"Shelter in Place"

Today is Day 17 of our family "sheltering in place." It has definitely been an adjustment, but I think we are all handling it pretty well.  Even Marc isn't going completely stir-crazy. I completely understand why we are sheltering in place for medical purposes.  I don't discount the importance of it, and we are only leaving the house for groceries or take-out that supports local businesses.  However, I do worry about what this is going to do to our economy.  To those that are losing their jobs. For those that are skilled laborers depending on clients. This COVID-19 thing is complex, but we are trying to do what we can to help where we can. 

So what have we been doing with our time? I've had weekly elementary department meetings.  It's always fun to see their faces and figure out ways to make digital learning easier and smoother for us all.

We were hoping our printer would last us through the end of the school year, but with the extra printing that comes along with digital learning we decided to go ahead and order a new one.  It's amazing how much better this new printer is!

We've taken regular family walks.  Brooke decorated Kayla's braid, so we started calling her "weed head."

Macy finished off her skein of yarn in finger weaving.  She thought it was best used to tie her sister up.

I wrote some cards to my students. 

We ordered a basketball goal.  It's not a full size, but it is adjustable to play poolside as well. 

The girls pulled out everything they could from the garage to build houses/stores.

Since we are stuck at  home Marc decided to order a Home Depot delivery of mulch, pine straw, and retaining wall blocks. We all got out there and finished the mulch and pine straw in a couple of hours.  The retaining wall is another story...

Anything to pass the time - including doing each other's hair. 

More family walks.

We don't see an end yet to this "shelter in place." Digital learning will continue at least through April 24th.  Next week is Spring Break.  Our plans to visit friends have been cancelled.  We've played and done so much as a family, but school is still taking up a good amount of our day.  As much as I am looking forward to Spring Break and being able to take a break from school, I'm a little worried about enjoying our break doing the same things we've been doing in the afternoons and weekends. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can take a drive up to the mountains for different scenery.

COVID-19

This has been a roller-coaster of a few weeks. COVID-19, the coronavirus, has single handedly changed the way our country, and world, is living.  This fast spreading virus has led the majority of the US population to practice social distancing. Schools have been shut down across the United States for a minimum of 2 weeks, and there have been talks of some districts not going back at all this school year. Because we do a hybrid private school our learning has not changed much. Well, the academic learning hasn't changed much.  We are all trying to figure out how to be completely remote and how to submit assignments.  It has been a definite learning curve for me as I try to figure out ways to make my 3rd grade class digital and engaging.  

This is our 8th day "social distancing." Marc has been to the store twice (once for us and once for his parents), and I have been once. It is crazy the amount of hoarding some families are doing.  Stores are wiped out of toilet paper, soap, clorox wipes, antibacterial gel, and water bottles among other things.  We have everything we need except for the elusive chicken. I'm hoping we'll be able to find some in a few more days.

The girls have taken it all very well this week. Some days of school have been longer as the teachers figure out how to do digital school, but I'm hoping the lighter days we had Thursday and Friday will continue.  Lighter as in 4ish hours. 

The girls made this epic fort in the basement last weekend.  They enjoyed sleeping in it that night. On a "school" night. That was quite a treat for them.

For the amount of rainy days we've had this year we've been really thankful for some nice, warm weather this week.  The pollen has been high, but the girls have still enjoyed plenty of fresh air and sunshine.  That's something we have had very little of so far in 2020. In11 weeks we have had over 20 inches of rain. That's basically double the average in Atlanta.

This coronavirus is doing weird things to everyone.  This guy here has even taken to doing puzzles. 

Even though it is still too cold, we went ahead and took the cover off of our pool. The girls had fun with the bag that the cover goes in. 

We have enjoyed dinner outside. 

And Tinker Crate arrived just in time for a morning project. We have taken to spraying down all delivery boxes and keeping them outside overnight.

We've been eating at home all week.  I've cooked more than ever I think, and the dishwasher is being run every night. We decided to support local businesses once or twice a week, so dinner tonight will be from a favorite BBQ restaurant down the street. As of now most restaurants have gone to drive thru or take-out only.  I can't imagine the stress that these businesses and their employees are going through with the thought of no income. 

So for now we keep our social distance. We are doing our part to "flatten the curve."  We only leave when necessary. Marc is working from home in the basement and the girls and I are doing school upstairs.  We made it a week with little to no battle scars. Spring Break travel has been cancelled for us, and our summer vacation is on hold. I'm determined to enjoy this time with family the best I can.

Blueridge Winterfest

We headed to Lincolnton, North Carolina for competition this weekend.  On our way through Charlotte we stopped by the Billy Graham Library.  We all really enjoyed our visit, and the exhibits were really well done.

The schedule for this competition had us arriving at noon.  We quickly realized we'd rather get up early.  Finding seats proved to be quite a challenge. They are slowly fazing out "old" routines as new ones are learned for the new PowerTaps Junior team, but for this competition they danced the same routines.

They totally rocked their performances and took home so many awards!

They even took home and overall award! This means that they had the highest scoring routine of all amateur traditional routines in the junior age division.

The girls love breakfast at hotels.  I usually send Marc down with the girls while I get ready for the day and start packing up.  I happened to join them this time and Brooke got a bonus pancake.

This is a busy competition time, and things will slow down in a few months, but we are traveling about every 4-6 weeks. The summer and fall are much more spread out between competitions.

February Randoms

We gave Grampie dinner and an escape room for Christmas, and we were finally able to coordinate a time to take him.  We had a great time.

Macy loves her Wednesday night date night with her daddy while the other two are at clogging.  Making her own pizza is a bonus.

Valentine's Day with my loves.

Blue sky. Finally.

Marc decided he wanted to do a built in for the area we store our school supplies.  It turned out pretty awesome.

Enjoying some time out with the girls.

More rain.  It's the story of our year.  When we were doing school one day I looked out across our property and saw gushing water.  We ended up taking a break from school to go investigate. The lake a couple houses over was overflowing. My other picture didn't turn out so well, but there was a huge "waterfall" from the overflow of the lake just outside of our property line. Rain, rain, please go away...

February Weather

Beautiful sunset after dropping the girls off at clogging.

Rain. It's the story of our life these days. So. Much. Rain.  This is the worst our yard has ever flooded.

Some of us can only handle so much time looking at the rain. Eventually you just go out and embrace it.

Finally the rain met colder temperatures and brought snow.  We didn't get any snow here last  year, so the girls were especially excited to play in it and find their new sledding spots at this house.

Riley REALLY wanted to go out and play with the girls. When her paws hit the ground she REALLY wanted to get back inside. We call her "Bullet" when she takes off running like this.

Trampolines are always fun in the snow.

It was a really wet snow, so Macy thought the umbrella would be appropriate.

I chose to stay in my pajamas and snap a few pictures from the porch.  After that I went back inside to tend to the fire.

Picture perfect if you ask me.

This year's snowman was Baby Yoda.