monday

The two little boys had an interesting tale for me today

They spent the majority of the day cruising back and forth from the shop to their ‘fort’ in the ‘woods’

Fort can really mean a number of types of shelters

A burrow dig into a pile of leaves

A hole cut into a blackberry bush

Tree limbs piled into walls

Boards nailed to tree limbs

At the end of the day they came into the house with a big story for me

“Mom we were just walkin on the trails by our fort and a tree just FELL and landed on neighbor Ed’s fence!’

They looked at me real ernest

Too ernest to be honest

I said ‘Um boys, trees don’t just fall down. they have to have some help. Like a windstorm, a mudslide, some lightning, or a hatchet, or saw…’

‘Oh’

‘Did you maybe help it with a hatchet or a saw?’

‘Yeah but we real careful lifted it off Ed’s fence and put it on our side’

‘That’s good, but I still have to tell dad you were cutting down tress without asking’

And the older one replied

'What can we eat?’

Moving on real fast

The ‘tree’ was tiny and the fence is barbed wire thankfully

No major damage but a good reminder to hide the hatchets in a new place

And maybe take a walk back there and see what they’re up to more often

do you have emails worth waking up for?

I did a little research this morning out of curiosity

I was looking at my website analytics, trying to figure out how all those numbers work and what they mean

And one of the statistics recorded in the analytics page is how many of the emails I send are opened

And the number given was 72%

Seventy-two percent of the subscribers to Chattersticks emails open them and read them

So then I had to ask Google what the average was for email opened in general

The average is 32% overall

We more than double the average

And half of those emails that were opened, were opened within 30 minutes of me sending them out

Some were opened immediately

They automatically send at 5:00 am

That is five in the morning

Granted some people live in other time zones, so it coud be 6 or 7 in the morning

And people are opening them that early to read the newest stories of all the darling and funny little people

That’s amazing

But not that surprising to me

Because I love hearing and drawing and sharing the stories

And people love seeing them in comic form

People love stories

Do you get emails to our inbox that you are excited to open at 5AM?

If not, what are you waiting for?

you are amazing

I am sitting here next to our ninth grade son who is currently doing his Geometry homework.

He is using words like hypotenuse and perpendicular

Trying to find the distance a lady in a parachute would be from the helicopter pad if she jumped from the helicopter after it flew from the pad at a 20 degree angle for 2.1 Kilometers…

What even are kilometers?

And you know all those weird buttons on calculators that you have no clue what they are for…yeah he is using those..and trying to explain them to me…

Heellllppppp…… cos(37) =x over 2.1 is Greek to me

I am just a mom

Not to diminish the value of being a mom

I just mean I am not a Geometry teacher

It has been 20 years since I was in Geometry

Before this I was teaching our first grade boy to read a clock

That I can do

Even tho I still haven’t taught him to tie his shoes (sorry Miss Gray!)

I still believe that I am amazing

Geometry degree aside

I am a human living the human experience and it is not easy

Trying and learning new things every day

We never know what’s coming

We don’t always have all the right tools

We don’t have all the answers

It doesn’t always go as planned

We don’t always have a plan

We change the plan constantly

We say that’s enough for one day and send everyone outside or take an ice cream break

We have full days where we do no homework at all

Where I clean and cook and just be a mom

Sometimes I just need a full day of not saying ‘If I catch you on games instead of classwork again you are going to lose chromebook privileges’

Whatever you are doing, have done, or will do to help your kids on their education route during this shutdown

I think you are amazing

You and your kids are amazing, even when the house is upside down

Even when:

The kids need a bath

Their nails need clipped

Their hair needs cut

They are sneaking onto games or other distractions on the chromebook every time you turn your back

Even when you don’t understand the homework

And the technology is confusing

And chromebooks won’t connect to the printer

And you Google for help

And while you are helping one child

Another is helping themselves to the blender for blended coffee creation inventions

aka: sticky mess of the century

Even if you can hardly keep all the teachers and assignments straight

Even when you get impatient or overwhelmed or frustrated

You are amazing for being you and living in your shoes under whatever hardship this shutdown has brought you

It has been an amazing experience

Amazingly unpredictable

Amazingly anxious

Amazingly full of memories

Amazingly full of learning experiences

Amazingly human

go team

Having this outlet of drawing the funny little characters our lives has been extra nice during this lockdown/stay home/social distancing/quarantine phase

You have given us so many stories to enjoy and given me something healthy to focus on in between the feedings and teaching at this zoo/circus/farm/school life we are living right now

Every story makes my day

Every single one is my favorite

And some I don’t even share with the public because it might be an inside story or something only that family would understand, but I still draw it for you

Regardless I read each new one and get excited about drawing it

I always want it to be perfect

I always want you to feel good about the way I portray your story

I want you to be able to see your kid in the stick figure that I create for you

Even though I am not a professional artist and I have never seen most of the kids in the stories, not even in pictures

I love when you give me extra details like freckles or curls so if possible I can add them

And I want you to know that if I share your story and you think ‘Mmmm she kinda got it wrong’

You can let me know

It is easy to fix most things

Because technology is magical like that

Sometimes I don’t quite get the essence of the story and you have to explain it a little better of give me some background or details that personalize it a little more

And sometimes you can’t see the story through the eyes of someone who is drawing it

And when you see the finished comic you realize it’s not really how you meant it

Just let me know!

I want your magnet to bring you joy every time you see it

And I want you to be excited to get the book and see your comic story in there

Portrayed how you intended, or as it actually happened

And sometimes we have to improvise because I am not a professional artist and I have limits to what I can draw, and we can reach an understanding about how to tell that story in stick figure form so you love it and others understand it

It can be challenging to fit a lengthy story into three frames

But I think we’ve done a pretty awesome job of it so far

You and I, we make a good team

Thank you for taking the time to share your stories

Keep them coming

no pressure

How are you holding up with quarantine?

I have a love/hate relationship with it all

It is the best time ever

I love having my kids home

I love not waking them for school

I love watching and listening to them interact all day

I am not saying it’s all lavender and sunshine

I get tired of the whining and tattling and teasing

I sigh and grumble

And sometimes holler

The homeschool has gotten much more challenging this last week

I knew I needed to change something after I had a tantrum in the kitchen while helping one of the girls with her Math

She was being whiny and giving no effort

I was having no patience

She was being overdramatic and I was being over reactive

I took her Math papers and ripped them into pieces

I know, so sad

And a good reminder for me

So I gave myself a brain power limit of four hours, two chromebooks going at a time with me in between the two kids who are on them

School time is only from 10am to 2pm

Monday Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays

Wednesday is No Electronic Day and we do art and reeeaaad or go on a field trip

I removed the pressure from myself to make sure every kid turns in every assignment every week

I even did one assignment for my ninth grader while he worked on another

I would rather he was back in the shop working on his dirt bike

He will remember how to repair a dirt bike

Will he remember the dates and names of all the important people and places in American History?

Do you?

I would rather get through the schoolwork as quickly as possible and get on to what they love

And if researching how a Tesla engine works is what he would really like to do, I’ll finish that Language Arts paper for him real quick so he can get on with it

We have to prioritize and re-prioritize daily, almost hourly

And schoolwork isn’t always going to have the front burner or center stage

I give myself permission to lighten my load however possible during this time

So thankful the teachers are so understanding

And patient and helpful

And there for us

I think I understand why there are three recesses a day and parties happen often in public school

I admit I was a bit judgmental of the amount of party days they had

They are not for the kids

They are to give the teachers a much needed break

The brain power those teachers have

So much appreciation for them right now more than ever

And for the school office staff

I’m over here asking each child of mine

‘What grade are you in again?’

‘Who’s your teacher?’ (again)

While Tasha the lady at the front desk at the elementary school would say

‘Good morning Andrea! Mrs. Denney right? Your class is in Art right now, have a good day hon!’

While simultaneously writing her a pass and excusing her tardy on the computer and inquiring about our other girl who went home with an earache yesterday, and I have already forgotten about the earache

I’m in awe, thinking ‘Don’t you have like a thousand students??’

Just hats off

quarantine activities for kids

1. Put a hooded sweatshirt on the dog and spend an hour laughing hysterically at everything he does because everything a dog does in a hooded sweatshirt is hilarious

2. Tease your sister

3. Sit in the yard and pull grass

4. Make a huge pile of the grass and bury the dog and then take videos of him emerging from his grass bed

5. Then take turns burying each other with the grass

6. Tease your sister

7. Play a thousand rounds of Around the world

8. Pick up sticks, literally, from the yard and earn a pack of Now and Laters from your dad

9. Make face prints on the windows

10. Hide pieces of meat in the yard and see which dog finds it first

11. Avoid your mom because if she senses boredom she will find you a job

12. See how many of the jobs your mom assigns you can be done while seated in the wheelchair you bought off Craigslist for $20 (to practice wheelies in)

13. Tease your sister

14. Claim to be hungry and raid the pantry every half hour

15. Go through as many art and craft supplies as humanly possible

16. Invent reasons to be on an electronic

17. Get denied by electronic headquarters

18. Bag and plead to electronic headquarters to no avail

19. Tease your sister

20. Build a play barn out of scrap wood (I always thought scrapwood was one word, but the computer is underlining it in red)

21. Read the last of your library books over and over (cuz who knows when they’ll open again)

22. Ride your bike

23. Push it up the driveway when the chain falls off

24. Put your little brother’s chain back on 10x in a day

25. Organize a game of kickball

26. Get so mad because someone misplaced the ball pumper upper and you really need it

27. Ask mom to order a new one on Amazon, and add ten more items to the list while you have her attention

28. ‘Accidentally’ land a frisbee on the porch roof so someone will have to go up to get it

29. Toss the cat up there too to make it worth the trip

30. Scare the beejeepers outta your mom by dropping from the gutter right in front of her and laugh hysterically because that is even funnier than a dog in a hooded sweatshirt

    Quarantine activities for moms:

    1. Make food

    2. Clean it up

    3. Repeat

week 3? 4? 10? of quarantine

The days are officially running together

How on earth did anyone keep track of time and days before smart phone

One of our girls has been keeping a daily art journal of all her activities and food since we have been staying home and there was a big discussion last night about whether she had the date right on her pages

That led to her asking ‘Was yesterday Sunday?’

And of course we had to look at the phone to be absolutely certain

Who can trust a calendar or a journal anymore?;)

A couple days before that I had been telling a family member about our bathroom remodel

And explained all the work Shane and the boys had done in one day

They had started demolition that morning and were already done taking out two walls, the floor, the cabinets etc, aren’t they amazing?

And one of the kids overheard me and said ‘Mom you are wrong it’s been two days’

What!?

That’s quarantine for us

book

One of the recent comics I sent in the newsletter was a little boy being taught by his dad about lying

He gives a little explanation and then asks the toddler ‘Do you know what lyin’ is?

And of course the boy excitedly says ‘Yes!’

And then follows up with ‘Do you know what tigers are?’

It makes me laugh every time I read it and see him sitting on the couch between his mom and dad taking it all so seriously and then he replies and you are reminded that this is a tiny little boy whose mind works quite differently than ours!

Just another reason kids are the best thing on earth.

This particular comic is one of the 140 that of the first comics I drew that are going to be included in the first book

The long awaited and asked about compilation of the stories of the kids in our lives

Some are shared by readers and some are of my own kids

The contributors will be acknowledged

And when you buy a copy, your kids will see themselves in the story you shared and they will most likely think that’s pretty cool

I am so excited for you all to get this book in your hands and have it on your coffee table for a pick me up now and then

It has been a long process full of trial and error and learning and deciding and changing

But it is so close I can taste it

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel

And as soon as the first book is in print, there will be another right behind it

Because this is a never ending series

The stories are timeless and endless

You are going to enjoy them so much!!

Gramma Sally

Difficult and uncertain times make me think of our ancestors, predecessors, etc, specifically our mothers and grandmothers

They lived through recessions, depressions, wars, hunger, separation from loved ones indefinitely, loss of loved ones, so many hardships and challenges that I don’t even know about

Without any of the modern comforts we have in these ‘hard times’

One of my favorite stories to remember and put life into perspective is about Gramma Sally

She wasn’t my grandma, she was the grandmother of our friends’

But they called her Gramma Sally so we did too

And she treated us like we were just more grandkids

I remember hearing about how her and her husband raised their family on a farm in the country in one of the Dakotas, I don’t know if I am going to get all the details right but you’ll get the idea

They were blessed with a lot of children

And sometimes being a mother and everything that comes with it can get overwhelming

She didn’t have family that lived close

No therapist or ladies’ night out

Or Starbucks drive through

Or any restaurant for that matter

Let alone take out

No Amazon delivery

They had no telephone

That was way before internet

So when she would feel like she couldn’t do it anymore

As I remember it being told, she would walk across a field to a tree stump

And sit herself down and have a good cry

Until she felt a little better

And she’d dry her eyes and head back

And carry on

totally normal

My new mantra is ‘totally normal, totally normal’

Because what is normal anyway right?

Yesterday I cleaned out our ‘woods’

This is where the boys have built and torn down may ‘forts’ and ‘cabins’

And actually the girls have too

It’s amazing

And ‘totally normal’

How much stuff gets left in the woods during the construction and use of these forts

While they are building they get sweaty and remove coats and sweatshirts, and apparently even shoes

They bring armloads of our reusable water bottles filled with ice water out there

They must take breaks because they bring chairs and books and little side tables

They use wheelbarrows, and shovels and hedge trimmers and five gallon buckets, and ice cream buckets

Hammers and nails and tape measures and containers for their stuff

They ride their bikes out there

They use the snow sleds to haul stuff out there

That’s all before they actually camp out there

Then they really start to bring the stuff

Sleeping bags and pillows and queen comforters

Flashlights, lanterns, and headlamps

Cast iron skillets, tongs, spatulas, utensils, more water jugs, plates, silverware

I love when they come in the kitchen and ask for food for these camping trips, really

It’s a great way to get rid of bread heals, stale buns and questionable hot dogs and scrape clean the three ‘empty’ peanut butter jars in the cupboard, and use up the last little bits of jam from the bottom of the jars

Totally normal

And they bring some of it back

And leave plenty of it out there

For the entire winter

A lot of questions get answered in spring

Like ‘Why are we always short on blankets?

‘I know I had a tape measure in here’

“Where is a shovel when you need one?’

So yesterday it took me three heaping wheelbarrows full to get the woods cleaned out

I dumped it all on the back patio

Totally normal

That was my workout for the day

And today the kids have their work cut out

I am not sure what educational subject to call it yet

Home Economics? Family psychology?

Maybe I could turn it into math…

‘If mom draws one comic per fifteen minutes and it takes you three hours to get this all cleaned up, how many comics can mom draw while you guys are cleaning?’

It will take at least three hours, each item will be a distraction

“Hey I wondered where this basketball was!’

‘Who wants to play around the world?’

And I will have to make that difficult parenting decision of whether or not to get them back on task or just keep drawing comics

Until someone comes in crying

‘ITWASMYTURNANDTHEYARENOTPLAYINGBYTHERULESANDTHEYSAIDTHERESNOHOLDINGBUTTHEREISANDSHEDIDBABYHANDSANDTHATSAGAINSTTHERULESANDYOUHAVETODODOMETHINGABOUTITRIGHTNOW!!’

Totally normal

find the special rocks

One of my favorite things about kids is that they don’t know any better

Especially the youngest ones

They are totally unaware of the change around us

They have a mom who feeds and clothes and bathes them still

A dad who tucks them in and says the Lord’s Prayer

A warm home and the same toys

The same blue (or gray in our case) sky overhead

The same fears about the boogey man in the closet

The same master bed to run to from the boogey man

And this lack of knowing leaves them so much more open for discovery than us adults

They are not dwelling in uncertainty and anxiety

They are not bothered by the news

Their eyes are open to all the possibilities around their very small world

My best example of this is one of my favorite stories

It was when our second oldest girl was a preschooler

We were at the end of our driveway waiting for the bus to come pick up the school kids one early morning

It was a busy time, we had a first, second, and third grader who were running around playing tag, plus a 3, 2, and 1 year old in the triple jogger

And the 4 year old quietly playing in the gravel by herself

The big yellow noisy bus roared up and screeched to a stop for the kids to get on

They waited for the signal to cross the road

We waved them off heartily

And then turned to walk back to the house

And I would have missed it if I hadn’t had to look down to say

‘Let’s go’ to the 4 year old

She was in a crouch in the gravel

Over a good size mound

Of pink rocks

Beautiful pale pile of pink rocks

I always thought gravel was gray

But I had never told the four year old

Maybe if someone had convinced her gravel was gray she would have never taken a closer look and found the pink

thank you for unsubscribing

Have you ever given your email to a website in exchange for something?

Like a discount or freebie?

And then they send you emails for awhile and you might read one or you might not

But mostly you delete them

And you subscribe to more emails for more freebies

And you spend a lot of your precious time deleting emails that are useless to you

And one day you get tired of deleting

And you take a moment to scroll down to the bottom of the emails and click the unsubscribe buttons

And it’s such a great feeling

I do this all the time

I make a decision based on my thoughts about the emails or the company or my priorities

And I try to declutter my inbox

It’s not worth my time to be subscribed to something I do not love or that does not bring any joy or value to my life

On this website, which you are reading now, you can subscribe

You get new comics in your inbox every Wednesday and a new Kid Quote every Tuesday

The comics are real life stories that other moms have shared with me and whatever I might blurb about

It is absolutely no cost to subscribers

Unless you decide the emails do not bring you value or joy or they are not a priority then they are costing and wasting your time

Then you have the option to unsubscribe

Which is a wonderful option

My email list grows weekly by one or two new subscribers

And a few people who have subscribed to Chattersticks have also unsubscribed

And I think it is very important for people to make this decision

And I wish I could thank the ones who took the time to unsubscribe

Having an email service added to the website costs money and the cost goes up with the amount of subscribers

It is better for me to have a small band of committed and hopelessly devoted fans than a huge list of lukewarm not invested subscribers

And it is better for you to not have an unwanted email in your inbox every week

I love sharing the stories because I feel a connection with each person who shares a story, many whom I have never seen or met in person

And the readers who love them get the same feeling of connection and joy in the things kids say and do and in knowing that other moms and kids are just like us

Hearing the funny and sweet and crazy things kids say helps me to lighten up about motherhood too and to look for the joy in the everyday

It’s nothing major, just everyday moments with kids and in the life of a mom

Yet it feels so awesome to connect this way

And when people send me pictures of their kids with the magnets I send for free to each story submitter and tell me how they love their stories and ask their mom to read them again and again, I always think ‘oh yeah that is why I do this’

It is to spread joy and love

That’s not always so easy to remember

When I have a stack of 25 stories to draw and I feel pressure to get them all drawn and not keep anyone waiting and get those magnets made and in the mail, and I think ‘I don’t know if I can keep up!’

Then I am reminded by your emails you send and pictures and words and reactions to the stories and I feel the joy reciprocated and I realize I have nothing to ‘keep up with’

I get to go at a pace that works for me as a mother of nine and that pressure is only from my own thoughts

The story sharers have never been anything but appreciative

That’s so awesome

how is it only Tuesday

There are a few things that are different with kids being home during the day instead of at school

It hasn’t been difficult

We are lucky we do not have to try to find child care like many other parents

We are lucky to have acreage and we can get outside

I noticed there are a lot more boo-boos during the day with al the kids here

More tears and tantrums

More shoes at every entrance all day

More noise

More dirty dishes, we are running the dishwasher twice a day now

And going through way more food

I am used to buying ten dozen eggs a week

Plus getting four eggs a day from our hens

So we bought ten dozen last Thursday night

We ate the last of them today

That’s two dozen eggs a day

Not counting the ones from our hens

We are going to start clucking

But we are so thankful eggs are cheap

And essential, so they are not shut down

And nutritious for the bellys

So kids can grow strong

And with all the kids home, there are so many questions

I actually heard myself say today:

‘I’M NOT ANSWERING ANY MORE QUESTIONS’

Other than that its been a great week

Don’t tell me it’s only Tuesday, I don’t need to hear that

And they are taking hand washing seriously, not because I have told them 15 times a day their entire lives, but because Google will sing them the hand washing song if they ask

It’s really a good song

My six year old came to me in the kitchen today and said':

‘Mom my hands are LITERALLY clean!’

And proudly held them up to show me

They were shriveled up as prunes, practically translucent and he quite possibly about washed the nails completely off

Thanks Google for teaching our kids in 20 seconds what we have been trying to hammer into their heads for years

staying home

How was your Sunday staying home?

It was different.

The kids didn’t really know what to do with themselves

Well actually I didn’t either

‘Normally’ we would be prepared to leave the house early for Sunday school, plan to invite company to come visit, maybe work in a nap in the afternoon

Some of the kids were excited to have church at home

Which I thought was terribly sweet

And some felt a little silly about it

Which I also thought was terribly sweet

The six year old couldn’t understand why he had to get church pants on if we weren’t going anywhere

"‘It’s still Sunday, you need to put on your Sunday best’

“These ARE my BEST pants!’

‘No, we mean your pants that LOOK the best’

‘You don’t get to wear those just because you LIKE them best- they are very dirty!’

A sibling tried to help us out:

‘Garrett those have a hole in the knee!’

‘Nuh uh, that’s a scratch’

He eventually came to the table dressed in his button up and some clean hole-free jeans, not his church pants, but we compromised

Church started a little later at our house than it does on a regular Sunday

But everyone was there

They all acted very age appropriate

The teenage boys had to be reminded to remove hats

The six year old wanted to pick all the songs to sing, but he did end up letting the girls pick too

The girls drew on paper throughout the morning prayer and Laestadius

Just like in church

The bigger kids whispered if they needed to talk to me or each other

Just like in church

And the younger boys moved around alot and talked too loud

Just like in church

They each got a baggy of candy to eat while we discussed what was read

They left wrappers askew and had to be reminded to pick up

Just like in church

I was surprised at the thoughts of the older kids when we asked questions

And learned a little from them

It was nice

But we missed our dear friends and family we would normally see

And the Word of God we are so used to hearing

And taking a little for granted

Five more weeks feels like a very long time

We know it’s a day at a time

And we’ll be taken care of

But still

End of week one

Today wraps up our first week with school closures for covid-19

Our attempts at ‘school’ without assignments from the teachers mostly went by the wayside in lieu of beautiful weather and the promise of plenty of rain next week

There were a few times kids practiced on ixl or did Everyday Math App for practicing math facts

It felt like there was so much more time

I wasn’t spending any time waking kids and packing lunches and helping with homework so the hours seemed endless

And we had two bored teenage boys

They cleaned gutters, mowed lawn, pruned apple trees, planted blueberry trees, readied the garden for planting and probably some things I’m forgetting, plus went to work with Shane some

The kids played basketball, tetherball, rode bikes and scooters, had root beer floats and s’mores

Played with the new baby bunnies and chicks

Ran through the sprinkler

And slept in til ten

It has been summer break at the end of winter

It has felt so needed

I hope I can feel the same way next week when we get down to completing assignments and learning new things

I hope I can enjoy ‘teaching’ the kids

It’s nice they have taken all the pressure off and cancelled state testing

I am counting on it being fairly easy

I only have to work with one at a time

Although I know I can count on it being crazy at times

And I know I may need to get more ‘me’ time than usual

I am so excited to see what next week has to bring and teach me

It’s amazing how we are actually so prepared for this sort of thing, as a world population

It’s not difficult to isolate ourselves

We still have everything we need and we can still connect with people in an instant

Not being able to go to church is the hardest part to accept

But maybe having ‘church’ at home with our kids is just what we need too

if you build a boy a fort

If you help a boy build a fort in the woods

it won’t take too long to gather dead limbs from the ground

He will want to use the hatchet and hand saw to cut the limbs for the walls

Even though he is only five

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you let him or not

If you let him

It’ll take a full day just to cut enough limbs to build the walls two feet high

It won’t have much square footage

But he will move a table in anyway

You will have to explain why he cannot have a woodstove or fire

AND Just when you think you it’s a good enough fort for a five year old boy

He will ask you to put a roof on it

And add a mailbox

And put down some gravel for his driveway

So the mail lady can get through

And install a flag pole so he can fly his star-spangled-banner

And once he has a fort, you will know where to find any missing item

Bowls, silverware, tools, nails and screws, lunch boxes, coats, shoes, sleeping bags, hedge trimmers and shovels, LOTS of missing shovels

But at least we know where to find them

kids questions

Maybe I should change the name to ‘Daily Dose’

The idea of Homeschool has been my dream for a long time.

I have considered it next to impossible though.

It has always seemed like a far away dream and I have never really thought about the details of how I would do it.

AND here we are with this great opportunity for a trial run.

How can I teach my kids, grades 1 through 10, something over this six week period of no public school?

And while processing what is happening in our world?

So far we are winging it

Yesterday was watercolor flower painting

Today I signed up for a month of ixl.com

Two of the kids have taken advantage of it so far today and done an hour of Math, it was hard for them to not wander onto other sites at first so they needed lots of redirection

As I would expect

I ordered some learning games on Amazon

And some printer ink so we can print pages

And I told them they have to come up with five questions today about something they want to learn about.

Anything to keep their minds growing.

The first question was ‘How old is Donald Trump’

When I said I wanted better questions, one of them said ‘My Sunday school teacher said there is no such thing as a wrong question!’

Well ok, but I expect better questions than that

They better questions they came up with so far are:

Why does the anchor have the shape it has?

How many lines on the centimeter side of a ruler?

Who invented the tetherball?

Simple questions that we all learned from, I can’t wait to hear more.

Other than that we are just enjoying the time off.

Waking kids up and getting them out the door and on the bus has always been rather difficult for me, so I have been basking in the silence of the mornings while they sleep until 9 or 10.

On my walk this morning I noticed something.

Usually as we get to the end of the driveway and closer to the road, I call the dogs to me (they are not on leashes)

The road is always very busy.

Today it was not.

I stood at the mailbox for a full five minutes and never heard or saw one car.

But you know what I did hear?

Birds singing and chirping.

It was lovely.

And the air smelled like Spring.

And the kids are safe and sound at home.

I have no worries.

Even though my brain wants to freak out a little…

I don’t want to ‘borrow trouble’ as my mom would say

We are so lucky to have so many ways to communicate and connect

We are so lucky we have a government and military in place that takes care of us

And health care workers going above and beyond

Our teachers are lucky to get this bonus time with their families.

There are endless options for learning and educating and growing

And from my little corner of the world I want to give you something of value

Encouragement maybe, a laugh maybe, a smile maybe, connection maybe

Ideas maybe

What do you have that you can share with us?

You have words, stories, and ideas too…

And I am so lucky that I can continue my hobby of writing and creating comic strips of the stories you share

They connect us all a little bit

And bring joy

I want to continue to share and spread that joy

No matter what through this time

so it begins

We made it through Day 2 of the six week covid-19 school cancellation and social distancing.

But not without getting out in the evening with a friend.

We had big plans for today…I had told the kids it was going to be a school work day and had the day all scheduled on paper.

I was heavy in the middle of fixing breakfast and talking about what we were going to do next when my phone dinged that the fifteen year old had an orthodontist appointment in 30 minutes.

He was still sound asleep.

And the window cleaner that I had scheduled weeks ago- before the world went all topsy turvy- showed up at that moment also.

I had pretty much forgotten about him.

It was a bit frantic.

I was prepared to give homework to my kids, not at all prepared for a stranger to come through the house.

We went ahead of him, moving things out of the way of the windows, cleaning off sills, kicking kids out of bed, hiding our messes, etc

And then we kind of didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

It felt weird to carry on when there was a stranger hovering here and there in the house.

We did our best.

I think I was first to get stir crazy.

He got there before 9 am and still wasn’t done by one o’clock.

And that was a long time for us all to be on our best behavior

So I made everyone load up into the van to go for ice cream.

We worked out some differences in the 15 minute ride to town.

They ate their ice cream in the van while I got a few snacks and drinks, thinking we’d go to the park.

Then I got a reply text that a friend had some baby bunnies for us…yay!

We’d been waiting for this.

So we stopped at home, waited briefly for the window washer to be done and paid him and headed to get bunnies.

And then back home to get bunnies settled in the hut.

And I was pretty much done with driving so we skipped the park.

When they got bored I played a tutorial of how to paint watercolor flowers and they all gathered around with paint supplies and made piles of fridge decor.

It was a day well spent even if it didn’t go how I planned.

The windows are insanely clean.

The van is insanely filthy.

And I hope I am not forgetting anything important about tomorrow.

thoughts on pandemic

Just what everyone needs are more thoughts on COVID-19.

To begin with I was pretty much indifferent to this infectious disease being passed around in a far away country.

My life has carried on without any disruption, aside from a few internet memes that made me laugh, at myself and others.

I was able to keep my plans and flew to visit family in Minnesota.

My flight was full, I only saw one person with a mask.

I thought it was strange that UMD was closed down when they had no reported cases of the virus in the state.

I was careful not to smooch on my sisters baby, that was my biggest challenge of this ordeal so far.

I got a little worried I wouldn’t be able to fly home, when they started shutting things down.

As soon as the kids walked in the door on Friday my oldest girl called in a rush to tell me school has been closed for six weeks.

I was amazed. And instantly wondered if our spring break travels will have to be cancelled.

She was frantic about not being able to see her friends every day.

‘What am I going to do?!?' It’s going to be so BORING!’

Just another reason kids are the greatest.

I had plenty of time on my shuttle ride and flight home to think about the next six weeks.

And this morning I outlined a schedule and a tentative plan.

What if this is a practice run for something bigger?

What can I learn from being in this situation?

How long will these last two rolls of toilet paper last?

Not long with 11 of us in the house.

But I did receive my monthly order of napkins from Amazon.

And we have plenty of old t-shirts we could cut up.

And what if this is the greatest opportunity ever?

What if I love having the kids home and teaching them myself?

What if the waitress who has no job right now because restaurants are closed, discovers a way to make money online and support herself even better?

What if all we need to know is what our mothers taught us?

‘Wash your hands’

‘Keep your hands to yourself’

‘Don’t pick your nose’

‘Cough in your corner’

‘Eat your greens’

‘Take your vitamins’

‘Drink water’

‘Go to bed’

I think about our grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

No hand sanitizer, no clorox wipes, just a sturdy bar of lye soap.

And I know everything will be just fine.

Everything IS just fine.

I am sorry for anyone who has lost a loved one to the virus.

But then I am sorry for anyone who has lost a loved one for any reason.

It is sad to think of anyone not being able to visit an elderly loved one.

And we can be so thankful we know what we can do to keep them safe and thankful for telephones and paper and pen and all the ways we can show love.

I hope we can all keep our wits through this.

And I would really love to interview someone who thought it was a good idea to hoard toilet paper.

I am so curious about that.

And

Spring is right around the corner.

‘

the best kind of saturday

Today was one of those amazing days.

It started with rising early and having coffee with Shane at the dining room table.

Which wasn’t very relaxing because there were two pairs of canine eyes staring me down from the front porch.

Begging to go for a walk. Without making a sound.

Just pleading with big brown eyes.

So I obliged, you would too if you could see how excited the word ‘walk’ makes them.

As soon as I moved from the table, they raced excitedly to the back door.

This is a daily occurrence and they know I will soon appear in walking shoes and my dog walking coat.

I open the door and they wait expectantly, sitting so politely, afraid to assume we are going walking.

I pause and say ‘Who…wants…to …go…for…a…walk?’

And at the word ‘walk’ the younger one starts yipping and jumping in the air and twirling around, practically doing back flips.

And the one I call ‘Old Man’ rises excitedly and puts his paws on my shoulders. (Hence the dog walking coat.)

And we are off.

I wish I could get that same reaction out of the kids on a school morning.

From our walk until time for lunch, I refused to go inside.

I picked up the yard, cleaned out the sandbox, gathered and lined up the bikes and trikes and scooters, trimmed (aka hacked) the Rosemary bush. (Maybe has needed done for a few years).

Then I helped Shane put the finishing touches on our remodel of the chicken run, and cleaned up all the scrap wood and tools.

After lunch I posted the leftover wire from the chicken run for sale and a guy from our area came to pick it up.

And he got stuck in a swampy part of the property when he tried to back up to the coop to load it.

And there I was as helpless as a man when his wife is in labor while he spun and struggled and ruts formed.

Finally we decided the best option would be to pull it out backwards with the tractor.

Shane’s tractor.

Did I mention that he was gone to town at this point?

So he hooked it up, I forgot to mention he had a large trailer attached to the back of his truck.

And I was supposed to put his truck in reverse and push a little on the gas and steer while he pulled from the back of the trailer with the tractor.

I could not see or hear him over the rumble of his diesel so it was a bit of a guessing game.

And on the first attempt I turned the wheel the wrong way.

So he paused and undid the near jack knife and we tried again.

The second time we were just successful enough that he could get it the rest of the way without me.

Much to my relief.

As soon as he was on his way I went to pulling weeds and shoveling and spreading bark chips in an area I meant to do long ago.

And the two younger boys came to help.

That’s always an experience.

Two small boys with shovels bigger than them.

I only got one faceful of dirt, and hit in the rear with the shovel once and only had to holler once that we don’t throw shovels towards our brother.

And no matter how many times I explained that we were shoveling bark chips and pulling weeds, they would go back to digging holes.

They spent more time creating more work for me than actually helping, but they needed the fresh air and something physical to do so I put up with it for a while.

I wasn’t disappointed when they started complaining about being too cold.

I finally went in at dark, very tired and very pleased.

I am looking forward to being pleasantly sore from my hard work and sleeping very well.

To top off the best kind of Saturday, Amazon dropped off some packages.

Some were boring household items. (Which are actually a bit exciting when you’re the housekeeper, grocery supplier, and inventory stocker lady)

And one contained a Rand McNally 2020 Road Atlas.

So it kinda felt like my birthday.

And now I am dreaming of spring break and summer.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz