Outside

My perspective right now is that most anything outside is a safe thing.  While this is not exactly true, there is some risk involved in being too close even outside, it is a better measure of safety.  So, when we gather, we gather outside.  I think it has been good because the girls have been also venturing out more on their own.  So often they hole up inside the house playing fun and imaginative things, but miss the opportunities outside.  They have a better start to outside exploration this year. 

A good place to jump head first into the out of doors experience is Luke and Steph’s house.  They seem to always be outside – or maybe they are just outside when we come over.  They have a decent size woods behind their house with some paths that meander through it along with a creek that provides for more fun.  Their kids are all kinds of fun out there.  They have built separate forts, created a mini zipline, tied down trees (and then got hit in the face with them… sorry, Lilli, I just didn’t want to forget that happened!), found clay to do art, and more.  My girls tagalong and dip their toes into adventure there.  We went out to say hi Sunday (17th).  We walked their fair goats around the woods – actually the goats were off leash and followed us around better than Pepper would have!  We checked out Lilli’s fort and raised garden bed she had made, the swing near her fort, and the mini zipline.  Madison thought about trying it out, but the rope was a little to high for her liking this time. 

The girls dug up some clay and fashioned tiny pots that are air drying in our garage.  And the highlight…. learning to shoot a bow and arrow.  Sam had made a bow and arrow out of sticks and reeds.  It was pretty cool.  The girls practiced quite awhile to get the arrow to fly.  Sam made another bow they were allowed to bring home with them.  They think it pretty cool to see the arrow fly!

Here at home, we have hung out a lot under the shade of the three trees in our backyard.  There is almost always a good breeze that blows that makes it bearable, if not comfortable to just sit out there. 

Jeremy was working on getting a garden started.  The girls wanted to help.  They also wanted to collect all the worms they found.  I am glad that he does this gardening thing.  In my head, I want to be the garden type to harvest and preserve my own food.  But the reality is, it is not what I enjoy.  It takes a lot of energy and it is not a place I go to burn off steam or feed my inner soul.  But Jeremy does his best to make up for my conflicted self by planting and maintaining the garden.  I am glad he is teaching our kids these things.

         

In second grade, they end the year with “camping week.” This year was no exception.  So, to usher in the themed week, we pulled out the tent on Saturday night (23rd) to sleep out there.  We ate a light supper of popcorn, cheese sticks, and s’mores. 

    

It was a comfortable night temperature-wise.  I think I am just not comfortable in a tent… even on an air mattress.  I will do it if I have to, but since I was in my backyard, it didn’t feel like a have to.  Ellie made it til about 3am when she woke up and heard all the June bugs flying around between the tent screen and the fly; they were loud and annoying, and she was a little worried they would make it inside the tent.  She wanted to go in.  I woke up Madison and in we went. 

Sunday, they thought they wanted to sleep out again.  I said I would not, but if they wanted to do it alone, they could.  They did!!  I couldn’t believe they would even start the night out there.  I put them to bed and then sat outside and read for about 20 minutes while they fell asleep.  They made it all night long!  At 6am we heard them stumble in, awakened by the sun and the birds.  Monday, they wanted to do it again!  They almost made it that night – til 4am when Ellie decided she was a bit scared.  They were going to try for a third night out there, but we had some people coming to work on the patio on Wednesday morning and didn’t want to have to clean it up early in the morning.  So, they shipped their unhappy selves back in the house for sleeping.

They have found a good climbing tree in our neighbor’s yard.  We have a ladder from an old play set, so we set it up against the tree trunk and now they can get up and down by themselves.  It’s great.

This week the temperatures have skyrocketed to the upper 80s, and our bodies were not acclimated in the least.  The girls got creative because we don’t own a pool.  They played a lot on the swing set turning the circle swing into a surf board and working on their trapeze moves.  They pulled out the sprinkler and swimsuits that need replaced for a new summer of fun. 

    

Then, they upped their game by putting the baby pool at the base of the slide for a slip n slide type experience.

    

Then, the heat became unbearable and they just wanted to sit in a vat of water.  They decided if they couldn't go to a pool, they needed some tubs to fill with water and sit in.  Grandma Yoh to the rescue with one, and we found another one here.  They discovered that hose water, even on a hot day, is pretty cold stuff!  (Although Pepper didn’t seem to mind…)

  

On Wednesday, I told them they had to come to Seacrest Arboretum with me to walk the paths.  It was hot.  They didn’t want to.  They did it anyway.  (I called it a Mandatory Mom Moment and they didn’t have a choice!)  It ended up being better than they expected.  Madison took pictures for her 4-H nature scrapbook.  Ellie, Pepper and I walked slowly giving her time.  They remembered we had taken family pictures here a number of years ago and were looking for some of the photo spots.  We really like this one.

    

While it looks like they are always getting along, they do have their moments.  Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty rough days of discontent around here.  They were creative about the water, but they (especially Ellie) wanted an actual pool.  That made her pretty non-compliant with any other suggestions about things to do.  This frustrated Madison who was willing to adapt.  But Madison has got sucked into a new book series, and this irritates Ellie because then all Madison wants to do is sit and read. When you are tight, you’re tight.  But when it’s not going right, it is hard to find ways to be with yourself.

I say, just stop, breathe and look at what God has given us to center yourself on Someone besides yourself.

Roscoe Village

Jeremy’s brother, Jason, had purchased some equipment that Roscoe Village was getting rid of.  Jason is into letterpress printing, which is a pretty cool thing.  He has been collecting things for his own letterpress production is my understanding, but he also just wants to save these pieces of history and find good homes for it.  A couple weeks ago, Jeremy and his Uncle David had driven down there to get a truck – trailer load of stuff.  Jason came down the weekend of the 16th from Minneapolis to collect the rest of it. 

The girls wanted to go along this time.  Jeremy had come home from the first trip telling them about the historical village (which is not open, but there were some people there just starting to come back to test some ideas out about reopening).  He and David had had a broom making demonstration, they had seen the canal, and more.  It was too good for the girls to pass up.  So, Jason and Gloria rode in one van; Jeremy and the girls drove the truck.  It is about an hour each way.

I wasn’t there.  I stayed home for some solitude, house cleaning, and relaxing.  It was much needed break from the hum of voices around here.

It sounds like for them most part the girls really enjoyed their time.  They got to see a number of things, even though it wasn’t really up and running.  They wore masks when around others, but took them off when alone.  This is the letterpress’s former home:

         

They ventured out and saw a few other things as well:

         

They came home excited because their cousin Megan was going to be at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and we were letting them play outside for the first time in forever!  The weather was perfect.  They had a blast – cleaning up the playhouse, jumping on the trampoline, and playing office … outside. 

    

The day ended with a picnic in our backyard with Gloria and Jason.  It was a good Saturday.

Happy Mother’s Day

A week late on this post, I guess.  And I have few pictures to offer, but here goes.

Jeremy and the girls did a great job making me feel special on Mother’s Day.  First, I got to sleep in.  I didn’t wake up to take out the dog or care about an alarm waking me up.  When I did wake up, I just laid in bed and listened to the sounds of voices working together in the kitchen.  They made a feast of a breakfast:

• Madison – stirred up multigrain pancakes because she knew I liked these a little better than the regular buttermilk
• Ellie – stirred up the buttermilk pancakes and helped cut up the fruit; helped with the scrambled eggs, too
• Jeremy – cooked the sausage and supervised

It was delicious.

Then, not long enough after that, we had Gloria over for round 2: Lunch.  We had hamburgers on pretzel buns, oven baked potatoes (cut and seasoned by Jeremy), and a salad.  It was rounded out by a strawberry pie.  It was all very good.  Gloria relaxed here with us until about 3:15pm when the girls and I had to take off on a secret mission.

Not only was it Mother’s Day, it was also my mom’s birthday.  We planned – secretly – to provide her a surprise party (without the people).  My dad, who really has the hardest time keeping a secret, was in on it.  And I think actually succeeded in keeping it quiet.  It was actually fairly low-key.  We delivered them supper: Hamburgers with pretzel buns, pecan strawberry salad, cheesy potatoes, and angel fluff.  The girls and I went to decorate the house while dad took mom on a tour of homes. 

She said afterwards she really thought that we kids would all be there waiting to surprise her.  It would have been pretty cool.  We just didn’t think we were ready for that step yet.  So, instead, she walked in to a decorated house and supper waiting.  It sounded like they still enjoyed the time.  We held a Zoom session to see anyone who was available later that night as well. 

Stay Safe Ohio - Weeks 8 & 9

I don’t really know how long I will title these things by the weeks we’ve been isolated.  I just know I have no better title since we haven’t really done much “title worthy” stuff.  Here is our update:
The girls really got into American Girl dolls – or should I say 18 inch dolls.  They each have one Our Generation (from Target) and an American Girl (from 1980s).  As they cycled through their toys, they found these again and spent serious time with them.  They decided they each wanted to use their own money (in the bank) to purchase a real American Girl doll.  Ellie wanted Joss (girl of the year 2020) and Madison wanted Blaire (girl of the year 2019).  These dolls are like $120!  It is ridiculous.

However, Jeremy and I couldn’t really think of a good reason for the no except that there is no reason to spend that much on a doll for the name brand.  So, we made this deal – We would buy the dolls for them.  They would use half of the money they would have spent on the doll ($50) and donate it to someone/organization that is in need.  Our reasoning was two-fold: 1) not everyone can afford luxuries at this moment and we wanted them to recognize that, and 2) we wondered if they would be willing to give up $50 to get no physical item in return.  They agreed immediately.  We ordered the dolls. 

They spent the next 3-4 days working on making a nice space to welcome their dolls.  They looked online at the accessories that went with each girl.  They then created many of these out of cardboard, paper, and tape.  Very resourceful.  They had a blast thinking of how to create each item.  It was neat to watch. 

The dolls arrived about a week early unbeknownst to the girls.  We put them out like Christmas morning for them to find on Sunday. 

It was so anticlimactic.  They came out to pet the dog, looked up, gasped, and stayed rooted to the spot they were in.  I had to give them permission to go over and see the dolls.  Then, their excitement grew. 

They had fun for about 3-4 days with these before moving on.  I am sure we will come back to that in our cycle of fun.

Some random things:
We do devotions in the morning – or at least that is our goal.  One morning, we were supposed to write a four line poem to capture the essence of Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” I think we did a pretty good job with our poem:


There’s this guy… always underfoot.

The school has been doing a countdown using the alphabet, so each day is a letter of the alphabet with a theme until we get to Z.  We sometimes participate, and we sometimes don’t.  The girls joined in with Jersey Day with matching outfits:

Lego Day – These two girls worked their tails off for about 3 days completely holed up trying to rebuild two pretty big sets they had taken apart.  By about day 2, we sorted the Legos by color to help narrow down our choices when looking for pieces. 

They succeeded in their creations.  Now, they have all the sets up in the playroom, and they have been playing Lego town for about the last 3 days. 

    

Movie Day- we watched the movie, Ugly Dolls.  It is actually pretty good.  The girls caught on to the message of the movie – we are unique and are differences don’t make us ugly, they make us beautiful.  They thanked God that night in their prayers for how he created us each as individuals.  It was pretty cool. 

Mandatory Mom Moments… we did these week 8 and week 9 they have been too busy building Legos to stop much.

• Thank you cards… this went with both “Make it Monday” and their school art assignment.  Ellie made a card for her teacher.  Madison made one for the lunch workers.  Madison was so proud of her card she wanted a picture of it; I never got one of Ellie’s card.

• Knock out Dice game
• Watched a second Mandie movie from the church library
• Sudoku puzzle together
• Bike ride – We rode from West Lebanon Rd on the bike trail all the way to Manchester Rd -- 8.11 miles round trip!  It was the first beautiful, sunny, low wind day we had in awhile and we took advantage of it.  They did a great job!  They were also really proud of themselves.

   

And a little COVID-19 humor I saw on Facebook… because the struggle is real and we just need to be realistic

Still Sheltering @ Week 7

It is May – finally? already?  I am not sure.  It seems that March and April both came and slid right by.  We have become accustomed to this way of life.  Laid back.  But with some tasks each day.  Summertime, but not really.  We have 19 more days of school until it is officially the last day.  Life will subtly shift under us.  Maybe it will even open up new possibilities by then.  We wish for more.  Wonder what’s ahead.  And draw back unsure of what will happen.  We try to find norms as the criteria change.  Do we wear masks when visiting grandparents – even when maintaining appropriate distance? Who pulls aside on a trail if you are hiking and see someone?  Which hikes will be too busy on a nice day?  Will the roads and stores fill up as things relax? When is the best time to shop?  How do we filter through all the information floating around out there?

It is so much work to reserve judgement and show compassion – both on social media and in the physical world.  We see people playing at a park as if the caution tape is there for fun.  We watch buggies clip clop past as they go to church on mornings we are watching online.  A roof goes up and 20 kids buzz around the yard like a happy pack of puppies.  And we yearn for a chance to hang with our cousins.  We see some people wearing masks.  Others not.  Reading the stream of heated criticism on both sides as I search for something uplifting on my Facebook feed. 

It’s not worth it.  I should just delete the thing and be done. 

But then you see a family you used to know is moving back.  Someone shares the best chocolate chip cookie recipe – you try it and it trumps all you’ve tried before.  Another posts a video of encouragement.  It is just what I was looking for. 

So, we go through our life and try to do the best we can with what we know. 

What’s up?

Not a lot.  We made it through another week.  We had things that we looked forward to, like my parents’ 45th anniversary.  While we did things differently, I think it was a pretty good substitute.  Their anniversary was on Saturday.  On Friday, we catered them a meal from Village Catering in Smithville.  It is good food, reasonably priced, and local.  The girls made special menus for them.

    

Saturday, mom slow cooked ribs for them, and dad made a salad.  We sent them a special invitation to attend a Zoom anniversary party at 6:45 that night.  We all hopped on and the fun began.  We had each made a clue for an item that they were supposed to find that reminded us of them and why they are special to us.  We had things from the dining room table to squeaky rockers to hot sauce to tighty-whiteys.  It was a fun process to walk down memory lane.  After that, we all ate pre-prepared chocoloate pudding over ice cream (well, Luke’s family may have had root beer floats… it all has the same common ingredient – ice cream!).  During that time we just visited.  It lasted long enough Madison actually asked to go to bed!

We’ve been going to school.  Just realized that this week that our specials (STEAM, art, music, gym) had been posting assignments since spring break in a new location.  Prior to break, teachers had been including them with their plans.  Now, specials post on “DES Parent Hub” – a convienent location, but not if you weren’t informed of it.  It’s fine.  We are going to slowly catch up – or at least keep up – from now on.  It was fun doing some art projects Monday. And having a family wall sit competition for gym on Friday (Ellie won).

     

The girls spent a majority of the week planning for the arrival of their American Girl dolls – that they offered to pay for.  They made a space for them in the playroom, crafted all the accessories they saw online using resources we had at home (pretty innovative things they came up with), and dreaming of the date of arrival (May 8).  They have been BUSY with this - almost obsessively - all week. 

When they weren’t doing that, I managed to get them to go on a few little walks with Pepper and I.  We found this beautiful bush just dwon the road.

And we have done a few Mandatory Mom Moments:

hiking at Wooster Memorial Park

       

4-H soil learning

    

cooking up the challenge recipes from their cookbooks – Madison made Shredded Chicken Tacos (fantastic) and Ellie made Cheesecake Bars with Strawberry Topping (also, amazing)

creating a scavenger hunt for our neighbors (we’ll put this out one day when it is warm for them to do and watch from our deck)

Pepper has been busy doing a whole lot of nothing and a whole lot of mischief. 

                   

While this was pre-shelter in place, I find this comic fitting.  As a side note, my kids are now addicted to reading the comics every morning.  They now know how to follow storylines, identify characters, and engage with the newspaper in a positive way.