Monthly Archives: April 2020

Despite the fact that I plan one week sessions of youth programming professionally, I was feeling overwhelmed by that tasks, so I decided on 2 day themes instead. Today and tomorrow are Dinosaurs. My boys aren’t really into dinosaurs but today was super fun. They both rocked dino shirts (Xander’s was under his favorite sweatshirt of course).

We started the day with a hunt for dinosaur eggs. I made them on Sunday with baking soda and water (make it into a paste and then form eggs around the little plastic dinos). After they found all of them, we brought them inside and squirted them with vinegar to release the dinos. Then we went back outside and they played with them in the sand.

Of course we had to make a trip to the secret lair for a while. That included rolling down the hill and battling bad guys. I never quite understand what’s happening, but I find that if I just run around a lot, kick into the air, yell “rawr” sometimes, and then “bad guys! RUN!” every now and then, I seem to be right on.

We came home after being outside for a very long time. I had some matching and tracing sheets for them. Xander said, “this is just like small group time!” and that made me sad. He misses school. I miss them going to school. And I miss his wonderful teachers coming up with small group activities!

We continued small group time with a dinosaur puzzle.

Then it was time for lunch and I happened to have some dinosaur noodles and dino fruit snacks (which not a normal part of a meal, but when it fits with the theme, it’s their lucky day). The joke was on me because my boys are just so-so about mac and cheese, so I ended up making sandwiches anyway, theme be darned.

Nate was home for most of the day. That was fabulous for all of us because he got to participate in many of the dinosaur activities. He definitely won the magnatile challenge to try to build a dinosaur.

Then the three of them went back outside and headed to the secret lair.

They came inside and we made chocolate dipped strawberries with dinosaur sprinkles (a bit of a stretch on the theme- I just happened to have them and I wanted to make chocolate strawberries, so it became the project).

Our final theme activity of the day was wooden puzzle/models of dinosaur bones. They were in the dollar section of Target and even though the package said 6+, they worked out for our 2&4 year old after Nate and I built them.

In tonight’s edition of Carona Kitchen, I made juicy lucy cheese burgers, curly fries and zucchini. Now it’s time for bath, play time and bed! Tomorrow are a few more dino activities, but the weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so maybe just a full day outside.

Another low key day as the boys headed to Grandma’s house for the day. They played with toys, ran around outside, ordered McDonald’s for lunch and playing some more.

I made 4 batches of Easter-themed macarons and then ran into my office for a little while. The building was empty (which is typical of Sundays) and it was a little creepy. I locked myself in as soon as I got there (but the building was still silent and empty when I left).

The boys got home and we had dinner and warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We’re ready for another busy week of working keeping 2 boys busy. I have 2 themes for the week (a theme for a whole week just seems like too much). Monday-Tuesday we are going to do dinosaur themed activities. Wednesday-Thursday we are actually going to go up to camp. Friday-Sunday will be Easter themed activities (and Easter!).

check out his cookie eating technique

A great day! Nate started the day by making GIANT pancakes!

We zoom chatted with our friends- each of the kiddos showing off something cool that they’ve made. I think the moms enjoyed talking even more than the kids.

Next up, Nate took the boys to the basement to play while I scrubbed the house, top to bottom. I moved furniture, scrubbed every corner, vacuumed, swept, cleaned until our house was shining.

Most days, I follow the same pattern- wake up feeling great, do 200 things without pausing for a break until I am so tired I can’t move, look at the calendar and calculate how far out from surgery I am (“4 weeks out- yep, still within the 6 week recovery period”), vow to take it easy the next day, immediately forget the vow, make a new to-do list, repeat. I literally do not know how to take it easy.

After lunch, Nate took the boys outside so I could rest. And then it was time for family movie afternoon! We loaded up on snacks and watched the brand new movie “Onward”. It was a great movie but is 2 brothers on a bonding journey to bring back their dead father for a short time. By the end of the movie, I was sobbing hysterically and only got ahold of myself because I was afraid I would scare the children. But it was a great movie.

After the movie we went outside again. I told the boys to stay in the yard. As I was chatting with Christine on marco polo, imagine my surprise when I saw two small people behind me.

We went inside at dinner time and had “snack” dinner, which Xander claims is his favorite. That’s only mildly insulting since I cook every meal he eats and most dinners are made from scratch… but fine, snack dinner is the best.

After dinner and bath time, we zoomed with the Whited family. It was a nice day, balanced with activity and relaxing. And our house is SUPER clean, so that’s always a huge win for the day!

Our plans for the week- complete

I think our busy week tired all of us out and so today was a very slow day. We completed our first week home. When life is normal, we always have lots of fun things to do on the weekend, but right now, the weekend will be mostly the same except that Nate is still going into the office during the week, so it will be nice to have him home.

At school, the kids go outside in basically all weather. I thought we would do the same but it turns out I am not nearly as hearty as the teachers and I didn’t want to. It was cold and wet outside, so we decided to stay inside where it was warm and cozy.

I had 2 video calls today. During the 10am call, the boys played nicely and I just had to listen, so I was available if they needed me. During the second one, it was a much smaller group and I had to be attentive the whole time. So I made sure they had lots of snacks and they got to have their ipads. I was able to get through the whole meeting without any interruption and I was grateful for that.

my poor sad baby

Grandma Debbie came over around 1 and we had a late lunch. Right before we sat down to eat, I realized there was blood all over the floor. I had broken a glass while emptying the dishwasher this morning. I thought I’d gotten it all swept up, but apparently Augustus’s bare foot had found a shard. It wasn’t a bad cut (he hadn’t even noticed it was cut until I saw the blood), but when he saw it, he was HYSTERICAL. At one point, I asked, are you hurt or scared and he yelled, “scared!” Poor guy! He was inconsolable for several minutes, and eventually I rocked him to sleep. Naps are rare, so he was definitely upset.

He was still very sad when he woke up, so we ended up having a lot of screen time, a lot of snuggles and a quiet day. I think some days we just need to take it easy and it’s ok to have a balance between full days and lazy days.

In other quarantine news- I recently downloaded the app Marco Polo. Once it hits the middle aged moms, you know it’s past its’ prime, but it’s new to me. Basically it’s video text messaging. My bestie Christine and I text nonstop, but now we also send each other video snippets as well. Today she did an entire cooking show tutorial (in short clips) while she cooked dinner. It was fabulous. Between the two of us, there are always kids jumping in, screaming in the background, and I have yet to figure out an angle that isn’t just a full frame of my chin(s). But it sort of feels like a reality show confessional or like we’re cool instagram vloggers. But it definitely makes it feel like we’re in this insane quarantine together and it’s been one of the highlights of this whole crazy situation. I thought it was kind of a goofy app at first, but now it’s a daily highlight I recommend it if you are feeling sad or lonely.

Another full day! The craziest part of this is that I think we have a pretty good balance between mom-led activities and boys entertain themselves free play. X & A play really well together and also play very well independently. And yet, I am still busy nonstop. Besides all of the activities of our day, I also washed, folded and put away 2 loads of laundry, emptied all the garbage cans, did the dishes multiple times, made breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a batch of breakfast burritos for later this week. We cleaned up toys several times. And by the end of the day, the house is still messier than I’d like it and there will be a full load of laundry tomorrow. I’m envious of all the people quarantining without children- what are you doing with yourselves?!

We were outside first thing this morning, “adventuring” as we call it. We live in the middle of the city, but there are a lot of cool areas in our neighborhood with trees and large open spaces to run. We’re finding every nook and cranny near our house to explore. We found a really fun area behind our alley. There was a great tree that became our secret lair. Xander was Dash and Augustus was Baby Jack Jack from the Incredibles and we spent about 25 minutes running up and down the hill, battling bad guys.

Before we went inside, the boys jammed out to some music in my van. They love to play in cars and I’m pretty sure within a few years, they will be trying to drive away.

The boys played while I made lunch and then Xander and I made pizzas for dinner. Augustus was tired and not interested, so he read books in his bed while we pretended we were chefs.

Rest time was pretty short today and then we were back outside. We played in the yard for a while and then headed back to the secret lair. They rolled down (and then ran back up) the hill about 10 times. They found good sticks and battled more bad guys.

We came inside and had a snack and then we painted for a short while.

After painting, we baked cookies.

By that time, it was only 3pm and I was EXHAUSTED. So I got out my computer and let them play by themselves. The entertained themselves very well for a full hour.

By 4, I was even more tired, but we went outside AGAIN. They wanted to walk back to the secret lair, but I didn’t have it in me. They played outside for an hour before I convinced them to come in and relax.
Nate got home from work and we ate the pizza we’d made earlier, with cookies for dessert. Bath, play, stories and bed. It’s been a very good, but very busy day.

My mom watches the boys on Wednesdays and we haven’t changed that part of the routine. They love going to Grandma’s house. They played outside, were busy all day and came home tired!

I finally got to sit and work uninterrupted for an extended period of time. I made some macarons. I got things ready for the rest of the week. It was a productive day. I am incredibly grateful for the support- this is not going to be an easy journey. Despite the productivity, I was very anxious all day. I spent most of the day freaking out about one of us getting sick.

A few weeks ago, I had the same anxiety, which ended in a cooking marathon and 15 meals in our freezer in case Nate and I get sick at the same time and have to try to feed all of us while deathly ill. Everything is in disposable foil pans that don’t need to be washed and ready to pop in and bake. Even sick, we should be able to do that and keep our family fed.

Today I spent some time writing an emergency action plan in the event that one of us gets sick. Our spare bedroom is upstairs and doesn’t have access to a bathroom. The basement has a bathroom and while it probably isn’t the first place I’d choose to spend 2 weeks deathly ill, I think we can make it work. Nate and I are going to do some re-arranging and set up this weekend. I wrote out some steps for what happens if we get sick. I am still feeling really anxious about it, but it feels better to have a written plan that Nate and I have discussed. Hopefully tomorrow I will be so busy that I don’t have time to think.