Day 11 Epilogue

2120 Anchor is back awake...

Chorona Chronologies Day 11

It rained, and rained, and rained. Then it hailed. Then we had an earthquake. Supposedly. Nobody here felt it but they are saying that it was here.

We opted not to watch shows this morning just to see if it helped our moods. 

It did.

I think we have given up watching movies in the morning.

The kids did sleep in. William got up at 0615 and decided to make pancakes.
Great idea. I told him the recipe is in the binder.

He went for the buttermilk, whip the egg whites one.

He got yolk in the whites.

They didn't whip.

They did become frothy so we called it good.

He did a great job though and they were yummy.

We will be eating them for a few days because he made a bunch.

The kids enjoyed their free breakfast from the school except for Charley, his milk was sour. That was a bummer.

We opted to do PE first and that was fun. It was a pretty good workout and I am a little sore.

Then we moved onto the schedule.

We did discover that you can use the Khan Academy app on the tablet with was nice.

I let Brevick choose where he wanted to do his math.

My belly and joints hurt from laying on the floor.

 Anchor did his squats

 and his planks.

 Emmerlyn opted for a bun and dressed her friend in a onsie. By the time the panda went to bed his onsie had turned him into a cute little sea lion with flippers and everything. 

The kids did their lessons really well. We did our laundry today. Well the kids have done theirs. Mine is still on the list to finish tonight.

I got a little desperate to liven things up today so I cut my own bangs.

I don't think I will be a hairstylist when all this is over but it was a fun rush.

We chilled this afternoon then we went to Taco Bell for a free taco.

We always like to go on any adventure that is available.

Anchor also refused to take a nap this afternoon and was becoming abusive so I had to put him yelling violently and grunting like a troll into his bed.

He fell asleep on his own pretty quick so that worked out.

The kids and I spent some time watching expedition unknown so we are ready to search for King Arthur in Scotland and we wonder if the pirate Black Beard's treasure was slaves...

The sweet little things then tromped off to bed to go to bed. 

Chorona Chronologies Day 10

Yep, you read that right. We are only on our 10th weekday.

That's really a long time though when you think about it.

I mean, how long can you go without brushing your teeth?

Don't worry. We have been brushing our teeth. But not without putting up a good fight about it.

Every. Single. Day.

Anchor tried to liven breakfast up a little bit by attempting to shove his soggy cereal bites into the straw of the water bottle. 

We were all a little disgusted.

We followed our school schedule today. It went fairly well except that William still feels like he is getting jipped on the leisure time front. I reminded him that it would only be a few more days until he felt the full effects of that because school was up and coming online on Monday. *I am really unsure of how that is going to play out. I am concerned about our internet's capacity to live stream their classes.* We will have to see how it works out.

We exercised during one of our breaks. That was fun. At least a little.

Emmerlyn took Anchor out to the deck. She thought it was so cute that he was pretending to go to school with her lunch box. 

She left him out there contentedly playing.

Only to find this later that afternoon.

 She felt pretty betrayed.

 We went and picked up the free lunch for kids. We don't qualify for free lunch normally but for the chocolate milk and juice boxes it was totally worth it. Not to mention we got to leave the house. They had it set up drive up style so nobody had to get out of the car.

Anchor liked the goldfish graham crackers and a few bites of his ham and cheese sandwich. What he REALLY loved was the juice box.

You could drink out of that fun straw and then when you were bored with that you could squeeze it and juice sprayed everywhere.

That is awesome.

The worst part is, now he knows what they are so we won't be able to get by without giving him his in the future.

All the kids apparently now hate applesauce but, they DO like applesauce muffins so it all works out in the end.

 Just a quick shot of Emmerlyn showing off her cute little hairstyle with her dressed up bunny. She is really getting creative with her friend situation.

After lunch before rest time we decided to try meditating.

We started a 3 minute guided meditation about panicking.

About 30 seconds into it just after everyone closed their eyes,

Anchor threw a toy at Brevick.

He started screaming.

I went to comfort him while Anchor re-armed and started heading for Charley.

We ended the session.

We all have PTSD

I think we will just accept panicking as part of life.

Anchor was quickly snatched, bink'd, wrapped, rocked, and put to bed.

The kids chilled for the afternoon.

William used the riding lawn mower to rake the lawn. He really loved driving it around and kept asking if he should go do it again.

I think he is starting to get that itch to drive.

After rest time Emmerlyn skipped outside to play.

Only to stomp back in about 30 seconds later and declare that the rain hates her.

Sorry sweet girl. I really can't control the weather.

We ate some dinner that really wasn't good but it was food in bellies and used up the leftovers in the fridge so we will accept it.

I assigned Charley, Emmerlyn, and Brevick to do the dishes. Of course Brevick didn't work and I reminded him repeatedly that he would have to do a different job.

He had to do a different job.

This resulted in a total meltdown on the stairs.

Eventually he climbed into my lap and we snuggled and rocked.  

(I had to hide him under a blanket so Anchor didn't see. 

Anchor will take anyone out to get to my lap and he ABSOLUTELY will NOT share that spot.)

He missed his teacher, his friends, doing centers. All the fun kindergarten things that I just don't do here.

Did you know that they do work during 'centers'? I had no idea, all this time I thought that centers were like playtime. 

Apparently I have a lot to learn.

I put all the kids to bed at 1930. They all complained on the way but I didn't hear another peep out of them.

Except Anchor.

He needed a drink.

He drank 1 drop at a time from his sippy for about 30 minutes before I got him to go to bed.

He is a smart little cookie.

The 2nd Weekend

Well, tragically, the weekend was just another day. My kids were complaining on Saturday because I was going to have them do their school work. "but it is Saturday! It is the weekend" *because they are always checking to make sure they are getting their fair share of breaks* Yeah, it is but since we literally do the exact same thing everyday Saturday is just another day. 

We did take it a little easier on those days though. 

A few more movies.

More dreaming and planning.

And home church.

I love home church.

We had a testimony meeting and I really loved it. I can't quote all of the testimonies that were shared but after taking a few deep breaths Brevick stood to bear his. And I quote 

"I think that Charley should really build a toaster that butters your toast for you because when you have to butter it yourself it is dangerous because you could cut yourself with the butter knife." Then speeding up with every word  "Oh, and I know this Church is true. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen." and he dashed off to his seat to regain his composure.

It was perfect.

We also set goals with the new children and youth program and stuck them up. We are working short term weekly goals and then will progress to more longer term ones as we get the hang of it.

William is supposed to be designing some kind of a display board for these in the future so we have to make due with what we have for now.

Chorona Chronologies Day 9

Day 3 of lock down.

The weather was cold, sunny, and in the 40s. 

Whelp, there is not much to report. We didn't do much today.

Sallee had to work so when she got home we sent her straight into the shower while we cloroxed all the door knobs.

Emmeryln got to test out her mask while she rode her back. She said she didn't like it because it made her glasses fog up. Those are true words, I tell you what.

I sent the kids out to weed the last garden bed. I told them to all use their inner compass to worry about how good of a job they were doing and not get into what everyone else was doing.

You can imagine how well that went. 

We have a lot of external compasses going on here.

It took them about 2 hours and they froze.

They have been having a Nerf apocalypse ongoing all day today, so the once clean basement is effectively destroyed.

Anchor has been shouting vehement orders at all home occupants. ALL DAY.

As I was trying to put him to bed tonight he was saying a word that I did not understand and he turned around on my lap got right in my face and said it again followed by yelling and then pertly "'ello :) :)" (hello super sweetly) Then he attempted to bite my face.

I promptly turned him around and wrestled him until he calmed down. He fell asleep almost instantly once he quieted. He was so, so tired.

Ben worked steadily from the garage today and didn't even freeze so that's a win.

 See this cute little face? He was trying to kiss me open mouth style with a face full of nutella sandwich.

Gross.

But that smile though.

 His cereal slid off his plate (per his request over the offered bowl) He was angry and slammed each one back on the plate. 

Poor disobedient cereals.

We are looking forward to tomorrow, which will be exactly the same as today. I am hoping for a miracle of motivation to hit me...

Chorona Chronologies Day 8

Day 2 of the Lock Down. 

Weather was Sunny and cold.

Sigh.

0630 was just too early Anchor, too early. 

Took him downstairs to watch TV with the kids.

NO!!!

Brought him back up.

Stuck him on the couch and turned on none other than

BUPPIES!!!!!

He wanted a blanket

A binkie

And a snack.

Then he was content to chill for an hour.

I opted to cancel school today, just to keep with the spirit of things. I sent the happy children downstairs to clean their sections in the basement and William outside to finish weeding.

Ben went into the garage to begin working.

William took an hour and a half to find his other glove. 

Which he never found.

He ended up going out 1 gloved.

Emmerlyn found it in the basement about 45 minutes later.

The kids played for 5.5 hours and then cleaned for 30 minutes to get it done.

It kept them entertained for the ENTIRE day.

Best decision ever.

I did nothing.

Anchor came up for second breakfast while I was doing the dishes. Since I wasn't paying complete attention to him he opened the cabinet and brought me the bread and nutella and a knife. Then he drug the chair over to block the cabinet because he knows he is not supposed to be in it. *He really likes to stick his fingers in the butter dish in there and then smear it all over the interior and exterior of the toaster. Access has been denied.*

 He decided to enjoy his brunch with a view. He has taken a card from Andrew and Grace and now requests that all Nutella Breads are eaten on the deck.

 Allyn had a beautiful balanced breakfast complete with a DIY dirty Dr Pepper. She is really sheltering at home now.

Ben came in for hot chocolate and to rewarm his fingers. Since it is freeze your knees cold in his new office. I ordered a cute little fireplace curbside to go at Lowe's to help him out. He finds he is nice an cozy now so he could forgo Allyn's offer to purchase him a giant onsie pajamas to wear to work.

We have entered the "mom's tired of having literally 15 cups on the counter phase of the kids being home" so now they are writing their name on the cup with a dry erase marker at the beginning of the day so there is less confusion and less clutter.

What we learned today: Write your name on the cup PRIOR to filling it with your drink. Brevick attempted this procedure backwards and ice water was flung from the counter in the most extravagant manner. Anchor was super excited to help pick up the ice until his socks got wet. That was a hasty footprint soggy retreat if I ever saw one.

 I opted to go all out for dinner tonight and it was actually kind of fun. I made garlic knot crusted lasagna. Everybody ate it.

 Anchor was starving while it was baking in the oven and instead of falling for that dream again I attempted to feed him. He was mad about everything I offered finally accepting begrudgingly a half of a cookie to tide him over. Until he could have "pee-puh" (pizza) Imagine his dismay when it turned out that there was no pizza to be had.

This devastation was made complete when we took his food to sit in the freezer to cool. 

He was heartbroken sobbing.

(he was able to reign it in and fold his arms for the prayer though so he needs to work on remaining in character if he wants to be truly convincing.)

After mutilating it he came unglued yelling some indecipherable word. We offered water, pop, a new fork, a roll, another cookie, still nothing.

Finally I asked if he wanted the ranch. 

YES!!!!

I put a large puddle of ranch on his plate and then miraculously he ate all his dinner!

This was the most successful dinner we've had in awhile, if you don't count the large plop of a noodle that is still sitting under Brevick's chair.

We watched a little show while Anchor ran away from me and then they all went to sleep like the sweet little angels they really are.

It took me another hour and a half to get Allyn and Sallee down though....

Chorona Chronologies Day 7

The Lock Down Begins 

Well, The weather was sunny but cold. Loved the sunshine, not the cold.

Today we learned: that you have to play careful with babies

Anchor has finally gotten the drift and slept in again until after 7. That is my new best life.

We were ready at 0900 to begin our new school schedule. Not my new best life.

Charley's computer kept freezing.

Brevick needs 1 to 1 attention to help him understand word math problems. I did learn however that he can read more than he lets on so during his reading time I made him read a little book to me first then I read to him. He was super proud of his ability to read it and so was I. It was some nice snuggle time.

*side note, by 1000 I realized that I was not cut out for home schooling my little kids. Way too much pressure for me and I was not able to get done what I usually do.

1030 Quick ab workout with all the kids. *this was actually super fun. I am finding that I really enjoy exercising with all of my kids.*

Then while I was helping Emmerlyn get organized. Brevick was playing nicely but roughly with Anchor.

He pulled the yoga mat out from under him and now Anchor is sporting a large goose egg on the back of his skull...and probably a concussion.

After calming him down we decided that it would be best if we made cookies, you know to celebrate our first day of structured home school.

Anchor helped me out, you know by trying to grab everything with the tongs and throwing stuff on the floor.

Brevick helped by "doin' the scoopin' " Aka measuring out and putting in the ingredients.

 1130 we had gotten to this point and then received some in-tell from two fairly reliable resources that we were possibly going to go on lock down today. So the cookies and the home school were paused while we ran quickly to the store before the chaos started to grab a few important things things. Like Totinos frozen pizza because William is home full time for lunch, the snacks for General Conference and a few other odds and ends.

1230 Returned home to put away our doomsday groceries, eat some lunch

1330 listen to the Governor. 

The kids got kind of hyped up and a little bit concerned about the shelter at home order. I reminded them that essentially since school had been called off they had already been on lock down. We would work through it.

1340 debating to run to Walmart and panic buy another laptop. I debated for a minute but then saw all of the neighbors pull out of their driveways simultaneously. 

I decided to stay home.

I will rework the schedule and see if I can arrange it so that their computer times are a little staggered so that we can just work with what we have. 

*I did however get an email from the school saying that we can check out chromebooks in a couple weeks when they go live with the online school so that will be good. Glad I didn't panic buy.*

1350 Ben went back to work to meet with his staff and set everyone up to work from home. It took him 4 hours.

We decided that with the stress of this change we would forgo the rest of our school day and try to relax.

We finished making the cookies.

Complete with a little cup of dough for Ben.

We frosted them a nice pastel green in honor of germs.

 1730 Dinner time.

We did not make dinner.

We decided to have hot dogs. Those are always gross. 

Anchor threw his across the table. He is going to be the death of me. I am way too old for this.

Charley remarked as we were eating "it's kind of like cities are now just enormous prisons." There is quite a bit of truth to that statement.

1845 Decided to convert the upstairs garage to be used as Ben's office and Sallee's school room

1900 Run to Ben's work and get some shelves.

Bring them back and get to work cleaning out the garage. We froze but it was fun and Anchor had a blast running around the yard.

Brevick loved putting things in the wagon and pulling it over to the hill and then letting it roll down the hill to see if it stops before it crashes.

Good times.

2015 Finished the garage and Ben sets up office.

Kids go to bed. 

Time for decompression.

It think going forward we are going to change up the format of these because who cares if we eat lunch.

Chorona Chronologies Day 6

The sun was shining, the weather was about 50. Clear skies, except when William and Charley went for a quick run. It rained for the duration of their jog and then stopped.

Whelp. Today, today we made progress. 

Anchor woke up at 0745.

Breakfast followed as usual. 

0930 I was trying something new today. I decided to give the kids 2-3 options and then they could pick what they wanted to start with.

They all wanted to start with Khan Academy.

We only have 2 computers.

Had to draw straws.

William and Charley were not. happy.

0935 Bath time for Anchor. He streaked across the whole house to the bathtub with his chubby cheeks jiggling as he went.

We were ALL laughing by the time he got there.

He learned to NOT drink the bath water. Cuz that's gross.

We moved through the morning, doing jobs like this.

 1000 Emmerlyn is still wanting a worksheet. She said they were working on measuring in class. I asked her to describe it to me. She said they had lines on a paper and then had to measure them with a ruler. 

Oh!! We can fix this. I gave her a measuring tape and sent her to the basement with a piece of paper to measure everything.

She came back and reported. I did have to mark 1 off because she did not put inches.

I award her 10 extra credit points however because she completed this lovely hair style on her own.

William had another come apart because he feels like I have over taxed him with math homework demands. He launched into his belief that nobody was listening to the students and that he was going to be ahead in his class because other kids were not doing their work over the break etc. The more he talked the more heated he got so I decided to switch subjects on him and assigned him to writing class. I told him to write up a letter with his complaints that he can send to the school board.

He did.

I am going to get a copy of it tomorrow and I will put it on here.

I am proud of him. He researched and really spent some time on it.

Also, to solve this issue of time spent. I printed the daily schedule from Khan Academy and we read through it and tweaked it a little bit and then everybody signed it in agreement. 

Tomorrow, we will be on a schedule so there can be no backlash about time spent.

Problem solved.

Now we can move on.

1200 Kids had lunch. 

1300 Ben came home for lunch and the kids went down for rest time.

We rested, played on screens, folded laundry until 1530

Then the kids flopped around and finished their responsibilities you know, like they finally brushed their teeth.

1615 started making dinner. Anchor was going in and out on the deck. I stuck a small towel in the door so he couldn't shut himself out there. He figured it out and I had to chase him down before he launched it off the deck.

I got smarter. I just twisted the deadbolt so it can't shut.

1645 Anchor helps me unload the dishwasher and then takes it upon himself to unload the cabinet into it.

1700 Anchor brings Sallee out on the deck with him.

Then runs back inside and tries to shut her out there.

He thought he was pretty funny.

1730 Anchor starts asking for a snack

I tell him not yet, we are going to eat in just a minute.

*I was pretty excited because I knew that he would be hungry at dinner so he would eat.*

1800 The girls put in a frozen pizza for their dinner. Anchor recognizes it and begs for pizza.

1815 Ben comes home while Brevick is riding his bike wearing William's B-ball shorts and his snow boots cuz we are all about fashion here.

1820 Dinner is served. Anchor wants ketchup with his.

Eats one bite.

Spits it out and wipes his tongue. It was flippin' shredded cheese.

Stirs around his food until I get him down.

1915 Ben goes back to work.

We start watching Frozen II because we are tired and Anchor likes it.

1945 Anchor is sitting on my lap, looks up at me with a smile on his sweet little face "eat, eat bread" 

1 Nutella sandwich comin' right up. 

Who says all the restaurants are closing??

With a smear of chocolate now added to his sweet little face again he looks up and says "eat, thank you!!"

2nd Nutella bread for you baby.

Then Nutella sandwiches for everybody.

For the love. I think cooking is worthless.

2015 Vitamins, prayers (Brevick prayed and blessed all the people sick with corona which was super sweet)

2020 -everybody went to bed.

Blessed Children.

Chorona Chronologies Day 5

Day 5 of CoronaBreak. Weather was raining gray, 40s. Don't worry though we didn't let that get to us.

Spring Break is finally here. We've been waiting for months for this. This week much to the dismay of my children we are taking a break from doing nothing and adding a little more into our structure.

Maybe.

Anchor slept dreamily until 0700.

William on the other hand opted to come up to check the status of electronic permission at 0620.

Sadness.

Take Anchor down to the kids then stay in bed until 0745. *it's spring break so we are takin' it easy.*

0800 Breakfast. Scriptures. Charley books it to the bathroom saying he is going to barf.

0805 Charley's back, says he is just hungry after all.

William launches into an a heated argument while unloading the dishwasher about taking breaks from school and having to work on his math during the break. He complains that they are just reviewing anyway and when he goes back he is going to have to redo it and he's going to be bored out of his mind!! 

He then bemoans the school lunch program with it's caloric limits and the health teachers advocating that learning is best done on a full stomach. "yeah, then they feed us enough to fill up a first grade girl."

"The pizza isn't even from Dominoes like the say and then the one time it really was it didn't show up!"
Oh William, I beg, lets not resurrect that argument.

William begins looking into contacting the state school board about the lunch situation.

Charley, feeling the heat of debate rising inside of him as he is clearing the table reminds me that it is in fact spring break. As I am aware of that I listen and then tell him that we will still be doing our jobs and some studying because last week we took it pretty easy.

Well, that did it.

Que the tears as he vehemently reminds "last we we still had school on Monday. We were SHORTED a FULL day! That is not fair." Alas, I was not deterred. We will do some fun stuff too. I found a free home school class that the whole family can take. :) He was not persuaded but he did calm down when I said we would still have playtime and most importantly tablet time.

Sweet little Emmerlyn bounced in to ask if she could get a computer and get to work. I asked her if she had cleaned the bathroom yet, you know to just remind her that it needed to be done. 

"I did my best and if that's not good enough for you then I give up!!!!" 

Stomping elephant exit to her room with raging tears.

OK. Sorry I asked.

*You know those days when the time just flies by and you can't believe how fast it went? Yeah, this wasn't one of those. It was 0930.

0945 - Get everybody dressed and basic study time done. 

1115 - assign everybody an inside job.

William reminds that I said that I would clean inside and they would work outside.

1120- tell William to go finish weeding the raspberries. In the rain.

1122 - William starts washing walls.

1125- remind Emmerlyn and Brevick to not put water in the outlets (#FACEPALM)

1200- attempt to watch an online field trip about salmon.

Boring.

Everybody goes out to "fish in the rain"

Anchor shuts the door on everyone.

1245 Ben comes home for lunch.

1300 Begin PE portion of the home school family class.

Teacher is cheesy

Ben hates it.

Brevick, Emmerlyn, Charley, are dying.

William is running circles around everyone.

Anchor attempts to sit on my head while I plank.

Low blow pal, low blow.

Class was 16 minutes instead of the planned for 15. 

Kids are livid.

1330 Start home school history lesson. It's way to simple for every one except Brevick and maybe Emmerlyn who is taking notes. 

It was really churchy and not very history 'y' 

1335 tell William to go start making the rolls he wanted to try.

1400- tell the kids they can do tablets.

William is still making rolls.

Listen to him and give pointers as he putters along.

1415 William "oh, snap. That was sugar. MOM???"

William mistakenly put a cup of powdered sugar in instead of flour. Shoulder shrugging "Probably should have read the label on the container. Oh well, they are gonna be sweet. "

1430 - rolls are left to rise. William heads to do tablets.

1500 - little kids are done with tablets. 

Have a little snack which is a pound of pretzels and cookie butter.

Play some apples to apples. 

I won, go me.

1530 Anchor wakes up. In tears

Bubble Guppies, a bag of cookies and some snuggling are in order for the rest of the afternoon.

Sallee laments that the elephant has legs but not the horses or cows?? What kind of show is this?

1545 kids set up Lion King Monopoly complete with sound effects (thanks Wilson).

1600 William rolls out rolls while Emmerlyn plays his turns. 

Doesn't go well, would not advise.

1630 rolls are rising, text Ben that dinner will not be until 1800.
*this is becoming a regular occurrence, should consider changing the time permanently. 

Charley requests sliders for dinner. 1700 extra large hamburger patty goes into the oven, fingers crossed because I have no idea how its going to turn out. 

Spend an inordinate amount of time slicing and arranging the multi-shape rolls to fit together and then put the patty on. Did not plan for shrinkage which results in more slicing and configuring.

Mental note, sliders are not worth the effort.

1815 dinner on the table. Kids spend more time asking Alexa questions then eating. Anchor wants to dip his. Ketchup provided. Anchor breaks slider into crumb size pieces and dips them. Piles them nicely to the side and requests milk and a roll.

He hates sliders.

1900 

Younger kids ride bikes for 3-5 minutes.

Say all their wiggles are out.

William refuses to ride his bike because they are for transportation not recreation.

Kids go to play apples to apples.

Anchor takes Sallees phone and uses it to record her saying embarrassing things.

1930 Family Prayer, Ben goes back to work. Kids get into their pajamas

Watch Youtube videos until 1950. Vitamins, rolls. 

2000 Everyone *Anchor included* goes to bed.

2000-2015 boys fighting

2015 - Brevick comes up to tell me he can't sleep.

2015-2040 Brevick sits next to me while I type and talks about everything under the sun.

2041 Brevick hops to bed because he only has one leg. (the other one is sharing the same leg of his pajamas because I'm sure that is comfortable.)

2045 - the house is silent.

The Weekend.

ChoronaBreak weekend #1

Ben took it off because he is exhausted.

The kids got up nice and early.

We didn't.

Well, Ben didn't.

I had breakfast with Anchor at 0600. Then I had breakfast with Ben at 0900

1000 feeling a little cabin fever we took Allyn, some water bottles, snacks, and lunch and headed north to see if there was snow in Island park.

There was.

But not much.

It snowed while we were there.

Anchor watched Frozen II twice. He loves it. 

William said the drive was excessively long.

It was really nice to get out of the house though.

Sunday was lovely. I really like how the kids are participating so much in church. We had great talks. Charley wrote his all on his own. The music was touching. And the Sacrament using Emmerlyn's offering of her finest toy china was sweet and sacred.

I really love my family.

Allyn had a google hangouts ward council meeting later in the day while we were all lounging and doing puzzles. 

She forgot to mute her phone...

 We stopped to play at a park just for wiggling. The kids were upset because they couldn't really play on the toys because they were wet. 

It's not like I can change the weather??

Corona Chronologies Day 4

We made it through our first Friday.

Weather was overcast and rainy. Just as predicted. 

0715 Anchor is officially awake. It was lovely.

0726 Brevick is coming unglued because I asked him to help me unload the dishwasher before Anchor threw it all over the floor.

0730 Breakfast was pancakes and cereal. Anchor ate the top of his pancake and was over it.

William devoured almost all of the pancakes.

Charley started a new fashion trend. Which if you aren't going anywhere then I guess do what you want Mr. Frog Legs.

0815 The kids headed out to start weeding.

Anchor discovered that Sallee had put cookies in the pantry. He helped himself.

0820 Brevick is working inside with me because he wouldn't help outside.

Brevick got to load, clean the counters, table, high chair, and living room. Then he got to sweep and mop. He was thrilled to mop. Why do they always love that job?

He was livid when I asked him to get dressed.

Allyn gets ready to go for a walk. Anchor sees her getting ready to leave and frantically tries to find his coat and shoes.

Anchor joins Allyn for a ride in the stroller.  

(We didn't even try for a morning nap because I couldn't take the hope and subsequent disappointment)

0845 The kids are inside getting a drink and William is telling us all about how much harder his life was than everyone else's.

0930 Snack time. We had hot chocolate and a cookie. They liked that

0940 Everybody wants to have music playing outside. 

Gather up the old phones.

Download music. It's taking forever so I send Emmerlyn and Charley out and will send the phone out when it's ready.

0942 William's gloves are missing. He looks EVERYWHERE. He is yelling at everyone. I tell him to take a deep breath, nobody took your gloves, keep looking for them.

0945 Still looking for and yelling at the missing gloves.

0946 Have everybody help in the search

0948 gloves are found in the red thing by Emmerlyn. William had set them down in exchange for his ear buds.

0950 Sheepish William heads out to weed.

1000 Finish downloading music. Send it out to the kids

1000-1030 continuously attempt to go shower but get thwarted every time.

1045 Decide to take Allyn and Anchor to go run errands. 

Everybody back inside to chill while we go.

1200 Lunch. 

DEVASTATION at the realization that we aren't going on a picnic since it is cold.

Allow the kids to eat their lunch in the living room.

Anchor eats in his high chair but is inpatient to get down. Spits his partially chewed nutella sandwich out while I am starting to wash his hands in an effort to speed up the process.

Opts to then pick up the wad of chewed food and throw it on the floor while I am washing his face.

Good thing we mopped this morning.

Brevick commences asking every 5 minutes when Rest Time is coming.

1300 Ben goes back to work. He feels exhausted because they extended the Tax Deadline but he is still trying to get everything done.

1315 Rest time. 

Kids go to play on their tablets

Anchor goes down like a champ

I finally get to take a shower.

1325 Snack time #2

1600 let the kids do some math games on their tablets

Realize that I have no idea what to have for dinner.

Panic

1630 Emmerlyn paints

and the boys decide to go fishing.

(nobody got hurt but I'm not sure what the purpose of this game was?)

Anchor is only upset in this picture because he thought I was making him come inside. Don't you worry little pal, you are happy and contained I will not interfere.

1800 Ben came home and we went to Burger King to celebrate the March 15 tax deadline. Also so I can feel super guilty about not making dinner. The kids had fun getting out of the house for 20 minutes though.

William spent the car ride telling me all about spiders. 

I told William if he doesn't stop sharing all of this then we are going to have to deep clean our house tomorrow so I can spray for spiders. Now I'm all creeped out.

Charley assisted in the endeavor by covering William's mouth.

1900 Anchor capitalized on Ben being home by getting him to read this book.

It's his favorite.

But really just the part where the cat cries "meow" and jumps right out.

He skips all the other pages after that and starts you over at the beginning.

1910 Ben left.  I attempted to put Anchor down.

It went about like this:

 He is putting all of the baby food in the sink and moving all the paints down from the table to the chair where he then spent another 10 minutes distributing them around the kitchen.

1915 turn on Frozen II and hand out bowls of ice cream, just to keep our spirits up. 

2010 prayers, vitamins, bed.

Attempt to put Anchor down with everyone else but he slips in my arms and I drop him from about 6 inches up into his bed.

Anchor does not go to bed at this time.

2015-2130 Anchor pulls out all of the dishes in the cabinets.

Allyn gives him some dry cereal to snack on but then he yells at her for not getting any milk.

I beg her not to put milk in unsupervised cereal.

Anchor pours the dry cereal from dish to dish and on the floor. 

He brings me a bowl and a lid with 7 cocoa pebbles in it and wants me to put the lid on it. 

It doesn't fit.

I apologize for being unable to help him and he takes it calmly from me.

Looks me in the eye and dumps the cereal on the floor.

Throws the dish.

I scoop up the now livid 19 month old. 

Wrap him up.

Rock him

GENTLY lay him in his bed

Blessedly, he goes to sleep.

Intend to get right to blogging and then go to sleep.

Talk to Allyn for 2 hours about doomsday.

Game closet is still closed for cleaning.

House is still unorganized.

Weekend is here!!!

Corona Chronologies Day 3

Corona Break day 2. The weather was 40s cold and gray. 

Thankfully no one else has a stomach bug.

0601- Why does the day have to start SO early??

Get Anchor out. Head downstairs for TV

Find open package of Belvitas on the TV stand and give one to Anchor

Back to bed.

Can't fall asleep but lay there anyway because I am just not ready yet

0730 - Breakfast. At least we are consistent.

Put Anchor in his high chair and attempt to feed him bites of cereal. 

He wants the whole bowl.

"NO! Not that kind"

Pour him a new bowl so he can pull the individual cereals out and lay them on his tray before eating them.

Brevick gets done eating before the end of scriptures and carries his bowl to the sink.

Sloshes milk over the edge.

Lots of laughing.

Brevick cleans it up.

Floor is sticky all day.

0815 morning jobs assigned. Kids dying over their chores.

Give the sticky baby a bath

0830 -Emmerlyn reminds me that we are going to do a puzzle today. 

Go down and get one.

Anchor wants to go outside when Ben leaves for work.

0845-0915 Anchor crying trying to get outside. Its 35 degrees 

Attempt to put Anchor down for a nap. Repeatedly.

Anchor screaming constantly. Brevick trying to console him by saying his name over and over again.

0930 give up on nap time.

Help Brevick get set up on ABCYA so it is more age appropriate. He finds a game that is way to easy but has lots of fun adding numbers and racing. 

Emmerlyn does her math on Khan and we work on place values.

William and Charley take 6 years to clean their room and brush their teeth.

0949 snack time. Anchor finds a sucker and has no idea what to do with it but proudly walks around showing it to people.

Kids eat and then read for a few minutes.

1000- Allyn and Sallee are back at organizing their room and loudly vocalizing their opinions. Inherit many hangers from the clothing purge.

Anchor dumps them all over the living room.

1015- start Emmerlyn's puzzle. Brevick wants to do his own puzzle and treks down to the game closet.

Game closet has an avalanche. Brevick heard whimpering downstairs. 

Head down to rescue him.

Pull Brevick out and shut the door with ninja reflexes. 

Tell everyone to NOT open the game closet.

Mental note to reorganize it later today. AFTER nap time.

Emmerlyn, Brevick, and I complete his puzzle.

Anchor unloads the cabinets.

 1100-Brevick attempts to go play outside but it is too cold.

William and Charley are working on their math.

1200 - Lunch. Anchor is slap happy exhausted and trying to hit William with his food.

1300 - Ben goes back to work.

Start to get nervous about current social distancing and what ifs.

Decide to go to the store and get a few things.

AFTER a nap

1400 - venture out to the store. Been in the house so long the light hurts my eyes. 

Purchase far to many things like junk food that we never buy. *why do we have to eat our anxiety?*

1600 - Drop off groceries to DJ and baby. Heart breaks as we drive away without talking to her or snuggling baby.

1630 text Ben and tell him dinner will not be until 1800. 

Start working on dinner while the kids put away the groceries.

Find groceries stashed all over the house for the rest of the night.

Attempt to figure out video calling on the Alexa.

Accidentally call DJ and Allyn.

Decide to figure that out later.

1715 William and Charley asked to clean out old food in the fridge while Emmerlyn and Brevick play with slime. 

Food gets dropped all over but at least they have fun doing.

Anchor sits in his high chair devouring a cookie with glee.

William turns on music to blast our ears and gives us a run down on all the spiders he has read about.

1730 - turn off music because we are losing our minds

Tell the kids that we will try to go have a picnic lunch tomorrow somewhere secluded just so they can get out.

Allyn is starving and eats her dinner early.

Accidentally squish Allyn's potato while handing it to her.

1745 load the dish washer with nasty fridge dishes. William takes Anchor down to play. Charley pesters Emmerlyn and Brevick then goes to read.

1800 Dinner. 

Accidentally squish another potato.

Nobody really wanted baked potato.

Step in Anchor's discarded potatoes.

1845 Send the kids out to weed. 

Brevick comes in because his legs hurt. He gets sent back out.

Charley and Emmerlyn work surprisingly well together.

William comes in livid because Brevick didn't do anything.

Remind William that we knew going into it that Brevick was not going to be helpful and that he would have a replacement job in the morning.

2000 Have vitamins and family prayer. William goes to bed fuming. Brevick jumps down each step so apparently his legs were all better?

2000-2030 attempt to get Anchor to sleep.

Anchor keeps telling me he is hungry. 

Try to feed him a fruit pouch which he refuses.

He is crying and I ask him what he wants to eat. Tears are instantly gone and a wide smile lights his face. "cookie. me. eat cookie." 

No Anchor, no cookies right now, it's bedtime.

2035 sobbing.

2037 Convince him to eat a waffle but remind him that we have to cook it.

Hold him while the waffle warms up in the toaster. He intently watches it.

2040 give up on getting him to bed and put him down to run around with his waffle

2115 finally he goes to sleep.

Realize that I haven't bought any water so if there is a crazy emergency we are going to dehydrate...probably going to have to go out tomorrow...

2130 Check the weather for tomorrow. Its going to rain.

Who's going to tell the kids that there is no picnic?

Corona Chronologies Day 2

Corona Break day 2. It was overcast and drizzly all day, a bitter wind chilled the 40 degree weather. Hopes were high for a different day.

0550 - Anchor wakes up, fussing then crying. Groaning I roll out of bed to collect him before the whole house is up at 0550.

Sit down to rock him, he tells me he wants to eat. I ask him if he wants a fruit pouch. "yeah" he says with just the right mixture of sleepiness and enthusiasm.

0600 - fruit pouch opened. Lid given to him to hold. Attempt to feed it to him. 

0601 - pouch is rejected.

0610 - Hear the boys getting up downstairs and turning on the TV. Take Anchor down. Pass out Belvitas

0615 - back to bed.

Unable to fall back to sleep

0730- gather kids back up for breakfast.

Allyn and Sallee join us. 

Anchor eats Sallee's food while waiting for his eggs.

Put Anchor into his high chair and attempt to feed him.

He wants to do it himself so I give him the plate and fork.

Attempt to really pay attention to the narrator reading the scriptures.

Anchor stabs his mouth with the fork

Feeling betrayed with heart broken tears on his face he removes all food and drink from his sight by throwing it on the floor as fast as he can while I am trying to get him out.

Snuggle him for a minute then let him go eat Ben's cereal.

He comes back and eats mine too.

Decide to let the kids kind of float in the morning to see what they gravitate to doing.

0815 kids are in the garage working on wood projects

0816 Brevick comes up crying because he can't figure out how to make a sword.

0818- lose Ben to the garage

0836- Sallee texts to tell us that she is not going on her spring break trip to visit Wilson. 

Mental note to go get a kiddie pool so she can recreate the experience in the back yard while being quarantined. 

0845- Anchor goes down for a much needed nap

0846 - Send a recon mission to the garage for Ben so he can go to work

Ben comes up with Emmerlyn, wood tracing, and cutting instructions for her bird house.

Direct Ben to go get ready for work

Head to the garage to cut Emmerlyn's wood.

0910 - Ben goes to work (Don't everybody panic about his sloppy hours he worked until 0100 so he is getting plenty of hours. His farm boy hands are itching to get dirty these days and he has many projects spinning in his head to start when 4-16 rolls around)

0911- Kids are ready to work on their math. 

Computers are going fast. Sincere regret that William did not get the other computer up and running.

Switch Emmerlyn and Brevick to tablets

William remains working in the garage trying to find the right adhesives for his knife handle

Get ready to Exercise.

0916 Start exercising. Force Charley, Emmerlyn, and Brevick to workout with me. Invite Allyn, she refuses.

Kids think that they are dying. Encourage them. Be grateful for the couch blocking my terrible push ups from their eyesight.

0926 - finish workout. Everybody lays on the floor trying not to die. Emmerlyn says her legs are broken.

0928 - drinks all around

0930 - kids get going on their school work. Mom takes a shower, Anchor is sleeping blissfully.

1010- Anchor is awake. Just starting my getting ready for the day routine when Emmerlyn walks in and covers her surprise "woah Mom, you..your outfit looks nice"

Decide to put myself together.

1020- Anchor gets out of bed.

SNACK TIME

Give Anchor a nutella sandwich, don't even attempt to put him in the high chair. Let him wander around yelling at people while he eats.

1045- Finish putting myself together while Anchor knocks on the bathroom door and Charley attempts to install windows on the old computer.

1100 - Brevick takes Anchor on a walk. I watch the from the front porch.

Anchor screams at him every time Brevick attempts to turn them around. Brevick finally gets coming back and Anchor stops to steal rocks from everybody's yards. 

Brevick tries to tug him forward, Anchor yells at him and throws the rock.

Finally I go bail Brevick out and carry a screaming Anchor back to the house.

1115-1130 Anchor repeatedly tries to open the door and grabs people's hand in an effort to get back outside.

1135- begin filling out census info with Charley looking over my shoulder

Charley mocks me when I almost mark Brevick a girl

Charley applauds me when I finish at after only taking 8 minutes. *that takes forever when you have 9 people in the household.*

1200 - decide it's time for a break. Turn on Bubble Guppies. Give all kids an OREO. Let the older kids do tablets

1330 - Lunch.

Make Mac and Cheese. Brevick asks continuously when it's going to be done. Tell him to go play it will be done in like 10 minutes.

Brevick tells Alexa to set a timer for 10 minutes.

Timer goes off while I am stirring in the cheese and dishing it into bowls.

Kids race to eat.

Put Anchor in high chair. He scoops all noodles into his lap. 

1340 Try not to cry at the yellow mess.

Thank Allyn for the Coke in the fridge

Look at Emmerlyn who is swirling her food around. 

She doesn't feel good.

Send her to the couch with a bowl.

1430 Ben is leaving for work.

Anchor is ready to go down for a nap

Emmerlyn starts throwing up.

1445 -Get Emmerlyn resettled.

Put Anchor into his bed.

Let kids do more screens

1630 text Ben and tell him the hamburger is still frozen. We are having pizza. 

Attempt to not feel guilty.

1640 William's tablet dies. Tell them rest time is over. Send them out to scoop up all the old dog poop where the kennel used to be.

Fighting, crying, assigning. laughing

Have kids do an assessment on my parenting skills.

Comes back with mixed reviews.

Anchor sleeps blissfully until 1700

1714 Ben comes home with food while Anchor is trying to get Sallee to take him outside.

Anchor yells pizza and runs to the kitchen

1715 Dinner. 

Anchor miraculously eats in his high chair.

Lots of laughing.

1800 - Boys head back outside to finish. Emmerlyn gets in the shower. Anchor watches "Buppies" downstairs.

1830 Ben goes back to work.

More TV

William does math homework for 8 minutes.

Chat with Allyn about hobbies

1940 Allyn decides to reorganize her piano books

1942 Allyn decides to rearrange her and Sallee's room. 

1945 Allyn asks Sallee if she can go through her clothing collection. Sallee says NO

1955 Allyn begins bringing drawers of clothes out of the bedroom

2000 - say prayers, Emmerlyn says she loves that when we kneel like this our legs look like flower petals. *I can't say I have ever thought about it like that.*

Give kids vitamins. Anchor throws his on the floor. Send kids to bed.

Sit to rock Anchor

2015 Allyn begins going through Sallee's clothes. 

Anchor watches intently with a sippy he refuses to part with. Cheers her on

2030- put a yelling Anchor in his bed.

Allyn tells Sallee she can go to bed after she puts all of her clothes away. 

2045 Allyn removes furniture from bedroom and then loses interest and leaves stragglers in the living room to be dealt with tomorrow.

 Overall I would say the day was calmer than yesterday but I think we had too much screen time. 

Lets see what happens on day 3 .... unless it's going to be that my other kids end up with a stomach bug. in which case, I don't want to find out.