Yesterday, as per our new quarantine school setup, Dekker helped Brady make baked oatmeal for breakfast. Laela was pretty furious that she couldn’t help, but she helps SO much that we wanted to give Dekker a turn to have the one-on-one time. He did SO well…
And we as VERY proud of the outcome!
It was delicious 🙂 He was SO happy.
In addition to that, our “schooling” is more about a routine for us than a high expectation of learning. Realistically, I’m nervous to teach new concepts. Not because I’m incapable, but I don’t want to teach them in a way that their future teachers will have to undo and re-teach. So Dekker had yet to touch on division, and I’m not sure I’m going to delve too deep into that unless it comes suuuper naturally!
Our current routine is that the big kids do some schooling for a bit during nap time. We were gifted an older iPad for the kids to work on, and Brady resurrected an old iPad as well, so each kid has a device. We try to jump around with them, not relying on the iPads every single day. We don’t want them to forget paper and doing things by hand. Laela received a TON of worksheets from her teacher, and Dekker’s teacher has him doing assignments and sending ideas from Google Classroom. Both kids have Raz Kids as well as Mathletics. Raz Kids is AMAZING because we don’t have ALL kinds of books in each of their reading levels, and this app provides that for us! Mathletics is a HUGE hit. Laela will opt to do module after module all through nap time, beyond the one or two we ask her to do. Its awesome. She loves it.
Beyond the apps and a few little assignments here and there (journal entries, games, and the occasional run through of flash cards) the kids read every single day. I like that I don’t have to force that at all.
I know what they’re doing is minimal, but its maintaining both their current knowledge as well as a routine. I feel good about it. I am proud of the system we’ve worked out, and that its stress free, for the most part. Who EVER saw this whole crazy thing coming?? Not me!
Yesterday, Laela made a beautiful little card for her teacher. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was covered in stickers, hung by a little string, and was very bright and colourful. The message told her teacher that she loved her, and missed her, but it ended with an apology.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come to school on Monday.”
💔
The Monday that everything shut down, I kept both Laela and Dekker home from school. They had both picked up a cold and had deeper chesty coughs. I figured, with all the hubbub around the virus, I figured I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I kept them home. We were notified that afternoon that school was closing. Keep your kids home.
Laela has beat herself up about that ever since. She is SO sad she didn’t get to say goodbye to her teacher.
I went back and forth a bit about whether or not to actually deliver the card, because not everyone is accepting drop-offs. But I figured it was such a sweet gift, and Laela’s teacher had made her location known to her students for Halloween, so it shouldn’t feel too “invasion of privacy-ish.” If she was put off by the risk of covid, she could set it aside for a few days. All in all, I decided it was worth the risk.
We went for a walk in the beautiful evening sun yesterday, and Laela brought her card along. We went by her teachers house, and placed the card in the mailbox. While we were up on the step, a dog slammed into the door and started barking. We were hardly off the porch before someone came to the door. Her husband. He greeted us, and I told him we had just slipped something into his mailbox. He plucked it out, glanced at it, and pointedly looked at Laela.
“Wow! Mrs. Fisher will LOVE this!”
He did SO good. Laela just beamed 🙂 Too bad she couldn’t come to the door at that moment, but Laela understood, and was still really happy.
We walked a few more blocks, greeted Cher’s house, and started to head back.
As we were rounding our way back to our street, we heard a bellow “Laaaelaaaaa!”
I looked around, and saw our neighbour drive up to us. She had lovingly run an errand for me that afternoon, so we touched base and had a quick chat before she went on her way. It was weird that she had called to Laela, but 🤷♀️
Once she drove away, we kept walking, but seconds later, heard yet another “Laaaaelaaaaa!”
And I spotted her! Laela’s teacher, on her back deck, jumping up and down and waving her arms. Laela couldn’t figure out where her name was being called from, so I shouted “Wave bigger” and she did! Finally Laela saw, brightened RIGHT up, and waved back like crazy!
If you know Laela, she’s a pretty shy girl. Its mostly a facade, but she has always had a bit of a reserve. She didn’t say much, but her teacher shouted a thank you, and told Laela she missed her and hoped she was having fun being at home. I responded to her that we were trying to make the best of it. Her teacher just shrugged back at us. She, more than anyone else I’ve spoken to, has been hoping school will reopen. She misses her students, and it shows.
It felt like such a special exchange, and one I don’t want to ever forget. Our walk from the initial drop off to the conversation was likely a good 15 minutes. She was on her back deck with wet hair in the winter air, waiting to talk to Laela. And she had called to us, but we had stopped to talk to our neighbour for a few minutes in between. And she waited, and called out again!
Laela felt SO special ❤️ I doubt her teacher will ever read this blog, but if you do, you’ve made a real difference in Laela’s life!! I hope you know how much I appreciate that, as her mom.
Yesterday, we went for a walk with the kids. It was beautiful out. The Weather Network promised wind, but it was so comfortable out. The sun was shining. The roads were pretty clear. No snow pants necessary. Etc etc etc. We loved it.
As we walked, we caught a whiff of a fire. Like a fire pit fire. Laela piped up first and heaved a deep sigh.
“That smell reminds me of Waskesiu.”
Everyone agreed.
💔
I am SO thrilled my family loves Waskesiu the way I always have, but that makes it so much harder that we may have to cancel all of our summer plans there. I reminded them that its a possibility, and we talked about how nice it is outside and the kids of fun we might have staying closer to home this season. Rowan commented that there was still lots to look forward to, like the parade and all of the music over our towns weekend celebration in June.
Except, very likely, that will be cancelled, too.
😩
It is SUCH a weird, sad time. I am very grateful that my family and friends are healthy and well and safe. I’m thankful for resources that make it possible for all of us to stay home together. I’m relieved that we actually have a really lovely time together and no one feels at risk. There is SO much good! But, man. I am sad for my children and all they will miss this coming summer.
We may not get the lake, or camp, or birthday parties, or backyard barbecues with friends, but we will get our yard developed, tag, sprinklers, bike rides, chalk, bubbles, thunderstorms, lap pools, sun tans, gardening, and all kinds of creative things we’ve yet to come up with.
There is lots and lots of good. But today, I sorrow a little for the summer we dreamed of. Our jam packed July and our lazy at-home August.
April 1st was a milestone around here. The day before, I had lowered my Tylenol dose and felt no pain whatsoever. So I did a ballsy thing and, starting on April 1st, I just quit taking Tylenol. I didn’t follow my directions to ween off of everything really slowly, but rather I just ditched all Tylenol. I took my antidepressant in the morning, and that was it.
And by the end of the day, my hands. Felt. Perfect.
Thank you, Lord!! 🙌
I will say, I did feel the change in meds in other ways. I felt a bit sick to my stomach, and I had a pretty mean headache by the end of the day. But it was SO worth it. To even just know that my hands were all caught up. As I’ve said a handful of times since this whole thing began, its very validating to know my pain needed this different kind of medication. I couldn’t wrap my head around using an antidepressant for something other than depression. I remember crying in that appointment, being SO discouraged, because I felt my mental health was stronger than it had been in years, and WHY NOW would I start taking a pill for it?! I felt my progress was discounted and like I had somehow failed. Like I thought I was doing well, but maybe I was wrong. Having it explained to me, about my pain centres, brought so much peace. And it feels amazing to have that validated. That I made the right choice!
Its been two weeks now that I’ve not taken any other pain medications, and I feel confident, and capable, and pain free! I have some work to do to regain some strength in my hands, wrists, and shoulders after not using them very much in the past few months. But that makes total sense, and I’m not afraid. I’m not exactly “muscly” to begin with, so getting back to where I was will just take getting back into real life! And being cooped up at home makes me really itch to make bread and buns! So maybe the kneading will get me even stronger than before!
Guys. My shoulder started hurting in August. My wrists started in October. It got out of control in November, and bordered on debilitating in December. Sought help in January, started Sertraline in February, and got my life back shortly thereafter!
Thank you, Lord, for informed doctors and medicine that works. For options, when we’ve exhausted everything else. For movement and energy and ability. For hard times and lessons learned. For all these things, I praise the Lord.
I told you there would be more of these! Here’s another haul of cute pictures or happenings that I hadn’t mention but didn’t want missed from the last two weeks since the previous “mixed bag” post.
He loves her SO MUCH 💙
We got Dekker a daily paper airplane calendar for Christmas and he insists on saving every one 😆 ✈️
Brady lays on the ground to do his neck/back stretches, and Wavy joined with some yoga just the other day.
Our little party of 🖐
Miss Wavy LOVES to have her stuffies swaddled.
Baked oatmeal with star sprinkles and some reject butterscotch chips found in the bottom of the freezer. It went over better than our usual chocolate chips!
If her hair could just STAY curly, that would be ideal. Work on that, Waverly.
Brady’s head may or may not be (but definitely is) slightly larger than mine…
We finally took down Christmas, haha, and put up a more springy wreath. Too bad I put it up during a blizzard 🙄
Lots and lots of snugs these days. And if you’ll notice, Solly plays “guitar” on his penguin a lot these days.
She’s got mad FOMO.
But also, she’s big into reading 🙂 Just like her siblings.
Dekker is SO creative with LEGO! That car came out of his mind.
No explanation needed 🤷♀️
Again with the snugs and hugs. She’ll stand at your feet, reach up, and call “Huck? Huck?!”
That time they were all walking downstairs together, and I called ”Kids?” And they all looked SO GUILTY 😂
🌞
The emptiest I’ve ever let our gas tank get, and the cheapest it’s EVER been to fill 😳
Safety first!
Aaaaand more reading, feelings, and dainty little feet.
Sooooo that was a longer post than anticipated! Never a shortage of cute pictures to share, I suppose!
Starting plants was another thing I was intimidated by, and managed to try. It goes SUCH a long way to have encouraging people to spitball ideas and get messy with.
I’m still unsure about our garden in some ways. I have a whole beautiful plan for garden boxes, because we have nothing but time to build them. We even have all the money saved for our yard plans, so its easier to justify. But here I am, unsure, because money isn’t exactly pouring in at the moment. We could just put seeds in the ground this year. We really could. But we also have the time and resources to make things great this season!! Who knows. I’m still not sure.
While I’m feeling some cold feet on my planter boxes at the moment, I’m still super looking forward to our garden this year. I have big tomatoes, little tomatoes, and peppers started. I hear everything else will do great just going into the ground when the time comes.
Until then, we’re having some material delivered today for the first of our yard projects. You’ll get pictures of that along the way, as always!
Ok. Its a VERY rowdy room around me. Paper airplanes evvvvverywhere! I need to pay attention to that, and my own safety, for now. Have a lovely week, friends!
I posted a blog with a ton of questions about a week ago. It was SO fun getting everyone’s responses and input! Behold, the answer post! I’m not saying these are necessarily the right answers, but they’re the answers I got! Or maybe just the most popular answers, in some cases. If you read the whole comment section, most of this will be old news, but I’m doing it anyway! Lol! Bear with me.
Where can a person find yeast? I found some through a fundraiser! It will happen once a week, so you can get in on it, too! I did have to buy a pretty good amount, but I’ll throw it in the freezer! That being said, I can’t open the door tooooo far, but if someone needs some, I’d like to share here and there! Feel free to ask!
2. CERB questions. Thank you, Nancy, for answering a ton of questions and pointing me towards the people to call! Brady and I were both able to apply for CERB! It was a quick, easy application process, but we haven’t seen the money yet. Mine will come later because I prefer hard copy cheques to direct deposit (I know, I know, the govt doesn’t like that but I have my reasons, haha!) but Brady’s should show up really soon. We could only apply on Thursday, and then it was a holiday weekend, so hopefully this week!
3. The best way to grow raspberries is in a non-annoying where they won’t spread! Hahaha! Or more accurately, somewhere I’m ok with them spreading. It seems they’re no nonsense and don’t require a ton of sun, but DO require a ton of water. I didn’t know that! I think an underground planter is my favorite idea, so they stay contained, but are still down in the ground and insulted, with a better hope of wintering! (Krista, wanna share raspberries under the fence?? Lol!) My one concern with planting them in a buried planter is, will they keep showing up year after year? Or will I have to be fussing with new soil every couple of years? Can anyone help?
4. The little space between my walkway and my garage is still up in the air. I like the idea of succulents probably the best, but I’m not sure they’d get enough sun. Maybe just some basic flowers this year and see what happen next year. Maybe planters. My IDEAL would be succulents, honestly, but I just don’t know enough about them. The ones on my windowsill are doing well though!
5. A food bearing tree for the front yard. I had a few ideas. I like the idea of cherries the best. But I don’t want sour cherries. Here’s the thing. I am not especially concerned about having a tree in my front yard, but if I had one, I’d want it to be a fruit tree. If I can’t find one I really want, we’ll just not have a tree. I did toy with the idea of having a lilac tree, but apparently their season to flower is super short. Which is disappointing. I wanted a purple tree! Anyone surprised by that? Didn’t think so.
6. National parks. Closed 😭 I’m SO sad. Our whole summer could be thrown for a loop if this doesn’t let up soon. We miss Waskesiu already. Literally, the FIRST day of quarantine, the kids made packing lists for Waskesiu…
Last summer feels so far away already 😩
7. Dropping stuff off for people during the quarantine. Surfaces. All that stuff. Not too many responses on this, except one loving friend who said they would happily accept drop offs from my family ❤️ So that was REALLY nice. We dropped paska off at a very small handful of people’s houses, and I just asked first. There are of course people who are just saying no to be super extra safe, and I have ALL the respect for that!! But, for us, a big part of this is trusting my close people that, if they had ANY symptoms or concerns, they wouldn’t even offer. I’m hoping and trusting my people to be smart and not to put their people at risk. We are doing our part, and our best, and I’m happy there are people around us who are willing to accept us 🙂
8. NO ONE has new quarantunes??? 🎶 Just keeping them to yourselves?? Fine fine fine. I’ll share a few of ours with you! We’re enjoying “Never Seen the Rain” By Tones and I (same band who wrote Dance Monkey) and “The Lotto” by Ingrid and AJR. Check them out!
9. The best way to support your people was only addressed once, but I think the answer was bang on, and I can vouch for its truth, too. Just check in with your people. It feels small and insignificant, but it isn’t. We could not be doing as well as we’re doing if not for the handful of people who regularly ask how we are and what we might need. It goes a LONG way, because even when we don’t directly NEED anything, it feels reassuring to know we could ask if we needed!
10. Seeding grass. Spring or Fall. Either or. I think what is going to make this decision for me will be what kind of topsoil we can get around here. We are technically allotted free topsoil from our build, but its just hanging in a field, LOADED with quack grass. If we could potentially get better topsoil somehow, I’d be inclined to get that and seed in Spring, but if any and all topsoil is going to be loaded with weeds, then we’ll likely spend the summer getting rid of them and seed in Fall. But I’d SO much rather seed earlier in the season!! It also depends on if the landscaping people we have in mind are back to work. If we’re on our own, it’ll look different. Either way, the material for our shed is on order! Woot!
11. Fence or grass first. Fence all across the board. Boom. Decided.
12. Butchered pig. I got a couple of names of people around here to call! Thank you!!
13. Not much on fresh fish. One offer to potentially share if there is excess, which I GREATLY appreciate!! I’ll have to post on Facebook when the season truly starts, and see if we can buy some off my local fishing friends here and there!
14. Aaaaand detangler was the last question!! Most people said they made a heavily diluted conditioner spray, but the orange creamsicle one from the Honest company sounds pretty great, too! Options! Woot!
So this was maybe the most fun blog I’ve ever done 😆 Such clear proof that we all live different lives, prioritize different things, and know different information. I SO appreciate all of these answers! Please, feel free to fill in anywhere you want to! I am HAPPY to receive more information on these subjects absolutely any time!
You probably have noticed I’m not especially housewifey. I am not great in the kitchen, though I can confidently say I’ve been facing some of that stuff more often and I’m getting braver. Maybe not better, but braver 😉
I used to be friends with someone who loved to poke fun at me, because I wasn’t confident in my cooking and baking skills. While I knew she was being petty, I’ve realized in the last year or two that it truly affected me. I’m trying to be better, and braver, and celebrate my victories along the way.
Yesterday, I made paska!
It was definitely a group effort. Not at all just myself. We made a HUGE batch of paska using a recipe my sister gave me once, combined with some tips and tricks I stole from Mennonite Girls Can Cook.
While making a big recipe for the first time was an accomplishment, let’s look at the fact that I COULD KNEED THE DOUGH!!!
THIS is almost an even bigger victory than making it at all. My hands just wanted to get into it, and I truly enjoyed it. The batch we made was way too big for my mixer to handle, anyway, so this worked out! Brady did trade me out towards the end so I wouldn’t overdo anything, but man, I really enjoyed it. Maybe I should start baking buns more often.
Aaaaanyway, another part of the kitchen stuff that stresses me out is botching a recipe. Usually, if I mess up a recipe, I never make it again. Thats not a good thing, but its the truth.
So, yesterday’s paska was NOT a flop, but it wasn’t all glamorous either. Some of the buns had growths or were misshapen, and out of the two loaves I made, I smashed one against the edge of a rack trying to move it around, and completely squished it in half. Also, everything got just a little bit darker than I wanted. I think the oven was a bit too hot.
But as I tell the kids, it doesn’t have to look good to taste good!
Laela and I iced and sprinkled them together this morning.
😂
Turns out, I was right! The paska tasted amazing. I am SO happy with how it turned out. I often don’t like what I make, probably because I put such a high expectations on myself, but this was really yummy 🙂
This years paska haul was a great success!! Thank you to my encouragers. You know who you are.
Last night, we had the pleasure of enjoying a homemade pizza night with my mom!
This is our version of quarantine schooling 😆 I can vouch that Laela LOVED it.
And we all enjoyed reaping the benefits, thats for sure!!
My mom uses an old mennonite biscuit recipe for the crust, so its yummy and light. We had one pizza that was mostly pepperoni and cheese, with one chunk that stayed just cheese. The other pizza had pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms, and pineapple.
We walked the pizza off afterwards.
We all LOVE my moms pizza, and everyone ate so much, but the pictures and teaching moment were the actual best part ❤️🍕
As has been happening so often with groceries, someone included our family’s needs in their trip into the real world, and bought us our garden ❤️ Cher’s mom, Sandy, lovingly went in for us and brought back soil, peat pots, and all the seeds on our list that she could find.
We officially have a pack of cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, yellow peppers, dill, lettuce, grape tomatoes, big tomatoes, corn, and rainbow carrots!! My kids aren’t big carrot eaters, so we’ll see if the colour helps 😉 I also got glads, and am still hoping to find peonies somewhere. Potatoes closer to the day. And maybe berries, if I’m on the ball enough to figure out how to do them well. Thank you, friend, for offering to be my raspberry dealer 😘 You know who you are.
This year will be a low pressure garden. I hope it’s successful, but our spring plans are already lofty with the fence, grass, and shed. Those things come first. So while I’d love to have beautiful garden boxes, its likely going to be a “seeds in dirt” kind of year.
Unless this quarantine thing lasts a lot longer, in which case we’ll have nothing but time to build boxes! Hahaha! Whats one more project when we’ve got nowhere else to be??
