Day 14- March 27, 2020

Day 14-  March 27, 2020

Today we hit the two-week mark.  I'm proud of my family for holding it together, and proud of myself for keeping up with writing every day.  It's also the second week of homeschooling my kids, and I'm really impressed by how well they are handling it.  Yes, I have to help both of them at different times, yes, we all get frustrated, but I think all things considered, we're making progress, and their teachers are doing a solid job.  Though my second grader's teacher did accidentally leave off the parents from her email this morning (we chatted about it and both agreed that starting a half hour late is really the least of any of our issues).  So TGIF.

The weather was amazing today.  It was in the high 60's, and the girls spent every waking moment from when they finished their work until it was dark and the outdoor lights were going on playing in the yard.  This involved (in no particular order) hide and seek, swinging, playing soccer with both a regular sized ball and giant ball, and decorating cards for Popum's 71st birthday, which is Sunday.  I should mention two things.  Popum isn't a cultural nickname- it's because "Papa" was too hard to pronounce for R. when she was little, and it became Popum.  She also pronounced "yogurt" as "ogum" so not sure what was going on in her little brain, but it was cute, and it stuck.  This means every personalized item we buy him needs to legit be personalized- no cups or magnets off the shelf for this grandpa.

The second thing is that E.'s birthday is ALSO Sunday, and mine is Monday.  So normally, we have a pretty big family get together.  Unfortunately, between social distancing and shelter-in-place, that's not going to happen in time for the birthdays.  We're hoping we can do a big pool party this summer instead.

Trying to explain to an eight-year-old that she's not going to get a birthday party did not go over particularly well.  There were tears, and a lot of disappointment.  We had planned to rent out the facility where her soccer team practices, to have a soccer-themed party (she is obsessed with the US Women's National Team, can name every player, and especially loves Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, and Crystal Dunn).  I was going to make a soccer cake, get a soccer ball piñata, and even attempt soccer-inspired nail art and temporary tattoos.  There would be soccer relay-races and a game right before pizza and dessert.

Instead, I'm hoping that the delivery from Peapod tomorrow brings me vanilla icing and cake mix- otherwise, I'm creating a cake and icing from scratch, or using the lone container of bright blue icing that I bought for a party last year before the theme changed from under the sea to Star Wars.  I'm also going to post to Facebook and ask people to make videos wishing E. a happy birthday so she knows people are thinking about her.  It's not the same, but it's something.

The top of the tree

The presents my mom brought should help- and her sister's order arrived yesterday, along with a gift from her Aunt Kit.  Grammy and Granddad are planning to swing over to at least wave from the car, and are hoping that her present arrives on time.  If not, we'll make the whole week a celebration of sorts.

The other highlight of the day was my husband taking down a the top of a tree that has been hanging down for the better part of the last four months.  I'm talking about a thirty-foot long, solid foot wide tree top.  We tried to have a tree company come to remove it several months ago, but they never showed up after giving a quote.  Then we asked a landscaper working next door to give us a call so we could have them come to take it down a few weeks ago, but again, no call.  So today, Jeff looped a rope around it, and hitched the rope to our John Deere riding mower.

Note the tree is now on the ground

I mentioned this is how many episodes of Ridiculousness start, but he was pretty damn determined, and we are not fighting about petty things like riding mowers, fences, and trees when there's a global pandemic, plus it was going to save us a decent amount of money, so he handed me his camera phone, hopping on the tractor, and started it up.  The tree made a satisfying crack as the branch crashed down, and did only minimal damage to the back fence (since we don't have dogs anymore, it's pretty much a nonissue).   I'm happy to say that the branch is no longer looming, so we don't have to worry about the kids going into the far back section of the yard, but I am a little concerned that the idea of pulling out bushes and trees with all terrain vehicles may have been a bit too much fun, as he began pointing out large pushes and a few smaller dead trees that "would be better removed by pulling them out with the roots" than having at them with a chainsaw.  I'm going to have to keep an eye on this new hobby.