Recent Tidbits

I hope you don't mind that I'm frequently posting about our pandemic lifestyle. It's such a blessing for me to have this personal blog as a record of my life. I know I will really enjoy having these things written down in future years. Yes, I could do this in a journal (and I do keep several personal journals), but my blog is great for inserting photos and tagging by topic.

Here are a few tidbits from the past week or so:

Tidbit #1:

We've been spending a lot of time outside. Sometimes we are out there working, sometimes we are out there playing, and sometimes we are out there just sitting.

In the evenings, we let the chickens out of their coop to wander. We have to keep them out of the garden, which is no longer fenced (partially because our fence never kept the chickens out anyway, so we took it down), so we only let them out when we can supervise them.

Nicky likes to push Sam (his oldest hen) in the swing. She has always been good to tolerate this. None of his other chickens are willing.

Tidbit #2: 

Last week we made tin foil boats. I thought my kids would like this, but since they go to a STEM school, they've already done it at school and weren't super impressed by my activity. I thought that since they'd done it at school, they'd all make some pretty impressive boats, but guess whose boat held the most coins before sinking?

MINE!

And I didn't even put any effort into it. Take that, STEM kids!

(Wait, maybe I shouldn't be happy about winning. My kids should be able to kick my butt at competitions like this). 

Tidbit #3:

The other day, Zoe and Eva packed their bags and told me they were walking to California. They hugged me good-bye and went downstairs to say good-bye to Scotty. 

Zoe ended up having a change of heart. She started worrying about food. Eva was upset that Zoe no longer wanted to go with her, so she stood out on the sidewalk and pouted. Then she changed her mind about California and told me she needs to go live with Grandma until the coronavirus is gone. Frankly, I think that's a good idea!

Tidbit #4:

Last week, Shannon stopped by and delivered a bucket of Easter goodies. I used the eggs to have an egg hunt for the kids in the front yard.

After the initial hunt, they all took turns hiding the eggs over and over and sending their siblings to hunt for them. Its kept them busy for a while. 

Zoe hid this one in my hair, and we waited to see how long it would take the other kids to find it. Eva found it right away!

Tidbit #5:

As I mentioned the other day, Nicky is constantly talking my ear off. The other night, Scotty told him he could only have Oreos if he could be quiet for 5 minutes. 

He never made it. We had to restart the timer over and over. Eventually, we let him have some Oreos, but he didn't earn them (we disagree on who caved in and let him have Oreos. IT WAS NOT ME. But both Scotty and Nicky claim I was the one that caved. They are wrong. Scotty caved). 

On Easter, TWO of Nicky's grandmas gave him packages of sympathy Oreos! Nicky built himself a storage vessel for them:

Tidbit #6:

My friend, Shirley, did a red facial mask the other day and posted a video of herself removing it. Shirley doesn't typically do things like that, so whenever she tries something cosmetic, it's pretty funny. I got a good laugh out of her video. 

Shirley brought us some facial masks to try. Mine was a holographic one (kind of visually disappointing compared to the blue and red ones), and Scotty's was blue. 

Rest assured, we now look amazing and ten years younger!

This is what date nights have become.

Tidbit #7:

On Friday night we built a fire in the backyard and had tin foil dinners and roasted marshmallows. 

It was fun to spend the evening outside and have dinner. 

Tidbit #8:

On Saturday we cleaned the house and worked on the yard. We took two loads of stuff to the neighborhood dumpsters. We cleaned off our patio and moved the chicken coop. I pressure washed the house and cleaned the windows. Scotty dug up some sprinklers that need to be capped off. I had the kids wash the van (they do a terrible job, but it's more about keeping them busy than having the van clean). 

We told the kids they could dye eggs if they got their chores done. 

I'm glad the weather was nice enough to move this activity outside!  

Tidbit #10:

The kids keep asking to play in water outside. About ten years ago, I bought this old sand turtle from the DI for $5. Scotty drilled a few holes in it so the water could drain out when it had sand in it. For the last few years, we've used it to store dirt in while we move our garden boxes around. A few days ago, we put Gorilla tape over the holes and made it into a make-shift swimming pool. 

The kids brought bowls of hot water outside and filled it up. It's been kind of fun to be creative with what we have around the house. Challenging, but also rewarding when we're able to make due with what we have.