Coronavirus Quarantine Week 2

The days are starting to blur together.  As I write this we are on day 18 at home together and we're making the most of the current situation.  After the first full week of the quarantine, the weekend came and we used it as an opportunity to take a break from the homeschool schedule and work on the kid's playroom.  Scott painted the trim, the ceiling, and the walls.  He mounted the TV and hung some artwork on the wall for me.  I spent the rest of the time organizing toys, buying storage bins from Target, and figuring out the furniture arrangement.  We brought up the futon from the basement and it's done!  The boys were pumped the try out their new set-up for Nintendo 64.

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a challenge with the boys.  Lots of whining and fighting made for a long two days.  The weather wasn't great either, but we tried to get them outside.  We took a walk to the park where we facetimed with Eric and Ana and the fire department showed up to caution tape off the playground equipment.  It was a sad moment!  The boys hung their bird feeders (squirrel feeders...), downloaded Messenger Kids and connected with friends and family, and walked over the freeway to guess the color cars coming under the overpass.  Can you tell we were bored?  We also watched church online that our mass streamed on youtube.  That was pretty strange too.

And then another week of homeschool kicked off with some unexpected snow Monday morning.  I mean, seriously?!  Kick us while we're down here...

In our free time we finished our puzzle, I started a free online photography class about editing in Lightroom with daily modules posted, and Scott and I worked out several times together in the basement.  The boys liked to join us and work on their pull-ups! 

Evan learned how to play "Happy Birthday" on the guitar so he could send a video of him playing it to his Uncle Eric!  It took many, many attempts, but I was proud of his motivation to see it through!

We had an amazing weather day on Thursday, so we all finished school work early and got outside!  I went for a run, Scott put the bounce house up for the boys, we grilled dinner and had a bonfire in the evening with s'mores. 

We found a new bike trail that took us to Hines Drive.  The boys made it all the way around Newburgh Lake and it's already a favorite! 

Friday we celebrated another week of Quarantine completed and homeschool success!  The boys got their weekly prizes that consisted of a new set of Perler Beads for making sharks and some diamond stickers that were superheros.  The boys spent all morning working on their new crafts, which allowed me to clean the first floor and get laundry going!

We took our Friday Field Trip in the afternoon and tried to go to Island State Recreational Park, but it was closed.  Luckily, Kensington Metropark is right down the road from there so we went to Kensington instead and did a 2 mile walk on the paved path around the water.  It felt good to get out and the boys enjoyed trying to find cattails and walking sticks.  We stopped at Draught Horse Brewery in New Hudson on our way home to get our growlers filled (Scott's with an IPA and mine with some cider) and got a carry-out dinner that was...not the best.  We played baseball and basketball outside until it was time to come in and do our Zoom call with Scott's family.  It was a good day!

On to another week...