Another Week in Quarantine

When I talk to people on the phone or sit down to write this blog it becomes really hard for me to think of what we are doing. We have settled into a very nice routine here and I could do it always. I love having my kids around. Sometimes it is super crazy and we really miss the parks being open, but I love watching them learn. I love that they have time and energy to play. I love that they play so well together. The major thing I miss (besides parks) is the one-on-two time I had with my twins while the big girls were at school. I still really miss that because the twins are at my favorite 'baby' stage. I know its more like toddler but under two so baby it is. Anyway, the girls are getting the hang of school and the one-on-two time happens sometimes. Like today, the girls were playing amazingly in the basement and I got a good 30min or so with just the twins outside on the tramp. It was so fun and they were so cute and I remembered how much I love that time. However, having their big sisters home is hard to beat, because if they aren't doing school then they are playing with each other or with the twins and for the most part its really fun.

Anyway, this last week mother nature changed things up for us by dumping about 12 inches of snow. It was a lot of snow. The kids and Gaupo went out before school and work and cleared the tramp and sidewalks off. Then that morning we worked on school. By afternoon Tia was ready to be out again, so we practiced her spelling in the snow and then she played out there while waiting for Kylee to be done. Once Kylee was done with her school work she didn't want to go, but I finally convinced her to go out and those two played for about 2 hours out there. It was awesome. They had so much fun. Our deck will need to be restained now because they were sledding off it, and they did break one of the sleds, but you know they had a great time, and I got to read a book. I decided to pick up one of the books that Gaupo's grandma gave me for Christmas. It was really good to just read a really chill fun book. After reading the twins woke up, and I decided to stop being lazy and get them bundled up and let them go outside. Abby loved it minus her snow gloves. She hated those. She was always pulling them off and then I was putting them back on. Probably most of my time out there was spent putting gloves back on, but no ones hands got too cold. Kade was content to sit in the snow and pat any snow you brought to him. He was super apt to go crawl around and pick it up, but he liked what he did which was pretty much sit in the snow. 

Kylee and Tia in the snow.

Shoving off the deck. Kylee is the that purple coat just off the edge.

She is still there but now showered with snow.

Wishing they were big and could go play.

Also the day it snowed I hosted a virtual Activity Days activity. The real story is that I planned it sent out the link and then totally forgot about it. So, at 7:00 PM when I was on a mission to get my kiddos to bed my phone starts receiving texts like crazy. I just thought it was family chat, but Gaupo decided to look and said "Do you have an activity tonight?" AGHHHHH!! Yes, I did. So, I hurried up and started the meeting and got everyone logged on. Lluckily I picked a super easy activity. We made 3 ingredient Peanut Butter cookies, so I could just you quickly grab stuff as needed. I actually think it turned out well, but I just could believe I totally forgot. Like not even a thought about it earlier and then forgot, nope, I just strait up forgot. Luckily everyone was patient and we had fun and it was good to see the girls there.

Another change up this last week was we setup our big tent in the basement for the kids. We orginally set it up to watch a conference talk in for Family Home Evening and we just left it up. It has been so great though because the kids have finally started playing down there. As you know the weather was kind of yucky last week, so having another place for them to play was great. Plus, Gaupo decided we needed more light down there. So, when he went to home depot to pick up some materials for a project at work, he picked up the stuff to wire in 4 more lights in the back area. He started it Friday and it was completed on Saturday morning. It is so nice to have so much light down there and to have them on a switch, so the kids can turn them on themselves. Plus the switch Gaupo put in has an outlet on it so we can plug a space heater into it and then it warms up the basement too. Guapo was pretty proud of his handy work. He said he hasn't wired anything since high school, so he was very pleased it turned out. I loved it because not only did we get new lights which I LOVE, but we finally got all our storage put away on shelves and so now the whole basement is cleaned up and it leaves so much more room for the kids to play. They already had a ton of room, but I really think it helps them go down there when they don't have to walk past all our stuff anymore. The girls even helped us and discovered some of Gaupos treasures, and all parties involved thought that was so cool. Probably the coolest treasure found was some walkie talkies that we need to located a charging cord for, but the girls thought it was so awesome!

The girls modeling the new lights and switch.

I guess after writing it out, our week wasn't same ol' same ol'. We had a pretty great week. I really am going to miss all this time together. I love Gaupo's lessened work hours. I love that the kids only have like 3 to 4 hours of school a day. I love the play time, and the imaginative time they have. I love that I don't have to worry about my kids not making friends, or being left out of stuff, because right now that isn't really a thing. Some times things are really rough like this morning when Tia could not remember anything we were trying to learn, or come up with any thing she could do to save the Earth, in short she was really struggling with school work. Kade was crying holy terror fits, because I wouldn't let him climb on the table which he can now do by himself as he has learned to climb onto the kitchen chair. Then if I held Kade, Abby wanted up and two babies is really heavy. Then sometimes amidst all of that Kylee would want help or attention on her work. Yeah it can be really overwhelming, and I don't always have great parenting skills in that moment--my voice gets loud. But, then there are other moments like how accomplished my kids feel when they 'cook' (mix up ingredients I premeasure) a giant cookie and it is so good. Or yesterday when the whole day was really pretty much amazing. The kids did there school work with almost no complaining and seemed to understand and do most of it on their own. Then we played and had a picnic lunch. Then Oma read them a book and we finished school work. The big girls played while I made lazagna. Then the whole family went on a bike ride where we actually talked to a real person (thank you Bro. Richards for saying hi). Also on the ride no one complained and really probably would have done more. Then it was dinner and bed. Maybe a little late on those last two things but it doesn't really matter because we are just around ourselves right now. Days like that make me wish my whole life could be like this, and mornings like today make me glad its not all up to me. 

Bike ride/ walk after snow fall.

One happy dirty little girl. This little one LOVES dirt.

Tia, Kylee, and Kade. The girls love to play with Kade.

Remnants of the giant Peanut Butter cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Cooking away.

The stay at home mandate lifts here this weekend, so we will see how that goes. The kids wont go back to school this year, so come August I will let you know how I am doing with all this, but right now most times I love it. I love the time to just be us.

We had take-out!

Chicago Dogs!