Day 10

Worked this morning at my paid job, did a photo shoot with Sarah in the afternoon, and had Zoom meetings in the evening.

Day 9 -- stress and productivity

Today's cleaning project was huge: defrosting the garage freezer.

The teenagers are forever leaving the door ajar, so ice builds up on everything in there.  Mike is going to work on installing some kind of latch to keep that from happening. Some treasures I found in there:

 Vegan meatloaf from 3 years ago.

 The healthiest soup on Earth.

 This is embarrassing.  It's labeled "Beef for Korean food" and the date is...1/20/10.  Yep, it's been in there for 10 years.  

 Serious ice buildup.

 My chisel got stuck.

 Some of the tools I used.  I started with a hairdryer but quickly realized that wasn't going to be enough.  It needed a lot of elbow grease.  So I counted that as my exercise for the day too.

 I was wearing my pajamas that I wear every day, and I put my Fightin' Illini rain boots on top.  They kept my feet dry, but eventually I couldn't feel my toes because they were so cold.

 I was staring at the tool area, wondering where I might find a chisel, and look at that!  My organized husband labeled the tools. I opened the drawer, and there was the chisel. 

 Quick break to warm my toes.

 Completely ineffective sign on the front of the freezer.  They just ignore it.

 My winter boots were much better for this job.

 I started to put stuff back in before I realized I forgot to take a picture of it empty. 

Done.  Took several hours, and I ignored the children and pets and transcription work the whole time.  I didn't even eat all day, because as soon as I finished this, I had to start a more urgent project: getting set up for my first virtual Bible study tonight.  I took Mike's computer down to the basement and got an area set up where I can have a reasonably quiet space while the rest of the family is upstairs.  Then I had to work out all the technical issues of using Zoom, which I have never done before, so that took a long time.  Then I had just enough time to make pot pies before Mike got home.  I found 2 pie crusts and a bag of mixed vegetables in the freezer, and I had cooked a turkey yesterday, so obviously I had to make pot pies. 

My thought was to take one of the pies to Mike's parents, but the entire first one is gone, and this much of the second one, and Sarah hasn't even eaten yet, so it doesn't look like my in-laws are getting any.  I often make extra food and think I'll take it to them, but it usually gets eaten before I can get it to them. 10 days since I've been to the store, and still plenty to eat. I'm not going until we're out of everything, which will be awhile.

So today was no fun and not relational at all.  Didn't talk much to the kids, and I don't think I even petted a cat all day.   I just yelled at one for being in the way when I was trying to set up the Zoom.  Another one was screaming and crying for my attention the whole time, and I just yelled at her to shush.  

The kids did their own school work while I was busy elsewhere, which is ok for one day, but not ideal. Feeling very unbalanced today.  Probably shouldn't have tackled the freezer project on the day that I knew would be busy with Bible study prep, but it was a cold, cloudy day, perfect for setting the food outside while I defrosted.  And tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 60, so I'm sure I'll be glad I got it done today.

Day 8

This morning, my gamer friends and I played bananagrams "together" (each in our own homes at the same time, messaging each other). Nowhere near as fun as playing together in person.

Kids and I are talking about what we're going to do for exercise today.  Sarah asked Noah if he wanted to go for a run with her.  He said, "Maybe. Don't get your hippity hopes up."  I miss the gym. Helped Sarah with geometry, which taxed my brain.  I'm maintaining my cheerful attitude, but it's more of a struggle today for some reason.

My 15-minute cleaning project of the day was scrubbing the shower.  I haven't showered here all year, because I always shower at the gym, so I was unaware of how gross it was in there.  While I was showering, I was singing a medley of hymns.  Suddenly a foul odor hit my nasal membranes.  I suspected Sarah had come in to poop, so I changed the lyrics of my medley accordingly, which was undoubtedly a sacrilege.  I heard Sarah giggling, confirming my suspicion.  Then I started wondering if Jesus' poop smelled bad.  I guess it would have since he was human.  That led me to wonder if he ever pooped while someone was showering in the same bathroom, but I quickly realized that they had neither toilets nor showers back then, so where did everybody poop?  I suppose they dug a hole. By the time I finished thinking about all that, the shower was clean, and so was I.  I didn't bother to shave, because what would be the point?

I opened the back door to air out the house for awhile, even though it's cold outside.  I figured a little fresh air couldn't be a bad idea, right?

I found a turkey breast in the freezer that's a year old, so I've been thawing that for a few days, and I'm cooking it in the crockpot today with some baby carrots that were getting old in the fridge.  The carnivores will be happy tonight.

Day 7--cooking and gaming

I haven't been to a store in the last 8 days, so breakfast is what I can make out of what I can find in my house.  Cream of wheat sounded good, but I didn't have any.  While I was looking for it, I spotted some quinoa, so I thought...cream of quinoa!  I was excited to find a can of coconut milk in the basement, so I used part of that to make it creamy.  I had bought a big bunch of green bananas 8 days ago, and they are ripe now, so I sliced one of those into my bowl.  I also found nutmeg berries in my spice cabinet, so I grated some in there while I thought about a happy memory of my friend Joan.

I have nothing but time today, so here's the story. At a women's retreat 5 years ago, we were assigned a person about whom to write a descriptive acrostic.  Joan got my name, and what she wrote was so precious to me that I still have it.

In case you can't read that, she wrote," Nutmeg is often that hidden spice that perks up food.  You know there's something special in the ingredients.  You don't know what it is, but it binds all the other flavors together to make it so good!"

Cream of quinoa is not quite the same texture as cream of wheat, but it is good!  A nice hot breakfast on this chilly morning.  Looking forward to snow this afternoon.

 His hair was getting really long.  See how much I just cut off?

After a juggling session, Mike is now teaching Noah how to play euchre.

 I made cookies,

 and Mike took a nap with the babies.

 Mike taught Sarah to play euchre, and then we all played a few rounds together.  Mike and I used to play euchre with another couple when we were newlyweds.  We never once thought that someday we would be playing with our own teenagers!

Sarah taught Noah to play one of her favorite card games, peanut butter and jelly.

Day 6--Now it's the weekend

Kids slept late.  I got a surprising amount of transcription work for a Saturday, so that's how I spent most of the morning.  I'm now trying to figure out the technology to lead my Bible study without physically meeting together.  Mike is planning to teach the kids how to play euchre.

Meanwhile, he's in the basement working on installing a backup system for the sump pump.  He just came upstairs all wet and said the water from the check valve (whatever that is) exploded right in his face.  You can't really tell from this picture how wet he is, but believe me, he's soaked.

I cleaned out and organized a drawer in the kitchen.

The toilet paper situation is absolutely bizarre.  There's been a shortage of toilet paper for several weeks, which I don't understand, and now you can't even find bidets to buy.  Thankfully we bought two $20 bidets from Amazon when we got home from Korea two years ago, and I always have plenty of toilet paper stocked up in the basement, because I buy it in bulk whenever there's a good sale.  Today a friend told me about the scene at Walmart.  Word got out that they were getting in a shipment of toilet paper today and would open their doors at 7:00 a.m. for the elderly to shop one hour before the general population.  She arrived at 6:45 a.m. and there was already a line of people standing out in the cold waiting for the doors to open.  There were three police officers at each end of the toilet paper aisle, keeping the peace (she said an employee told her a fight broke out yesterday over toilet paper) and directing the one-way traffic down that aisle and making sure nobody took more than the allotted one pack. Today I bartered a deal with my friend Denise.  I told her I would give her a six-pack of toilet paper for two weeks' rental of her Wii remotes, which she doesn't use.  These are strange times indeed.

We had church at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon, because we've all been ordered to "shelter in place" starting at 5:00 p.m. today.  Our pastor, worship leader, and a few elders livestreamed from the church building, and we watched from the school room. It was nice to be able to snack and walk around and stretch during the sermon. 

We didn't end up playing euchre, but we did have lots of fun playing Wii.  It was a good day.

Day 5

It's been a great morning!  The kids shuffled out for devotions.  We had a spelling lesson.  They can now both successfully spell "quarantine", and they know the difference between hoard and horde. Here's my picture of hoarded toilet paper. Clearly, I'm not an artist, but they got the idea.

I asked them if they would like to read a book with me.  One ignored me and the other grunted, so I took that as a yes and started reading.  I know they listened, because I asked a question about it, and they knew the answer.  The book is called "In Order To Live" by Yeonmi Park, and it's about a girl who was born in North Korea and escaped. I showed them her picture and said, "Isn't she beautiful?" and Sarah said, "Yes, she's very symmetrical."  I suggested Noah not use that as a pickup line.

Then we made a list of good things resulting from this time.  Granted, I was the main one contributing, but they did utter a word or two.  Noah pointed out that the environment is healing because people aren't polluting it with their vehicles as much.  Gas prices are dropping.  More time to reconnect as a family.  Less stress and rushing around.  Reawareness of our need for God.  More sleep.  Great time to be vegan, because even though there's no animal meat in the stores, there's always an abundance of plant meat.

Lunch and school work happened. Then we had a spontaneous lesson about direct vs. indirect objects, which just came up in conversation, which is my favorite way of homeschooling.

Sarah and I had some fun Wii time, which is self-limiting because the rechargeable batteries are very old and don't hold much of a charge anymore.
Sarah: Do you want to make a cake with me, Noah?
Noah: No thanks. I'm practicing social distancing.
Sarah (to me): I just wanted to spend a little quality time with him.
Me (to Noah): She just wanted to spend a little quality time with you.
N: Oh, well ok then, we can make a cake.
S (whispering to me): Little does he know I've got a whole fun day planned for us. While the cake is baking, we're going to do exfoliating face masks!

I had a brief moment of grouchiness when I discovered an open mug of coffee in the fridge, which is against the rules, because something very bad happened the last time she did that.  I mentioned it rather politely and totally calmly, and she said she would remedy it, and we moved on.  But then 30 minutes later, I heard a bumping and sloshing in the bay window, and there was Shadow, pawing at....an open mug of coffee!  I neither calmly nor politely yelled at Sarah.

Making a cake.

Doing school.