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Test entry. Sorry you have to see this!
Day 18
With the need to make a morning trip to pickup the school chromebook and the start of distance learning this week, I thought maybe today we could relax our schedule a bit while figuring out the new schedule. It was not my best idea. The morning was great. The boys asked to do the math and reading programs we've been doing, so we did that. Family games were played. But then Nathan had actual school work to do, that was not at all attractive to him having already done math and reading on the computer. And Tim misunderstood the schedule so found himself having to head back to work before I was done and before setting Nathan up to have success with his school work (he'd never before done it in this way, t being day 1 of distance learning...). So the afternoon was full of angst and frustration. Needless to say, we will be back on a schedule tomorrow - one with more outdoor time built in now that we have more actual school stuff to fit in. we did manage to turn the evening around with a rousing game of (you guessed it) Uno.
Day 17
Today was slower, with less screen time. We facetimed with friends during church which made the service much better for everyone - by Sunday my kids just don't want to do discussion questions with me - I can't imagine why! So having friends to discuss with made it work. And after church we broke off into two platforms so that the kids could have a play date and we could catch up as grown ups with Bill and Kristina.
Distance Learning begins this week, with assignments & activities from the boys' teachers and "specials" from the school for Liam. We pick up a chromebook from the school tomorrow morning and then Nathan is off and running! Kindergarten stuff will come later in the week. It means restructuring our whole schedule again, but it will be nice for the academic endeavors to have goals. We'll see how it all goes...
UNO!
This morning Liam crawled into bed with me to tell me about the 8 rounds of Uno the boys had already played together. Yesterday there were no fewer than four Uno sessions - probably more that I didn't know about - each of multiple games. It can be played just the two boys or the whole family, in person or over a screen with friends and family we can't currently visit.
Nathan came up with the idea to give Liam a set of Uno cards for Christmas this past Christmas. We chose a set of cards in a tin so the box would survive lots of use. We had no idea that six months later it would be a key ingredient in surviving social distancing, traveling around the house daily.
Best Christmas Present Ever.
Day 16 - Lead us not into Temptation
We did not have a slow enough day today. By Wednesday I was looking forward to the weekend - my whole being is still getting used to how to live this new do all the things with all the people while everyone is at home reality. But I think that is the temptation - to do ALL THE THINGS. To STILL do all the things we've always done, just in a new way. And now that there is no travel time, we can do more of the things because we think we have more time for doing things. AND YET - it's not really true, and it's exhausting.
So while we (the kids?) had a few slow moments today, we also fit a lot in - getting outside in the yard for the morning sun, an impromptu game of Uno with Henry, a wonderful lunch catching up with Alex and Adina and Theia since we couldn't see them in person as originally planned for today, yard work to get more leave removed and beds uncovered ahead to the rain this coming week, more Uno, this time with Grammy and Papa, prep in the school room for distance learning to begin next week - all good things. But by the end of the day I was once again all screened - and energyed - out. And it seems so was everyone else. We came to the end of the day with after dinner fighting. We sorted it out and enjoyed one more game of Uno before bed.
It will be raining tomorrow. I think we can do less.