Quarantine update March 31st:

I must say, I'm a little nervous about tomorrow.  Finn was SO devastated to learn that he had missed April Fools Day last year, and he has been in deep planning mode for a long time this year (he keeps checking with me and checking with me to make sure he hasn't missed it so far...), so I think I might be in for some doozies tomorrow! :) Wish me luck to survive the day still loving all my children, haha.

Life has been VERY much the same around here, but it's working for us.  We do school in the mornings, lunch and nap for Kellan, read-aloud with Mama while Kellan sleeps, and then outside at the church parking lot until dinner time.  That's the *general* schedule, but frankly school would have a much harder time of getting done if it were not for the outside walk break that Papa does with Kellan every day around 11:00 a.m. 

Kellan knows one thing he can almost always do if he asks is take a bath.  Today he took a bath while Finn read out loud to me...in the bathroom.  Hey, whatever gets the job done!  Kellan has been into laying down in the tub lately, so the water covers his ears, and then he makes all sorts of sounds to hear how different it is with his ears covered.  Science learning!

The blue skies and sunny, warm weather the past 2 days have made my heart SO glad.  

Finn has declared this new tree in the church parking lot to be his NEW "home away from home."

On this day Kellan kept rubbing his chest, amazed at wearing NO jacket outside, and saying "so WARM!"

Jonas giving you a tour of the parking lot on his roller blades...

Aunt Laura made and sent a cute photo book of our adventures in D.C. this past Christmas!  We all love remembering the fun times there.  💙

Fun with the light saber

4 kids pre-bedtime routine...

So, one of the delightful ways we've been spending time this quarantine is by watching Master chef Jr. together.  We've never watched any, so it's great to have MANY seasons we can blow through...haha.  This show has put the cooking bug into the kids big time (this, and the So Tasty cooking shows that are fast-forwarded on YouTube.  Layla loves to watch cake-baking as she folds laundry).  Layla is especially interested in baking and cake decorating.  Finn and Cora want to learn to cook.  Papa has graciously agreed to help them start learning, because that...does not sound like loads of fun to Mama.  Beginner cooks, man... *shudder* . But I'll gladly help Layla more with the baking...stay tuned for CAKES from us soon! 

Cora learning the art of perfect eggs on Saturday.

Finn learning about perfect coffee.

While he was at it, Jonas made some bread on Saturday.

And here is the beef stew dish the kids helped create.

Last but not least, a view of how Jonas spent some of this past rainy weekend:  computer games.  If anyone plays Starcraft, his Jonas up!  He's bored.  😂

On a pandemic note:  If I find out that anyone I know is ignoring social distancing rules and going out of the house, around other people, for no good reason...just because you are an extrovert, or you want to, or you forgot one thing at the grocery store??? Oh, man.  Don't even get me STARTED on my rant, man.   (The whole world thanks the Universe that Lisa is on no social media right now...) . Also don't hoard toilet paper...that's just weird.  

A NICE ending thought:

Rachel Gustafson sent this song to a few close friend on a message the other day, and I absolutely love the beautiful, timely message.  The Wailin' Jennys are a fave of mine (Dolly Parton is the original writer, I know, but she is less a fave of mine...haha), but I haven't heard this song in a long time.  Please take 4 minutes and enjoy this gold with me!