With the "social distancing" and cancellation of our extra-curricular activities we are having a lot of fun family time. Hubby helped the kids work on their staves for Cub Scouts. They did some hammering and practiced their wood burning skills.
Also lots of lego building and general paper crafting is happening, though I haven't taken any pictures of those things. Brother M made a lego "vending machine" that dispenses their gummy vitamins. Brother S copied a lego rocket from the space book he has been reading aloud. I printed out this lovely
free coloring book from Taproot magazine which we have all enjoyed (good farm family illustrations). They especially liked making the little paper dollhouse.
We have also had some nice virtual visits with family, friends, and cousins.
Grandma S and Grandpa J taught a little family history class for all the cousins. A and M's piano and guitar lessons are being taught virtually as well.
We have been doing a lot of baking and cooking practice. Big sister A made dinner by herself last night while I was working outside. She made spaghetti, broccoli, and a pumpkin pie. Earlier in the week she made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Brother M and I tried to make a recipe for cream puffs with chocolate filling, though they came out a bit flatter than the picture... still delicious. All of the kids have been practicing using the bread maker. Big sister A used it to make us pizza from scratch one night for dinner with jello for dessert and Brother S made their favorite raisin bread. Brother M also made a delicious peach "coffee cake" which turned out to be more like a peach cobbler. We loved that one so much that we had to make it again. When kids don't have any pre-made or packaged snacks available they really like looking at cookbooks for fun things to make.
We have been careful to avoid going to the store. And we can do that with all of our food storage and our gardens! It has been so wonderful to feel prepared for sheltering in place. Our neighboring farmer sells us milk. We have fresh eggs and greens, plus all our meals that were bottled from the summer garden. Hubby went to our local grocery once "to buy cat food" and satisfy his junk food cravings. We had a delivery from the feed store yesterday for all our animals. But really, the last time I went to do a big grocery trip was in mid-February up in Amish country. I usually measure when I need to go grocery shopping again by our apple stores. We are down to half a bushel or less now. And we just finished off the potatoes that I stored last fall. Soon I will head up Lancaster way again and restock for the next couple months.
Our lettuces are up and I have been adding fresh spring greens from the yard (some people would call them weeds). Henbit and dead nettle have braved the cold and are everywhere. I don't love having them in my garden, but knowing that so much of my lawn is edible is amazing. Dandelions, garlic mustard, and violets are coming up pretty well now too. So cheerful and so healthy for eating.
With the warmer spring weather hubby has been able to play frisbee in the evenings with the kids as well as a new favorite card game, Uno Flip. We have also been doing our fair share of silly imaginative games and challenges - like trying to see whether you can balance a fidgit spinner on various body parts.
All these fun things that we are doing come after our schoolwork is finished. I am grateful for the time to be able to get that done consistently every morning. Normally, we skip Fridays because of co-op school, and other fun things come up as well. I have been especially focused on getting them each through their reading, writing, and arithmetic courses for this year. We are still on track to finish before the baby comes mid-May! So glad. Then we can wrap up American History and some science work over the summer. Big sister A will start doing some BYU Middle School online courses in the Fall. And maybe a preparatory one over the summer. I can't believe she is already old enough for that!
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