seaworld passes

P takes the little boys to Seaworld with his teacher pass and their pre-school passes.  He takes awesome pictures of it.  He wanted to take them on this past Saturday but I asked him not to, so he didn't.  But look how cute they have  been.  I'm glad he takes so many pictures of these sweet times they have together.

Mala Compra

 My friend SM has been telling me about this place for a while and we finally went.  I loved it.  About half of the trail was under trees, with gravel and winding paths. 

 

 This was a great family outing and I'm grateful for all the work P does to silently bring it all together.  This is a strange and difficult time of isolation and I feel so blessed to have this wonderful family and this beautiful place to explore. 

scheduling

 lP really responds to a written schedule.  It brings her so much happiness to know what is coming up and to do what is written down.  She helped me come up with the first 7 days plan for this social distancing period of our lives.

I created this list (1st draft) so the kids could have input into what we do on future days.  I think we could eventually have them choose their own activities for individual time.  They always try to sneak back onto the computer and fight about it.  So for now, we're doing everything together so we have less conflict.

stampeed - corona virus - hand sanitizer

There is a world wide struggle currently over the corona virus 19.  I write this more for posterity's sake.  I have a few thoughts about what's going on locally and generally.  P advised me to buy a months worth of food 2 weeks ago.  We stocked up on paper products that we were running low on.  I tried to buy more of the things we usually eat.  It became hard to think of things to buy since we already had plenty and I usually keep the fridge not very full.  So the surplus clogged my ability to see need.  In the last 2 weeks I've tried to keep getting our usual items and ignore the surplus, but like I said, it's hard to realize what we need.  It's even harder to not eat it all up!  Oh tater tots!

Around the time I was stocking up on everything our family could use for a few weeks, others were stockpiling hand sanitizer and face masks so they could make a profit selling them online.  Then we started to hear that nobody could buy these things.  This was an artificial shortage created by greedy people trying to profit off the misfortune of others. 

So we have what we need and we're keeping to ourselves.  Church and school are canceled until further notice.  General Conference will be just the General Authorities and the Choir.  Even that seems risky to me.  But at least it is not the crowds of people all together for so long.

I'm very grateful that aunt L recently shared Netflix with us.  That will be wonderful since we'll be home and not gong to the library or other activities that usually fill our days. 

So what good are we going to do?  Homeschool, practice cursive, do more art, learn more songs etc...  This is unprecedented and I hope our health care system does not get overwhelmed. 

I don't like it that people are panicking.  Social media allows people to be filmed and the contagion of fear to shared and amplified.  Was panic necessary to motivate people to social distance.  I see on social media a lot of people trying to convince others to take this seriously and limit their contact to slow the spread of the sickness.  The spread is inevitable but if it is not slowed our health care system will be overwhelmed.  And I see other people that don't believe the reports and are more worried about the impact on business. 

So we'll do what we can to slow the spread, and accept that it will spread.

Family time

Yesterday afternoon I had a debilitating nap as my brain decided it was finally safe to shut down after the stress of the fundraiser.  Today P talked in Sacrament meeting then had a similar crash.  Our brains take up a lot of energy! 

I played so many games with the kids today!  Feed the Kitty, Labyrinth, Global Pursuit, Pandemic and Dixit.  We even wanted to play Apples to Apples but ran out of time.

The kids wanted me to play Pandemic but I don't like learning new games.  So they all took good care of me and helped me along.  It is a very cooperative game and I'm glad I played it.  They were really so good during this game, using great tone and offering helpful strategy to one another.

Early Cheetos and behavior modification

I am not a prompt person.  I always underestimate the time it will take to get in the car and the time it will take to drive to places. 

A few months ago I got a pack of gum and let the children share a piece of gum when we arrived early for things like church or picking someone up.  But the gum is gone and last week I was late for most everything.

Last week we also put a lot of effort into running a fundraiser for girls camp.  Also last week, I made a dress (!) and exercized 3 times, held 190 and shopped obsessively for a van.

I mentioned in passing to M that I might do better at arriving early if the reward was something I could even eat, like Cheetos. 

P loves me so much that he ordered a gigantic box of Cheetos immediately.  He really values being early-on-time.  He also believes in the power of his team mate, me, to have dramatic behavior modification.  He's seen me do amazing things.  So here's to early cheetos.   Huzah!

Navy Band and Publix field trip

 Grandma got us tickets to go see the Navy band perform.  It was a wonderful concert.

 We sat in the balcony and got to see all the action.

 I took the 3 peas to a field trip at Publix.  They showed the kids every department and fed them at most departments.  Then they let them run the scanners.

Miss Shirley put on a fantastic tour.  We'll definitely make sure to send positive feedback!