Corona Virus Week 9

Lydia and Jared made the goal to learn how to make some of the muffins we have for Muffin Monday.  Jared is just doing blueberry his favorite, and Lydia picked three recipes to learn so we will make them together the next few weeks. I often invite them to help me make muffins or other things and they rarely want to but as we made these Lydia kept talking about how fun it was.  Hopefully she will remember that! 

I saw a recipe online for ice cream bread and could not quite wrap my head around it so I decided to try it out and it turned out pretty good.  It won't be a regular treat here but it was fun to try something new.  Jen from work asked me if I could go into the office for her Friday as she had some big deadlines and I was happy to go in and have a change of scenery.  I love to take treats into the office so it was good to have something to take in. Only Bill would be there but he might be the one who likes them the most.  It's made up of just flour and ice cream!  I added the Oreos to make it more interesting.

A sweet friend texted me earlier this week and asked about getting together and suggested kayaking and it was so fun to go out with her.  It was a beautiful night and we had a great time catching up. The sunlight was so pretty.  We saw some fun wildlife: turtles, an otter and a huge bird that I think is a type of heron. 

The bird is in the middle of this tree. 

Our family went kayaking twice this week.  We had Jared ride his bike to the lake each time and it made me happy to see him riding somewhere other than a parking lot. 

Lydia is doing well with the youth kayak.  She just needs to keep practicing and is happy to use this one.  Mark towed her for awhile this night which she liked even more. 

Second to last class Zoom meeting. Lydia's class meets (optionally) on Wednesday's at 10:00.  She likes to go for the first 10 minuets of "sharing" and see her classmates and then is done and that's fine.  She does not like to stay for whatever the activity/lesson is. I would say its safe to say online learning is not her thing. Jared's class has been meeting Mondays at 8:30 (optionally) for like 15 minutes. The 4th graders also have the option to take part in a Minecraft Challenge on Friday's if they complete all their seesaw work which has been all the motivation he needs. True to the pattern set at the beginning of the year Lydia has way more work than Jared which is odd but she is a trooper and Mark too. The other day we were talking about online school and they both commented that school with Mark as their teacher was way better. They really have done so well but each day I have noticed they are slower to start their work and need more motivation from Mark and I.  They are so happy that next week is the last week.

Mark ran his personal half marathon!  After his 10k he kept adding one mile each week and now he's done it. Before he left we made plans to meet for a water break after mile 8 and as I was getting ready to leave I got a cryptic text from him asking me to meet him at the church and to bring his keys. I asked him why and he replied back with a number 2 which I did not get at all. We were supposed to meet near the church but instead I drove to the street the church is on.  He came around the corner and signaled to meet him at the doors.  He rushed inside because he desperately needed to go to the bathroom. Poor guy.  I was really paranoid about this happening on my long runs and felt bad for Mark that it happened to him.  (He told me to share this story) This pit stop through off his time which disappointed him but he did it and we are proud of him.  To celebrate he wanted fancy chocolate milk and a nap.

Mile 12.5!

Lastly, Mark and Lydia decided to plant a garden.  They brainstormed what they wanted and got it all planted today.  Hopefully it works out for them. 

Mothers Day 2020

Mother's Day included time by myself staying in bed as long as I wanted, breakfast made by Mark, presents, notes from Jared and Lydia, Costco cheesecake, forced photos and dinner made by Mark.  A few years ago I bought a small notebook and asked Mark to have the kids fill in a Mothers Day questionnaire every Mother's Day.  I love reading the updated notes and previous years entries. We sang songs to our Mom's via Marco Polo and I got some really sweet messages from friends. It was a really nice day and I am so happy to be their mom. 

We bought a plain cheesecake and had fun adding toppings.  We had Oreo's, Reeses Peanut Butter 

Cups, strawberries, raspberry jam and whipped cream. 

There is no one else I would rather take on this parenting gig with.

Corona Virus week 8

Virginia is supposed to begin phase 1 of reopening next Friday, May 15th so this could be the second to last post of this variety.  I don't see our life changing a whole lot come next Friday, we won't be rushing out anywhere but maybe a few changes.  I am not sure where UVA stands on letting people on grounds after the 15th but the last I heard nothing was supposed to be happening on grounds (the academic side) until the end of June.  Even if they did have people start coming back on grounds (which I doubt very much) the three of us in our office would rotate having only person there a day, the original Corona Virus plan.

Monday we celebrated May the 04th. For whatever reason Jared was super excited to plan this day.  Star Wars hasn't been big in his world for quite awhile so I was surprised he was so into it. Maybe my slight holiday obsession is rubbing off on him?  Or maybe he was just really excited for a change in our routine? A few days before we had a little planning session and then all day Sunday he mentioned how excited he was.  We made some themed snacks, looked up some LEGO instructions for Star Wars items and made a playlist of Star War clips from Youtube.  One of the videos was the whole saga explained in under 20 minutes.  I was a huge Star Wars fan in middle/high school but learned a lot from that clip. I have only seen about half of the movies now if even that. Even after watching that I was still really confused about parts, there are just a whole lot of movies!  We picked out an art project but ended up not making it. It was a fun day.

Lydia made an R2D2 and a BB8 and Jared made a speeder.  We listened to Star Wars music for background music as they built which was fun.  So much great music from those movies

Han Solo in carbonite Jello and tie fighter Alfredo with light-saber breadsticks. 

Yoda Soda.  I didn't really think it tasted that good so I do not see it being a regular part of this day but themes are fun. 

Tuesday was another exciting day.  Not only was it Cinco De Mayo but we had plans to leave Charlottesville! I saw online that the Goochland Drive In Theater was open for business. They were operating at half capacity so they could maintain social distance rules.  We had never taken Jared and Lydia to the Drive In (too far away since the movies start so late!) and were excited to take them.  The Drive In is about 45 minutes from our house, on the way to Richmond so we decided to make a trip of it.  We drove past the Drive In exit over to the Richmond Temple site.  Ground was broken about a month ago so we decided to see what had been done.  After the temple site we stopped by a small restaurant to pick up tacos for our Cinco De Mayo dinner.  Mark ordered them ahead of time and they were so delicious. I don't really mind making dinner, its just part of the day but it felt really good to just pick it up and eat it in the car.  On the drive to the Drive In we read about Cinco De Mayo. I was impressed about how much Jared and Lydia already knew.  Especially Jared, he has such a good memory.  There was an article titled, "Actual questions people have asked about Cinco De Mayo" and we got some really good laughs.  For example, "what day is Cinco De Mayo?" I know not everyone speaks Spanish or has studied it but we found it really funny and it was great to laugh at something silly like that together. We made it to the Drive In about 45 minutes before the movie started.  It was supposed to start at 8:10 and ended up starting about 15 minutes late. We got all situated in our car and had a great time together.  It was so nice to be out of town and do something new together.  We watched Trolls, World Tour and it was much better than I thought it would be which was a pleasant surprise.  It was a great outing.

Richmond Temple Site

It was a little chilly which made it so pleasant.  I can't imagine going in the summer when its hot and humid and probably starts even later.  This was perfect for me.  It was a late night for sure, we got home around 10:50 but it was worth it.  Jared and Lydia are great ages for this kind of outing and I am sure they would love to go with friends and park next to each other 

School was better for Lydia this week.  Just two more weeks to go!  It was teacher appreciation week so we had both of them record messages for their teachers. Mark got a few messages from students and even a gift card from one family which was really nice.  He had a parent reach out to him earlier in the week about doing a birthday drive by for a former student so he went and did that at the begining of the week.  He is a good guy.  Once school is out we think we will have Jared and Lydia do some DuoLingo each day and they want to play Prodigy so that can be out simple Summer lessons. Just some structure to the days.

Home Learning

Pretzel day.  This weeks Saturday project was homemade soft baked pretzels. I love Pretzel stores.  I rarely go to the mall and therefore rarely get soft pretzels but they are so delicious to me. So I looked up a few recipes and tried them out.  They were great!  I did half of the batch regular salted and the other half I dipped in cinnamon sugar.  I have felt intimidated by pretzels in the past, shaping them and dropping them in the the boiling baking soda water but it was so easy.  Especially since I just did pretzel bites.  The dough raised really well and I ended up with a lot of it so to save some time I made the bites bigger than I originally planned. They were more like mini rolls. Next time I would cut the recipe in half.  We were all big fans of them. I am happy to know I can make these at home and have them turn out should all the malls close and pretzel shops go with them.

Jared and Lydia spent a lot of time playing with Barbies in the yard. On a rare occasion in the past Jared would play Barbies with Lydia inside but taking them outside this week brought on lots of imaginative play.  There were camping trips, pools and giants carrying the Barbies away that I heard in passing.  Watching their relationship deepen the past weeks has been so satisfying.  They have come to enjoy each other even more and I love it.  Our trampoline is getting great use as well.  We are so thankful for all the space we have.

Mark and I ended the week with a Saturday night date walk in a nearby neighborhood.  I really like this neighborhood, its small, about 7 minutes from our house and some fun friends live there.   The house I really wanted to buy 5 years ago is located there.  We walked by it and I did think it would have been a good fit for us but it wasn't meant to be and we are happy with what we have.  We told Jared and Lydia to get themselves ready for bed at 8:00 if we weren't home yet.  We pulled into the driveway at 7:58 and they were inside in pajamas brushing their teeth.  We have made it to an awesome stage of parenting and are so thankful for these two kind, fun responsible kids. It was a great end to another week.

Corona Virus Week 7

Marathon in a Week.
After seeing our post about marathon in a month some friends decided to do a marathon in a week and Jared, Mark and I decided to join in.  We hiked, biked, ran and walked 26+ miles in one week. It was really fun.  I finished my marathon Wednesday and ended the week with 30 miles. Jared and Mark finished Friday, Mark with 36 (he ran 11 miles Friday!) miles and Jared did the required 26.2.  It was really motivating to have the goal to complete that distance in one week.

We went over to the John Warner Parkway to get some miles in one day  We used to walk/bike over there all the time the first two years we lived here but haven't done it the last few years.  Lydia rode her bike and did awesome.  There are some hills and she handled them like they were no big deal.

We also did a quick loop on the trails at Chris Greene which we had not done for over a year.  We just stayed on the street last month so it was nice to get onto the trails.

UVA Research Park Ice Cream Walk.  Last night Mark and I wanted to go on a quick walk before bed.  Lydia and Jared just wanted to stay home and read (Harry Potter) but when they heard there would be ice cream they decided to come along.  As we were walking and eating our ice cream the sister missionaries called.  Mark had set up a time for them to share a message with us and then forgot so they walked with us and then we went up to the overlook for the lesson.  It was a really pretty evening and the view was perfect.  Jared brought his quaffle with him so we played some quidditch and loved being outside. I loved how the scenery changed when the sun came out.  These pictures were less than 5 minutes apart.

Saturday Bike Ride

Since Lydia did so well riding her bike earlier this week we decided it would be nice to go on a family bike ride Saturday.  The bike we had bought Jared at the beginning of all this had bad brakes so we took it back.  Mark stopped at the sports store really quick after our John Warner walk and they had just gotten a bike his size in so we grabbed it for Jared.  Jared is really happy to have a bike again.  Unfortunately this bike ride did not go well for Lydia.  She was so happy to be riding earlier in the week we thought she would love it but the hills were more than she wanted to take on and she pretty much just gave up and walked her bike more than half of the ride.   

Donut Day #2. I tried out two different recipes this week. One, I made yesterday after work that proofed overnight in the refrigerator and the other I mixed up this morning.  They were both better than the three recipes I tried last week which makes sense, they took way more time.  Mark decided to get involved this week which also stepped up the end results.  As I was cutting out the donuts we realized it would be fun to leave some without holes and try to fill them.  He found an amazing lime buttercream recipe that we loved and also filled some with nutella. They were so delicious.  Mark did a great job frying them and I made a new maple glaze, the one last week was not quite right and a Peanut Butter glaze that was delicious.  We fried them all and then called Lydia and Jared in to decorate them.  It was a fun way to spend some time.  Mark never wants to buy donuts again.  Making the recipe the night before was actually really helpful because then it needed less time to rise today and it was our favorite so I guess after all of this we now have a family donut recipe and I feel confident we can make donuts if we ever can't buy them.

Key Lime Buttercream filled and Nutella sugar cinnamon 

Work was pretty slow this week which was hard.  It is still completely unknown if UVA will bring students back this Fall.  There is talk of pushing back the start of the semester to October.  If they do that and do not bring grad students back to the labs in July then it is likely that the three of us who are office staff will be furloughed for July/ August or August/September. If labs are opened for grad students this Summer then Jen, Jennifer and I will implement the rotation schedule we had intended  to use in March until everything got closed down.  So no idea what this Fall or even Summer will look like.

Lydia and Jared read a lot of Harry Potter this week. Lydia finished books 3 and 4 and Jared powered through 5 and 6 so he could start reading 7. He has been waiting 2 years to read it and is so excited. He commented to me that he thought 6 was action packed but it was nothing like 7. I asked if he thought it was good I had him wait until he was this age and he said yes. I'm sure he will finish in the next day or so. They watched the third movie and we are debating letting them watch the 4th. I think it will be fine.

Jared and Lydia were less excited about school this week (week 3 of distance learning).  Especially Lydia.  She commented to me that online school was just not as fun as real school and she did not want to do it.  I had her take a beak and we talked just a bit and then she was ok. There was one day Mark was out running and had started Lydia on her school work before he left.  The computer wasn't working so she came down to get help.  I was working on some small work project and had just the slightest glimpse of what so many parents are trying to manage right now.  Trying to work and manage their kid school needs. We have been so fortunate in our set up.  We aren't that stressed about them doing all the work (and it has been really reasonable) and it was an easy fix but it just made me think about other peoples situations and realize again how good we have it.  Lots of states are opening up now and it will be really telling to see how this plays out.  Virginia still has June 10th as its day for the stay at home order to be lifted but hospitals are opening Monday.  I'm not sure if anything else is.  We will be sticking to what we have been doing which is mostly staying home and near our home. I have been so grateful  for the awesome weather we've had. We had another campfire which ended the week nicely.

I am not a bacon fan but Mark is. He was excited to try bacon wrapped sausage over the fire. My posion ivy is almost all healed so I came up with a new yard work job I am willing to do. Spray weed killer everywhere. Mostly just by the trampoline and fire pit and entry  gate. I will not worry about the rest.  It's not as good as leaf blowing but maybe it will keep weeds down this year. Probably not but worth a try.

Wand making, Jared decided he wanted an indoor and outdoor wand.

Sipping smoothie while reading Harry Potter