Distance Learning

Grandma Debbie left Monday morning, her phone wrapped up in foil. The Utah border is monitored now for travel across state borders. It's safe to say she's got a clean bill of health. Sometimes it sure feels like we're in some strange post-apocalypse novel. We all felt a bit let down on Monday after Grandma left. I've taken up the gauntlet reading Freckles to the boys. My Scottish and Irish accents are quite pitiful.

For FHE the kids wanted to have an egg hunt. Amelia and I hid (aka threw) handfuls of plastic eggs out on the back lawn. I carefully hid quite a few for those wanting a challenge. Josie was almost in tears each time she found a real decorated boiled egg, all she wanted were the chocolate filled plastic eggs. She found the least candy eggs so her siblings pitched in and gave her a couple from their baskets.

We tried to do school everyday in the morning. By Tuesday I emailed Phillip's teacher saying "I give up!" She assigns 10-12 items everyday in 4-5 subject areas, a zoom meeting, plus constant emails. Phillip was so frustrated, all the assignments were stupid and dumb, busy work. I am so happy Phillip's 504 plan allows for accommodations, we worked out that he needs to complete 5 things using different parts of his brain (reading aloud, writing, verbal math, explaining something, etc), just so he is learning but not by sitting and doing worksheets. Everett and Evelyn flew under my radar most days. I'm sitting directly by Phillip for 3-4 hours each day to spurn him into action, it's 80% bluster and 20% actual work. Everett stayed "busy" doing all the easy assignments. Come Friday he had about 4 hours of the in-depth assignments. Evelyn does her hour-long zoom meetings and reads. This week her teacher decided to assign 4-10 assignments everyday on seesaw, just busy little work that I completely avoided. Amelia, such a good girl...she worked hard and got all her work done before noon everyday. I feel like the teachers are trying to work hard to earn their money but making sure the parents work harder at their job. I cannot even imagine what this experience is like for parents who are also working from home.

Almost every afternoon this week the older kids congregated to play Barbies in the little girl's room! I listened in a few times...they were playing Barbie and Butler with a baby Elsa. Oh my gracious, I was near tears from the laughter. So hilarious. Amelia was so boooooored she made blackberry meringue cookies from scratch! Yum. The batter tasted like marshmallows.

The movers busted 1/4 of the food storage buckets. Phillip helped me transfer the contents into new buckets and resealed the lids. I was able to save 3 feet of room in the under-stairs storage closet with a touch of reorganization. Each afternoon I worked to decorate, hang wall galleries, and move furniture about to my satisfaction. By Saturday I finished 90% of all the decor, the downstairs area is finished. I have absolutely no idea what to do with our huge bedroom! It is mostly empty except the bed, two night tables and a dresser.

This weekend Justin worked on prepping the lawn for Spring. There is a local store, Zamzow's, that offers a yearly lawn program for $100. The store sells you the necessary fertilizer, weed control, and grass seed for the year then sends reminders to distribute the items on schedule. Pretty cool! Justin turned on the sprinkler system, the game of whack-a-mole continues. One sprinkler head in the back is completely broken off, the geyser was impressive. Phillip helped mow the lawn. Justin mowed over the lawns a few times to get the grass short enough for the fertilizer.

Friday night I loaded up the truck with all the boxes and paper from our move. I made Justin take a trip to the county dump on Saturday. He had to wait quite a long time and get a lecture from the cashier about staying home. I felt liberated to clear those boxes from the garage. I worked for hours Friday and Saturday to straighten up and organize the garage. By end of day on Saturday I still can't park in the garage but another couple hours should change that! I really want to buy a bike parking system for the plethora of family bikes we have. Most of the time the bikes are all tangled up in an impossible mess. I hope this next week will start with less chaos...hoping that leads to a better school week. I picked up a sprinkler during my Walmart food trip. The kids immediately set that up under the tramp for some cold spring fun! 

Church today was so nice. Justin organized a church schedule for us to follow. We sang "The Spirit of God." Phillip gave the opening prayer. Everett, Evelyn, and Amelia bore their testimonies after the sacrament. We watched Elder Gong's conference talk then discussed it. Josie chose to sing I am a Child of God. Evelyn's cute church teacher sent her an envelope with a paper crown to decorate and some fun activities to do when she's bored.