The Accidental Boilermaker

I had a nice low key Mother’s Day. We started to watch church at 9, but the feed cut out, so we ran to Menards to pick up mulch. We finished mulching the front flower beds and rewatched church at 11.  Then we went back to Menards for more mulch and started working on the backyard flower beds. For a present, Nate and the kids made me a medal holder for all my racing medals.

Friday was just a day. I had my last zoom Bible study. Thankfully I wasn’t nearly as tired this week as last. We picked up lunch from school and did a some cleaning around the house. We tried to catch up on school work, but Evelyn still has one assignment left. Today I got to run, Nate got to bike on the trainer, and we did some yard work. The association next to ours organized for two food trucks to set up for the evening so we got bbq for dinner. It was busy! Not great for social distancing but good for business.  Evelyn’s friend McKenzie was there so it was nice to catch up with her family.  Then we had a quarantine graduation parade to attend. Evelyn’s teacher’s assistant graduated with her BA so we met in a church parking lot, got some balloons and drove by her house. Evelyn made a sign. Mrs. Cuellar seemed overwhelmed in a good way.

Yesterday was Jameson's last day of preschool.  While his teacher I really believe went above and beyond these last two months, I can't help but feel sad.  Saying goodbye and I hope I get to see you soon over zoom just isn't the same.  But Evelyn and Jameson had a fun last zoom chat with lots of silly GoNoodle songs, a scavenger hunt, and one last Pete the Cat book.   We also took our last day of school pictures.  Jameson really needs a haircut. In order to help make the day seem special and not just sad, we went to Foster Park to check out the tulips. The park also had lots of fun trees to climb.  We brought the soccer ball to kick around, but the climbing was more fun. Walking back to the car, Jameson tripped and skinned up his knee pretty good.  He was a trooper and made it back to car and then fell asleep on the ride back home. Evelyn's zoom Thursday night was dress up as what you want to be when you grow up or dress up as your favorite commun...

Another Wednesday. We did some school work before lunch.  It has been kinda nice to have two iPads and two sets of headphones. Our library hasn’t reopened yet, but materials are due by Saturday. We took a drive to return our items and luckily the drop box wasn’t full. Of course back at home I found books we forgot. We played frisbee outside for a long time.  Jameson has gotten lots better at throwing the frisbee, but he won’t try to catch it even if you toss it very gently.  After dinner we went for a bike ride and had the first popsicles of the season.  

Monday was a good, normal day. Evelyn’s online schoolwork was quick and easy. It was warm and sunny so I pulled weeds and trimmed bushes while Evelyn and Jameson ran around.  Today was cold and windy. We got out for a run.  Nate’s co-worker found me some yeast so we made orange cinnamon swirl bread. Jameson fell asleep on the couch which was kinda a good thing because tonight he has a PJ zoom party with his preschool class and one of the pre-K classes. 

Thursday was another rainy day. Jameson’s preschool zoom chat went much better than last week. His last day of “school” is next week. We FaceTimed with Harper, Willow, Violet, and Sarah.  It sounded like they were all doing pretty good. Evelyn did a zoom scavenger hunt with her class. Her favorite thing of the week was when on Wednesday I let them watch extra TV because I was feeling lazy. It was true and pretty funny; I laughed. Mrs Ulsh said we are all allowed lazy days. Since I have zoom Bible study Friday mornings we don’t usually do much school. After Bible study ended, we picked up lunch at school. Evelyn and Jameson were thrilled to get Doritos today. I was just so tired after Bible study, something about a 2 hour zoom chat just drains me. Evelyn and Jameson played and I napped in the recliner.  We did finally go outside to enjoy the nice weather. Children’s ministry at church is doing a video and Evelyn and Jameson got the lyrics “I am.”

Today was kind of boring. It was raining so not much to do outside. Evelyn’s school uses a math app called DreamBox and as parents we were told let your kid play for 30 minutes a day (we don’t do that) and don’t help them. The app will advance them as they master the concepts. Ok great so when Evelyn does DreamBox I don’t help or pay much attention. Well she got to a point where she was really frustrated and didn’t want to do it anymore so Nate reached out to her teacher. Through the app, Mrs Ulsh can see what every student has been doing and I guess Evelyn had just been practicing one kind of standard and had worked herself into more and more complex standards, past the point she was really ready for. Another example of why e-learning is maybe not a great long term solution. Anyway, Mrs Ulsh assigned Evelyn some work within DreamBox so we did that today. And Jameson took a picture to see whose braid is longer. Evelyn’s gym teacher had posted some fun workout videos so we did th...