2020 :: week 17

April 19

It is amazing how much longer Sundays feel when we aren't traveling to and from a physical church, or attending various other meetings. I am starting to really miss our friends and fellow worshipers, but also feel like we are hitting our stride with how to use the extra time. We have started playing jackbox games with our John cousins for about an hour on Sunday afternoons and it is something the kids really look forward to each week.

April 20

Now that we have been doing school-at-home for about a month we seem to have figured out a schedule that works for us. I struggle with wanting to have flexibility, but also needing structure to make sure I accomplish all that I need to each day. One of our family goals was to get out and go for a morning and evening walk, but after the first week we were struggling to all want to go at the same time. The kids want to go before they get too involved in their school work and I want to go after I get my morning "tasks" completed and right before Miles' nap. Sunday night we made a schedule and now go at 9am every day.

April 21

We spent a lot of time outside this week. Elliott has rediscovered baseball and our tee. Will helped him draw a baseball diamond on our driveway and the older three kids played baseball outside for hours. Will "coached" Lauren and Elliott and led them in drills. He worked with Lauren on her catching and helped Elliott improve his stance. It warmed my heart to see the three of them playing so well with each other. They started calling themselves the "Blue Crew" and put on Blue Crew jerseys and other paraphernalia from years past. I let Lauren and Will walk up to the park a few times to practice running the bases and whatever other drills Will thought they needed to do.

April 22

We got out Elliott's old ride-on car and it was a huge hit with Miles! He loved it and I love that there are so many of us that can take turns pushing him around as he has a nearly insatiable appetite for rides. It is hard to say no when he is clearly so happy.

April 23

I have said it before and I will keep saying it, I really love how creative people are about reaching out and showing support during this strange time. Thursday was our friend Stevie's birthday and we joined in a parade of over 40 cars to drive by and honk happy birthday to him. Miles did NOT like all the honking. We assembled at the school parking lot and then drove in a line over to Stevie's house. It was so much fun sitting in our car and waving out the window and yelling hello to our friends. It was great to see everyone, but it reminded me how much I miss seeing them too. It's just hard to replace face to face interaction.

April 24

Miles loves to sit at our piano and pound the keys. He seems to have many of the same likes as our other kids: music, sports and being outside. It makes me wonder if he likes those things because our family enjoys them, therefore he has been exposed to them? Or does he enjoy them because he has a natural affinity? Nature or nurture? Either way, he enjoys listening to Anthony play and gets excited when we let him sit on the bench and make some noise himself.

April 25

Nana and Papa helped us order a pickleball net and we set it up to play Saturday afternoon. We had such a great time! We decided since we have a lot of young players that are new to the game we will first work on getting the hang of hitting the ball over the net and getting a streak of volleys.  Yes, we were in our next-door neighbor's driveway. They are out of town until July and their driveway is slightly larger than ours so it made a better court.