Well, here we are. Anywhere but normal. It’s unbelievable to think about how different life was just a week ago. So we’ll go back there, first.

March is reading month (still is, always is) and the Cline kids had lots of time reading to us and being read to.

Amaya was worried that Daddy couldn’t pull off a “girl voice” for Fancy Nancy but I heard him and he nailed it.

On Monday night Steven had his piano lesson and Sammy & Amaya made the formal decision to join him. So it’s three 30 min sessions in a row coming our way. For now, we’re going to continue lessons with everyone washing their hands before and after, including Mr. Anthony.

Mr. Ed, the kids’ bus driver, has an art contest with a Spring or Easter theme. On Tuesday we were home for primary day in MI and Amaya and Steven got right to it.

Amaya’s idea was to trace the outline of leaves from our backyard and them fill them in.

At the bus stop on Wednesday I took a picture of the kids with their entries and Sammy cracked me up by holding up his imaginary picture. 🙂

(Looking at this picture makes me so sad. No bus stop. No bus. No school. What a mess.)

I worked from home on Tuesday morning while Gabby was at our house. When she went off to class, the kids and I went to vote and to Steven’s eye dr appointment. They were really interested in the process and loved their “future voter” stickers but seemed to unanimously agree that they thought it would be exciting.

What did parents do at long appointments before tablets??? We had a 2 hr appointment thanks to dialation and the tablets were a life saver. (That first photo is waiting in our exam room, not the waiting room.)

Getting comfortable.

Look at this guy lounging. <3

This was an appointment with a new provider for a 2nd opinion. I got a lot of great info. First of all, she said we’re doing the right thing by patching. She said Steven is farsighted and that she thinks that he’ll actually outgrow it over time if we continue to patch and have him wear his glasses. That was new news!

The poor kid struggled a bit with the eye drops but persevered and earned a new lego set for his troubles.

Sammy remains our best sleeper and the Cline Kid most likely to fall asleep in the car.

Gabby was back from class when we returned and dove into a number of Jenga games with Sammy. I think he smoked her!

In addition to Steven’s big lego set, Sammy, Amaya and I each got a small flower lego set from Jason so the kids were all excited to build.

Steven’s airplane!

It’s amazing how every picture just highlights how much changed, so quickly. On Thursday this week I had the joy of being the Mystery Reader in Steven and Sammy’s classroom. I’ve spent so much time in Amaya’s class that I was thrilled to get a chance to visit the boys’ room.

About 90 minutes before I was due at school, I got a call from the office to tell me that Amaya was there complaining that her stomach hurt and she was nauseous. I got on the phone wiht her and could tell, pretty quickly, that she was just fine. Earlier that day we’d been talking about COVID-19 and Amaya was saying she wanted to catch it so she could stay home for 2 weeks. I think this was her subtle attempt.

She agreed to stay at school and I said I’d check in on her because I was going to be a Mystery Reader in Ms. M’s class, but not to tell the brothers. Apparently she did her best but couldn’t help but to give The Brothers clues that gave it away.

Regardless, the boys were thrilled I was there. I picked Fox Make Friends and Ms. M offered to have me read a 2nd book because I have two kids in the class.

My boys!

Peeking in on Amaya doing her work.

She told me her stomach still hurt but she was completely fine in the classroom until she saw me so I agreed she could sleep with me that night and she went back happily to her classroom.

St. Patrick’s Day artwork in the hall.

I woke up Friday morning to the now all to common news that school was closed until April 13th – after spring break. I knew it was coming but it still felt like a shock.

The kids took it in stride. In fact, they were so excited that the all seemed to feel a need to express their love to me!

We made it through the day and, to our great fortune, were able to line up child care for the work week between Gabby, Penni and CC, their camp counselor. Even if we aren’t going into the office for much longer, it’s nearly impossible to work from home long term with three young kids around. And there’s a lot to do at work right now.

But moving on… this weekend we finally bit the bullet and removed the beds that are never used from Sammy and Amaya’s room. It’s freed up a ton of space in their room and in Steven’s because we were able to move one of the dressers. They seemed thrilled!

My colleague Christine texted me about a Lego challenge to build a bridge the way the Lego Masters did on the show this week. It was a great activity for us. We spent 30- 45 min building and had a great time doing it.

Amaya appointed herself the judge and said, “I might like someone else’s bridge better than mine and vote for them. I might!” But (of course) she didn’t lolololol.

I’m darn proud of my drawbridge even though I came in last. 🙂

Bedtime was a breeze. Here are the kids in the their new set up.

Aunt Ouize & Uncle Todd – we still love Carcasonne!

Jason kept the kids entertained today with helium balloons. I think their favorite part was hearing his helium voice.

Today was Morminer’s birthday! Steven set up a party where you could to three things: draw a picture of Morminer, get Morminer’s autograph and get Morminer’s phone number. I opted for station 1.

Showing Mormier my work.

Some art from the week.

Steven made a rock ladybug.

Amaya is ready for the warm weather.

And off we go to the world of homeschooling. At least some version of it.

I want to be sure the kids stay on some kind of schedule and that it’s thought out enough in advance to draw from the myriad of available resources. They do well with routine. In fact, Amaya can tell you her class’ entire daily schedule. So I made one for us to use while we’re home. We’ll see how it goes and adapt as needed.

Amaya loves these writing worksheets so I made some for the kids to use.

The kids made Book Buckets back in October and they haven’t gotten much use in the form we had them but they’re perfect for at-home literacy. I loaded each bucket up with books the kids can read during independent reading and group reading time. It won’t be the same, but it will help.

And that’s it for this week. Stay healthy. Stay sane. Love each other.

I’m going to eat some ice cream.