will see what the next few weeks bring running and Corona Virus wise! But I beat the virus this time. 

Pi day, school musical and homeschool/home church prep

I made two pies for Pi day. It is not lost on me that I despise math yet I celebrate a math holiday.  We had invited a few friends over to have pie with us but ended up canceling due to COVID 19.  We made a key lime pie and a very berry pie.  When we lived in Colorado we often stopped by Deseret Book on our way home from the Denver temple.  Our main purpose in stopping was to grab a very berry pie from the Lion House Pantry on site.  We would eat a slice or two of pie and then freeze the left overs to mix into ice cream.  We have missed those pies.  I found a recipe online for their very berry pie and it is a great match to what we remember eating.  We are looking forward to many more very berry pies. (Recipe from the book, Lion House Pies)

Pies are not my favorite dessert but I was proud of how these turned out. 

Mark loves pie day.  And wearing this shirt. 

Before school got canceled, the 4th grade classes performed their musical.  It was called "The Beautiful Game" and was short and sweet.  Jared liked the songs and did a nice job. He especially liked the "costumes".  The second grade classes were supposed to perform next week but that will not be happening.  Lydia tried out for solo but did not get it which disappointed her.  She did however get a great speaking part which made her really happy.  I hope she gets a chance to perform her musical too. 

                                        Jared is on the top row next to kid in orange shirt. 

Jared and Tyler.  There was one year they were on the same soccer team.  They had fun matching. 

Last Thursday Mark was on his way to the church for youth night with Jared and Lydia when church leaders announced all gatherings were cancelled including church on Sunday.  He stayed to have a quick bishopric meeting and I drove over to pick them up.  I don't remember what day it was but Albemarle County Schools originally planned to have Monday as a teacher work day for teachers to get a plan in place but Friday afternoon the Governor of VA sent out a message around 2:30 saying all schools would be closed for 2 weeks.  I don't think anyone was surprised by this.  When I picked up Jared and Lydia Friday I had them walk back to their classes to make sure they had all their stuff because I knew we would not be back there anytime soon.  We were playing at the playground when the announcement came through.  Our Spring break was set for April 06 - 10 and I think this 2 week closure will just extend into that.   I feel so fortunate that Mark is able to stay home with Jared and Lydia and work with them. 

I found out today that my office at UVA is going to start working on a rotating schedule.  There will be only one of the three office staff members there at a time. So I will now go in every Wednesday from 8-5 (instead of 8-12) and work from home 3 days a week.  I'm so grateful that I can work from home and not just be told to not work. So that is our new plan.  We set it up for Mark to be the "lead" on our school studies and last night we sat down together and made a schedule and came up with ideas to use for the subject areas.  I know he will do a great job and will need to step back and not try to control all the things. I have been so impressed with teachers, authors & illustrators, early childhood educators, and other organizations who are providing free, well thought out and organized resources for parents.   Jared and Lydia are very excited for Mark to be their teacher and I hope it works out well.  I will help out as much as I can after work.  I've been having all kinds of preschool flashbacks and its been fun to get back into it some. 

We felt pretty good about our first home centered church supported Sunday meetings.  Our "Sacrament" meeting was great.  It was really nice to just be together and have Mark there with just us.  To have Bishop Spencer all to ourselves. I truly felt the Spirit and so appreciated that.  Here was our "program".  We'll follow it each week occasionally having one of us give a short talk as well. 

Our second hour was not nearly as successful.  In all the uncertainty of last week we missed Come Follow Me every night! So we decided to have each of us present the lesson we had prepared on Sunday. It was way too long! We lost Lydia half way through.  Next week we plan to use the Primary manual ideas and have Mark and I team teach them.  It's been amazing to look at all the changes made in the church the last 15 months and see how they helped prepare us for this time. 

UVA date night and Baby animals

Last night Mark and I went over to the McCormick Observatory at UVA for our date. We had heard about the public nights there for years now but had never made it over there.  We were slightly concerned because it was pretty cloudy but after waiting in the cold, long line the sky was clear and we got a great view of the moon.  The telescope is quite large and the details we saw of the moon were beautiful.  It was fun to chat with the guy manning the telescope.  I asked a few questions about the telescope and learned that as big as it is its actually quite small compared to many others in the US.  There is a telescope in AZ that has lens that are 27 feet wide!  This lens is 26 inches.  So, tiny comparatively.  It's been at UVA since 1885.  We quickly walked around the little museum and then headed over to Fuzzy's Tacos on 5th Street for a fun treat.  It was a really good date night.

For some reason it did not occur to me that we would be in an open air room.  I am not sure why because obviously there would need to be a place for the telescope to look out into.  While we were waiting the man in charge had to rotate the roof and it was cool to see it move. Cold but fun.

We didn't have any real plans for Saturday.  I have found that there seems to be less community events in February and early March so we have been taking it pretty easy on Saturdays and its been really nice.  Well, taking it easy except for my long runs.  Today I ran 11.2 miles.  I have never ran over 10 miles in my life so that was a cool milestone.  It was not a great run as I ran into some crazy gusts of wind while running up hill but I got it done.  It was so windy last night that our large grill got blown over so this wind was no joke. I hope my 12 mile run goes better next week.  I was so sore after and took a nice 30 minute nap while Mark and Jared completed their 3 mile run.  We are reading the news  and travel advisories carefully trying to figure out if spring break in Budapest is going to happen. I have looked up a few back up half marathons but really hope we can make it to Budapest.  This virus is not going anywhere anytime soon and is already close to us.  Our biggest fear is not necessarily getting sick but more getting stuck in Budapest for who knows how long. So far we are still planning on going.

I suggested we go over to Crozet to visit the library there and give Jared and Lydia a chance to play at the playground there but Mark countered with Yoders to see the animals and get ice cream so that is what we did. It turned out to be a great idea as there were baby lambs and goats there.  They were so adorable and friendly.  Even the new baby lambs.  They frolicked over and I got to pet them and I loved it.  The alpacas were also very friendly today and Mark, Jared and Lydia decided they were their favorites.  It turned out to be a great afternoon outing.

We ended with family movie night, watching Frozen II which is such a great movie.  Mark and Jared had not seen it and they also agreed that it was better than the first one.  

DC Temple, Date Night and Day Off and JUMP

Last Sunday I saw an announcement that the following Thursday the church would announce the dates for the Washington DC temple open house.  For fun I suggested we all pick an early and a late date for when the open house would be. Lydia chose not to participate but the rest of us did and Jared and I got super close.  We are looking forward to attending and having the DC temple as an option to attend again.  The open house will be from September 24 - October 31 and it will be dedicated December 13. Mark is heading down to Richmond tomorrow for a meeting about the Richmond temple. The ground breaking for that temple will be April 11 which is so soon.  It's exciting. This Sunday there were two large pictures placed in the foyers at church of the renderings of the temple.  I love the design they chose. 

Now that Jared and Lydia are 10 and 8 Mark and I have been venturing out on dates.  It has been awesome.  We don't go far or stay out too long but it has been really nice to be able to go out when we want and not worry about anyone else's schedule or paying a babysitter. They are really responsible and do a good job together.  And there is only 2 of them which helps a lot. This past Friday Lydia got invited to a friends house for a Frozen II party since the movie just came out.  She was really excited and I was happy someone else came up with such a fun idea.  I dropped her off and then came home to pick up Mark for our date.  We hit up one of the Taco Trucks in town and then stopped at LL Bean to look for some hiking type pants for me.  It was freezing cold outside so we ate our tacos in the car (which then made my car smell strongly of tacos all weekend, not my favorite) and they were delicious.  Mark really likes food trucks so we think we will make it a regular date night to go check out the few we have in town.  Jared did get a little lonely at home but did great.  It's so exciting to be able to make dates happen much easier now.

Albemarle County decided to have today, March 02 be a Professional development day for teachers and then tomorrow is super Tuesday so all schools are closed. I worked until 10:30 and then picked Lydia and Jared up from Mark's school.  I am really glad they could go hang out in Mark's classroom while I put in a few hours of work.  Mark got challenged to a smoothie off with another teacher and easily won.  He made a lot of smoothies today!  Before we headed out we all went to lunch together which we never do while in town so that was nice.  We were finishing eating  (at Sticks somewhere I had never been it's super close to Mark's school) when the door opened and a group of teachers from Mark's school walked in.  We chatted with a few of them and then we walked over to a bakery across the parking lot for cookies.  It was a fun little outing.  We dropped Mark off back at his school and then ran a few errands.  Before going home we stopped to play at Woodbrook Elementary School.  We rarely go over there and they really enjoy the playground so it was a great stop. It was a bit windy so not awesome weather but well above 60 so Lydia and Jared were happy to run around in short sleeves. 

JUMP

Baker Butler scheduled another JUMP night. Normally they reserve the whole building and there is a slightly reduced entrance fee. This time they just made it a community night.  I wasn't planning on going but we so rarely take them and they really wanted to so we did it.  They both had church activities that night and I knew most of their friends would not be there but I gave in. They jumped from 5-6 then we hurried home to eat dinner before heading to the church for youth activities.  It is really weird for me to have both Lydia and Jared at the church.  They both have awesome leaders who do such a great job.  I am so grateful for the new program and the people leading it. I often stay and ask if they need help but so far they are good.  They have quite a few people called so that helps a lot.  Sometimes I stay at the church and visit with people other times I go home for some time to myself its been nice.  I like it so much more than Cub Scouts and am really happy Lydia is having such a good experience. 

They were both pretty into the ninja course this time.  Lydia did it quite a few times.