Another Saturday

While Joshua was at the school grading schoolwork and getting packets together for the next week, the kids and I had an afternoon of cinnamon buns and Pokemon.

Second week of school/work/parent from home

(Can you spot the small child on a Zoom conference call in the above photo?) 

Last week, James had the stomach flu so he was spending the afternoons napping in bed.  This week, everyone is in good health and still moving through our work (school work and paid work).  

We start our days with breakfast during our morning meeting, which is run by Alma with James as a co-chair, before going on a family walk along the Chester Valley Trail.  When we get back to the house, we all jump into work mode until lunchtime when we gather at the dining room table again to eat leftovers.  The kids have been completing their work in the morning and spending the afternoon playing together.  Joshua has been the champ of working while also parenting/teaching the children.  The school started video conferencing lessons this week, which made for a full week of all four of us on computers throughout the day.  I've been trying to stop working at a reasonable time so that I can take the kids outside again before dinner.  

The extra family time has been lovely but days are packed.  We are certainly not suffering from the boredom that some uncoupled colleagues have noted they are experiencing in this work-from-home environment.  As usual, Joshua never gets a real break and I don't have the downtime provided by my 20-minute commute to/from work.  Although I miss my quiet office in the Mansion, I prefer my current colleagues who pop by my desk to give me a hug and loving encouragement.

Overall, the children are coping with this transition well.  They like all the time home with us and with each other.  We are so blessed that they get along 98% of the time.  And the 2% of the time they don't get along is usually because a parent got in the way of their relationship (usually me).  Joshua and I have been laughing that we don't have much of a social life in general so the children haven't noticed much of a change.  The main complaint has been not seeing their cousins who live in the region, especially for birthday celebrations.

Joshua is going to the grocery store once per week and being very careful about not collecting germs while he is at the store and not bringing germs into the house with the groceries.  Wegmans is very clean and limiting how much shoppers can take in order to ensure a consistent supply chain.  I'm so grateful to Joshua for taking on this task, which I would find immensely stressful.

While these are odd times, they are made especially so by how normal-but-not-normal everything is.  The weather has been nice -- our mild winter has adjusted into a mild spring.  The flowers are blooming, the snakes have returned to our front yard, and neighbors are all out (but simply waving from afar).  We are so grateful for our health and each other.  However, we are constantly worried about the health and safety of our larger society.  We hope that our leaders can make choices that benefit us all.

Saturday afternoon

First Word: Ball

James and Alma both love stories about themselves when they were litte.  I ran across these photos today and just had to share a flashback to James's typical day in Bethlehem when he spent so much time in the backyard throwing the ball for Simon, the most gentle and patient pup. Not shockingly, James's first word was ball and Alma's first word was dog.

Coronavirus

What odd times these are.   With the coming and impending ramp-up of the COVID-19 virus, we have begun schooling from home (for all four of us).  Before it shut things down here, I took the kids out for a hike and ice cream at our favorite shop (Scoops and Smiles in Malvern).  

Now the children's days are full of lounging around the house reading, doing crafting projects, and completing most of their schoolwork in the morning before having the afternoon for playing.  I'm using my new dissertation desk to work (8am - 4:30 pm) and take my doctoral class online (Wednesdays, 5 pm - 9:30pm).  We are so lucky to have a dedicated gym space and the Chester Valley Trail, which has remained open for us to go on walks, runs, and scooter/bike rides.

Our one main "challenges" is having enough reading material for Alma, who is blowing through all of her books.  Thank goodness for the boxes of books from Uncle Scott, my childhood, and Mrs. Sweeney.

We are blessed to have secure jobs, a comfortable home, plenty of food, our health, and each other.  Here's to hoping that our country and the world can move through these trying times in a manner that is thoughtful, compassionate, and values the lives of all people.

Sweetie Girl

Open House and Poetry Morning

James the 8 year old

Around his birthday, I was having a difficult time summarizing James into a neatly packaged blog post update.  But in reflecting on what I would like to say about James is that he cannot be neatly packaged these days.

He is a wonder of a child and we love him so much.  He is such a wonder that it is challenging to say, "James is ___" very clearly.  It seems he is everything all at once.  Sweet, kind, thoughtful, loving, smart, persistent, funny, joyful, determined, but also whiney, frustrated/frustrating, moody, angry, dawdling, lazy, jealous, and grumpy.  While that can be said for all of us, James is who he is at all times.  You get what you get with James as -- at least when he is home -- he is nearly always very honest about his emotions and his emotional state.  It is a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions and we have found that it can take a bit of energy to roll with the tides of emotions.  His highs are awesome and his lows are sometimes difficult to weather.  Over time, I'm sure his temperament will even; for now, I simply marvel at his honest demonstration of presence. 

The main element of James is that he loves Joshua, Alma, and me to bits.  While he rarely expresses it in "I love you" form, he demonstrates it often and delights in our joy.  We all love him and don't know what we would do without his humor and enthusiasm for everything including animals, Pokemon, adventures (biking, bouldering at the climbing gym), music, cooking, and playing games. 

James has a busy schedule with Mondays at PREP (religious education class), Tuesday at Dragon Gym, Wednesdays at Chess Club, Thursdays at violin lessons, Friday with family pizzamovienight, and Saturday and Sunday mornings starting with video games with Alma.  He is excelling at school, in all of these activities, and especially with the violin as he has a natural ear for music.  It is great to see his shyness dissipate faster when he enters a new situation and how he continues to feel more comfortable speaking up for himself when needed. 

For nearly every one of his 2,993 mornings on Earth, James has snuggled with me first thing in the morning.  On school days, Joshua gets up and jumps in the shower at 6 pm while James comes trudging into our room to climb into bed next to me.  We snuggle and chat until 6:45 with Alma joining us at 6:30 for a silly conversation about a random topic (this week's topic seems to be speculating on what my songs would entail if I were a rapper and how much money I would receive for concerts).  These conversations usually make my stomach ache slightly from laughing at their inane ideas.  I'm so grateful for this time together.

I love our resident 8-year-old, who is the perfect solution to a boring day. 

The Best Folks

Shanti Cat

House Projects

We recently added or replaced 29 lights in the house.  It was awesome to be able to add recessed lights in the kitchen, living, dining, and family rooms along with overhead lights in the bedrooms.  I'm grateful for the terrific electrician who did all of this work in record time.

Before:

After:

Additionally, I added a desk in the master bedroom, which is affectionally called "Dissertation Desk"