every day and every night

Well, here we are. At home. Starting to get stir crazy like the rest of the world. We had some gorgeous weather days and also snow, so I’m longing for beautiful spring weather where we can be outside as much as possible and feel a little less confined.

Gabby wasn’t able to come to work this week and, fortunately, Penni was able to cover her hours. It feels absolutely impossible to conceive of both caring for the kids in the manner they need and deserve, and getting our work done successfully.

On Monday, we tried a number activity where the kids drew numbers in salt with their fingers. I remember hearing that using your finger helps train the muscle memory better than using a pencil so I jumped at this activity provided by our kindergarten teachers. Steven, Sammy and Amaya know their numbers but still write some of them backwards.

This was an interesting week for Northville. The school board held a meeting on Tuesday night that was, for lack of any other description, a total shit show. The goal was to roll out their distance learning plan and “revolt” is putting the response lightly. For reasons I still don’t understand, the district decided to more than double the amount of recommended online learning and made most of it synchronous, which eliminated any flexibility. The board meeting lasted 4 hours (before I finally left the Zoom) with parent after parent – and teacher after teacher – expressing their dismay. With nothing left to do but change course, the district came back two days later with a new plan that seems much more reasonable. It starts to roll out this week so we’ll see how it goes. I’m excited for the kids to have a little time with their teachers and I’m hopeful that the plan and workload is manageable for most families – including ours.

I’ve been working a lot, often well into the evening, so I promised the kids I’d get up early on Tuesday morning and play a game with each of them. Sammy picked chess and he truly gave me a run for my money!

The kids still seem genuinely happy to do their work. I hope that continues when it’s more specifically directed by their teachers. Steven’s already said he doesn’t want to have to go on Zoom with Ms. M each day, but maybe that will change when he gets into the new routine.

My girl is back to blonde. 🙂

We’re still doing our “specials” on schedule and Penni has been great at keeping the kids on track for their music class. It’s pretty fun to sit upstairs, working away, and hear their cacophony downstairs.

Remote piano lessons were even better this week, I think. It’s definitely not the same but the kids are learning & relatively well focused.

Steven made this for Mr. Anthony before COVID hit.

On Wednesday, SSA spent the morning working on wooden puzzles that Nana and Papa sent them. Penni was saint-like working through it with all 3 at once. Though, Steven did want as much independence as possible.

A sample finished product – Amaya’s unicorn!

Week 2 of remote dance class also seemed to go more smoothly. It’s not the same, but I’m glad they have the opportunity to stay connected.

It’s Passover! We expected to be in NY for the week but everyone made due and stayed connected thanks to Zoom. I made charoset and Jason got me gefilte fish and horseradish. Amaya is obsessed with both matzah and charoset.

Found the afikomen! I hid three, so everyone could find one. I planned on giving each child $1 but Sammy was insistent that it was worth $10 and he won me over. It was only fair, then, to get Steven what he wanted (a small lego set) and honor Amaya’s request, too (blue lipstick).

The whole gang. <3

Amaya won’t let me touch her hair but she’s letting Penni give her fun hairstyles. I love that smile.

On Thursday, Amaya had a Zoom bingo date with some classmates to play bingo. She was very eager to join which made me happy.

We left the house on Thursday! Hallelujah! In preparation for Distance Learning, the district loaned us three chromebooks for the kids. They’ve been sharing my laptop which isn’t feasible when they have concurrent live sessions and more online work to do. We we managed a contact free pick-up of our laptops outside Northville High School. From there we went to McDonalds for happy meals. And then we stopped by a local elementary school to drop off art the kids made for hospitalized patients.

Sammy event provided tissues. 🙂

It was crazy weather this week, as evidenced by Steven’s attire. 60 and sunny. Snow. Sleet. MI doesn’t know how to do spring.

On Thursday we had a “second seder” with family that was really more of a “time spent visiting with one another” kind of thing.

Inspired by Chase and Charlie, forts are the hot new thing in the Land of Cheltenham. It’s a lot of books lol. The kid are making forts again right now and doing it with far fewer things that need to be put away later.

Friday yay!!

Amaya’s blue lipstick came. She’s obsessed.

Friday night / early Saturday, I woke up in the middle of the night and went downstairs to turn off some lights and run the dishwasher. (Don’t get me started on how I feel about keeping dishes flowing through the dishwasher.) It gave me a chance to get these precious pictures of the Cline men sleeping together.

Saturday!! Amaya spent a good portion of the day making bracelets and checking her lipstick.

There was ball card organizing.

We had a Cline-Scofield-Burge zoom date! I’m really pleased because I figured out how to use TV audio so now we’re totally set to connect. Only thing we’re missing are microphones so we don’t have to worry about the laptop mic picking us up.

Amaya and Sammy did their own Cosmic Kids yoga sessions. I want to subtly continue to encourage these. It’s so good for them, especially on days when they can’t get outside. These bodies need to move, move, move.

Watching The Empire Strikes Back! (My personal favorite.) Sammy thought it was interesting that the title lets us know the empire is going to strike back. 🙂