Samantha: 118 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 85 Months, Week 4
Owen: 42 Months, Week 2
On Sunday, March 21st, Ema and Papa were still at our house visiting, so we started off the day day by watching church online. Our church, Restored was closed since the beginning of Covid, doing online services and encouraging people to meet in small groups called microgatherings. We didn't really ever start doing that, but we did start of a community group so we still felt connected to the church in some way. The church was planning for a soft opening the following Sunday to see how things will go before opening the church back up the weekend of Easter. After over a year of not meeting in person, it's like we are starting all over again. I have volunteered to help out as the lead in the Clubhouse classroom for Kindergarten though 5th grade, so I'm working on trying to figure out what I need to do for that. It will be interesting getting back into the routine of going to church on Sunday mornings. We have definitely gotten used to having more relaxed Sunday mornings. I am looking forward to getting back together, but I am also feeling apprehensive about it. Here we are watching church together that morning. It is fun getting extra snuggles from the kids while we watch church from the comfort of our own living room.
The weather was starting to get nicer and warmer by the day, so we took advantage of our afternoon and the warm sunshine to get out and go for a hike in a new location. We packed a picnic lunch to eat while we were there and went to the Seven Tubs Nature Area. Finding the path was a little tricky at times, but it was a pretty trail through the forest, along a stream, and back again. We saw some pretty waterfalls, climbed on big boulders, and had to navigate over some muddy, flooded areas after the rain we had gotten, but we had a great time. Owen made it halfway on the hike walking on his own, and then I put him in the Ergo on my back to carry him the rest of the way more easily. We also got some really cute pictures of the kids posing together. It was so nice to be able to get outside and do something active together, and to have Ema and Papa join us as well.
Samantha and Owen are very similar. Whereas Aedan had had enough time outside already from going on the hike, Samantha and Owen wanted to go back outside again because the weather was so nice. You can see a few places where the snow hadn't melted away yet. Samantha also helped me start cleaning out the landscaping of dead leaves and plants for when everything starts growing back in again this spring. As we were getting dinner ready, I noticed the two of them just sitting outside on a rock talking together. It was so cute that I had to take a picture of them. I think Samantha was telling Owen stories, and he loves any attention he gets from his older siblings.
As we were getting ready for the week, here is some work the kids brought home from school on Friday. Aedan had a spelling test that he didn't do so great on. Spelling is definitely not his strong subject, but we also need to be helping him practice more, and some weeks we do better with that than others. He also had math pages where he practiced addition and subtraction, a weekly reading story test that he got 100% on, and practice with adding two digit numbers with carrying, which we were having him work on even though he hadn't learned how to do that in math yet. He likes it when we give him challenging math problems, and it seems to come to him easily.
The Monday morning when Ema and Papa leave our home after visiting is always a sad day for everyone. We love having them visit, and the kids love the attention they get and the fun time they have playing with them. The kids were very sad that morning, and it often makes it difficult to get the kids ready and off to school because they don't want the weekend and time with Ema and Papa to end. Samantha was very slow and grumpy, and Owen kept on crying about everything. It's a good thing, in some ways, because it shows how much they love their grandparents and the time they get to spend with them when they make the effort to come out and visit us. Especially during the school year, but really most of the time, it is much easier for them to come visit us. We appreciate that they have been coming even more than they used to now that they are retired. We are glad our kids continue to make these memories with Ema and Papa and know that they want to be involved in their lives and have continued, close relationships with them.
The rest of the day was Owen and me just hanging out at home. I have been trying to figure out how we can get a screen door for our sliding patio door in our kitchen, so I took some pictures of what the screen, frame, and latch looks like to send to a local contractor who said he could make something for me that would make our existing door work, as well as take the screen door in to be rescreened. This was going to be a much more economical solution to our problem, considering no one else I contacted was able to help us other than selling us a whole new sliding patio door for thousands of dollars.
Once I got Owen down for his nap, I also had a counseling appointment at 2:00 for me. I have been trying to work through some feelings that I have been having lately, and since I am a student at Wilkes, I can talk to someone online through their counseling department for free. She has been really helpful for me in processing the feelings of overwhelm, issues with family members, as well as how to navigate and prioritize my time in relation to family responsibilities, work, taking classes, and fostering.
Here is some of the work the kids brought home from school that day. Aedan was working on math vocabulary, spelling words with the long a sound spelled ai, or ay, practice with two-digit addition, matching sentences to the picture, using a map key, and some other pages he drew pictures on.
Also, I wanted to include these pages which explain a Star Wars fighting game that Aedan created, with earning points, good guys, and bad guys. He's so funny with the things he comes up with. He tried his best to spell things how they sounded. I really like seeing him come up with ideas and write them down. He is definitely showing more interest in that than he used to, and he is so creative in thinking through all the details.
Samantha did some work on her spelling words with ear, ir, our, and ur, answering math questions using graphs, and chapter questions on the book they are reading in class: "The Tale of the Fourth Grade Nothing."
Here are two more papers from Aedan: a sight word mix-up and a drawing of a battle with Batman.
Tuesday, March 23rd was Picture Day at Samantha's and Aedan's school. They usually do pictures in the fall, but with Covid they decided to postpone it to the spring. Here is a picture of all the boys in Aedan's classed dressed up for pictures. I made Aedan wear a nice, button-up shirt and jeans, instead of a t-shirt and athletic pants like he usually wears. He said it was the worst day ever because of what I made him wear, but he looked super cute in his picture. His best friend, Camden, is standing next to him in this picture.
Here is the only picture I have of Samantha from on picture day. She wore this light green puffed sleeve shirt with her hair done in a topsy-tail. She looked really pretty, but then again, I always think she looks pretty. Here she is sitting in her 5th grade math class, working on the Egyptian picture for art class.
Here is some work the kids came home with on Tuesday. Aedan was practicing with measurement, adding s or ' to phrases. Samantha got 100% on the class novel test for "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing."
The rest of the day for Owen and me was going grocery shopping and getting dog food at Tractor Supply. Then, Ben came home early from work so that I could go to my ob/gyn appointment. I had not been to this kind of doctor since my six week check-up after Owen was born, so it was definitely time for me to go in, even though I would have rather been anywhere else. Then, Samantha had her gymnastics lesson at 5:00, and Ben took her this week. Once we got back home, we ate dinner together, and that was the end of our night.
On Wednesday, March 24 I got my first Covid shot, but had to drive quite a ways away to get it. However, I was able to talk to my college friend, Melissa, on the phone while I drove there and back, which made it very nice, despite the rain. I was so grateful to get my first vaccine and be on my way to being fully vaccinated. Who knew that this would still be continuing how it is over a year after things first shut down.
Here is some work the kids brought home from school that day. Samantha was working on line graphs, patterns in tables, got a 47/50 on a mid-chapter checkpoint quiz, and a 21/20 on her weekly spelling test. Aedan worked on his spelling words, did a color by number using subtraction within ten, and used words to complete a sentence.
On Thursday, I subbed, so Ben stayed home with Owen and got the kids off to school. When I asked him how things were going, Ben said Owen was upstairs making another mess to clean up, after already helping clean up a few other areas of the house. That is definitely what Owen does when he is home all day! My day of subbing was pretty easy as in the morning I just helped out the kindergarten teachers by copying a whole bunch of stuff, and I was able to read on my Kindle while I was waiting, so it wasn't bad. Then in the afternoon I was in a first grade classroom, the teacher left pretty good plans and activities for me, and the students did a good job listening and being respectful. Owen didn't nap that afternoon for Ben, which is unfortunate, but not the end of the world, since he had gymnastics at 3:30 anyways, so if he does nap, we end up having to wake him up. The first graders were very sweet and made me a whole much of crafts and notes, even one saying that I was their best friend! Kids this age are so sweet and accepting. I didn't keep all these mementos, but I did take a picture to remember them by.
I'm not sure why I took this picture, but you can see the reason why I love our kitchen so much. The beautiful robin's egg blue color of the walls and the many windows and sliding glass door that lets in so much light. The weather was definitely getting nicer and warmer, as you can tell by our windows being wide open.
With the trouble that Samantha has had with sleeping lately, we decided to talk to the school counselor and ask for her to meet with Samantha and talk through things with her. They had already met a time or two, but every time she meets, she comes home with a note like this explaining what they did and what they talked about. I know Samantha feels a little embarrassed about meeting with the school counselor, but we are hoping it will just help her process through her thoughts and feelings more, and to help give her coping strategies to calm her anxieties and help her to sleep better.
On Friday our power went out around 11:00 a.m. The wind had been gusty, but nothing I thought was that bad. Our windows were still open, and it wasn't blowing in too hard or anything. I hoped it would come back on by nap time so we could have a working sound machine for Owen while he nappe, and so I could work on my assignment for my class. I had big plans for getting a lot done that afternoon while Owen napped. It's always difficult to find the time to fit in my classwork. The power came back on around 12:40, which I was grateful for.
I'm not sure why exactly the kids were pretending that Owen and Monkey were getting married in the kitchen on Friday morning, but it was a funny video with Owen walking up with Monkey, being pronounced husband and wife, and then kissing Monkey. Aedan tried to say something to him to correct him, which Owen didn't appreciate, and then he sulkily walked away. Aedan has a tendency to do this with Owen, but Owen likes to have his own ideas and be his own person, so he tends to not react well to Aedan when he tells him what to do.
Friday was "wearing glasses day" at school for a spirit day, but we forgot. Sometimes there are only so many things I can remember, but we also didn't have any sunglasses for the kids then because they always lose them or break them, so it is what it is. Here is a picture of Aedan's class. There are at least a couple other kids without glasses, too.
Our garage has been kind of a mess for a while, and I didn't like how we had things organized, so I got Samantha and Aedan to help me clean everything out, put together these plastic shelves, and find a place for all the toys, balls, and everything, as well as a place for all the bikes and outdoor toys to be parked. I'm sure there could be more that we could do, but I felt satisfied with how things turned out, and I hoped that the kids would be able to find things easier, and that there wouldn't be as many things thrown all over the floor. Samantha and Aedan were very helpful to me in getting all this done, and I made sure to tell them that I couldn't have done it with out them, and they made the job go much more quickly.
The only other thing we had going on that day was Aedan's gymnastics at 4:00. It felt good to get a huge project done that I wanted to do for a while now.
Here are some pictures of the kids at school. They aren't all from this week, but I don't want to forget to include them.
This picture may be from before Christmas, but I'm not sure. They were learning about silent Es that they called "sneaky Es," so they made an E that looked like it was wearing a disguised and added it to words to see how the silent E made the vowel say its name.
Here is Samantha hard at work in her 5th grade math class. She is the one in the red sweater in the back row.
The following picture is from March 12th with the caption, "Spring is finally almost here!" You can see snow in the background, as we got a lot of it this year, but Aedan is over on the left of the picture wearing a t-shirt. I'm sure they were so happy for the warmth and sunshine.
This picture is from March 17, St. Patrick's Day, when the playgrounds were finally opened back up. Due to Covid and trying to keep students more distanced from each other, they weren't allowing kids to play on the playground, just on the blacktop or out in the fields. I know it didn't bother Samantha too much, but it was really hard on Aedan and the other kids in his first grade class, to not have the playground available. It made recess pretty boring, which is why he started bringing Legos with him to school, so he would at least have something to play with and entertain himself with. It's hard to believe that it has been a whole year of dealing with the impact of Covid. It was around this time last year that school was shut down because of it, and I am just grateful our kids have at least had the opportunity to go to school in person this year, even with all the restrictions, because we are the only school in the area who even tried to be in person and have been successful.
Here is Aedan doing a color graphing activity in his class on St. Patrick's Day.
Here is a picture of Aedan's class dressed up for St. Patrick's Day. Aedan does have a green shirt on under his sweatshirt, but he's not a huge fan of participating in dress-up days like this, and he is even less of a fan of having his picture taken, hence the crossed arms.
This picture is from March 18 showing Samantha sitting next to her best friend, Cadence, working on a project for their class novel, "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing." I love seeing the two of them together, and I know they enjoy sitting next to each other. It is great to see their friendship bloom and grow.
(Blog about March 21-27, 2021)
