corona-weekend #3

A love bear Just some of the cards the girls made to send to a local assisted living home (they've since made more) Abigail video chatting with with her friend Amber Waiting for a drive-by "visit" with cousins :-D Using up some cranberries that have been in the fridge for a loooong time Yummm! Tasty chicken Tikka Masala The girls playing some Minecraft in Mike's dungeon office (where he's been working every day) Watching a Sunday morning Mass, streamed from Sydney, Australia on Saturday evening with friends from Pittsburg. This just happened to be the same church Mike attended Mass when he went to Australia a couple of years ago! The boys made this "floating castle" The kids cleaned the basement and spent practically the rest of the weekend down there playing. Mike took a couple of pics when he went back to feed animals today... our new basement is dug! It'll be nice to have the extra basement space for the kids to run around and play in during our Wisconsin winters! Abigail and I went on a walk/ride on some paths near our house today- so refreshing! We enjoyed an evening of trying out delivery from Grubhub for the first time, playing games, and just being together, as we have for the past couple of weeks (And mom did lesson plans and editing for Abigail's illustration project) :-)

Happy Passion Sunday! We are blessed.

Demo Day! (and a cute surprise)

I remember first meeting with a builder back in 2016 with our initial hopes of adding a sunroom off the back of our house. We've since met with other draftsmen, builders, etc., changed our ideas and plans to something that would best accommodate our growing family- and make our current space more usable. After initial hang-ups of waiting for a new sewer plan to be written up and a permit signed by the state, they are finally diving into project, and the whole east side of our house was demolished today.

My friend who had the same builder build her house said they encountered the same starting delays but that it all moved very quickly after that. We were cautious about moving forward and seriously considered just delaying it until after this whole coronavirus mess blows over, but we ultimately decided to just go ahead and begin. We're already out of there, so if they need to suspend work for a time, it's not a huge deal. As of now, construction workers are all considered "essential," so we're going with it.

I was planning to take the kids over to witness some of the demo today (from the safety and distance of our van) while I fed animals. This morning, our builder Neal called at 7:30 to say if we wanted to come see any demo, we should come soon- they'd started, and it was going to go fast. The kids are out of practice getting out of the house with any sense of urgency, but we did get there for the tail end of it, when they were cleaning up and filling the dumpsters. It was a shock to see it like that- amazing how fast demolition is, when the building takes so long!

Here's the before again: And from today... I didn't have time to stay and take any more pics- they needed me to move my van so another dumpster could be brought up, but we will for sure get more pictures of the ongoing progress when we return to feed animals at least every other day.


Here's the short, blurry video Neal sent of when they first began demo this morning (this is the family room that's going- the garage had already been taken off).

The kids thought it was pretty cool to see. Abigail said it made her sad, but she knows she will love it when they're all done. It was kind of sad to see it all black and gloomy with the siding stripped off of the side and all of the rubble, but I'm just glad to see that things are finally happening! Exciting times...


Speaking of exciting times, on my facebook memories today popped up a bunch of new baby goat photos. Our two doelings were born exactly two years ago today, on March 26. Those were some fun memories, and I kept thinking of our does (the mom, Fanny, and Clover, the one twin that survived) throughout the day- they are with our handyman's family and have been expected to kid soon. I got this picture from him today, saying that our Fanny had two doelings this morning, on the same day she kidded two doelings two years ago! What a coincidence! I only hope she's a better mama to them, or my mom said their half-sister might have to raise them :-D (Clover is expected to kid any day as well). I wish we had baby goats right now. Maybe next year... they're the sweetest.

Coronatine ~ week 2 {blessings in disguise}

Changing the name of this here ongoing documentation, and I've lost track of days...

Our governor has issued a stay at home mandate (all non-essential businesses will be closed), so other than groceries (which Mike stocked up on on Tuesday morning after we hadn't gone in eight days) and going back to the other house to feed animals, we're staying home. We can also go to trails and such, but we've kept our walks to the neighborhood so far. Wisconsin State Parks just announced that they are waiving all fees to parks and trails, so when the weather gets a little nicer, we plan to take advantage of that.

A million photos from the past few days: What's that you say? This boy needs a haircut? He reeeeeally didn't want one (you'd think his hairs have nerve endings by his reactions), but I got him... That's better. Now we can see that dear face and brainy noggin'. Breaking in Jack's new Ticket to Ride Africa- I beat these guys two nights in a row! The girls meeting for their second St. Kateri Girls Group (Abigail has been planning fun activities for their twice-weekly meetings, and this one was the milk drop experiment) They also painted pictures of St. Kateri. This was from last week, but I'm using it as a "before" shot. She's been asking me to cut her hair... She sports this style well. Lots of games are being played. On Tuesday, we had an online class day for Catholic Schoolhouse. We used Zoom, and it went really well. The kids enjoyed seeing and interacting with their friends. Playing pictionary with our Greek and Latin root words After lunch, the art teacher gave a lesson on Van Gogh via Zoom as well. We needed some diversions after naptime, so we moved some typically indoor toys outside... I got this idea online- who knew garage doors were magnetic? This one also wanted a haircut... it's not like we're doing anything more pressing :-D I don't even have a good after-shot, but it looks really nice on her. Today was the Feast of the Annunciation. We made cards to take to elderly. I can't imagine how lonely things must get for them these days. Mike and I have called some of our elderly friends- it really brightens our days and theirs! We watched a live streaming of our dear bishop saying a Mass for the Annunciation. I am grateful for technology. P.E.

Mike's been working home for two weeks now. On our nightly walk last night, we were talking about how we don't really feel that affected by having to stay home- obviously, we don't like the reason for having to stay home, but if anything, it's been positive for us in that we get to see more of Mike- he's home to eat meals with us and has more time to spend with the kids in the evenings. His co-workers seem perplexed by the fact that his six(!) kids aren't driving him crazy now that he has to work from home. We're blessed that I'm already here as a full-time care-giver for them during the days. We're used to it. I know a lot of parents are not in that boat.

As introverts and homebodies (that includes most, if not all, of our kids too), we also welcome the excuse to just stay home. The kids are outside for fresh air every day (except when the weather isn't good), whether on walks or playing in our yard, but I don't mind not having to wrangle them all to go somewhere scheduled. I've had more time to do things I enjoy like blogging and reading and have actually stayed on track with my Lenten scripture and devotional journal. I'm excited to get started in the baby's quilt soon- when I can unearth all of the materials I need after having moved a month ago! I'd say that overall, my stress level has gone down.

I am always so amazed by how God works. What a blessing it is that we happen to be living "in town" during this time, which means easy access to things like grocery stores, delivery options, the P.O., and other things we might want to be close to (not that we've been going anywhere)- and fast internet! I can't imagine how we'd be getting on at our other house during this- our internet was the slowest. Mike would have likely had to have found somehwere other than our house to work, as video calls are nearly impossible (poor Jack's online classes were often cutting out and losing connection)- especially if anyone else is using the internet, and the kids and I have been making good use of all of the free offerings on the internet lately- virtual field trips, art lessons, video classes and chats, educational lessons for little ones, story time read-alouds (the little boys have been enjoying these books read by celebrities), and live Mass streamings...

My prayers go out to those who are feeling increased stress and anxiety- those who are unemployed, or struggling small-business owners... those who are in high-risk, "essential" jobs. There are so many we have been offering prayers for daily. What a crazy world we are living in right now.

Peace.