First Week of Social Distancing, Homeschool, A Trip to Frances Slocum, and Fun Family Time While "Stuck at Home"

Samantha: 106 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 72 Months, Week 3
Owen: 30 Months, Week 1

Sunday, March 15th was Ema and Papa's last day with us before returning home. Ema had to be back home in enough time to get to the doctor on Monday to get a new cast and get her stitches in her head out. The kids were sad that they had to leave, but we were so glad that we had this time with them, especially since everything with the coronavirus was really ramping up. We had church online that morning, which was definitely an interesting experience. It was a bit challenging to keep everyone quiet enough, especially Owen, to actually be able to hear the sermon. Ema and Papa were able to watch their home church online, too, and it looked like this would be our new normal for awhile since people are no longer allowed to be meeting in large groups. Here is Izzy sitting next to Ben on the couch that morning during "church."

Since the weather was going to be very nice that afternoon, I took advantage of the fact that Ben could have more responsibility with the kids so that I could do some yard work. I had a big job of cleaning up the large landscaping area of leaves and dead plants that we had pulled out. I borrowed a leaf blower from some friends in our small group, and that definitely helped the job be much quicker. After working for quite awhile, and once Owen woke up from his nap, we decided to put on Frozen 2 for the kids to watch. Disney+ released it early, and Samantha and Aedan were excited to watch it with Owen for the first time. I joined them on the couch for a little while before helping with dinner.

Mealtimes have been a little frustrating around here lately because Aedan and Owen haven't been eating very well. It seems like it's a battle at every meal. Aedan doesn't like much of what we make for some reason, and he is always asking us how many more bites he has to take. Owen never wants to come sit down at the table, saying, "I don't want to eat dinner!" (Or breakfast or lunch depending on what time of day it is. He has been saying no a lot more lately (which he has definitely learned from his older brother, so he has now gotten a lot more time outs for not listening to us. However, the time outs really seem to work to just reset his attitude and behavior, and he almost always comes back with a happier demeanor, ready to listen and obey, which is great. His tantrums haven't really impacted us too much, though, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he is our third kid. We have been through this before. We know it's just a new phase he is in, that he will come out of it some day, and that in the meantime we just need to be consistent with our expectations and following through with what we are asking them to do.

With the kids not having school for at least the next two weeks, we started off Monday morning with some school online learning opportunities that I found. One was through Scholastic, and they had great fiction books that were read as videos, and as well as articles for the kids to read that were related to the fiction book and were generally related to something to do with Social Studies or Science. The kids really seemed to like it, even Owen. I also found an art teacher that was teaching an art lesson online, as well as At Home Safari videos through the Cincinnati Zoo. We stayed busy doing somewhat academic time for a couple hours in the morning. I thought it would help us start on the first day with a new routine and a new normal, even if we wouldn't be going back to school for awhile. Here are Samantha and Aedan sitting at the kitchen table getting ready for their art lesson. She taught them how to draw the features of a face and even how to make vellum using a regular sheet of paper and some cooking oil. They enjoyed the art lesson, but I think it was a little bit too complicated for them.

While we were spending some time outside before lunch that morning, Ben took this awesome panoramic picture of our house and property from the side or our yard. He commented, "There are worse places to spend two weeks off. Happy for this house and property for the kids to play on." I have felt that way so much lately as I think about how we are unable to go and do our normal things. I am so glad for our house and all the property around it to spread out on and play on. I am so grateful that this virus is happening during spring when things are finally starting to warm up, plants are starting to grow, and the days are becoming longer. If there was anywhere to socially distance ourselves, I'm glad it's here.

Tuesday, March 17th was St. Patrick's Day, but we didn't have much of a different day, which I think is going to be a theme over the next few weeks. Aedan made this cute picture for Ema because he really missed her a lot after she left on Sunday. Of his own accord, he wrote all the numbers from 1 to 100, and then he drew a picture of him and Ema holding hands at the bottom of the page. He wanted me to sent this in the mail to her, and it was a sweet little picture. 

That morning we did our daily work rhythm, and Owen took a few pictures of Samantha on my phone. Most of them were not great, but he got a few cute ones of Samantha's face close up. I love this little girl. She is beautiful both inside and out, and she loves to wear earrings and necklaces almost every day.

Despite this cute picture of Samantha smiling, shortly after that we had some issues together. She was just constantly talking back to me, which has been more of a problem with her lately. I told her we were going to go on a walk before lunch, just to get everyone out of the house for a little while. She had her light coat on, so I hold her to put her heavy coat on because it was a little chilly outside. She remarked back, "But you have your light coat on," which I didn't. Then, when we got back from our walk, I said that we were going to go get their lunches at school, which she complained about, and then she said she was going to go feed her caterpillar, but I said no because we were going to be leaving, and she was just coming up with something else to do instead of what I asked her to do. So she then talked back to me again, saying that she said she would feed him every day at lunch, so if he dies it would be all my fault, with a glaring look in her eye. Part of me wondered if all of this is just too hard for her with school and everything being cancelled. I wondered if this was her way of reacting to the uncertainty and strangeness of the situation.

On Tuesday Ben went to campus for awhile to get some things scanned and gather up anything he might need for the rest of the semester because he was expecting all this to probably be extended past the three weeks that they had already moved classes to online.

Samantha's and Aedan's school is providing lunches for any kid in the school district, so we decided to check out what they offered for lunch on Tuesday. They were able to get hamburgers, which they were excited about. Owen and I had crackers, meat, and cheese together. Here they are happily eating their lunch and making silly faces at me. (Owen didn't want to look at the camera.)

I feel like the kids are in the best moods right after eating a meal, and Tuesday was no different. Owen was pretending to be a monster, roaring at people, and chasing them around the house. It can get a little loud and rowdy, and Izzy joins in by barking and chasing them around the house as well, but it's cute to see them enjoying each other, being silly, and getting some energy out.

We watched a Zoo Safari video on Wednesday about a porcupine, and then the kids were supposed to make their own porcupines. Aedan decided to make his with an apple and toothpicks, so here it is!

Wednesday was going to be a beautiful day, so we decided to pack up our lunches and head over to Frances Slocum State Park so we could go on a hike together and then eat a picnic lunch. We had a great time walking the trail that we have been on a couple different times, and the kids had a blast exploring, stopping for pictures, and playing with sticks. It was a wonderful field trip to take because we got out of the house, but we were just out in nature by ourselves, so we weren't around any people. Here are some pictures of the kids on our hike that day.

On Wednesday Ben put Owen down for his nap so that I could head outside and get some work done with using the leaf blower and rake to clean up lives and start clearing up more of the landscaping areas around our house. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, and it was wonderful to spend time outside. As I pulled out weeds, cleaned up leaves, and pruned things back, I discovered plants that are starting to bud and sprout up out of the ground, so that was exciting.

Samantha and Aedan came out to play as well, and it was fun to see them running around and having fun together. Izzy is always outside with us when we are out, and she loves racing around the yard, chasing birds. This back yard is great for her. She is able to get a lot of energy out, and she does a pretty good job of listening to us, even if she explores the woods a little bit too much sometimes.

As I was clearing off some leaves from a plant, I discovered a whole bunch of animal bones. I thought the kids would find them interesting, so I brought them over to the tables for them to examine. We didn't know what animal it could have belonged to, but Samantha, in particular, really found it fascinating to look at the bones from inside the plastic bag we put them in.

That night we had to run and pick up our minivan from the shop because we needed some work done on it to get it to just get a tune up to make sure it was in good shape. I then stopped at the hardware store to buy another rake because I broke the old one that we had, and then I picked up food from Tomasino's for dinner because they were doing a carry out deal that sounded good to us, and it sounded appealing to have a break from cooking for the night. Everyone really loved the food. It was nice and hot, and we were able to share all the dishes we ordered and have plenty to save for another meal.

Thursday morning I made a trip to the grocery store for our weekly groceries. It was kind of sad before I left because Owen heard that I was going grocery shopping, but he knew that he couldn't come with me, and he didn't understand why he couldn't come with me because he always went grocery shopping with me before. It certainly was weird that it was now safest for just me to go shopping on my own while the kids stayed home with Ben. I decided to go to Aldi first because I knew I could get most of what I needed there, and I could save more money. It was interesting because the paranoia from the virus was definitely settling in. I saw people wearing masks and gloves, and a lot of the paper products were gone. There were a few things I couldn't find that surprised me, but I was able to just stop at Weis on my way home to get the rest. I didn't think I would feel as nervous as I did, and after loading everything into my car, I actually went back into the store and washed my hands and then left the store without touching anything so that way I'd have clean hands from possibly touching anything within the store. Who knew grocery shopping could be this big of a deal?

Thursday afternoon was a bit of a challenge being home with the kids. Ben was trying to sit in the kitchen and record video lectures for his classes, and Samantha and Aedan were down in the basement playing, which was great, but they were extremely loud, so I had to keep telling them to be quiet so that Daddy could get his videos done. Wilkes isn't allowing anyone on campus anymore, so he has to work from home. He's doing the same work, if not more because he has to rework all his classes and figure out how to teach and communicate with students all online. It's not easy for him, and I know it's hard trying to work from home and have the noise and distraction of the kids. Plus, it was raining, so we couldn't spend time outside like we could on Wednesday which made is all the more difficult.

Here are some pictures of the kids from our work time that morning. We watch and read stories from Scholastic on our TV, so that's what everyone is looking at in these pictures.

Later that morning, the kids did another art lesson from Mo Willems, learning how to draw the pigeon and make characters out of shapes. They did a nice job, and it was fun to watch them try something new. Mo has a really fun, gentle personality, so he did a great job walking the kids through the steps, teaching them something new without it being overwhelming.

Overall, I would say our first week of "homeschooling" has gone well. We do our school activities for a couple hours in the morning, like some math work from a 1st grade workbook that I have for Owen and the PSSA workbook for Samantha. Then, we have been doing the online stuff that Scholastic has out for reading. They read books out loud to us, and we read to them. Plus, we have the Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems and the daily animal from the Cincinnati Zoo, which interests Samantha a lot more than the boys. However, I try to do these things from about 9-11, and then if the weather cooperates, we spend time sometime outside or at least taking a walk before lunch, although we couldn't go outside on Friday because of the rain. Then, we have lunch and the afternoon is more open for Samantha and Aedan to just play so that way Owen can take a nap in a relatively quiet house, so Ben can get work done, and I can have time to get things done around the house or have time to myself without having to supervise an activity. Following some sort of a routine and schedule like this is the only thing that's keeping my sane and making the days feel productive. I'm not used to staying home this much, which is not necessarily a bad thing because there were probably times when I packed my weeks too full of activities. Nevertheless, I want our days to feel good, focused, and not just like we are wasting away the day. Plus, by keeping the kids more focused on certain activities, they aren't making as many messes and aren't fighting with each other as much, when we are doing activities like this together.

Despite all this routine and schedule that I was trying to put in place, I was really struggling with the fact that this may drag on much longer than the two weeks of school that were originally cancelled. Indiana just announced that day that their schools are closed until at least May 1st, so I'm sure a lot of schools will be following suit soon enough.

Here is a sweet little picture I took of Owen after he fell asleep in my arms when I put him down for his nap. I love watching him sleep in my arms. He's so peaceful and calm, and it's fun to just cuddle with him like this.

Since it was still going to be rainy for most of the afternoon, I let Samantha and Aedan watch a movie while Owen napped. They don't get to watch movies all that often, so this is always a special treat for them.

Then, once Owen woke up and the weather cleared for awhile, we took a little walk down to the Lakeside Skillet parking lot to let the kids get some energy out. Owen found a puddle in the parking lot and had a lot of fun running through the water and splashing around. Owen even rode his tricycle around all by himself, actually pedaling his feet around for the first time. He really had fun riding his tricycle through the puddle over and over again. In fact, the next time we went back to the parking lot to ride around, he looked for the puddle, hoping to ride through it and play in it again. Samantha rode her bike up and around and down the hill over and over again, but Aedan wasn't too excited about riding his bike again because he's still so afraid of falling off. There is a video of Samantha coming down the hill on her bike, and Ben went up and around with Aedan, but he was too nervous to go down the hill because he was going to get going to fast and didn't want to fall. Even though it was a little chilly and damp from the rain, it was wonderful to get out of the house and spend some time outdoors on a rainy day. Someone might as well use the empty parking lot!

We were trying to think up a fun dessert to make with the kids that they could be more involved in, and I thought of making our recipe for sugar cookies that we usually make at Christmastime. However, what's wrong with making Easter-shaped cookies? Well, on Thursday night Ben got out all the ingredients, and the kids helped him mix up the batter so it could sit in the refrigerator overnight and be ready to roll, cut, and bake on Friday.

Here are some more pictures of our Friday homeschooling morning with all the kids watching the Scholastic story of the day. I thought it was cute because it looked like even Izzy was trying to join in.

Here's a little video of Aedan reading his story for the day on Friday. Scholastic has a fiction story that they watch with the words along the bottom of the screen, and then they have a related non-fiction book. This particular day was about the moon. He's doing such a fantastic job reading and learning new words!

Next comes Owen's favorite part. After reading the stories, Aedan answers some questions through a puzzle word match game or doing a sequence of events activity for the fiction story or a fact or fiction game. At the end of each game, a little character dances to music on the screen, and Owen (and Samantha) love to get up and dance along. It makes me smile to see them enjoying these activities together. Owen loves doing reading time!

Here are the kids working on their math in their workbooks. Even Owen is doing work with numbers on the dice that he's playing with. They are all hard at work and doing it with a great attitude!

After eating lunch together and before Owen had to go down for his nap, Ben helped the kids roll out and cut some Easter cookies so that way Owen could have a part of it as well. Samantha and Aedan then helped do the rest after I took Owen upstairs for his nap. They really enjoy making cookies with Daddy, and they loved making new shapes.

Here is a sampling of the shapes that we made. We've never made Easter cookies before!

Friday was a better day as far as everyone being able to work and listen. Ben and I actually moved the desk from the basement into our bedroom so that he could have a quiet place to work that wasn't just at the kitchen table. It was too hard for him to work out there with the kids needing to be around, too. Plus, now that Ben had more of a devoted space, the kids know when Ben is working and that they need to try to leave him alone. Owen had a little trouble napping on Friday because he didn't like being taken upstairs when he knew everyone else was in the kitchen making cookies. He always has a harder time napping when Samantha and Aedan are home because he knows that he is missing out on fun play time.  Owen woke up crying in the middle of his nap time for about ten minutes, but luckily I was able to just leave him alone and he fell back asleep on his own. In the past, Owen wouldn't have done that; it's a relatively new thing, and I have very grateful for it. However, he is sensitive to loud noises in the house while he sleeps, so sometimes it's difficult getting Samantha and Aedan to play quietly and not run up and down the stairs a lot. (Or, having them play happily and not just bug us the whole time.) 

Here are some pictures I took of Owen asleep in my my lap again that day. I know I take a lot of pictures like this, but he is getting more and more antsy with calming down and falling asleep, so I feel like it's only a matter of time before he doesn't fall asleep with me anymore, and I have to get him used to falling asleep on his own at nap time as well.

I also took these pictures of Owen once I laid him down in his bed. He has been enjoying using his pillow, and I love how tiny he still looks when laying in his crib and still wearing his sleep sack.

During "quiet time" in the afternoon, Aedan decided to get creative with some play dough. He made this cool person and had Ben take a picture of his creation. He loves to play with things like this, but he has a hard time wanting to clean up after he's done creating.

After eating dinner together that night, I got the icing dyed the colors of the kids' choice: green, purple, and orange. Ben and I got the cookies iced, put them on cookie sheets, and then let the kids put sprinkles on the cookies to their heart's delight. It was fun to watch how particular they were about how they wanted them to look and what color combinations they wanted to use. Samantha was a great helper with Owen, too.

Here is our finished product! I think they looked pretty great!

This extra, more laidback family time has been fun. Here we are getting ready for bed that night, with some funny good night pictures. I love this family of mine!

When I took Owen back into his room to change his diaper, he got super silly with me, which is fairly normal for him. He started off by saying, "I don't want to go to bed." Then, he just started talking about lots of random things, and of course no conversation is complete without talking about poopie. He's such a silly boy!

Saturday was a good day with the kids. Samantha and Aedan were in good moods and spent most of the morning playing Legos in the basement. I decided to move their Lego tables downstairs to the basement so that they would have more room to build and play without having it take over their whole bedroom. Plus, they can play down there while Owen is napping and be a little bit louder without it bothering him up in his room sleeping.

I go through waves of feeling okay with everything going on and keeping myself busy enough with the kids and daily tasks, and then swinging the other direction and feeling like all of this is really hard for me. Saturday afternoon and evening was a time when I felt it was hard to feel stuck at home, to not know how long all this will last for, how many things will end up being cancelled, whether or not any of us will end up catching it, and how it will work for everyone to reenter back into normal life.

(Blog about March 15-21, 2020)