Snap 'n' the Cheek: May 2020

Here we are, still in quarantine. But we're not letting that get our spirits down. We are still loving home church. The kids look forward to getting all dolled up every Sunday.

Dad had a great idea to drive around and look for wildflowers. He and the kids put together a lovely little bouquet.

The best part of baking is licking the spoon!

The laundry room was one of the selling points of our home. We finally had the time to really let it fulfill its destiny. Such a satisfying project!

My traditional Mother's day breakfast in bed. I am a truly blessed mother.

When you tell the kids it's time to get off their rears and get out of the house... They at least got out of the house...

What the ??? I've still been sewing masks (with Janie's help) to donate to the local hospital. This is one that came through. Who designed this fabric?? (Disclaimer: I neither choose nor cut out the fabric. I just sew what I'm given...)

Grandma sent the kids these fun jewel kits. They have loved putting them together.

Grandma and Grandpa also sent this working train puzzle. It may have taken Logan a little longer than it took the kids to do their jewel kits.

Grandpa turned 71, so we put together a little picture and video for him. One member of our number one was a little less than cooperative.

I have to add this picture because it is so perfect at describing the time we're in now. My friend's daughter turned 16 and my friend wanted to make it special, so she set up Zoom dates with young men across the country. One of those young men happened to be my cute nephew. Quarantine speed dating.

Janie and Logan worked together and built her long-awaited Free Little Library. What a cute girl to raise all the money and put it together. Unfortunately, we aren't able to put it at the school due to the pandemic, but we're hopeful we'll be able to soon. In the meantime we have loved watching people come by and seeing the books come and go. Janie wrote about the process and submitted it to The Friend magazine. It would be fun to see it in there!

We tried making rock candy again. It didn't work - again. But, we made Kool-Aid out of our failed experiment, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Fort building time!

We did a drive through on the "last day of school" to pick up the kids' things and say goodbye to teachers, etc. The kids all got high honors. Carli and Janie were on the Principal's Honor Roll. Carli received high marks in ELA and was recognized for her advancement in the Young Georgia Author's competition. Janie received high marks in Math and Milo in reading. It was a melancholy feeling knowing that the school year was supposed to end so differently and feeling like they all missed out on time with some amazing teachers. Of course, the next day I found Milo on the couch reading Carli's science notebook.

We had a family council and decided that we'd like less screen time, especially in the morning. Since the boys are early risers we were letting them watch shows so the rest of us could sleep. Janie took it upon herself to make sure they had an "entertainment kit" every morning to keep them occupied instead of having screen time. She came up with some very creative ideas that the boys looked forward to every morning.

The school librarian donated a lot of books to Janie's library. Let's just say the books go through a very rigorous testing process before they ever make it out to the library.

Our little friend that we always watch out the back window decided to rest right outside our backdoor. We were worried about how long he laid there, but eventually he got up and hopped away.

Carli was very disappointed about Girls Camp being cancelled. So, we tried to cheer her up by having our own camp activities all week. It started out with a craft day, where Carli made a cute book pillow. Next we did facials, manis and pedis. She was such a sport to let everyone join in.

Tad was not really into the mask, but he was happy to join in for mani/pedis.

The next day was water sports day.

The last night the girls planned a very fancy dinner. We all dressed up and it was such a fun experience. The boys gave the girls flowers and escorted them to the table. My escort was especially dapper.