Will is a Preschool Graduate!

For his "bonus year" we enrolled Will in a 5 day pre-K class at Nolte Academy. It was a small class with only 12 kids, only 4 of those were boys. He made fast friends with Beckett who became his best buddy at school. Unfortunately, we left school on March 13 and never returned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His teachers did a great job of switching to an online preschool program. They dropped packets of worksheets off each week and supplemented that with online content. 

Since we were unable to have in-person graduation the teachers put together a graduation video.  

After the video was over the teachers made their way around to each graduate's house and delivered a fun surprise that included a balloon, cookie, and memory book. 

Miss Betsy and Miss Jenny and Will who is ready for kindergarten! 

Smoking Meat Pandemic Style

Scott's dad offered him a smoker and since we don't have a lot going on these days Scott thought he might just give it a try. The first project was a pork butt that needed to cook (smoke?) for 16 hours. So, after preparing the meat with just the right rub and just the right injection and buying all the things Scott got up at 4:30 a.m. to start his journey as a smoker. It turned out great and Will said "We need to eat this always!" The second project was a smoked chicken that also turned out great. It only took a pandemic for Scott to pick up this hobby but we're glad he did!  

Day 60 (I think)

The state of Iowa has started to reopen this week. The virus is not gone but we all have to decide on the level of risk we’re comfortable with. This week we’ve allowed the kids to start playing outside with the neighbor kids again. All of the neighbor kids have rip sticks and our kids are loving the new activity - they begged us to buy them their own. To which we responded, “why don’t you use your own money?” Surprisingly, they all quickly dipped into their wallets and handed over the $40 needed. They have been anxiously awaiting the delivery and it was like Christmas morning today when the big box of rip sticks showed up on our front step. 

Tye Dye and Iowa Reopens

Today in Iowa many restrictions regarding COVID-19 containment have been lifted. Restaurants, gyms, campgrounds, libraries, malls, salons and other retail establishments are able to reopen under new capacity restrictions and other guidelines. Bars, casinos, theatres, museums, playgrounds, and pools are still ordered closed. Gatherings of more than 10 people continue to be prohibited although I'm not sure how that works in conjunction with restaurants being allowed to reopen? There are currently 14,328 positive COVID-19 cases in the state and 346 deaths. 

Nothing has really changed for us. We continue to stay home although we are being more relaxed about the kids playing with neighbor kids. 

Because retail stores were allowed to reopen I was able to go to Michael's to buy a Tye Dye kit. The kids were looking for a change of pace and a nice project to keep them busy for a while. They all dyed t-shirts, tank tops and socks. Evy and Graham went a little overboard on their projects, using up all of the teal and purple dye within 5 minutes so that set the project off on the wrong tone. Everyone eventually recovered and created some pretty cool stuff. 

Mother's Day

I typically like to sneak off by myself for a bit to go shopping on Mother's Day, but clearly, that couldn't happen this year. My parents came up to hang out on Saturday. Scott and Jake worked on the deck and we ordered lunch. On Sunday, Scott and the kids went to visit his parents and I enjoyed some time alone in the house for the first time in 8 weeks. 

Meat Supply Shortage

If you pay attention to the news you can see most of the supply chain breakage coming before it hits the stores. By mid-April we started hearing reports of COVID-19 outbreaks in meat processing plants across the country. The processing plants had to close while they cleaned facilities and tested employees. Because these plants require lots of employees to work very closely to each other you can see how easily these outbreaks occur in these facilities. As more plants had outbreaks meat processing slowed. Farmers have animals ready that need to be processed but there is limited processing capacity and therefore limited supply for grocery stores. On May 6 Hy-Vee, along with many other grocery stores started limiting the amount of meat you could purchase. We stocked up well before the shortage so we have a good supply. However, we were unable to purchase ground beef and frozen chicken breasts on our last Costco run - it was all sold out. It will be interesting to see how serious this shortage becomes. 

Early Boating

Since we have minimal obligations we were able to get the boat cleaned up and ready to go almost a month earlier than normal. We had a 70-degree day and decided to make the most of it. Charlie did a great job skiing - getting up on her very first try of the season and Will was an ace on the kneeboard again. The water was COLD and these kids are crazy!

May Day!

We had plenty of time to put together may baskets this year! I didn't think it would be appropriate to do any open food items so we skipped the popcorn as filler that we typically use. Everything was individually wrapped and left on the doorsteps for friends to find.  

These two couldn't help but give each other a hug! We allowed it.