Beauty All Around

Taken on our ride.

 Sometimes we have to appreciate the beauty around us to realize how blessed we are.  On Eection Day we had very nicec weather. Jason and I had off work, so we all went to Maybury, our newly discovered favorite hiking place since quarantine. We wanted to try the paved roads on wheels. Luckily, Victoria and Austin wanted to long board, so we didn't have to try to fit 6 bikes on our very-hard-to-manuever bike rack. 

Jason and I rode with Erik.

Austin long boarding

Victoria long boarding

Karissa wanted to ride solo.

We've done some yard work together. Sometimes willingly, sometimes not....

Austin helped Jason take out a tree.

Luke enjoyed it too.

And we did service for someone else!

School 2020- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

 Erik got to start going back to school a few weeks ago. He goes M,T, TH, F from 1:30-4. Wednesdays are an asynchronous workday for them with a 30-minute meeting in the morning on Zoom. The other mornings, when the other half of the class is in school, the pm group will work asynchronously on assignments. Starting this week, they get to meet with their specials groups on Zoom (art, P.E., and music). It's been really nice for Erik to go in the afternoon when he usually starts to get bored (because his work is done by then), but his siblings still have class to "attend" and work to do. It's best if he's just out of the house. He rides his bike there and back (luckily we've had good weather for that) so he's able to get some exercise in.  

Lucky boy!

We have added an extra specials class with some friends from church on Wednesday afternoons. We have been rotating amongst yards/houses and doing P.E., art, or science. There are 7 kids in Erik's group, but there are only usually 5 or 6 kids there. He really enjoys it, even though he's older than most of the kids, he enjoys the experience and interaction. 

I did Pumpkins and Apples for my first science and P.E. special. I love their looks here! I don't remember why most of them were staring at Erik's painting...:)

Tossing hula hoops over the pumpkins.

I would have to say the best thing about virtual schooling is Austin's LME (Life Management Skills) class. He gets to choose a recipe from the genre of food that is assigned that week. We look at it together so he can write down what ingredients we don't have at home. On another day, we buy the things he needs, and then he makes it. The thing I like about it is that when Victoria and Karissa were in this class, they made stuff at school and they were usually things that I don't make at home. Plus, it was all done at school, so there was no connection to home. Austin has made dinner for the family twice, plus bread, dessert, and a snack. He's making a salad later today. The absolute best thing? He eats it all and likes it even better than when I make it. He made chili, which he usually loves. This is one that I don't think he liked as well as my recipe, but he still enjoyed it, along with the rest of us. He made chicken noodle soup, which he usually doesn't care much for, but loved it! He found a new bread recipe that I will use from now on and it was amazing! Everyone loved it! The dessert was a homemade pudding for Halloween, it wasn't as popular, but who cares, it's pudding. He made 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies yesterday for the snack. He loved them, they were very sweet but very easy! He's excited to make the salad later today and I'm excited that he wants to try it!

Cutting an onion with bread in his mouth so his eyes won't water. He says it actually works!

Chili

Pudding

The final pudding cup complete with candy pumpkins, Oreos, and an interesting chocolate tree.

Cutting chicken

Everyone loved this chicken noodle soup (it was actually my recipe, but we spiffed it up a bit).

The very successful bread!

So proud!

3 ingredient peanut butter cookies (Notice the clothes he wears very often. These were all taken on different days.)

The other good thing is that we just finished the first quarter and most of the grades on the report card were pretty good. But that's when the bad and the ugly come in too. There were a couple of bad grades, which we won't go into specifics on that. It could get pretty ugly with the reminding, checking, nagging, and pushing that was going on with those classes where the grades weren't great. One of them was due to a teacher who had a different way of requiring assignments to be turned in from the other teachers. Assignments were being done, but not being turned incorrectly. She didn't post the grades regularly though and do we wouldn't know there were problems until things got piled up. Even to the very end of the quarter, we had no idea about some of the issues. 

Which brings me to the other ugly part. The amount of emails we receive on an hourly basis is overwhelming! Jason's and my accounts are attached to Canvas, the learning platform, and we receive emails about each and every assignment that was turned in for each and every class for our older 3 children. To see details you have to click through various links. That's where you can see scores and whether or not the assignment was actually submitted with content that the teacher can access. Plus, we get notes from teachers, office staff, principals, and all of Erik's specials teachers. At times I feel like I am drowning. 

Back to the good again:

We've started a new quarter and already the grades that were too low, are much improved. Everyone has better study habits as they are getting used to virtual learning and ways to submit their work. We've also come to terms that the secondary schools aren't going back in person until at least late January. Austin, who had to get used to middle school itself, is in a groove and doesn't have to be working on homework all evening and all weekend. Phew!

I just want to say, though, that this isn't easy for anyone involved and especially not the teachers. I know it's been a real struggle for them to figure out this new way of teaching and to make it a successful learning experience for all involved. I know that if I were teaching public schools right now, I would be ripping my hair out. 

Here's to the second quarter!

Soccer Season 2020

 My boys were fortunate to be able to play a shortened soccer season this fall. We started a little later than normal and so had fewer games, but despite having to wear facemasks, Austin and Erik thoroughly enjoyed it!

Erik's team only lost one game by one point. Austin's team was undefeated. They both had excellent coaches and teams that worked well together.

One time, Erik's team played the younger team that Austin's coach coached and it was a great game, indicating what great coaches they both are. It would have been a tie game, except there was a penalty against the goalie and Erik's teammate made that final goal in the last few minutes of the game.

Now we're making goals as to what we can do to keep active the next little while. Here's what Erik did today with Jason.

Halloween 2020

 We made the most of Halloween this year. My kids really love Halloween and we let them do as much as was allowed/possible during this time. 

Friday night we went to a special drive in that we signed up for months ago. It wasn't at an actual drive-in, just at the soccer fields, so it was a little hard to hear, but luckily it was the movie Hocus Pocus (which we have all seen and love) so we didn't need the volume to be perfect. The kids were given gift bags when we arrived and they all snuggled in the back of Cinnamon while Jason and I shivered out on the camping chairs. It wasn't too cold, but cold enough! This was the first time any of them, except Karissa, had been to a drive-in. They're not really big around here, so we just never had the opportunity. I really liked having all our family together for a Friday night activity, something we haven't had for a while. My girls love their social lives, especially during covid!

Halloween being on a Saturday was a blessing this year. Also, the nice weather we had! We usually have rainy and very cold weather on Halloween, but it was sunny and pleasant. Austin had a soccer game that the parents dressed up in costumes for and some of us brought baggies of candy, which made the players' day. They won as well, so that's always nice!

Coach Garfield stretching with them!

Meanwhile, Karissa was carrying out the party that she had been planning for her and a few friends for months. She made cake pops, for the first time, and weren't a huge success in appearance, but tasted great! She put together a live game of Among Us that was a big hit with her friends. I made mummy dogs and ghost meatloaves served with mashed potatoes, carrots, and peas. After being here for 3 hours, Jason drove them to Olivia's house for trick or treating. They knew for sure that their neighborhood was doing trick or treat, whereas, in ours, we didn't really know. The church on the corner of our street had a trunk or treat, so I think a lot of people from our neighborhood went there. 

They're all comic book characters, so I don't really know them very well. Karissa is in the rollerblades in the middle as Poison Lilley.

Jason and I took the boys to Austin's friend Owen's house whose neighborhood was doing trick or treat. We enjoyed walking around with Owen and his little sisters (one is Erik's age) and their dad. They couldn't believe how few trick or treaters there were compared to other years. I couldn't believe how much everyone went out to make it nice for the kids. There weren't tons of houses, but about 1/4 of the houses had candy out either in a bowl on the ground, on a table, or in some other creative way. Some were on the driveway, some on the walkway or some on the lawn. One house had bags of candy, chips, and fruit snacks on bamboo sticks all over the lawn. The kids took a bag (or a few as they were told to) and put the sticks in a box before leaving. Another house had a literal buffet of candy, chips, juice boxes, and fruit snacks on trays and bowls at all levels on the edge of their lawn. Most people had signs that said how many bags of candy the kids could take, usually more than one. Lots of people were outside by their fire pits and told them to take as much as they wanted, and a lot of the candy was full size. One lady, who was at the end of a street and couldn't see what other houses were doing was very concerned about whether or not the kids were getting enough candy. I assured her that they were!

Pirate Erik, Bank robber Owen, All-State insurance guy Austin

candy trading at the end

Tower of candy!

Victoria went to a friend's house during Karissa's party and they walked back when Karissa and her friends left. She had three friends over and they ate the food we had prepared and passed out candy to the two or three families who came by, while watching shows. (Since no one had set up tables in our neighborhood like in Owen's, I didn't know about that good idea, so Victoria just passed it out candy the old fashioned way). 

Mad Hatter, Minnie, and Reindeer

With the blue moon and the time change, I thought that maybe we'd wake up to some magical morning of life back to normal, but we didn't. Oh well. Happy Halloween!

Before Halloween, I got to go to my High Fit class dressed up. Karissa's bow went nicely with my old uniform. 

The boys dressed up for "school" on Friday.

Still have our traditional pumpkin carving!