One Day At A Time

Hello world!  Hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.  It has been a month now since everyone was encouraged to stay at home.  Did you have any idea it would last this long?  I laugh even as I type that because I know that in reality it is going to last much longer.  (insert a long, heavy sigh).  Like many of you we are making the best of it.  Here is a little look at our life lately.

Someone sent me a text recently and asked how I was doing.  I replied with this picture.  Homeschool has been a lifesaver for us.  It is keeping us busy, occupied, and sane.  You know I have always loved homeschooling and I am thankful that although not much of life is normal these days, school goes on for us as usual.  It makes life not feel so crazy, at least for most of our day.  

 Ben working on language.

Ben working on Science.  We were learning about electricity.

 Our current Science lesson is on magnets.  This has been a fun study so far.

A missionary friend posted this idea for growing beans in a bag.  We made ours and taped them to our school room window.  We are not studying plants in science this year but it is still a fun project to do.  It has given the boys something to look forward to each school morning.  They cannot wait to see what their beans are doing and if they have sprouted yet.  I will keep you posted on their progress.

We are missing our co-op families!  One morning last week while I was cooking breakfast, Ben walked into the kitchen and showed me these bracelets he had just made.  He said, "Look mama, I put all my friend's names on them."  All the names were his co-op buddies (Joseph, Sam, Mo, and Benji).  We are so thankful for the friendships that our homeschool co-op has provided for us.  We look forward to the day we can all be together again. 

We are doing a lot of extra art these days.  Here the boys had made crowns as a birthday celebration from one of the videos they had watched.  This was from the Mo Willems videos.  We are no longer following him, but instead have started watching another daily art lesson called Draw Everyday with JJK.  We love his videos!!  He posts new ones everyday on YouTube and I think he just finished week 4.  We started two weeks ago from the beginning so we are a little behind.   At the end of his lessons he brings his kids in to do family drawings.  This is our favorite part.  We have learned a lot of fun doodling games from watching him.  Check out his series on YouTube.  

On one lesson they learned how to draw facial expressions.

 They have become doodling fanatics!  They doodle on everything these days.

Our IMB missionary families serving in the Americas recently did a Homeschool Spirit Week.  Each day we did something fun and then shared pictures on our private page.  Our activities were:  Monday-Super Hero Day-in honor of hospital workers, first responders, grocery workers, and all other essential workers.
Tuesday-Crazy Hair Day-we can't get haircuts, so why not celebrate the craziness?

Wednesday-Dress like an Old Person Day--and pray for those most at risk
Thursday-Jersey Day-In honor of our favorite sports teams that can't play right now
Friday-Pajama Day-the best part of homeschooling!
We did three of the days.  Here are some photos of the boys-

crazy hair day

 My caption was- They are rockin' the lock in. 

jersey day

 pajama day

They are still doing their karate lessons through Zoom.  Here is a photo from a recent class.  Can you spot my two?

We are spending a lot of time lately in the backyard.  We have even had a few meals out there, just for fun.   The boys are creating all kinds of fun games to keep themselves busy.  Here they are playing football one afternoon.  To improvise they used a plastic ball and are wearing a bike helmet and a motorcycle helmet.  They are so fun.

 

I saw a lot of posts on Facebook one day last week about the super moon.  I went out on our patio that evening to look for it.  Our view was blocked by the neighbor's house but what I did see instead was a lot more exciting.  We did not think we could see the Fuego volcano from our house due to trees that have grown on a nearby property.  Little did I know you could see it at night if it was erupting.  If you look closely you will see the orange dot on the photo.  That is lava coming out of the volcano.  I got to see it erupt twice before I headed back inside.

We are continuing our weekly Friday pizza and movie night.  We normally get Little Caesar's pizza every week but with the curfew we can't get out to pick it up.   Instead, I have been making our own for the past several weeks.  Last Friday I made BBQ chicken pizza.  It is a favorite of mine from Papa John's.  It turned out delicious, and I will probably be making it again soon.  I love to cook but I am getting very tired of having to cook everyday.  I am so looking forward to the day we can go sit down in a restaurant again. 

What the boys love most about Friday nights is getting to stay up "all night long".  At least in their minds that is what they think.  They set out with big intentions but usually by around 10ish you'll find Cruz like this.  This is him on a recent Friday night.  Poor thing!  Quarantine is hard work. 

We recently began a daily focus on Easter using our Resurrection Eggs.  We do the Bible study every morning after breakfast.  We also sing a few Easter themed hymns to go along with it.  We have one more egg left to open tomorrow morning on Easter Sunday.  

We have been a little sad this week because had it not been for the virus we would have been spending some time in South Carolina with our two partner churches.  They were flying us in for Easter week and had a lot of meetings, activities, and fellowship times lined up for us.  We had been looking forward to our time there and were so sad when we had to cancel.  We did get to participate online in a prayer service with one of the churches this past Thursday evening.  David shared a ministry and family update and then got to pray for the global church.  These two churches love us well and we are so thankful for our partnership and relationship with them.

Lastly, for this week's Friday movie and pizza night, we decided to put the tent up in the backyard and make it a camp out.  The boys were very excited about that idea.  Here is Cruz helping David get it all set up.

ready for a fun night!

I was excited too until I saw this sign taped near the door.  It was a little reminder that I am definitely outnumbered in this household.  

They did let me in though and here is a photo to prove it. When I informed them that I would not be cooking for a party I was not invited to, they had a change of heart.  ha  I look terrible but it is a true reflection of life these days.  Who has time for make-up and hair when you cannot leave the house.  I had no idea how good it would do us to camp out.  Something about being in that tent made us feel like we were far away from home.  We had no thoughts of the corona virus, or anything else that might be stressing us these days.  It was a great mental break.  It was a fun night and I feel pretty certain we'll be doing it again tonight.   

Happy Easter everyone!