Corona Chronologies Day 33

 I've been thinking all day today was Saturday.

In case you are wondering, it's not.

It's Thursday.

The kids forgot all of their google meets today.

Mom of the year right here.

We set out bright and early to get the last of those awful rose bushes out before the rain came.

My genius of a husband looped the tow strap around them and then pulled the bulk of them out with the car.

I wish we had thought of that last year.

William and I wrestled them into the trailer while Anchor yelled at us from my bedroom window. 

He kept yelling William and then pointing indignantly at him. 

He was mad because William got to go outside and he didn't.

We got them all loaded up then gathered up Anchor to take them to the dump.

The kids were working on their school work and they had most of it done by the time we got back.

Sweet Anchor complained all the way to the dump. Just grumpin' nothing overly serious. He was pretty enthralled with the tractor there though so he was glad that he went.

I on the other hand, hate going to the dump.

That smell is going to kill me one of these days.

Getting the bushes out of the trailer was worse than getting them in. 

I have scratches all over.

Anchor fell asleep on the way home and was mouth open, snoring softly, out when we got there that I could not bring myself to wake him up to bring him inside so Ben took him to go get gas.

He woke up about 4 minutes later.

Bummer.

After lunch we got our fence permit submitted (hopefully, there is no system feed back so I might have to call them tomorrow to know if they got it.)

Then worked out some details for our yard work plans tomorrow. 

After rest-time we loaded up the kids to go get some rocks and have a short social distanced, outside visit at the Rydalch's.

Anchor required shoes and a hat, just so he was prepared for any circumstances on this go trip.

The kids packed some snacks which they shredded all over the car and we spent the ride playing the alphabet game, the car color game, and the one where you have to name grocery store items that start with that letter.

None of these games ended in tears but they did end in fighting and cheating accusations. 

Anchor loved their backyard and the kids liked swinging on the old swing set.

We picked up the rocks which turns out, William is getting almost as strong as I am and I think is going to pass me up soon.

How did that happen?

We got caught in a torrential rainstorm on the way home which was blowing us all over and we could barely see. Charley helped the situation by yelling "we are all going to die!!" in a strangled voice.

Thankfully Ben had everything under perfect control.

The double rainbow at the end was lovely. We've all given up on the pot of gold but wondered if a rainbow was struck by lightning wouldn't that be cool?

We ate a super quick dinner and marched everyone to bed.

Tomorrow will be a busy day.

Probably mostly for Ben.

Corona Chronologies Day 32

This morning began earlier than I would have liked.

Anchor agreed.

He woke up mad.

0630 was too early for him after having a bit of a rough night.

After some snuggling he came around to the idea of being awake for the day.

We also discovered that he had his first sliver thanks to spending many hours on the deck.

He did great and it came right out.

Then he wanted to test out the poky-pullers (tweezers) out on everybody in the room. Starting with Ben's arm hair.

They had mini pancakes from the school for breakfast which turned out pretty good and everybody ate them.

Anchor loved them right up until he didn't and then crumbled them up and went to toss them so we frantically gathered up the ones he had left before he could destroy them all.

He was quick to move out to his water and was having a good time trying to figure out his shadow. We supplied him with a full water to save him on the fridge begging for water.

It worked well.

He was soaking wet by 0915.

Emmerlyn and I took a minute to pamper ourselves with some avocado face masks that Emmerlyn mixed up herself.

This was when we were all ready to get going.

This is after it was applied.

Brevick thought he would jump in and get his nose whipped into shape.

The boys made fun of us the whole time, telling Emmerlyn she was was going to turn into a zombie.

We had a rough go today with some VERY spotty internet and a toddler who's nap was NOT very restful. He begged for Buppies but we could not oblige. 

Eventually the internet was fixed and I turned it on without telling him.

I am so glad I did because this was his instant reaction as soon as he heard the music

"BUPPIES, yay BUPPIES"

*Yes he is wearing his hat because we are really living in an indoor outdoor situation and he needed to be ready at all times.

The kids and Ben spent time outside this evening digging out some of the sage brush in the back half of the yard while Anchor and I threw stuff off the deck, ate snacks, and made dinner.

Since the kids worked so hard we told Brevick that we could finish watching Black Panther tonight.

We asked him to turn it on and smart kid drug it back so it started right after the opening credits.

We are going to be here all night.

Happy 14th!!!!!

Um-hmm you read that right. Today is our 14th Wedding Anniversary.

I don't have a picture at the ready, I'm going to have to go back and find one and then upload it. I know if you go back to the beginning of this blog you can find some wedding pics, in case you wanted to look at our young and beautiful selves.

It's been a ride this far we have...

Had 5 kids.

2 Miscarriages.

1 surgery

Many tooth crowns.

Allergies, lots of them.

Road rash.

4-5 cases of pink eye and 1 kid that faked it at school and got sent home (*William*)

1 kid to get her head glued back together.

bought 3 houses.

sold 2 homes.

Owned appox 11 cars

Put many, many, miles on all of our cars.

Had 4 dogs

1000 cats

1 bird

1 pig (short lived)

Graduated with undergrad degrees.

Passed the NCLEX

Ben earned his Masters.

Passed the CPA exam

Had 10 jobs

Got out of Idaho

Got sent back to Idaho

ate piles of cooking mistakes

Learned to cook for an appropriate number of people

Had so, so many sleepless nights

Had lazy Saturdays

Demo'd and then replaced an entire kitchen on the 4th of July

Had millions of opportunities to forgive.

Learned to pick our battles

Learned to be best friends.

Dreamed up an amazing future.

Encouraged, laughed, studied, cried, snapped, and sympathized to the point that our hearts and souls are full.

I am grateful for the opportunity that we have had to create this family that I love so much. 

The road is not easy, in fact I think it almost gets harder every single day. 

I think that in the end marriage really makes you dig deep to figure out who you are going to be...

All my love Ben, and here's to the next 14

This is our lovely selves now.

ish.

If you want to see us through the years look at this blog as the web version so you can click on all the older posts in the side bar. 

We are pretty awesome.

*I think this is my best look of all the ones I have had*

Prepare yourself, this one is Ben's favorite.

There, here's a few to get you in the mood.

Corona Chronologies Day 31

That's a full month of weekdays people. 

A MONTH

*Yep, I've been watching some tween shows so I repeat for emphasis.*

This is how we began our day, getting a drink without using your feet. Anchor scooted across the floor on his belly to get here.

We went to clean out William's locker this morning, He had nothing in it so that was a waste of time but at least he's not a hoarder.

It was Brevick's turn to get a fun hairstyle and get to pick a movie. He picked Black panther, and a Mohawk.

I had an excellent helper

 Who also got a cute hairdo too.

Brevick was a little bummed because his hair fell within about 5 minutes. I just don't have the hair products to take on something that structured.

He liked getting it done and watching the show though.

He wants an Afro next.

 Anchor added bowls and more cups to his water operation so now we have no dishes.
Literally, everyone had to get their dish for dinner off the back porch.

Emmerlyn has been working on her back-handspring on the mattresses that are still in our living room and so now Anchor likes to be flipped over on there too.

I thankfully am still able to spot her so I think we can keep working on that.

Anchor however has discovered the hard way that mattresses have edges and if you go too far you fall off.

On your face.

He got feelin' better with some buppies though so he's good.
See.

Ben and I went out for our anniversary today and by out I mean we went and picked up food and then ate it on a blanket at the park.

#thankscorona.

The weather was lovely though and so was the company.

The kids stayed home and ate cheese noodles which apparently weren't enough they only had "like half a bowl each give or take a few noodles" *William*

They had to have heaven forbid, some sides.

Corona Chronologies Day 30

First of all, this Monday went by SO SLOW.

Second of all, I can't believe it has been 30 weekdays of this craziness.

The kids worked hard today and got their stuff done early so they could chill.

We also guessed numbers to see who's week it was going to be to load the dishwasher. As you can imagine, it is Brevick's turn.

He was NOT excited and honestly, I wasn't either because I have to be a lot more involved helping him. He did it mostly by himself today though and after throwing a good solid fit he did a great job. Just like I knew he could.

Anchor enjoyed his new dining accommodations I think he could move out there. He kept saying there was a bee but we are not sure if he means a bird or a bug. We are going to have to teach him to differentiate between the two so we know what he is talking about.

He ate a couple bites of his sandwich but then noticed that Brevick was eating a nutella sandwich. He threw his over for the better option.

He was lining up all of his little guys after lunch and I was trying to get a picture of him tucking them under his chin and then carrying them over but when he saw me try this is what I got.

Also a cute look.

I think he thought that there was going to be someone in the phone for him to see and talk to.

He saw himself though and was happy with the view.

We spent the afternoon practicing tumbling, football snaps, jumping on the tramp, and playing with slime and were pretty tuckered out.

We sat down for some house hunters and a trial run at what Charley would look like with his perm.

This is post curling.

*he looks SO sweet!!*

These are after fluffing.

 He liked it. A lot. We are going to get our ducks in a row so we can do it for him.

Anchor went down to bed really well.

Then he came back out.

He has just been returned and here's to hopin' he will stay down for the night!

The 6th Weekend

We hit the ground running on Saturday morning with some yard work. All good weather weekends should start with yard work don't-cha know.

We started pulling rocks off the rock garden (we are planning to dissemble that this summer) we also started raking up the black bark so we can exchange it for a more cohesive all river rock look. Anchor was livin' his best life outside and loved carrying the rocks and trying to rake the lawn. He climbed up to the top of the rock fountain and then belly slid all the way down. He didn't stop sliding when he reached the bottom and scooted all the way to the grass. *I don't think he realized he had hit the bottom and didn't want to risk falling.*

Charley got the lawn all fertilized so hopefully the lawn is lush and green all summer.

We ate a quick lunch and then loaded up the kids to go fishing. They were super excited to fish because it has been such a long time! The kids were supposed to sleep in the car on the way there but I don't think William every stopped talking and then Charley woke everyone up to hand out chocolate. 

No naps.

Fishing was fun and made all the better but not catching anything. They had a lot of bites but nobody was really paying that much attention.

 This baby was in HEAVEN. He wanted to get right down by the "water bottle" (the name for all water no matter what it is contained in)

 He spent the whole time throwing rocks in to see what kind of splash he could make.

(please excuse my finger, I was perched on a rock trying to keep my baby out of the water and Brevick from hooking me.)

Brevick did hook his shirt sleeve so that was close.

When we were done we drove out a little farther to Daniels reservoir and we think we will try there sometime.

Allyn and Sallee worked really hard and finished their Harry Potter marathon Saturday evening so they felt pretty accomplished.

Doesn't she look lovely with her braids taken out. She really felt pretty. and was flippin her hair all around.

Sunday we sported some variety in the hair style and shirt colors it was nice variety.

We held our family church earlier in the day because the kids had a primary drive by parade that was at our usual time. 

Some people were not quite ready to get up and going.

But the lovies were so sweet.

Anchor was desperate for a hat when we got in the car because he thought he was going to get out.

He ended up very disappointed.

He looks like he was sweetly sharing his water bottle with Emmerlyn but he was demanding that she take a drink.

Anchor also learned how to climb up on a chair and then onto the table today. Once he got up there the only thing for him to do was color on William's school borrowed chrome book of course.

This is after I wiped off most of it.

Thankfully it came all the way off with an alcohol swab.

We now keep the chairs laid down under the table *thanks William for good idea!*

We spent Sunday night cleaning up barf because Charley came down with a most unexpected stomach bug.

We are ALL tired today.

Corona Chronologies Day 29

Good news, the breakfast packets came with 2 balls for Anchor

He really had fun throwing these little oranges around.

We spent the day doing the usual. 

Some school.

Some changing of profile pictures.

Some movie time for Anchor who didn't sleep last night.

Some tablets this afternoon.

Some scooter riding.

Some crashes.

Poor William has some pretty gnarly road rash on his hands and shoulder. He is NOT looking forward to raking the yard again tomorrow...

He did work hard on finding s a fishing spot so we are going to have to go scout out a few places tomorrow.

The kids also vacuumed the basement, I am not exactly sure what they sucked up but the basement smelt terrible.

I am definitely ready for the weekend.

Which is exactly the same as all the other days.

Corona Chronologies Day 28

Today was uneventful. 

I have little write.

The kids spent an inordinate amount of time changing their profile pictures on their computers. They were pretty proud of themselves.

Emmerlyn finished up all of her schoolwork for this week and so she gets a break day tomorrow.

Charley is hypothesizing about the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Brevick was like trying to wrangle an octopus but we got the work done.

William worked hard but every time he made a comment in his class he shouted it because the borrowed computer does not have a good microphone. We were all going insane.

Anchor, well, he colored a lot. Worked on his water dumping which he has now discovered he can put his hands in the water filled cups and play IN the water. He is really good though, I just have to remind him to wipe up the water and he toddles off to find the nearest dishtowel and cleans it right up.

He likes to eat snacks.

He took my pickle at dinner and ate one bite then buried it on his plate with his other not to be eaten foods.

He studied with Sallee and helped her write on her whiteboard. Then he wrote on himself. Then she took the marker.

He sobbed complete with real tears.

He went down to bed really well but came out screaming 3 minutes later. Apparently he was as ready as we thought.

We watched a movie tonight because the wind was blown' so we didn't want to go anywhere.

I also made the kids clean the basement today which resulted in a lot of death threats.

Allyn came out of her room for a moment to day so she lives yet.

Ben is back working in the office because some things just can't be done from home.

Corona Chronologies Day 27

Well, to begin with the positive, I did not have to open the blog in a second tab to remember what day we are on after I had looked at it.

So that's a win.

Emmerlyn has been getting Anchor dressed pretty much every morning for the last couple of weeks. Today she wanted to change his diaper which she did all by herself and did a great job. She brought him into my room for me to check and then turned to take him back to finish the job and that's when he got away.

 It took some substantial chasing to catch the running naked baby but she did it. Then after some wrangling and a lot of no's and screaming she was able to get him dressed and ready for the day.

They were both ready for rest time after that.

The day went on much the same as it always does. 

It was Pop day which is Brevick's favorite day, he is always calculating when pop day is coming next so he doesn't miss it.

The kids got their schoolwork done nice and early and had most of the day to relax. They all had a good rest time this afternoon.

William started and finished Animal Farm today. He wasn't overly impressed but it did inspire him to start asking more questions which I guess is the point of that book. (It really wasn't my favorite).

Emmerlyn was leaned over on the couch showing the boys something and uttered the phrase "Uh, Anchor, don't draw on my butt." 

That is exactly what he was trying to do with his pencil in hand.

We are working hard with him to just draw on paper but we have a REALLY long way to go yet. As illustrated in the above quotations he tries to draw on everything. 

Our kitchen has glitterafied which isn't all that uncommon but it seems to have gotten extra out of control today. 

Brevick learned that we don't just blind dump glitter into the garbage can.

Also the table is covered in glitter.

And the hot glue gun.

Anchor moved his water dumping operation outside today which makes for a drier kitchen. He also started adding some mix-ins like chocolate milk just to liven things up.

He was devastated this morning when Ben went to work without him. Then his day got worse when it was too windy to play outside.

This afternoon he was trying to convince Sallee to give him a "nack" (snack, aka Easter candy) and felt betrayed when she refused *because I was literally cooking dinner* He broke into heart wrenching tears when she left him to go to dance.

He didn't eat dinner.

He plastered himself in it.

So he got to go get in the bath.

He peed on the floor on his way there.

Which made him distressed.

So he had to splash.

A lot.

When I told him it was time to get out he dove down to get as far away from me as he could.

And squirmed and wriggled and literally made me fish him out.

Then he screamed the whole way to his room and the entire time I was dressing him.

Brevick then taught him how to throw the most excellent dramatic type of fit which he practiced with dedication on the mattress that is still in the living room for a good 20 minutes.

It involved lots of no's, some loud shout/grunts, and large arm flaying flopping.

Just in case you wanted to know.

William wanted to go scope out a new fishing spot that he found on Google so we all loaded into the car and I asked him where we were going. He had forgotten his tablet.

He ran back in and grabbed it.

Came out but then couldn't get to it because we didn't have internet in the car. 

So after about 20 minutes of sitting in the car we finally pulled out.

We never found the fishing spot.

We did see a bunch of wild turkeys with ruffled feathers and everything.

So we are going with a win.

Allyn has been in her room all day.

I think we lost her.

Chorona Chronologies Day 26

26 guys. That's a lot of days.

So we had the usual morning. The kids are getting the hang of their schoolwork and getting it done before lunch pretty much everyday.

Brevick did his in my bedroom while I was trying to get ready for the day in the bathroom. He would call out to me about every 30 seconds to tell him how to do the next problem and was jamming out to the music in his head phones. I loved hearing him sing at the top of his lungs. Next time though, I think I will just have him bring it into the bathroom so that I can be a little more productive at the same time. I will NEVER teach kindergarten when this is all over.

Emmerlyn also had some questions about what she was working on. So now we do math like this.

Who says we can't adapt.

Anchor spent his morning trying to swindle people out of their whopper robin eggs (or as Brevick sweetly calls them and I will never correct him 'Easter eggs") He made out like a bandit and was pretty bummed when we ran out. Needless to say, he was not hungry for lunch.

I finally coaxed him downstairs to play so I could help the kids finish up and after a little bit I heard him fall down the stairs.

I ran down to find him at the bottom. Crying. The Emmerlyn started crying because she felt so bad for him. I did too poor fella, however, when I picked him up he started frantically saying "ball" and pointing wildly all over the place and I realized what had really happened. He HAD fallen down the stairs BECAUSE he was trying to come up the stairs carrying 2 footballs (real size) plus a mini basketball.

I still felt bad for him but hopefully he learned to only try to bring what he can hold. I also lost a little sympathy for him as the balls have been flying around our living room for the rest of the day.

It was a great day for bikes and the kids road them all over the neighborhood this afternoon, just enjoying the freedom. 

We tried portabello mushroom burgers today for dinner and Charley announced that he felt sorry for all vegetarians because those were disgusting. Brevick actually ate his dosed in a heavy dose of ketchup.

They were not anyone's true favorite so thankfully I made these beauties to go with it.

Thanks to William and Ben for grillin' them up.

We went geocaching again this evening but turned up empty handed. The positive was the kids got a lengthy scooter ride, Anchor got a good walk and then a backpack ride, and we saw 4 little rabbits which were adorable.

William is starting to get the itch to go fishing so next up on our outing agenda will probably be to find a good fishing spot which also includes a good place to throw rocks into the water.

Anchor was pretty adamant about watching buppies tonight but was pretty tired out and went willingly to bed.

Corona Chronologies Day 25

Monday. Again.

Brevick did not get his school work done today. He got about half of it.

It was such a nice day though that he just could not be contained. 

I had to go pick up their homework packets today so it threw us off and we just didn't get it back together.

Some of the aids from Emmerlyn's and Brevick's classes were there and the were saying how much the missed the kids and how hard it was to end the school year without getting that closure. I totally agree.

William set some academic goals to help keep him on track for the rest of the school year. I think he is having a hard time staying motivated to put in the effort so I am trying to figure that out.

Sallee and Allyn tried to slip out on a walk but Anchor caught and questioned them until they agreed to take him. 

He also talked Ben into feeding him an applesauce pouch which he promptly squeezed out all over Ben. Ben took it away and Anchor cried brokenheartedly. 

Anchor has also discovered a love for looking out the window at the birds bathing in the mud pits. They fascinate him.

We are attempting to branch out in our interests and find new things to do as a family and today we discovered geocaching. That was fun. 

I had intended to stay in the car but Anchor did not so I went geocaching in my pajamas. (So much for Ben's new rule) 

The kids are now working on making their own so they can be part of the adventure. It was a fun way to add some variety to our lives. 

When we told everyone to go get in the car Anchor booked it into the mudroom and came out with his hat on.

This hat.

I did not make him change.

(*look at my elbow you can see the bracelet Emmerlyn finger knitted for me, I might need to resize it a little bit. She is really getting her craft on. She also made a leash and collar for her stuffed dog today. Which Anchor stole.)

 Everybody doing some searching.

We told Anchor that it was time to start calming down for bed so this is what he did.

Followed by lots of jumping and wrestling and laughing, and all things non conducive to falling asleep.

*the mattress is in here from the Harry Potter weekend because Ben was vegging on the floor.

Sallee has been working hard to convert her winter wardrobe over to her summer one which took the better part of the evening. 

Allyn escaped the house tonight.

It is nice to have Ben done with work at 5. I love it when Tax Season ends.

Now if only Corona would end.