CHS Day 5 (isolation Day 19)

Well, I am just plain tired!  No idea why, but I'm giving in to it.  Expectations are low for homeschooling this week.  The weather has been cold again so that just makes my mood plummet a bit too.  But we're just keeping things light and easy and real here.  My power duo, Lo and Ash, continue to be up and moving before anyone and doing their work before their official school day even begins.  Yay them!  Shelb and Dyl on the otherhand would likely sleep half the day away if they weren't awakened by us.  I don't blame them. Mama is the same. :(  It was my official work day today so I was up and moving and getting letters written to my preschoolers.  It's weird to not being going to school on T/Th bc virtual learning and zoom are not ideal at all for preschoolers.  I honestly much prefer talking to them one on one with facetime.  Zoom confuses me!  lol!  Anyway...so I spent my morning getting their letters ready and including a scavenger hunt.  I miss those little buggers! :). And the rest of my day was spent corralling the Steg troops, mostly Lo.  But he's getting to be pretty independent with his packet, facebook, google docs and reading on his own. I'm proud of him. He really is a super smartie pants!  It was too chilly to go outside today so that was a bummer, but PE was spent playing laser tag with the sibs. And we helped the church with their palm Sunday request and did some art/cross/stained glass painting and making of palm fronds, then video taped our gang waving them. It won't be the same as singing Hosanna in church on Sunday, but honestly I was ready for a change from routine so this is all a-ok.  We'll make this Easter month our own.  Can't believe it's the end of March today....but yahoo for that!  Not much else went on today.  Ash "went to" her first zoom virtual bday party. It was interesting.  Kind of funny to watch.  But I hate to break it to all you who think you're being creative!  We've been doing virtual celebrations for like 5 years with Hailey. It ain't nothing new to us! lol!  We had another yummy dinner, Shelby led our first dinner devotional, easy clean up, Kev did a conference call with Australia, we had another Steg poetry reading.  Dylan is really blowing me away with his creativity.  The kid can write poems!  The oldest girls are stressing about school and it's off to bed for us. I need early bedtime!  Tomorrow Hailey goes "back to college" virtually, of course.  Thankful tonight that Kev's mom is better and his dad is good too.  This covid attack knocks the wind out of you.  It really is awful.  30 cases here in town and that is not even including all the ones they are not testing...and I mean, A LOT, that are not being tested.  And I hear the peak won't even be here for a few more weeks.  Crud :(
Ps. On a happier note it’s almost April fools day and ash has already planned out her dozen pranks to get her sibs! 😂

Corona Homeschool Day 4 (Social Distancing Day 18)

Well, the days are definitely turning into weeks and I felt it today.  I was absolutely exhausted this morn (like feeling like Friday exhausted).  No idea why. But I think we are still just doing too much and staying up too late. And our school days at home are busy busy busy.  Honestly I think I am more exhausted during the days than I ever was just bc I have so many people coming at me all day long...in person and on the internet/phone.  Usually T/Th were my exhausting days...but now it's every day with people needing my constant attention all day.  Tomorrow I need to carve out time to do some of my own stuff, bc technically I am still working and getting paid twice a week.  And I have definitely been doing preschool stuff, but it's just hard to get it all done with all the kids home.  I think if Logan weren't as little as he is this would be easier.  But it is what it is and I'm not really complaining...just very tired.  We have got to get in a little better/easier routine.  The school system said Lo should only be doing 1hr of schoolwork, but to me that just doesn't seem like enough for a dual language firstie who is still learning to read well.  So I'm really trying to spend as much time with him as possible.  Which honestly I do love.  Getting extra time with the baby of the family is a blessing! haha :). Anyway...the day was ok...bumpy, but ended better than it started.  Ash is always our first one up and today was no exception. She's my morning girl.  Up and doing hw before we are all awake.  Shelb and Dyl struggled, but Dyl had to be up for his final Chinese exchange student presentation.  He seemed tired too and we had ipad trouble so it was a lil' bumpy.  But it was fun to see him talking to people in China considering this is where this virus mess started.  But that made him an hour late doing schoolwork, so he was grumpy about that.  Ash was pretty much done with her stuff by lunch time...and she just does it all on her own and takes care of questions by asking her teachers. She's easy peasy.  Then she amuses herself with reading and artwork, doing some really cool art on her own today.  Dylan...I feel he's working longer on schoolwork, but at least has no hw.  He loves being outside playing bball and doing sports as much as he can and it was a gorgeous day out!  Loggy...he seems to work all day long and he's actually very driven and very focused and seems to love school and learning.  Today he spilled his whole chocolate milk all over Dylan's new puzzle.  Ugh.  Then he dropped the ipad and his nutella.  Lots of messes.  I was not very patient.  Things get real really fast when you are home together ALL the time! lol :). Shelb definitely has more schoolwork than normal and violin is taxing for her.  Online lessons are tough...it's just not ideal.  Even Hays who still has two extra days of spring break is stressing over hw.   A big 2500 paper that she thought was lost on the computer.  Thankfully she found it.  Phew!  It's just been a long day.  Long.  But it turned around a little.  Our neighborhood did a "March-o-ween" and the kids dressed up (sorta) and we took a socially distances walk around the neighborhood and waved to everyone.  Loggy saw one of his best buds and we saw one of our fav teachers and had nice long-distance chats with people on this pretty day. Getting out helps. I'm glad it's not winter.  And Ash helped make us a nice burger and mini-cupcake meal...it was her dinner-night.  She's reminds me of me...very crafty and efficient!   I'm in the middle of writing notes to my preschoolers and I had a fun facetime call with one of my sweet preschool girls today.  There just never seemed to be any down time though which is what leaves me so exhausted...wish there were more hours of the day for sleep and fun.  Gotta change that for all our sanity.  lol.

Corona Quarantine Day 17

Well, today was a very lazy. Very.  Sleeping in is getting to be the norm.  And honestly we don't sleep in by any means. Sleeping in for me used to be 11am.  It's now 8am.  lol. I'm old!  Anyway...it's honestly just nice to not be using an alarm and to not have to get up and moving and be anywhere. I am loving pj Sunday and church online.  We don't even have to watch it live anymore...we just facebook it.  Easy peasy.  It was no fancy bfast today bc I'm honestly getting tired of cooking. It's not my thing.  And it gets expensive too and tiring and too many dishes.  So we just did what we wanted. I actually had a piece of cheesecake for lunch. I have no idea what we're gonna do when we have to get back on a schedule and get dressed in regular clothes.  It'll be a rude awakening.  lol.  The day consisted of Logan sitting in his little cubby reading area on the ipad.  Dylan playing bball and watching you-tube videos (yes, he beat me again at HORSE...poo!). And the girls moving the furniture around in their room...even Hailey helped.  It was actually torture to watch.  Torture. The arguing about did me in. Ash the dramatic one. Shelb the persistent one. There were tears, screaming, tempers were flaring.  Kev was on one side. I was on the other.  No one was agreeing.  All over a stupid way to rearrange the room so Shelb could be near a window during our social distancing schooling.  I am all for it bc I like my windows and sunlight.  Not sure anyone else gets that need.  And Ash has her own special spot downstairs in our sunroom so I think she was already happy. It was a battle all day. Ugh.  But it's done for now and they are keeping it the way it is (beds head to head) for a week at least.  Oh the drama!  Shelb and I and Loggy headed out for a run/bike/scooter ride.  And we had a nice celebratory downhome country meal for Shelb who would have been returning from her big HYP orchestra trip today (me too...I was chaperoning).  We had some good ol' fried food and sang and fiddled to Taylor Swift.  It was a jolly ol' time. Followed by an always fun(ny) conversation with Nina and Pops in FL! :)  All in all a good day....and I forgot to mention the Lil Lo finally lost his wiggly tooth this morn!  Woohoo!  Now no more snaggle.  But he fell tonight scootering so he's in rare form.  Grump.  And tomorrow starts our first full week of homeschooling.  Oh joy! 

Corona Quarantine Day 16--a belated lucky isolated bday party for our St. Pats 20 year old!

The troops are getting restless here at the Steg house.  But we're barreling through.  Bc that's what Stegs do!  It was a full, yet somewhat lazy Saturday.  I decided last Monday when I knew we were getting Hailey home this week that we'd have a lil' belated secluded 20th bday party for her. Nothing fancy, but just some of her fav foods and a few fun gifts and yummy desserts.  Yesterday I also thought to add in one of her fav bfasts....or what I think is a yummy bfast at least.  So we slept in a bit, and made a little brunch-y spread and attempted our 2nd try at scones.  They were not as lemon-y as I'd like, but they still were delish! (blueberry/lemon).and some other sides. Honestly I'd rather be posting pics than words, but I cannot figure out how to easily get pics from my phone to here.  I wish it was at easy as facebook bc you know I despise facebook and would rather documentation be here. Anyway...it was nearly lunch time when we ate and then we had to clean up, and basically start thinking about dinner :). I kid you not. Kev said later on, that he pretty much did dishes, made food and ate all day. He was not far off.  We are eating good during corona time!  We might all be 20lbs heavier after especially if they force us into house arrest!  But oh well!  Kev and I tackled Kroger again and I had to laugh at how some people will not pass you in the aisle. Good grief.  And how Kroger put up clear barricades now by the checkout.  So there can be no spewing of bodily fluids on the cashier! lol. It's a crazy world we live in!  People wearing gloves and masks and not wanting to get you near you.  It's wackadoodle!  But we survived and Kroger was almost fully stocked on things even TP, just no flour and no baking powder, so alas Ashley's baking days are coming to a close! :( She and I did make two yummy cheesecakes today...one was death by choc (my fav!) and the other was a fruity surprise. Let's say I had high expectations for this juicy strawberry swirl one and it turned out to be red plum jam that I got.  What in the world???  Who even eats red plum jam?  Crud.  I was so mad.  But it still turned out ok.  We surprised Hays with her fav pulled pork sandwiches and she helped make sweet potato fries and we added in a yummy salad and cole slaw.  It was pretty superb. I think the best part was the psychology of getting Logan to eat the dinner.  Hailey used her Calvin wisdom and got the boy to eat all his dinner...it was a very very small dinner for him, but she did it all the same with a few games of rock, paper, scissors.  It was cute and clever.  That ol' college education is getting put to good use! haha :)  Then we surprised her further with some fun gifts, including a basket of broccoli and sweet potatoes from Shelb and a bouquet of TP that we called the "Lucky Butz Bouquet"! lol :). I'm not sure she was too amused by our gifts, but she tolerated us as usual.  The best surprise was yet to come. Her sisters had planned it last minute. I think Hailey thought she was getting a kitten, but instead her fav guy facetimed during her happy bday cheesecake time. He's better than a new cat any day! :)  And he's a mighty good sport for putting up with our Steg antics.  Let's just hope he can tolerate us in person.  We're a lot to handle :)  We feasted on double cheesecakes and then took a batty dark walk on the trail.  Then home to for a rip roaring game of Scattergories where mama and Ash teamed up and blew the competition out of the water.  Hailey says Isaiah will give me a run for me money if he plays me, but I cannot imagine anyone better than me at word games.  Bring it on, Isaiah!  On a side note, the competition I had tonight was really stretching it with weird things like "crapping in the toilet" being something you celebrate with your baby...I don't know what parent says crap when they have a little one...certainly not me.  Really??  Come on!  Anyway...we won and I am confident I will contiue to!  So that was the day...there was also, bball, violin e-group, play-doh-ing, studying, gerbil playing, etc...but overall, our days are getting lazier and lazier.  I'm a-ok with that!

Corona Homeschool Day 3 (Day 15 Quarantine)...yay weekend!

Well, today two kids were up early and ready to e-learn, the others were not.  And this mama was less than motivated nor focused and very tired.  lol. Thankfully a couple hours into the day, we got a call from our school corporation that says from now only have to e-learn M-Th and can do make-up work and whatever we want on Fridays. Yippee! I can do 4 days of schooling and 3 days of weekend.  This is turning out to be all the things I've prayed for for so long!  Time at home, no activities, family time, family dinners, and now longer weekends.  Thank you, Lord!  So the day kinda dragged by and I don't feel I got a lot accomplished with Loggy, my one-on-one little man. :). But Ash had done all her schoolwork by lunch time, Dylan said he was "almost" done about that time too and we had to have another chat about his definition of certain time-framed adjectives.  Because Dylan lingo for "almost" is actually still a few hours of work left. lol. Shelb is still working on schoolwork and violin and it's after 9pm. So some things never change even with homeschooling. :)  I talked to my preschool partner in crime and we planned out our e-learning for our preschoolers. Pretty low-key stuff, but it still involves thought and planning a bit, which added on to e-teaching my kids, equals a lot.  I'll be honest...my prayer and praise this week has for been for real teachers who are having to e-teach their own kids and their regular students.  It's a huge job and our public school teachers have been AMAZING!!!  They really are the absolute best!  I've really only had to sit with Logan and do things, but even his teachers have so many things online where we just sit at the computer and watch them teach.  It's pretty amazing how far technology has come. I think at the end of this I might be pretty savvy! lol  But a big shoutout to teachers who are teaching double children now bc they also have their kids home.  I love our teachers!  Anyway...so our day went pretty quickly and I'm pretty sure I didn't get much done nor did Logan, but who cares. It's Friday and we played outside and enjoyed the day, he even facetimed his little Nutella buddy...and Kev and I even took a walk together without kids) We also made a lil' get well video for sick Nina and had our first Steg track tourney (because both Dyl and Shelb are in track season now).  Dyl won the whole tourney, but the girls were close seconds and Loggy really surprised us at the hurdles. Fierce, even in flip flops!  Go Loggy Boggy!  And Loggy planned out our whole meal tonight complete with the idea to have a picnic on the patio...hot dogs, sides and ice cream cones!  I love that we can all help with dinners now and eat together.  And it's even more wonderful now that the weather is cooperating better.  I am in better spirits.  And I'm very thankful it's the weekend.  Kinda weird to think that in our normal life, Kev would be in Puerto Rico now for work, I'd be in Nashville, TN with Shelby for her HYP orchestra trip, Hailey would have been just getting back from her Northern MI spring break, and the kids would have had a first full week of school post spring break complete with track, volleyball, basketball, baseball, etc...and Nina and Pops would be here watching the kids, which would have been impossible since they likely both have coronvirus. So God knows what He's doing.  It's as it should be and although there has been some disappointments in all this, we are finding the silver lining every day. 

Corona homeschool day 2 (day 14 quarantine)

Well, I'm losing a little steam as the days go on, but that's to be expected I'm sure.  Changes in routine are always exhausting.  And even if I do love staying home, it's a stressful situation with all this sickness flying around.  But Day 2 of school at home was a-ok!  We were dragging a little more this morning, but had to jump right into things. Ash was up first and the rest slowly followed.  Kev had online work meetings and I even had my first zoom session with my little preschool sweeties!  It was so good to see their cute little smiling faces!  They were running all over showing us their toys and siblings and houses...it was good for the soul!  But Shelby razzed me good after about my "fake teacher voice" lol :). Good grief.  Thx, Shelb!  I was pretty much one-on-one with Loggy again today doing all his packets and online stuff.  I wish all his info was just in one place.  It's hard checking facebook, the school website, dojo, todo, email...and getting texts and phonecalls from teachers.  But we are plugging along and he's doing really well. I think he kinda likes this routine. A couple of his buds from school even rode their bikes by our house today and we talked to them from across the street.  This is a new way of friendship I guess!  We played outside a lot, did volleyball and hide the cone, basketball and a bike ride on the trail before the rain hit.  All the other kids did their things...the same as yesterday mostly.  Dylan had a couple mass group meetings on his ipad.  He's Mr. Social.  Ash chatted with her buds too.  I'm thankful for technology in this time bc it is helping my kids keep in touch.  They are just too social to be isolated!  Shelb and Hays are super independent and mostly emerge from their rooms just for food :)  Dyl made our pasta meal tonight, Ash made choc chip cookies from scratch.  I love that they are all helping, but they do need to start stepping up the help with doing dishes. I feel like I'm doing dishes all day.  blah!  We ended the night with our poetry reading...Ash and Shelb tied for first...both were very creative with their writing, though Shelb bashed my "fake preschool voice" so I'm not sure I appreciated that...but her dramatic reenactment was emmy worthy!  I think even Isaiah thought so via facetime :)

The tough part of our day is our sweet Nina Stegs was rushed to the hospital via ambulance with difficulty breathing.  She thankfully was sent home a few hours later, but they are pretty sure she has COVID.  But they are out of tests and can't officially test her and out of beds at the hospital so couldn't keep her.  So she's monitoring her O2 at home.  And we're just praying like crazy she starts feeling better soon. She's been sick for awhile, but we all thought it was the flu.  It kinda hits home when someone you love has this. But if anyone is a fighter it's Nina Stegs :) We love you, Nina!!

Corona homeschool day 1 (day 13 quarantine)

Well, today I became a homeschool mom--of sorts.  Honestly I do think homeschooling has to be easier than this bc following these e-learning criteria for 4 different grades and schools is not really in my control completely.  But any schooling at home is "homeschool" in my books so that's what we're claiming this to be. :). I'll be honest.  I thought it was a pretty successful day.  No tears, not too much arguing and what seemed to be a lot of learning going on (ok I take that back...there were tears, but they were over dinner and that would have occurred anyway...thanks to Loggy and his aversion to all food, esp chix...but I digress). I will say the morning routine just got a heck of a lot easier.  No real stress over morning alarms...nothing going on before 7:30am honestly.  All quiet.  No lunch making, no running to the bus, no saying how exhausted we are by lack of sleep...and some of just stay in our pjs all day long bc we can!  These are all amazing bonuses in my book.  By 7:30 most of us were up and moving about...by 8 we really all were.  I made no claims to a fancy healthy bfast, but I did get Walmart donuts and that was easy...I even put a bowl of fruit right by it which evened it all out.  Mom score!  I had laid a bin out for each kiddo with their name on it that included a folder, notebook, and some goodies along with a fun note (bc if you know me, I do try to make things fun even if the kids roll their eyes at me...which they do a lot :))  By 8:30 we were all at the kitchen table ready to work.  By noon everyone had moved to their own new spot. lol! Shelby up to her room by herself.  Dylan to the counter (he'd love his room, but he gets too comfy there and gets caught up on you tube videos and friend chatting :))  Ash made her own lil spot in the sunroom.  I love it.  Completely her own.  Very cute.  She loves it.  Loggy was the last to move and he too made his own spot in the opposite corner of the sunroom with his own rug and reading area.  It really was perfect for him.  And he HAD to use my comfy chair.  It was cute. Even a red cardinal came to the window to check it out! lol :). Everyone was situated. Everyone was doing pretty good.  Dyl and Ash had a couple ipad/canvas issues and I was a little overwhelmed by Loggy's piles of papers and online info, but we muddled through.  He was pretty hands-on all day...but at the end of the day he wrote the sweetest poem all about me.  I really do cherish my time with him now bc I sorta felt like I lost that his last year preschool year at home since I was working.  So I might not have had a single moment to myself but we had a pretty successful day of learning and just hanging out.  It was a gorgeous day out and we played outside a lot...aka we had a lot of PE/recess time!  Dylan was in charge of most of this.  He likes to be the boss of athletics!  Maybe a future coach or gym teacher but he can be kinda bossy/competitive?  We played spikeball, baseball, basketball and went on a couple walks.  Boy, was the trail busy!  I think I'd compare it to the grocery store...we were all definitely not 6 ft apart!  But we had to take advantage of the nice day.  Even Hailey emerged from her homemade dorm room to see us a few times....though mostly she was working on revamping her room and making it more homey for studying...and trying to do hw with her guy and bestie :). But it's good to know she's under our same roof at least.  Shelb was in charge of our dinner and helped make our BBQ chix and sides and even made cake pops.  She's the queen of hospitality!  We ended the day with "mom's creative writing class 101".  They resisted a bit, but in the end they all wrote something splendid.  Dylan won the award (and $1) for most creative!  That kid can write pretty good poetry for not liking to write!  But he did make me wonder about my skillz for homeschooling.  lol!  I'll have to post pics later. It's really my goal to learn to get pics on here again!  My assessment of first day of corona school was this:  Success!  But hard to not have success when you have zero expecations!  Yay for that! :). Shelby I think is not a fan of homeschooling.  I thought she'd actually like it bc she's a bit of a homebody and she's the only one of my children I've every considered homeschooling for.  But she likes/needs in person teaching even though she is very self-motivated.  But I'm keeping her running and playing violin so I think this is good for her mind too.  Plus she's getting way more sleep and she can talk to Jed, the gerbil, all day long :)....that's good for the soul! lol.  Dylan...he pretty much thinks this is the most boring thing ever!  He misses his many many friends, misses being at school, misses the 2 dozen activities he was in, especially BTV and bball!  He says he's bored all day long and then eats along with that. At this rate we might be broke and he may be 50lbs heavier by May due to his consumption!  Ashley...I think she was the one I assumed would hate this all and she LOVES it!  She is up early and doing her school work before anyone...talking to her teachers all day long and facetiming her friends.  Always the first one done with her stuff and then wants to bake.  Lol.  Love that!  Easy.  Loggy...he is waaay smarter than I knew.  I don't know why I'm surprised, but he's excellent at math and even spanish math.  He loves science and had the most fun with sink or float in the sink (which also forced me to do all my dishes so I now have a clean kitchen! lol. Double win!). He definitely loves his mommy time too.  And he seems to really love his new journaling time.  Love this sweet boy.  Hailey...I think she's tired of us already, but I get it...she hasn't really lived with us for very long in like half a decade.  I'd be tired of us too! Heck, I am sometimes!  So, that's that.  A busy day, but a good day.  We can do this.  I'm definitely tired, but it is fulfilling too.  I'm not sure how Kev feels.  I think working from home is hard for him.  We're all in each other's space...and doing meetings with kids all around isn't ideal.  But we're making do...and making the best of it!  I do love eating together and not having to go anywhere.  I realize now how much I don't like being taxi-mom! :). Thx coronavirus for this change in routine...which is good for some of our souls and makes others of us appreciate our old routine a little more :)

CSB--Day 12...last day of corona spring break! ahhh!

Well, today was our final day of CSB...after this it'll just be Corona Virtual School from home!  Oh joy!  I'll be honest....I'm slightly overwhelmed at the amount of emails, texts, dojo messages, facebook messages and invites I've gotten for online learning.  This is where it is NOT ideal to have 5 kids in 5 different schools! lol :)  This is where homeschooling would be ideal.  But alas, I am heading in full force tomorrow...to be a 10th, 8th, 5th and 1st grade teacher...thankfully my college girl is on spring break still...but I am also back into preschool teaching (also virtually...hmmm...we'll see how that goes...if anyone needs in-person hugs and teaching it's our sweet preschool class...I miss those darlings!).  Anyway....my last day of corona spring break was spent shopping...shopping...shopping....bc as of tomorrow Indiana is on lockdown unless you need to be out for essential services.  So I did my stockpile shop at Walmart, then hopped to Aldi for what WM didn't have, and then over to Kroger for a gift card...bc you know I like to just expose myself to as many crazy shoppers as possible! lol. I do have to say that Walmart had stocked all their bread and were even stocking TP...but alas that darn place was out of butter, flour, and all meats...and worst of all no chocolate milk for my needy premade choc milk drinkers! ahhh!  Oh well, these are tough times.  We will just make our own choc milk.  One bonus is I found a log of 10lb hamburger meat!  Score!  We are eating tacos and burgers for a month!  After about 3 hours shopping I was one tired mama.  I am fairly certain I have enough food and supplies to withstand a month of the hungry Steg 7.  But can I just say that I am over people totally avoiding me...it's nearly impossible to get through a grocery aisle and be 6 ft apart.  People glare at you if you are near them.  Seriously.  Don't go out if you are going to glare in the grocery store!  So, that was my day.  Kev spent his first day working at home bc now we have been infected with MI germs and don't want to spread to work people.  So he had headphones on looking cool and doing his work meeting stuff on the couch.  The kids were fairly lazy...some tv, some indoor spikeball, bball in the rain,  gerbil staring etc etc.  Hailey unpacked a good portion of her boxes and made her room her own again...even dorming it up with lights.  She's so college-y now.  I think she spent most her day facetiming friends too.  Typical...family comes dead last.  LOL :). It's ok, we're used to it after 8 years of her leaving home.  Shelb had her first virtual violin lesson...let's just say she wasn't standing afterwards :). Ash planned and made dinner from scratch...homemade pizza and breadsticks and brownies...a welcome-home-Hailey dinner of sorts.  It was a good day in spite of me spending half of it shopping and warding off coronavirus!  I also got to do my first virtual hello to my preschool class on facebook.  I am not a fan of selfie videos bc I look like a doofus, but I miss those little cuties and I know this is hard on wee ones who don't understand why they can't go back to school to see their friends and teachers.  Wish us luck tomorrow on e-learning day 1!  I'm glad techy daddy will be here to help! 

CSB 11--we left the state (shhh!)

Well, today we took an emergency trip to MI.  It was not supposed to be this way, but if I've learned anything from Covid it's that nothing goes at expected.  Hailey had already decided last night that she was backing out of her air bnb cabin spring break with friends up in northern mi.  A bummer, of course, but I understood her concerns.  So she was going to spend an extra day at Isaiah's and I'd drive Tuesday morning and get her.  Well, the smart ol' MI governor went and declared homebound-ness by midnight tonight not even giving us 24 hours to get our girl. I was actually out on a run/bike ride when Isaiah's sweet mom told me the news.  Crud.  By the time I got back and tried to get the kids e-learning materials from school, it was already 1pm.  I canceled a violin lesson, grabbed the girls and some snacks, told the boys to behave and have fun at home and off we went to MI.  Never done a quick so trip and so unplanned.  Thankfully the roads were pretty clear.  At one point it was just our blue speeder van and the Amazon and Meijer semis!  And we made it to GR in lickety split time!  We sadly just missed Isaiah, which I think is honestly why both the girls came with me...to meet/see him.  But he had already helped Hailey movedher stuff to the hall and within a few minutes we had it all loaded in the van, were eating the sandwiches his mom made us and were back on the road--out of MI way before curfew...phew!  It was a rowdy van ride home...Shelby in rare form, singing, eating all our food, but it kept me awake :) lol.  And just like that...home right after midnight.  The house wasn't clean and the sheets were barely on Hailey's bed...it's not how I like homecomings to be, but oh well, corona is teaching me to be even more "whatever" than I was before.  lol. I'm sad my poor girl had to move out of the dorms two months early...sad she has to finish her freshman year online from home in the midst of our crazy lives and away from the calvin life and friends she adored so much..sad she had to miss out on her first college spring break with friends...but thankfully she's been through bigger things in life so this is just another blip in the road.  I'm grateful at least there is technology and she can do e-learning and see her friends while all under our roof...bc as a mama who has quickly growing kids...I know how precious this at-home time is.  And honestly this will be the most Hailey has spent in our home in 5 years!  She is definitely going to want to escape for summer! lol :). Love you, Hays!  Welcome home!

CSB 10

Well, we're in the double digit days of COVID social distancing.  And today would have been our final day of spring break.  It is not, which we are celebrating...bc now that school is out 6 more weeks we have to have a couple days for teachers to get their online plans together. This is good news bc we also need to our get our acts together and get in a new routine.  I love that people out there are trying to give advice on homeschooling, but honestly this ain't homeschooling.  I don't get to make our own schedule.  We have to pretty much follow our schools' curriculum which means 5 kids from 4 schools and 5 classrooms on 5 devices trying to learn in the same small house, which what I imagine will be many questions (none of which a non-tech-savvy mom can answer at this point).  I wish we could homeschool! lol!  I wish we could make our own schedule.  We cannot. This will have its challenges for sure.  But don't get me wrong. I am pretty happy we can sleep in and not really set alarms and I just hope the kids can learn from online teaching. I know I could not. I need in person visuals and real people teaching me that I an ask questions of.  I would flop at online schooling as a student.  So....prayers for this will be appreciated!  I think it could be fun, we just need to get in the routine.  Tomorrow we pick up Ashley's ipad from school via drive up service and Logan gets his packet.  She also starts online IU violin.  Yes, that is a thing! lol.  Truly, music lessons online cracks me up.  But ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do!  Today...totally lazy...totally...we slept in...had a yummy bfast mostly made by chef Ash who likes to get up early and bake, we watched online church as a family, played spikeball indoors, played games (mama won Scattergories again!), went for a very sleety, cold walk...tried to find our new trail, but it got too cold and Loggy fell off his scooter and was bawling so we headed back home. At least daddy was with us unlike last time.  Is it odd that Logan almost always ends up crying at the end of our walks??  Oh joy.  And tonight was "the kids make dinner night". They planned it all out (meatballs, crescent dogs, veggie and fruit tray) while Kev and I sat on the couch and did nothing.  They unfortunately did not clean up, which I think is the yuckiest part.  Oh well, baby steps.  But we did plan out our dinner week and the kids are each making/planning a dinner each night.  We also celebrated Dylan (with rice krispy treats) who was supposed to be awarded 3 awards today from the national scholastic writing and photo contest...he entered a NYC photo he took, his clay video, and a valentine silent film and got honoroable mention for all three.  The awards would have been at Butler Univ today. Canceled, of course.  He also missed a weekend of travel bball tourney play.  Biggest bummer.  But wherever we go, whatever we do outside...he has a bball in his hand. He takes walks with it. It is comical. Oh, and we facetimed our Hays.  She decided to back out of her northern MI spring break plans for this week and I will head to MI to get her Tues.  Bummer.  Sad.  I hate the hysteria this virus is causing people.  But it is what it is.  My only wish now is for better weather.  I can't stay cooped up in my house with gray outside from much longer.  It's so hard for my soul.  I need sun and fresh, warm air!  My kids need outdoor PE time too! Lol :)

CSB Day 9!

Honestly I don't know how much lazier our days could be.  And I really honestly love that it feels like a bad idea to even get in the car/van and go anywhere.  So staying put is what we do!  The only outing was Kev's jaunt to CVS to return our movies to redbox and get us cream cheese for dinner.  But other than that it was a slooooooow day.  Yay for that! :)  We slept in a little (though I have been up super duper early so the sleeping in is not making me feel rested bc it's essentially been a nap!), but Kev and I watched a movie all morn and I really have no idea what the kids did (I think they watched tv and played on their electronics...who the heck cares bc we had nothing else to do and no agenda! lol) :). After lunch we headed outside...it was too cold for me, but the kids played on the swingset and Dyl got out his new bday gift...spike(spyder) ball.  I have no clue what the purpose of this game is and it is definitely not like volleyball, which is how the kids explained it to me.  At any rate, Kev and I and Lo beat the other kids. Yay us!  We rocked it!  Then we headed indoors and Kev started taxes and Lo and I played "Guess Who".  Then I had a spendid idea to make a Honduran meal in honor of Shelb who should have been getting back today from her 1 week mission trip there.  Of course she was sad that was canceled (but thankfully rescheduled for next spring break!  Plus she got to wear her fav new Honduran goodwill clothes to dinner) :). But we had a delicious meal of non-authentic food bc basically we had to use what had in the house (enchiladas-more-like-soft tacos, beans and rice, Honduran Banana bread with coconut, Honduran corn bread and Honduran flag cookies). Next March we'll make it more authentic.  We are thankful that trip got canceled bc Nina said some Americans were rescued from there by Air Force this week.  That would be memorable/unfortunate. :(  All I can say about these lazy days is it might be hard getting back into our normal crazy after this.  Or maybe we never have to get back to that...who knows....
Hailey...she moved out of her freshman dorm today.  So long, Veenstra!  Well, essentially she didn't...she just left her stuff there in a pile and we'll get it Friday when I pick her up.  And she moved to Isaiah's family's home til Monday morn.  She seems to be loving it there...playing cards with one of his sisters (who was born the same exact day as Dylan) and chilling with his 3 cats and eating her fav food (broccoli and sweet potatoes). She's living the life and maybe won't even want to come home :) :(
Tonight my prayer goes out to healthcare providers in the thick of this.  I used to be one of those and I know these are scary times to be working in a hospital and coming home to your families. Heck, I used to take most of my outfit/shoes off before I walked in the house, when I simply worked in the NICU...and that wasn't when coronavirus could be on me.  My heart and thanks goes out to all of you out there on the frontlines!  You're awesome!
Also, Pops is awesome...he can even fix our plumbing over facetime.  What a handy man! :)

CSB day 8

I’m realizing as I write this that we're only a week into things and I know for sure we have at least 6 more weeks.  I can't tell you how good it felt today to go to my old fashioned paper calendar and cross just about everything off for 1.5 months. I mean, when does anybody on this planet ever get to do that?  I keep thinking maybe this whole thing is just a wake-up call for our our society.  Maybe there is more to this.  Maybe we need to find more ways to be intentionally interactive with people...maybe we need to appreciate the freedoms we normally have.  I'm not getting on a soapbox here, just making an observation.  1 week has gone by of being at home doing nothing...being forced to stay at home and do pretty much what we want...and we still have 6 more weeks (at least) of it.  I need to take every advantage of this. I not sure what that means, but I'm going to really try to brainstorm it before e-school starts next Weds!  And our day, you ask??  Well, it was more of the same, just chilling and more chillin!  It stormed all night (so bad that it knocked over our playhouse out back)...and it kept me awake later than normal.  But as much as I used to like sleeping in, I find I don't need to or want to anymore...I'm up and moving around 8:30/9.  And today I actually got out of my pj's, wrote a couple more cards to friends, and got myself up and moving bc it was finally a non-rainy day!  I find in these lazy days it takes us hours to get ourselves moving, but when we finally did we played in the yard and then headed to the park near our house via the long trail behind our house.  There were lots of people out, but no one really wants to get near you (which is weird in itself), but there was not a soul at the park or the bball court.  Also, odd, but it works for social distancing.  We played for hours there...hide n seek for the S, L, and A...and D and I played some competitive games of "Hailey" and LoggieStegs". He won both...but I put up a good fight :). It was fun to just be outside...to ride our bikes, play ball, scooter...of course it ended badly with me taking Logan on my bike and Shelb taking his scooter on her bike and him crying.  That kid needs to learn to ride a bike. He's worse than Dylan was!  We came home, ate a yummy ravioli meal and watched A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.  I'd never seen it, but had heard a sermon on it. It was a great movie.  Be kind, people!  And now it's the weekend...and Hailey moves out of Calvin.  Tonight her roomie, Maddie, moved out :(. Tonight she has her friend, Grace, rooming with her. Tomorrow she moves out to Isaiah's house...his family is moving her out...God bless them.  Goodbye 1st Veenstra...you've been good to our girl!  Can't believe the end of May came in March :(

CSB day 7 😷

Well it’s been a week since this all started to unravel here in Indiana.  And today our first case of corona virus was documented at our hospital.  Honestly I know it’s been here long before now, we just have very little testing for it. :(. At any rate, life continues to both stay very uninteresting yet ever changing.  Today our schools declared they would be closed til May 1. Which means we go back May 4 (have off May 5 for voting) and back on Shelby’s 16th.  She’s pretty much vetoing going back the week of her sweet 16.  Can’t blame her there! 🧁 I’m pretty much saying we won’t be returning to school at all.  Just a hunch. Wish they’d just tell us now rather than give false hope to kids especially seniors.  But I digress.  For now we all I-learn starting next Wed til May 1.  That’s like 6 weeks.  Pray for me bc I’m terribly unsavvy with technology. 🤪. On the home front we are loving the hum drum lifestyle.  It’s pretty good.  I’m not complaining.  We sleep in a bit, watch tv a bit, eat bfast when it’s lunch time and lunch when it’s dinner time.  We’ve lost all hope for scheduling. Lol.  We stay in our pjs all day, don’t set alarms. And I have no idea where my paper calendar even went. These are days I prayed for!  I just didn’t think it’d come in this form! Lol.  We played games again (Lo beat Dylan and I at Yahtzee and Lo creamed me at the matching game). We wrote cards and painted pictures for great grandma stegs and our sweet teacher at church who are both older and live alone.  This is my new goal every couple days.  To write snail mail.  It might come back into coolness during these socially distant times.📫✉️There was a short delay in the rain and Dylan got his b-ball practice in in the driveway and Shelb and Lo played on the swing set .  Then it poured and they made a rain obstacle course in the yard.  We had a hearty burger meal and FaceTimed some friends and are settling in for another early bedtime. Woohoo!  Hailey is all packed up and ready to leave the dorms on Saturday.   A sad early ending for college kids but they are resilient and will pull through!  I definitely think God is trying to teach us all something from this. Maybe this was a wake up call for our society to slow the heck down and focus on people and family and what really matters.  Maybe we need to sit down and write our friends a letter.  Maybe we need to  play games with our family more.  Eat more meals together.  Be bored sometimes.  It’s all going to be ok.  That’s all I’m certain of in this uncertain time ❤️
(On a side note, it’s the first day of spring...and supposed to be free ice cream at DQ day.  Canceled.  Dumb corona.  I get mad when things come in the way of free ice cream! 💩)

CSB day 6—the time has come ...

...for Hailey to be done with her freshman year of in person classes and to move home.  We got the email from Calvin tonight.  I knew it was only a matter of time. But it still knocks the wind out of you a little. She has to be out of the dorms on Saturday afternoon and her first year of college has essentially ended two months early.  She’s still hoping to go on spring break with her handful of friends next week so the plan is for her to stay at her boyfriend’s family’s house for the weekend and head up to their secluded Airbnb on Monday.  We’ll see how that unrolls.  But in about a week she’ll be home for good.  I’m not sure how all of us will do this e-learning for 2 months together under one roof.  It’s a new adventure for sure, especially for an non savvy tech mom.  I really do love this new season of laziness but there is a depressing and isolating level to not having freedom to go out to eat dinner or go to the mall bc they are now closed.  It’s just some weird times.  You know life has changed completely when the exciting part of your day is getting the mail!  And oh how joyful Loggy was running in the rain in daddy’s shoes to get it! 😂.  One of my major sadnesses in all this is that our weather looks to be cold and gloomy and rainy thru the next week.  And honestly I’ve struggled with depression this winter already.  Having to be stuck in my house in Indiana with no sun and cold and rain might do me in before corona does 😔. I guess a lot of prayers are needed on so many levels with this.  Everyone seems to need different things in these uncertain times. So many students mourning the loss of the end of their school years many months early, saying goodbye to friends, not getting graduations...lots of anti social anxiety.  Is that a thing?  I think it will be after this.  But on a positive note, we stayed in pj’s all day today, watched tv, cleaned, played Yahtzee, ate leftovers and just had a plain ol lazy day.  It was nice but I could have used a walk outside in fresh air. Or some sunshine.  Hopefully another day soon. Tonight I’m just feeling sad for my college girl who is frantically packing to leave her dorm and say her goodbyes. ❤️(On another sad side note we were supposed to surprise the kids today and take them to great wolf lodge—a place we’ve never been and got an awesome Groupon deal for—-but they canceled on us for obvious reasons—I know it’s a minor thing but still another small bummer to know you could be water sliding your sorrows away😢)

A socially distant 20th bday for our lucky green baby girl 🍀💚☘️ (CSB day 5!)

Wow, I have a daughter who is 2 decades old! 😳How did that happen?! 😭 And yet again she wasn’t home to celebrate with us (per her choice...heck, let’s be honest...she’s been socially distant from us on her bdays for half a decade!😂). But we still rang in the day of green without her! 🍀☘️💚🤢🧑🏻‍🎤🧤👒🐢 🐸🌵🍏🥦Ash and I are definitely on a baking spree and today was no exception. 👩‍🍳 Daddy had made us dough last night and we were up and making donuts bright n early. Those dang things take so long and were not cooperating (they were sticky and not rising) and we were ready to throw them in the garbage but after a nice coating of frosting they looked and tasted pretty amazing.  But they took three hours to make so we had to make a back up bfast to tide us over (green pancakes and rainbow fruit) and the donuts became our lunch with a shamrock pizza.😂🍕🍩  The kids played outside a lot, made a new movie for Hays’ bday, made tents outside, and we went to two parks and tried to not socially interact...oh and I confidently whooped Dylan in a game of b-ball horse!  Yes, I’ve still got b-ball skillz! 💪🏀yay mama!!! And we ended the night with our green pesto pasta meal and a wide array of st pats bday treats where we sang to our Hays via FaceTime. 🎉🎉🎉🥰🥰🥰🥳🥳🥳 It was a full day.  Hays...she had her second day of virtual schooling and her first day not being allowed to eat in the dining hall.. great timing with her bday. So she had limited food and what she did have was in a styrofoam container. 😂But if anyone is go with the flow it’s her!  She studied all day and did her classes and had her pre contained meals and pretty much hung out with her friend, Grace.  Thankfully all our packages and cards arrived so she had a few things to open. Yippee!  I honestly had no hope things would arrive during this crazy week of everything closing. 😫We did give her a nice outdoor adventure.  Last minute we ordered her a door dash Cheesecake Factory cheesecake.  The guy dropped it at a random spot at Calvin and never called and his return number was bogus.  Thankfully Calvin is small and it was a nice day bc Hailey and Grace found it.  Phew!  You’re welcome for the Bday scavenger hunt Hailey!  And I think tonight she had old lentil soup she’d made from interim in her dorm basement.  It looked green so I’m proud of her for eating green at least bc she conveniently forgot to wear green. 🙄💚So she survived her first pandemic/quarantine/social distancing bday. 😷🥳And she’s now officially no longer a teen but what I consider to be a real adult.  So much happens in your twenties. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for her!  I had her when I was just 22.  Yikes!  Ok, that thought frightens me a little. Enough memory tripping 😭🤯🍀Love you, dear Hailey Nicole.  You are definite gift from God.  He knew we needed an independent, world traveling, level headed, brilliant girl like you to start our family off with.  Here’s to a new decade of life...that I had initially envisioned being full of normalcy....now I’m not so sure! 🙄😷🍀
(I’m updating this bc I love Hailey’s boyfriend’s bday quote “you’re no longer a quaran-teen”😂)True!  Ya gotta find some humor in this crazy time! 😜)

Day 4–CSB (aka haileys bday eve☘️)

I’ll admit the days are starting to blur together a little bit.  I’m ok with this.😊  I love nothing days and we are definitely still keeping busy. Today brought about more baking by Ash and I.  She’s my Betty Crocker.  She’s awesome.  Has her own ideas and you tubes them and just does them.  From scratch.  I was at Kroger for an hour and when I got back she’d made shamrock colored pinwheel cookies.  I love her determination!  And speaking of Kroger.  I am never going back. You can quote me on this.  “Walmart was better Friday than Kroger today”.  No parking.  Crazy people (one lady screaming about another lady coughing on her). Kids in baseball gloves so they don’t contract something?!  And no one wanting to get near each other in narrow grocery aisles.  I got my 20 things and high taled it out of there.  People are nuts.😜🤯🤦‍♀️  The rest of the day was spent baking some st pats goodies and doing chores.  Loggy got creative with hotwheels, made a tent, and watched endless tv.  Don’t judge bc it’s officially our spring break!  The kids all taped a special movie for a special someone. ☘️  And we had another nice (taco) dinner together.  I’m getting tired of dishes but I love the meals.  Now it’s movie night again for all.  I’m fairly certain I won’t get tired of social distancing any time soon. In fact my one stress of the day was seeing other people! 😂. But I will say each day comes with new uncertainty.  Restaurants closed to indoor seating today...those poor businesses.  Hailey started virtual college today.  Not ideal.  Thankfully she’s taken online courses in nyc so I know she can do this but it’s just not how it should be.  But this is all uncharted territory. And we take it one day at a time.  At least hays can still stay in the dorms like she wants.  And our gifts to her arrived tonight.  So it won’t be a terribly boring bday even if we’re not there. She banned us from surprising her again and driving up.  So we’ll let her have a quiet 20th in her own corona way.  Can’t believe two decades ago I delivered her right down the road from where she’s living now.  It was the first day of my Calvin spring break my senior year.  Life is crazy! 🥰☘️🎉Happy bday eve, Hays!

Day 3 Corona Spring Break

I’ll be honest.  Social distancing is really a dream come true for an introvert (me).  I actually loved watching church online as a family and playing games all day and watching movies and eating together without the thought of seeing another soul. Lol.  It’s what I’ve been hungry for all year truly.  Maybe this corona is God’s way of forcing us to be still.  Yes, I know it comes with so much sadness and disappointment and economic hardship but in the end does all that matter?  We don’t take that with us when we die.  It’s really our relationships that matter.  And I find some people can’t stand being still. All I can say is I really loved our day at home today...online church, a nice French toast breakfast together, games all day (dyl and shelb actually beat me at scattergories) and we have a Star Wars monopoly game still going on from this afternoon (oh I despise that game!). Dyl played b-ball outside, Shelb made a movie and a gerbil arena, lasagna dinner together (yikes two meals in one day together!) and we talked to our Hays on FaceTime.  (She’s hanging in there at Calvin amongst the pandemic though her boyfriend and bestie couldn’t take her out for her surprise crepe cat bday lunch bc of fear of using the bus and contracting corona ugh). Trying to go with the flow here but some of this is craziness.

Day 2 CSB & Pi day

Today was a fairly lazy day.  Honestly I could get used to forced relaxation.  I probably would have stayed in pjs all day and slept most of it but Shelby had her last in person violin lesson at iu.  They are hard core music there...no virus can stop them! 😂 Kev was home which was great and he and Loggy played SW monopoly. It ended badly for Lo. 😤The girls bickered a lot but ended up on a happy note.  And in honor of pi day we made three pies. 🤓🥧🥧🥧Cherry, Oreo ice cream and chicken pot.  Yumm!  And ended the day with movie night.  Honestly the only thing missing was Hailey.  And maybe some sunshine so we could go outside.  I’m tired of rain and cold.  But excited to sleep in tomorrow and watch church online and do nothing else!  Lol.  Thanks corona for “nothing days”!

Day 1 corona spring break 😷

Today was day 1 of our epidemic spring break.  Not completely surprised given it’s Friday the 13th 😜Glad the kids had no school.  Glad we could sleep in a little.  We chilled a bit, baked some Seuss treats, watched tv, cleaned our gerbil cage, finished our 1070 piece LEGO, just did things we normally have no time for.  Poor dyl was still making up hw from his virus outage...and Shelby still had iu violin bc they are hard core there!  The worst part of the day was going to Walmart.  They were fairly stocked minus bread.  But NO checkouts open.  So our full cart had to be self checkout.  You can imagine that fun. Grrr. 😤

Goodbye school for 2.5 weeks!

A day earlier than we thought so kids don’t have iPads or a plan in place. Super.  Honestly I’m happy we are forced to stay home. We need down time!  Thx, corona!

Dyl’s a cspan winner again! Woohoo!

2nd place for his video on education!  Yay, dyl!  We get to see the cspan bus again and he gets a cash prize! 🎉

Poo on you, coronavirus!

As the world seems to be imploding around us over a silly virus, we got the news tonight that Shelby’s Honduras mission trip scheduled to leave Saturday is canceled.  To say she is heartbroken is an understatement.  Lots of sobbing.  She’s looked forward to this since she heard about it and has been saving and fundraising since the fall!   I so don’t get all the fuss over this dumb illness.  Praying for Shelby’s broken heart.  And praying for some excitement to come our way over the break.  I think I’m in a depression over my health state lately and the gloom and gray.  I wish I had a fun trip to look forward to, but honestly I’m glad I’m not going on a cruise or to Europe.  We sure timed that right for last year!  Phew!  I’m guessing Kev will be in quarantine after Puerto Rico in two weeks. 😫😷on a happy note I don’t have to race my cart thru Sam club to get toilet paper.  I stocked up a week ago! 🙌

An awesome weekend of music, b-ball, movie making, parties, worship and baseball!

And there is finally sun and blue skies!  I am coming out of hibernation.  If only I didn’t have another kidney infection.

Dyl in the school musical (robot chicken!), off to his first travel b-ball team weekend, Shelb music concert, Lo last b-ball game, and ash away in Cincinnati!

Busy weekend!  And this is only half of it!

Loggy’s belated ninja magic bday party!

March is here and it’s a great day for a Christmas time bday party! Lol.  Our poor kids never get timely parties! But we try to make up for it with fun theme parties!  This time it was ninjago magic!  We learned ninja skills and Dylan’s friend hunter did a magic show!  Fun!🎉