cleaning robots and strawberry jam

There are some benefits of the kids being at home these days. Those benefits most definitely do not outway the benefits of them being in school, BUT I have found some good in this whole thing.  

 1. The kids are done with school at 12 every day. Mya has some homework but not a lot. That leaves the rest of the day for them to play. I'm a big believer in the importance of play time. I'm not a fan of homework that takes them hours to complete. I think we should be like Finland and do away with homework completely. 

2. There's no drama happening in school. I know it's good for the big girls to experience conflict and learn to deal with it in a good way. But it's nice not to worry about hurt feelings, someone being left out, friend wars and all the things that come along with girls their ages.

3. I'm seeing first hand what the kids are learning. I get to eavesdrop on the teachers and witness every day how teachers do this magical thing called teaching. They are such gifted people. And they all teach differently. I would have no clue how to get a kid to read. But I'm seeing the process and it's kind of fun. 

 4. I can roll out of bed, tell the kids to get dressed and eat breakfast, grab some coffee and start their zoom meetings in my pajamas. There's no yelling at someone to put their shoes on, finding missing shoes a minute before it's time to leave, reminding someone a billion times to get their water bottle, telling them crackers and a granola bar isn't lunch for the 50th time or finding missing papers I'm supposed to sign. That part may be my favorite. I hate all the papers I used to have to read, fill out, sign and return. 

 5. I don't miss all the shuttling the kids to and from school, waiting in school pick up lines and running errands in between all of it. Days go slower now and that sense of urgency and constantly looking at the clock doesn't exist these days and it's pretty nice. And I feel like I have so much more time now. I must have spent 2 hours in the car each day between drop off and pick up and waiting in the car line.

 So that's the silver lining. There are other good things but those are the major ones.  

I found Winter like this. Zoom round two after playing in the street barefoot. She's not hating this new life.

My sunrise walk. One thing I like about Fall is the sun rising a bit later. I get to see it coming up as I walk.

She made a "crystal" out of borax and pipe cleaners. 

This was my next-door neighbor's house last week. She wasn't done yet she said... I may need to up my decoration game from one pumpkin on the front porch to two.

They let the 2-year-old neighbor drive. I love the look on his face. He's like, Chill Angus, I got this.

Everyone needs space these days.

We got a Roomba!

And I found this dress on sale at a boutique in Newport. It's comfy and it has pockets. It had me at pockets.

I really wanted a hobby besides laundry and homeschooling so I decided to cook my way through this cookbook. So far I've made one thing. But it was pretty major. I cooked and canned strawberry jam! Whattt? I know. I'm pretty impressed too.

I borrowed a canner, a jar grabber, a jam funnel and a magnetic lid picker-upper from a friend. Who knew this much went into making jam? I probably won't do it again but I'm happy to have done it. And only one jar didn't seal properly so that one is getting used first. Everyone loved it. We're already on our second 16 oz jar. 

Did you know that there's more sugar than fruit in jam? This recipe called for 5 cups of hulled strawberries (whatever that means) and 7 cups of sugar. SEVEN.

The littles can do a lot more now that they're getting bigger. And housework is getting easier for everyone.

I took a pic of Angus feeding the dog as he tripped and fell on Otter. I love action shots.

I put a pillow on the back of our wooden chair to make Kindergarten a little bit comfier. 

Winter found a frog outside. I told her not to touch it since I know zero about frogs, and it took all the strength inside her to obey. Instead, she took 1,000 pics of it with my phone.

Here are a few of my favorite TJ's picks:

This is my favorite fall thing. I eat it with olive oil and salt and pepper. 

Happy Monday!

 

come on fall...

 I'm just sitting here impatiently waiting for fall temps. Slightly jealous of Instagrammers in states with seasons, sporting their sweaters and boots crunching through yellow and orange leaves. Meanwhile, I'm here in SoCal waiting until after dinner when it cools down to 90 degrees so I can get the kids out of the house. Normally, around this time of year, they have forgotten to turn the community pool heater off and the kids are still swimming like it's July. It's fine. I have high hopes for October, 2021.

In the last couple of weeks, we've spent more time with people than we usually do. I have to say I've needed it so much. I've said no to all playdates, and we don't normally get together with other families. The Higerds are pretty much the only exception to that. It's a tricky time and Dan and I are not exactly on the same page so it's extra tricky to know what to say yes to and what to say no to. I say this in case someone sees these pics and is confused because I've said, "Sorry, we aren't doing play dates right now." For the most part, we spend time with some family who still live in CA when we can and occasionally go visit our Higerd buddies. 

Anywho, last week I took a few days off and had a little ladies weekend down in Newport with cousin Wendy. It was just us two because COVID. It was amazing, relaxing, fun and much needed. Love you lots Wendy B!

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I don't usually cook. Dan does. When he's at work, I make things you would normally find on a kids' menu at a restaurant like mac & cheese, quesadillas, chicken nuggets and corn dogs. I probably cook for our whole family including Dan about once or twice a month. And when I do, I just take bags of things from Trader Joe's out of our freezer and heat them up. This time was orange chicken, potstickers, edamame, roasted veggies and rice. This is a pointless story. Just a peek into my life.

We had some of our favorite family peeps over that we haven't seen since Christmas. It was a lovely time had by all.

Our church is having a mini soccer season just 3 weeks long. But all the kids were up for getting out of the house and playing with other kids they aren't related to.

This is Angus taking a break and not paying attention to the game behind him.

Addie stole one of the cones that mark the soccer field. We take soccer very seriously.

(Thanks to Jess for the pics!)

Mya is playing the cello again this year. I love the sound of it. And she's actually really good.

I'm still loving my decision to punish the kids with chores. Only when they deserve it of course.

The Higerds stopped by for a quick visit when they were in town yesterday. Angus had a full-on meltdown and tried to literally kidnap James when it was time for them to leave. James looked scared. Next quick visit, I'll have to emotionally prepare him.

Recommendations:

Emily In Paris on Netflix. It's a new series from the makers of Sex and the City. But way more innocent. I'd say it's more PG13 than R. It's super cute for all you gals who need a new series. There's only one season, unfortunately, and it might leave you hanging kinda... sorry.

This is more of a helpful piece of info than a recommendation. Did you know you can access your iCloud online at icloud.com? So that means your iPhone videos, pics and more are accessable on your computer. I just found this out. You techy people (or most iPhone people?) already knew a long time ago didn't you. With the recent updates, I haven't been able to send videos via email or text, even the 10 second ones. I thought they would just be trapped in my phone forever. Nope. I can access them and download them from my laptop. I'm pretty much the least tech-savvy person I know. But if there are more of us out there, I feel like I need to share this with you. You're welcome.

We made haystacks when we had family over Saturday. I forgot how much I love them and how much more we should make them. I know everyone out there is hating having to make so much dinner day after day after day. At first, at the beginning of COVID it was fun, wasn't it? All that time to cook and make new recipes and bake bread. Now it's not fun and we need new and easy recipes that everyone isn't sick of yet. 

Make some haystacks! (First coined by Seventh-Day-Adventists with no meat) It's a crowd-pleaser and it's a meal I've been eating pretty much since I had teeth. I recommended it years ago on this blog but I felt the need to bring it up again since dinner is happening so oftenthese days. You make it yourself so there's no way you won't like it. It's like a tostada on fritos (or tortilla chips). Here is a list of ingredients. Stack them in order on your plate and omit anything you hate:

Fritos, pinto beans (heated), ground beef (cooked obviously) or any meat cut up taco style, shredded cheese, lettuce, diced tomato, avocado, diced cucumber, diced red onion, sliced olives, sour cream and salsa. I use ranch if I don't have sour cream. You could add anything else you think would be good too. (Dan likes cilantro). And then have them again the next day because you'll have leftover ingredients and you'll want them again.

That's it! Happy Wednesday. Come on Fall!

fall?

Why the question mark you ask? Cuz it was 106 yesterday. But we made it to October! If you would have told me in March what life was going to look like for the next 6.5 months, I would have gone into the fetal position. But we made it. We did it. It's not the end of all things crazy but it feels like we climbed the mountain and now we're on our way back down. I realize we have an insane election happening but that at least feels familiar. 

Last week Addie got sick. She came down with a bad tummy bug. I'll just leave it at that. She's better now and everything is back to normal... whatever that is. No one else caught it praise Jesus.

I'm excited for the weather to cool down soon so we can play outside again. It's only a little smokey these days, mostly in the morning. By the afternoon the wind changes and the air improves. We take what we can get.

Heard around here lately:

Me: Your S is backward.

Angus: Just turn the paper around. 

Me: Still backward.

Dan: Lava sus manos!

Angus: What??

Dan: You heard me.

Angus: Okay Dad, lamas masmamos!

Dan: Winter, do you want a hotdog?

Winter: I'll have at least four. (including the bun)

I see her winning one of those eating contests later on in life.

Angus: I wonder what kind of trouble we're going to get in today...

Angus's 8's are not amazing but he thinks they are. And that's all that matters.

Wow mom I didn't know I'm a good artist! He's always super impressed with his paintings. He usually decides what they are after they are done, that way he can see what they look like to him. 😊

They have a life plan when they grow up. They are going to live next door to each other. Each will be married. Mya wants to marry a guy like Dan. Winter wants to marry a guy with a big beard and lots of tattoos who owns a reptile store. Mya is planning on having 10 kids and zero pets. Winter is planning on having 10 dogs and zero kids. They're going to live near the beach. 

They still play with dolls sometimes. It's less and less now. Teetering on the edge of the preteen stage, both of them. They’re both showing some changes that mean they’re probably going to leave childhood soon and it’s so sad and so exciting at the same time. I’m glad they have each other to go through these next few years of awkward with. And I’m glad I have two more littles who are still completely children in every way ️

The kids like doing fake YouTube videos. They pretend someone is taking a video of them talking about something like building a train track. And if you talk during a recording, you get yelled at by the YouTube star.

We finally got to celebrate Mya's birthday 6 weeks later. She just wanted 3 friends to come swimming with her. It was way harder to make that happen than we expected. But she was patient and it was a lovely day.

"Mom, can you hang out and talk to me?" And by that he meant sit and listen to him talk for 30 minutes. Angus isn't great at being alone with his thoughts.

He had a sub Tuesday. 😊 (Winter)

After weeks of staying inside avoiding smokey air, they're back at it. This pool, some sweatpants and reading glasses are the best purchases I've made since March.

My kids really like these masks. They sell them at Costco. They have an adult version I like too. I went back and got more.

Another thing I recommend is listening to Dax Shepherd's Armchair Expert podcast bonus episode entitled "Day 7" that he released recently. He's so open and vulnerable (like he always is) about relapsing after 16 years sober. It's heartbreaking but so relatable when he talks about justifying our thoughts and actions to ourselves and the gray areas we all have. It's not super uplifting but it's refreshing and honest. (There is some adult language so don't listen in front of little ears)

You can listen to it here.

Happy Thursday night, happy October and happy Fall to y'all!