Week Two Quarantine

I was home this week so I felt more in control with the pandemic and home school and other things. Also there wasn't a giant earthquake this week so I felt more in control of everything else too.

The kids did their school work every day this week. I got a few pictures of what it looks like when they were doing work. We try to get it done between 10 and 2 with breaks for lunch and recess and stuff. Some kids have more work than others of course so it is different.

Alex is NOT liking this shut down at all. All of the fun of school has been taken away and now it seems like all busywork. He is really sad about missing the state geography bee also. It would have been this week.  He also misses his friends terribly.

Tanner is pretty chill about everything. He is going with the flow. He is not happy about everything being cancelled but he is trying to stay positive. Either that or he does not want to talk about it so he says that he is ok. He is my MR. social so this is hard on him. Hanging out with a 12 and 13 year old is not what he would choose but he is very kind to them.

Chase is OK with it. He says he misses school. Which makes me happy because he has complained about going to school for a long time now. Having it taken away has shown him that it really isn't all that bad.

Alex and Tanner had 3rd quarter end this week.
We did hear that they are extending the school shutdown through April. So we have at least one more month.


Chase can usually get his work done in 1 1/2 hours. So I added music and journal writing to his work. He is really learning his note names and site reading a lot more. Also it is fun to hear his drumming in the house. It is really loud though.

For Monday's FHE Tanner and Chase made an Earthquake cake. It was really yummy.

Tuesday was supposed to be the warmest day of the week so we made sure that we were outside for a bit. recess was bocce.

I went to visit my mom and saw ducks in her yard. It was kind of warm Tuesday but I didn't appreciate it like I should have. I didn't know that the rest of the week would be full on winter again.
We worked on getting pictures put onto family search. It has been a fun project and we have enjoyed doing it together. But there is a relative who has put the wrong picture onto Abraham Lyons page. We have contacted him and he is confused. We have lots of original documents showing which picture should be on there and he is confused. It is very funny.

Wednesday it snowed.

Chase and I went to a park. Chase can't walk long distances and we can't touch anything. And it was cold. But we did go see this memorial in a park. It was good to get out.

Thursday it snowed.

Alex decorated his white board with some of his feelings. There are a lot of feelings going on.

Thursday night we played pictionary. It was fun. Some of the words were too easy.

Take a look at this drawing and guess what it is. Just try... I will put the answer at the bottom of the blog in case you wanted to guess.

Tanner had a really fun game. It is too complicated to explain because it goes along with our game Chameleon. So here is the basic. We all have to draw clues to guess a word. The word below was diningroom. One person does not know the word but has to pretend to know. Also, you can not lift your marker off of the board as you are drawing or the drawing stops there. So no fixing your picture if it is weird.

The pictures are this:
Chandelier, plate
wall picture, wine rack
chair, table
family, refridgerator (with pictures on the front)
broom, mop.
The person who didn't know the word was Alex. He guessed totally well with the table. Then he drew the mop right after the broom. Anyway it was  a fun game too.


I have been working on a family history project for the past year or so. 
I scanned in all of Andre's parents pictures. then I added them to the stories that his parents wrote. I put them on a blog because I thought that Andre's family would like to look at that more than getting omething printed. I sent it out to Andre's family on Friday. So that was fun.

The boys made marshmellow toothpick towers. It is really hard to come up with ideas for teen kids who can not go outside. I need your ideas please

Notice that Chase is not using crutches anymore!! It's been since Tuesday or Wednesday. He feels so much better now that he has the use of his hands while walking. He is limping around but he is getting there.

Chase finished his books from school and is now reading the Michael Vey series. He loves it! 

Saturday we had a painting time. We all choose pictures to copy and we painted! Andre's is on the bottom being held by Tanner. I started my painting 2 years ago. It was a young youmens event and it was to show that we are all unfinished projects. We are making ourselves one brushstroke at a time. So it was unfinished. So I finished it!

We have watched a lot of movies together. We watched The House with the Clock in it's Walls. Alex and I are watching the Lord of the Rings. It is a good movie (well, multiple movies) but the rest of the family don't want to watch it. Alex is currently reading Lord of the Rings book three. There is a lot of time when we are tired of being together. I just wish that the kids would be a little less obsessed with the screen time. It is straight to the computers and games or you tube videos or phones to watch videos or instagram or whatever. So I have to be a mean mom when I say that they need to stop for a while (constantly). But they really do try to be good. They never get on on Sundays and if we have an activity to do they are 100 percent into that.

Chase went in to the orthodontist. He was going to get a bracket back on so he can wear his head gear. But the orthodontist found a cavity. We need to get it fixed before getting the bracket on. I really don't want to go to places like orthodontists and now I have to go twice and the dentist!  I called the dentist and they are closed for a while. But I left a message asking them what to do. The dentist is my good friend. When he called he said that he would like to wait for a while (so would I honestly.) But he asked me to take a picture of the cavity (you can see it) and then he will call me this week with what he wants to do.

I wanted to take a picture of "Church". We move the furniture a little bit and have a music stand. I like it because it is different than how we use that space so it feels like church. And it feels bright because the door is right there and the sun comes in.

This week we had a theme of Fast and Testimony meeting. Everyone's topic was based on that. Then we had a testimony meeting. I totally felt the spirit. Later in the day Andre and Alex gave the sacrament to a neighbor and I called someone for ministering. Then Joey and my Mom came over for the sacrament. We had a world wide fast for the pandemic. It was awesome and even Chase made it the whole time. He really wanted to. We had yummy taco salad and corn bread. I could not decide which recipe of cornbread to make so Chase and I each made one recipe and we did a taste test. Really they tasted pretty much the same and both were great. The sweeter one won the contest. And now we have corn bread for leftovers! 

We went to a park just to get out of the house but it was really cold and Chase can't walk far so it was a short outing. Then we came home and made scones. 


Answer to pictionary picture: Mount Rushmore. It does not look like Mount Rushmore. The state was my only clue.