Spring Has Sprung, Aedan Reading, Aedan is Student of the Week, Back Mountain Trail, Feeling Overwhelmed and Isolated

Samantha: 107 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 73 Months, Week 4
Owen: 31 Months, Week 1

Now that we are going into week six of the stay at home order, sometimes the days seem to blend together, and it's hard to distinguish one from another. On Sunday mornings we are a little more relaxed, eat breakfast, and just kind of hang out until church starts online at 10:00. We still let the kids watch a little show while we watch our service online. It still is very strange to get used to doing church like this, and I am excited for the day when we can go back to church again.

We take every opportunity we have to play outside because it makes staying at home a little more bearable. Ben was down in Wilkes-Barre that afternoon helping to distribute emergency food kits at our church, so I spent the afternoon putting Owen down to for his nap and then playing with Samantha and Aedan and hanging out with them outside on a beautiful afternoon. The kids were really enjoying watching the bees around the Weeping Cherry Tree in our front yard. The white blooms on it were in full bloom, and it was a beautiful tree to look at out our front kitchen window. Samantha and Aedan just sat under the tree for awhile that afternoon.

Then, once Owen woke up we all went outside. Bubbles are a popular activity right now. The boys like to pop the bubbles with light sabers or hockey sticks, and they get a lot of good exercise. Here's a video I took of the kids playing in the driveway while I was working on dinner to be ready for when Ben got home. I love the ways they find to spend time having fun together.

Monday was back to mornings of school work. Aedan usually has a math lesson that he listens to and follows along with through his online textbook. Then, he has a story and letter for the week, with different activities to go along with it, but we still do reading together. I usually have him pick a book to read on his own, as well as a book that he wants me to read to him. On this day I encouraged him to get the Frog and Toad book that I checked out from the library. He needed a little help with a few words here and there, but he was doing such a great job reading! I took a little video of him reading to send to his teacher, Mrs. Weaver, so she could get a little glimpse of how Aedan is doing. I thought she might enjoy that. I really like listening to Aedan read. He is doing such a great job, is working really hard at it, and is getting better and better every week.

I was trying to find the stick song for Owen that we would usually do at play gym, and I couldn't find the same song, but I found this fun stick song, and Samantha was eager to join in with Owen. (Aedan sort of participated from the couch.) But Owen thought it was great fun to do a little music activity himself. Poor kid, he often gets overlooked as I have to spend most of my morning helping Samantha and Aedan get their work done.

Aedan was scheduled to have his first Zoom meeting with his class on Tuesday morning, and since we was supposed to be Student of the Week right after school was officially closed, Mrs. Weaver decided that he could complete his poster to share with his class during his Zoom meeting. We worked on it on Monday afternoon together, and then he helped me pick out pictures that he wanted to print for his poster. In case you can't read it, it says, " All About Aedan Toll. I am 5 years old. My favorite animal is a gorilla. My favorite color is orange. My favorite food is Oreo cheesecake." He included a picture of himself, Izzy, and our family from last fall. Then it says, "Ema's house is my favorite place." I couldn't find a recent picture of Aedan and Ema actually in her house, so he decided to pick this picture of the two of them walking around the track at Taylor. Next to that it says, "When I grow up, I want to be an engineer," and then he drew a picture of some kind of robot machine. At the bottom it says, "My favorite thing to do is play Legos with Ema and Samantha," and next to that it says, "If I had one wish, I would wish for a pet monkey." He was really proud of his poster, and he couldn't wait for his chance to be Student of the Week, even though it's different than being the Student of the Week at school.

It was another beautiful day on Monday, so we decided to head out for a walk once Owen woke up from his nap. I had been wanting to try out the Back Mountain Trail for quite awhile, so we parked next to Geisinger in Dallas and went on the trail loop over there. It was a much prettier walk than I expected it to be, and it was not too long, so it was perfect for what we were looking for. People have been painting rocks and placing them along the trails for others to find, so the kids enjoyed running ahead and looking for rocks along the way.

About halfway through, the kids stopped to climb around on some trees, and they posed for some pictures for us as well. I love these sweet little pictures of Owen posing in the tree.

Here are the kids walking around and climbing on some trees that had fallen down.

Aedan then asked if I would take some pictures of him, but first he had to put his hands in his pockets for his pose. He can be such a serious little boy sometimes, but man is he adorable.

And here they all are together. This time of staying home can be challenging at times because we are all constantly around each other, but I feel like it has definitely brought these three closer together and strengthened their bonds with each other all the more. Samantha is such a good big sister to her little brothers, always looking out for them, and the boys look up to Samantha so much as a role model and friend.

And now we moved on to the silly picture portion. Aedan is always willing to make silly faces for pictures. At first Owen didn't know what to do to make a silly face, so he looked over at Samantha and Aedan to pick up cues, and figured out that he needed to stick his tongue out as well.

Our walk on the Back Mountain Trail was really nice, and the kids actually ran all the way back the trail that we hiked in order to get to the car. Aedan didn't want to walk back the way we came from, so I told him he could walk or run, and he chose to run instead, which is a funny choice because walking would have been easier. But hey, whatever works!

We cooked out for dinner that night, so we were able to spend even more time playing outside since we didn't have to spend time cooking or cleaning up dinner. Samantha decided to show me the robin's nest in our Weeping Cherry Tree in our front yard. These pictures didn't really capture it well, but if you look closely through the triangular shaped sticks in the center of the picture, you can see the eye of the bird with it's beak pointing off to the right and it's tail feathers off to the left. Samantha thought it was so awesome to have a robin sitting in the nest and was really hoping that it laid eggs and that we could see some baby birds. This robin was watching us very carefully but wasn't moving or flying away when we got closer like it has in the past, so we wondered if maybe it was sitting on some eggs or protecting its babies. Samantha loves animals, so she just wanted to sit under this tree and watch and wait for anything to happen with this robin's nest.

Aedan has really done a good job of finding fun ways to play with Owen lately. They both really enjoy playing in the sandbox together, so that is an area where they can bond and find something fun to play together.

Tuesday morning we were all in the middle of doing schoolwork at the kitchen table like we usually do, and all of a sudden we heard a loud bang on the patio door. We discovered that a little bird flew into our patio door. I think it's an American Goldfinch. We have a lot of them that come into our back yard, especially when we put new food into our bird feeder. It hit the glass pretty hard. It was on it's back on the ground when I picked it up and then I kind of flipped it over onto the towel. I then put it in a box with air holes and put the box inside my closet because I read that you should keep it in a warm, dark place for a couple hours to see if it will recover or not. However, at lunch time it was still in the exact same place from where I put it earlier, so I figured it had just hit the door too hard and died. Samantha was so sad that she couldn't even look at it. She has such a bleeding heart for animals that are hurt like that. The kids even have funerals for bugs when they die in their bug catchers.

Here is some of the kid's work. Aedan was practicing the letter X and wrote some sentences that went along with the book of the week, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Then he did some work for music class based off of a book called, "Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!"

Since Samantha finished her Fibonacci packet last week, this week she has moved on to her City Packet where she gets to plan and design her own city. She started with naming her city, which she picked Yellow Bush, Pennsylvania and chose for it to be located near the Allegheny National Forest and have the first settlers there be slaves running away from their masters. It was fun watching her brainstorm and creatively plan out her city. I'm glad that she is still able to do Gifted work at home, and it's fun to see more of an insight into what she does at school.

Tuesday was a little busy for me because we did school stuff in the morning, and then I spent the afternoon making a chicken casserole dish and brownies for a friend who was going through a hard time and needed a meal. I drove down to Wilkes-Barre to deliver it to her, while Ben stayed home with the kids. While I was gone the kids did a Cosmic Kids Yoga workout since it was too cold and wet to be able to play outside at all.

It started raining on my way back home, and as I got closer to the lake, the rain turned into snow. I actually stopped in the Grotto parking lot to just sit by myself for a few minutes. I was having a hard day that day and was crying on and off all day. That morning I was in tears because Aedan was supposed to have his first Zoom meeting with his kindergarten teacher where he was going to present his Student of the Week poster that he never got to do before school was cancelled, and I had written down the wrong time on the calendar for when the meeting would start, so we completely missed it. I felt really bad for him that he wasn't able to see his class and his teachers, and he was really excited about it. Then, I just felt bad because I was having a hard time keeping up with everything and making sure I knew all the stuff that's due and all the meetings they have to do while also trying to occupy Owen somehow while I'm trying to help Samantha and Aedan with their school work. I was feeling really overwhelmed, and it was hard to focus and plan because my mind just felt so distracted. I felt so tired even though some days I feel like I'm not really doing anything significant or exceedingly "tiring." When I'm overwhelmed and tired like this, noise and chaos really bother me, so I was having a hard time having constant people and noise in the house. I found myself wishing I could go back to one afternoon where the big kids are in school, Ben is at work, Owen is napping, and I have a nice, quiet house to myself for a couple hours. I contacted Aedan's teacher, Mrs. Weaver, and explained what happened. She said they were going to be doing another Zoom meeting at the end of the week, and Aedan could do his poster then. Aedan didn't even seem to care as much as I did. I just felt like I let him down by not being as on top of things as I would like to be. It's just one of those times where I had been letting my feelings of being overwhelmed build up for so long that missing the Zoom meeting was just the tipping point where I felt like I could no longer handle all the responsibilities and expectations I and others were placing on me.

Then, that night after dinner I developed a terrible headache, one where I thought I might get sick if I didn't just lay down, so I laid on the couch and Ben offered to put all the kids to bed on his own.

Wednesday was a better day after I took Tuesday night to just relax, watch a movie, and try to go to bed earlier so I could get a good night's sleep.  Samantha's teachers gave their classes chances to earn some extra credit towards their third quarter grade, so throughout this week Samantha has been working on that, in addition to her usual daily work. Here is a picture of her compass rose that she made as part of her Social Studies extra credit. Using the K'nex pieces was a creative way to make it.

Thursday morning was finally the big day. Aedan had another Zoom meeting with his class, and he was going to be able to share his Student of the Week poster. However, he got really nervous being on the camera and just having to talk out over a computer. It was strange and unnatural for him, so you can tell that he was feeling embarrassed and didn't really know what to say or how to act. He was having a hard time making himself heard to Mrs. Weaver, and she was trying her best to draw things out of him and to have him explain more about his pictures and what his favorite things were. Nevertheless, I was proud of him for being brave enough to share his poster in this way, even though he felt nervous and didn't really like feeling like all the attention was on him. I'm glad he was able to share with his class.

This week the kids' school came out with the official grading policy for the distance learning that is happening for the remainder of the school year.  For third quarter, they are basically getting the grade they already had in each subject before school was cancelled, plus any extra credit they earned. Then for the fourth quarter they will basically earn 100% if they participate two times per week per class. They also have to do one assignment for their Specials each week to get participation credit for those subjects. These requirements are simple and easy to manage, as the kids are doing much more than this every day. The new thing we had to add on was completing assignments for Specials as well. Samantha had five different Specials, so that means she has to do one every day, whereas Aedan only had three Specials. However, it was nice to see their plan for how they were going to handle these extenuating circumstances.

On Thursday the kids decided to do art and they did a shadow project where they built a structure and then traced its shadow on paper. Aedan's drawing is first, and Samantha's is second.

On Thursdays we also send in Samantha's spiral review for the week. It's one of the few things that she still completes on paper, and I am glad that she is reviewing these important math concepts on a daily basis so she doesn't forget how to do them. Her math teacher, Mrs. Richards, has been really on top of things from day one, and we really appreciate how organized and helpful she has been. I am confident that Samantha will learn all she needs to know in 4th grade math to be able to move on to fifth grade math next year.

Samantha chose to do her Science extra credit on Thursday which involved making a bird feeder out of a milk jug. Ben helped her cut out the front of the container, and she stuck a stick through it to give a perch for the birds and then hung it from one of our metal poles out near the front of our house. Here is Samantha's finished product and where she hung it up outside.

Thursday was another busy morning with both the kids having Zoom meetings that morning, which then means that it takes a little bit longer to get through all our work for the day. Plus, I am trying to keep Owen occupied and happy, and I feel like he often gets the short end of the stick as far as getting attention or play time with me. I tried something different that morning though. I moved the kitchen play stuff upstairs for him to play with out in our little play area on the main floor. I thought maybe if I rotated some of the toys out, he would find new things to play with that he could do independently. Then, I let him watch an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while Samantha and Aedan had their Zoom meetings, so that way he wasn't bothering them, and I could be in the kitchen to help Aedan if he needed it. We also decided that no matter what, we were going to stop school work at 11:00 and have play time with Owen from 11-12. I just felt like he was getting overlooked and pushed away all morning long because I was working with Samantha and Aedan, and I would get upset at him when he was interrupting or being distracting, even though he really just wanted to be involved in what everyone else was doing, too. I also felt like he wasn't getting enough energy out, so he was having a harder time napping because of that. So if Samantha has extra work that isn't finished, she just has to do it in the afternoon while Owen naps, but we will all have time to just play and hang out while Owen is still awake and before lunch.

I've been spending quite a bit of my free time lately getting ready for birthdays, particularly Aeadn's birthday since it was coming up soon. I ordered a Star Wars cake from a local bakery, and I arranged a drive-by birthday parade with some of his friends from school. Plus, I was messaging back and forth with someone about clothes shopping. There is a Once Upon a Child in Dickson City, which is about forty-five minutes away from us, and since they can't have people shopping at their store, they offered to do personal shopping for people. I sent them a list of our kids ages, sizes, clothes needs/preferences/style, as well as our budget. Then, they sent pictures of the all the outfits they found, and I was able to tell them what we liked and didn't like. After that we paid over the internet and just had to go pick it up some day next week. The kids all needed some new spring/summer clothes, so I was pretty excited that they offered this service. Samantha was going to get some really pretty outfits and dresses that fit her personality well. Aedan was going to get a lot of Star Wars shirts and some new shorts, although we had to stick with size 5s because he has such a tiny little waist. Owen was going to get some Mickey Mouse shirts and some additional shorts and shirts in 2t to add to the little bit we already have.

For dinner that night Ben made one of the kids' favorite meals, lemon chicken with potatoes. He has made it a couple of times now, and they always go crazy for it. We added feta cheese on top of it this time, and that was definitely a nice addition.

The kids are always excited for Fridays because it's their last day of work and the weekend is coming. I feel like they are even more excited for weekends than they used to be, which makes me laugh. The picture below is the page on the physical features that Samantha planned for her city. She wanted it to be near a national forest in north-central Pennsylvania, so she chose mountains, rivers, and forests to be the physical features.

Our days follow a pretty regular rhythm during the week of doing school in the morning and then having nap time for Owen and free play time for Samantha and Aedan. On days when it's nice outside, we send them outside to play. I was trying to take advantage of my time while Owen napped to work on my blog and have some time to myself in my relatively quiet living room. We have our Bible study on Thursday nights after the kids are in bed, so we don't have much time to do anything else after that.

Owen woke up from his nap a little early that afternoon, so he came and cuddled with me on the couch for awhile. You can see the little scratch on his right temple from running into the corner of our ping pong table down in the basement. He got himself pretty good. I think he may be getting taller so he isn't quite fitting under or around things like he used to. Also, do you see how long his hair is getting while everything is shut down? This little boy needs a hair cut so badly, but who knows when he will get into our local barber shop whenever it does open. Ben took these pictures of me, and it's fun to have these memories of time that I'm cuddling up with my little guy.

Saturday, April 25th was going to be a warmer day, even though it would be a little cloudy, so we decided to go to a place called Moon Lake which was only about twenty minutes away from our house. Ben had his first men's Bible study that morning from 8:30-9:30, so we got ready and left after that was over. Anyways, I heard about Moon Lake from a friend of mine, and we were looking forward to trying somewhere different. We didn't know anything about where to go, so we parked the car near the water and started walking around the lake. There were lots of people there fishing, all sitting a safe distance apart, but it made it so that we really couldn't get that close to the water. We brought the kids scooters and Owen's tricycle, so the kids did that for awhile after we walked around part of the lake and back. Then, we stopped to eat the sandwiches we had brought for a picnic lunch, sitting on the edge of our van or standing outside of it so as not to use the public picnic tables or anything. It wasn't as nice/fun as I thought it would be, so we definitely would need to do more research about what to do around the place before we go back again.

Owen had been wanting to get donuts for awhile now, so we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and donuts on the way home. However, that just made Owen even more upset because he wanted to eat it right then, and he didn't understand why we would have to wait until after nap time to eat the donuts.

Saturday afternoon I was hoping that I could have an hour or so in our bedroom by myself while Owen napped so that I could work on my blog in peace. It seemed like every time I sat in the living room to work on anything, Samantha and Aedan would always interrupt me or complain about being bored. However, Ben decided to take a nap that afternoon because he hadn't been sleeping well and needed some extra rest, so I couldn't go in there for time by myself. Some days are better than others, but there are days where I just feel like I never have anywhere to go to be by myself in my own house. Sometimes I just want time without another person around me or trying to talk to me, and that is hard to find when we have all been staying home and together for six full weeks at this point. I also felt like the isolation was getting to me a little bit. Being new to northeastern Pennsylvania has made this whole stay at home order even more difficult because we have had enough time away from our old friends that we don't feel as close to them anymore and we live so far away, so it feels weird reaching out to them. But then at the same time, I don't really have any new, close friends here that I feel like I can reach out to either, so I feel very alone sometimes and like I don't have any women I can really talk to who know me and understand me.

After the rain we have gotten the last couple of days, the flower bulbs that I planted in the dirt area right outside our garage are finally started to bloom and grow. I know they probably won't grow as much as they would have if I planted them in the fall like I should have, but I'm glad that I listened to Donna's advice and gave them a chance to grow this year. From now on, it will be fun to watch the come up every year and make our landscaping full of colorful spring blooms. 

Saturday was my brother's birthday, so I had the kids record a birthday message to send to him.

One of our favorite activities during the stay at home order has been to go down to the parking lot of the Lakeside Skillet to ride around and play in the flat parking lot. Living on the side of a mountain is fun and beautiful, but doesn't make for very good space to play hockey or to ride bikes and scooters around. However, this parking lot is right down the hill from our house, so it's the perfect place to go for Samantha and Aedan to ride their scooters up and around, for a place to play hockey with Owen, and just to allow the kids to run around for awhile and get some energy out. Plus, Owen loves to jump in the puddles that form there after it rains.

(Blog about April 19-25, 2020)