WagMommy: 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.