Thanksgiving

 

Oh man, COVID numbers were bad. We decided to only get together with Scott's parents on his side of the family - technically 7 households on that side of the family since there are 3 college kids. It was a hard choice to make but we enjoyed hosting a small gathering at our house. We later went to my parent's house and felt good about that gathering since my brother's family and our family had been doing virtual school and no activities. 

Hike around the lake.

Thanksgiving cookie kit from a local baker/artist for an at-home activity. 

Another Month of Virtual School

 COVID infection rates took a spike again in mid-November which landed us back in 100% virtual school from November 16 to December 14. Evy's basketball was shut down but Charlie's dance and gymnastics were allowed to stay open as long as all participants wore masks and stayed 6 feet away from each other. 

Virtual school is labor-intensive for me as Will requires 100% assistance on all lessons. The girls both do pretty well but require help with math and some projects. We have gotten much better at this than we were in September. We have our processes down. The kids have had great attitudes and I've been impressed with their drive to get work done and turned in on time. I'm very thankful for that!

Will is typically done with his assignments by 11:30. I allow him to skip portions of the optional work because he goes to after kindergarten and I know they work on reading and math there. Evy and Charlie finish up anytime between Noon and 2 depending on how difficult the assignments are that day. 

Will read his first book at home! 

He loves the at-home science experiments. We watched a video about how wood is made and then we did an experiment to determine the differences in the types of wood when they are put in water. 

Charlie's workspace is at the desk in the kitchen. This causes a few hiccups with hearing as I am working with Will in the next room or if anyone needs to do anything in the kitchen. We have solved this by asking Charlie to use headphones!

By the early afternoon, everyone is bored and they have been doing quite a bit of art. Here they are drying their paintings with a hairdryer. 

Will's workspace is the dining room table. I set my laptop up next to him so I can try to get some work done here and there. 

A Total 2020 Vacation

I needed a break so I scheduled a last-minute trip to Clearwater Beach, FL. Direct flight, no rental car, easy quick little trip. This is 2020 so I should have known better. A few days before we were set to depart warnings about Tropical Storm/Hurricane Eta started entering the forecast. Of course, Eta was projected to hit Clearwater. We had two great beach days and then Eta decided to head our way. The beach was closed, our phones were going off with tornado, hurricane, and tropical storm warnings and we were stuck in our hotel room for about 24 hours. 

Lunch in a hurricane.

Greetings from Clearwater Beach!

 

Mask Laundry

 

Washing masks! Everyone has their favorite couple of masks which means I am washing masks all of the time. I make it a point to wash them after every day at school and after every time the kids wear them to an activity (basketball, dance, baseball, gymnastics, etc). Who knew?

The 2020 Election

I feel compelled to write something about the election so that I can look back at this day in history. The nation was on edge, all anyone could talk about was the election. Biden vs Trump. Families split. Friends becoming unfriendly. Even the kids were keenly aware of what was going on. This is the first year that we have ever had a yard sign supporting a presidential candidate and it's the first year (I think) that Scott and I have voted for the same person. I am glad we could be aligned in this choice as it felt more important than ever. After the ballots were cast we watched election night results roll in. At first, it appeared that Trump would win easily. But, this year a record number of people voted early or voted by mail because we are in a pandemic. As the early and mail votes were counted Biden started to take the lead. It took several days to get final results in about 6 key states. And even then there were several legal challenges to certifying those results. It is now December 9 as I write this and President Trump has not conceded and continues to challenge the results in court. However, Biden is president-elect and he is assembling his cabinet. Way back in the January caucus Biden was not my guy. I caucused for Amy Klobuchar. I wish the candidate running against Trump would have been different but he wasn't. There was never a question if I would vote for Trump. I despise him like I have never despised another human. I'm glad the election is behind us but no doubt there are still major challenges ahead. 

Drawing by Evy.