Marching Band Performance

The first home football game was cancelled due to covid19 cases and a lot of the football team being quarantined.  We were disappointed because we were looking forward to a football game and also the band was going to play at the game.  But the band and drill team decided to have a performance that night anyway since they didn't have the quarantine numbers that the football team did.  So it was called Band and Pacesetter Night and we got to see the band perform what they've been practicing for the last two months.  We couldn't find Westley and Caleb in it at all though.  A few times we thought we saw them but weren't sure.  They are supposed to have three more home games to perform at but there's always a possibility that those games might not happen.  We'll see.  And they have a marching contest in November, so I hope that still happens.  We shall see.  It's been a disappointment for Westley's senior year, that's for sure.  

End of School and Back to Gymnastics

Jonah's teachers, one for reading/social studies (Mrs. Winans) and one for math/science (Mrs. Lopez), came to say goodbye to him after school got out. We were glad that he got to see them one more time in person. With the reopening of our state this week, they were more comfortable coming in person for a porch visit.

Our pool isn't opening this summer, at least not soon, if not at all, due to covid-19, but Paige and Austin moved into Aaron and Kaori's new house, which has a pool, so we were able to do our kickoff to summer swimming at their house.  The water was too cold though!  We'll probably swim there a few more times, but we'll eventually go to Arizona for a few weeks as well.  Summer just isn't summer without swimming!

And gyms are now reopening.  The gymnastics called us and asked if we were willing and able to put Jonah and Annmarie back in.  I'm guessing a lot of people won't put their kids back in because they are afraid of getting sick, but I'm not worried and the gym is taking precautions.  At first I said no because I thought we'd be leaving for Arizona right away and spending a lot of time there, but then I decided that we wanted to stick around until after Maggie's birthday on June 10th (Maggie and Kaori came to Texas after going back to Japan after being here a week from covid-19 because Maggie needs a back surgery that they won't do in Japan because of covid-19).  So why not put them in for a month.  So Annmarie showed me her sticker that she earned and they are covid-19 stickers.  *eye roll*

Four Square

As I mentioned before, we have been playing a lot of four square.  The squares on our driveway are the perfect size to draw a line down the middle and have four even squares.  It's been fun to bring back a game that I played a lot when I was a kid (fifth grade).  Even the older boys have been joining us from time to time. 

Hiking in Maxwell Creek

We discovered that Maxwell Creek neighborhood, which is across busy McCreary Road and also in our ward boundary, has some great hiking paths near the creek.  We can ride our bikes over there and park them in the woods and then hike all over.  It's been a great nature getaway during this time where we have to be at home.  The kids have even gone over themselves without me and had a great time hiking the trails.  It's getting hotter, though, so I don't know how much longer we'll be able to really do it.  But I'm glad we learned it is there!

End of Preschool

For the first week that school was canceled due to covid-19, I still held my preschool that week. But the next week we were issued the shelter-in-place and even though I probably still could have gotten away with holding it because of such small numbers, it was too much to try and do preschool and have all my kids home doing online school. Plus, I didn't know if the parents of my preschoolers would have supported that. So I stopped doing it and for the next two weeks (last two weeks of March), I sent them online work to do, just all the reading and projects with some fun websites for the games and activities. But I don't think any of them did anything at all, and after talking to one of the parents, decided when online school was extended through the end of the year, to just be done with preschool. But since I had three kids who were "graduating" from preschool, I decided to hand deliver diplomas and a graduation cap that I would have given them at a preschool graduation. I also took them the last of the Scholastic magazines that I had ordered for the year and anything that belonged to them. Usually I give a gift, but it just wasn't happening. I was glad to see them all one last time though!

Westley's Birthday and Cute Nathan

Today is Westley's 17th birthday!  I can't believe he is already seventeen.  I made him cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  He had the usual pizza for dinner and I gave him some cash to go out to lunch with a friend.  He usually throws himself a little party for his birthdays, ever since he was thirteen, but with covid and not being able to hold a gathering (technically, he could still have one, but likely nobody would come), he couldn't and that was disappointing to him.  He got a CD player/stereo and a DCI shirt.  I think he's also glad to be done with school soon and hopeful that his senior year starts normally. 

Nathan accompanied me on errands this morning.  With shelter-in-place ending, I thought it would be okay to finally bring him along.  He hasn't left the house/street we live on in nearly seven weeks.  In fact, I found that he has outgrown his carseat in this time.  He wore his mask, which is what we are being asked to do everywhere we go now. 

I finally made Nathan's baby book also.  I was a few years late making Annmarie's but I know I had it done before I had Nathan and she was almost three then.  So Nathan is by far the oldest kid by the time I finished the baby book.  But now all of my kids have one!  Yay!

School Fun

During the last month of school at Groves, the kindergarten and first grade usually have these fun themed days every day. Since they couldn't do it at school, they adjusted it for online learning. One of Annmarie's days was reading somewhere in a tent or other place. She decided to go under her bed with a flashlight. I took a picture to send to her teacher.

I probably should explain how Wylie ISD handled online learning. For the older kids, they had to check in on Google classroom every day with each class to be counted present. Then they would do an assignment and turn it in. For the older kids, it usually took them only a few hours to get everything done. For choir, PE/athletics, and band, they even had assignments to do. The younger kids had assignments from all their subjects. We ended up checking out a chromebook for Jonah because it was too hard trying to have the two younger ones take turns. Everyone else would be done with school by the time the second one had their turn, so with Jonah having a chromebook, he could get his done at the same time. But they had daily opportunities to video chat with teachers and classmates, which my kids have been doing a lot more now that school will be wrapping up in a week. We are actually ending a week earlier than the year would have ended, probably because doing online school like this is so tedious and they need to collect chromebooks and want to have extra time to gather them all. I'm really sad that school has to end this way. I hope things resume to normal through the summer. Texas is starting to open things back up from the quarantine next week. Essential places, like most fast food and grocery stores, have remained open to a limited capacity. In-N-Out has been drive through only since mid-March. It has decreased business. I haven't been able to do preschool or piano lessons since shelter-in-lace orders were issued. I tried to do online lessons with some of my students, but it just didn't work out that well for me. So I hope things are normal in the fall. We got a relief check from the government in April to offset the financial strain. We're hoping to not have to use it, so we tucked it into savings. But if things don't resume normally by fall, we'll be in a bad place. I hope that doesn't happen. Summer is always hard because I don't have preschool or piano. I might have to get a job at an essential place if I can't do preschool or piano though. Then I would have to figure out childcare for Nathan.

Cinco de Mayo

For Cinco de Mayo, which fell on a Taco Tuesday this year, we made homemade churros. They are so easy to make and so delicious homemade. And Jonah helped me.

No More School

Here we have what I found when I walked into the room on a Sunday afternoon. Corey had a surgery on April 16th and took two weeks off and returned to work on May 4th, so this was his last day off. But I walked into the room and found everyone quietly sitting on their devices.

We also found out at the end of April that school would not resume at all for the rest of the year due to covid-19.  So our principal of Wylie High School, Mr. Virdie Montgomery, made it his goal to visit all 612 graduating seniors at home and deliver a personal message and a candy bar.  His quest made first the local news, then went national.  I was watching the news one afternoon and saw the story about Mr. Montgomery come on the NBC Nightly news.  I was surprised and excited!  Our prinicpal of Wylie High School is the best.  He is due to retire soon.  I hope it's not this year.  So many teachers have announced their retirements this year.  Mrs. Schara, the third grade teacher of Travis and Eliza.  The choir teacher at Draper.  The principal at Wylie East.  And others are just leaving, like the choir teacher at Cooper is going to Wylie East.  Every time once announces it, I feel like I'm being punched in the gut.  I think it's because we haven't seen anyone in person for so long that these announcements are more gut-wrenching than usual.  I'm sad that when Travis and Eliza finally do their senior walk at the elementary school, Mrs. Schara won't be there, and very likely, none of the other teachers they had will be there either.

Playing Outside

During these pleasant weather months, we have been spending a lot of time outside.  We have been riding bikes and scooters, drawing with chalk, taking walks, and playing basketball and four square (with the ball I bought at Easter).  With no outside activities keeping our attention, we've had more time to play with each other, which has been good.  Sometimes it's been hard getting the kids to do anything but play with devices though.

Donuts, Puzzles, and Home Church

With the pandemic and lots of places deemed "non-essential" and being forced to close, I figured donut shops would be closed. We wanted donuts, so Travis and I found a donut recipe online that looked easy enough (other than having to pre-make the dough the night before and refrigerate it all night) and we made donuts. We don't have a donut cutter so we had to improvise with what we had, and they turned out. I was not impressed with the chocolate icing recipe but the plain glazed donuts were delicious! If we make them again, we will stick to plain glazed!

I had three free gifts from Shutterfly, so I decided to use them.  For one of them, we replaced a mug of Corey's that had a picture of Westley and Caleb on it from when they were little.  The mug fell and broke last month.  I also bought a pack of cards that had pictures of Snoopy on the back.  And for the other gift, I had this picture collage puzzle made.  250 pieces.  Not nearly as hard as the In-N-Out puzzle.

Here is what our home church looks like.  We are fortunate to have three boys who can bless and pass the Sacrament.  We do it like a regular Sacrament meeting.  We have opening hymn, prayer, announcements, Sacrament hymn, a talk, a musical number, another talk, closing hymn, closing prayer.  We even make a program for everyone to hold and I've been saving one from each week.  We have liked doing home church but we do miss seeing everyone at church.