Quarantine Weeks 8 and 9: The Gray Area

 Biggest news first!  I taught Judah to ride his bike without training wheels.  We chose a smaller bike from the garage to learn on, but he'll soon be confident enough to get on a bigger bike.  I struggled teaching all the older kids to ride and worked with them for weeks before giving up and handing over the final steps to either my mom or their dad.  This time I was able to finis the job.  After he mastered the balancing with no pedaling going down a slant on his own, I helped him for just a short time on two different days before he was starting off on his own even. 

The flip flops were a bad call, but somebody didn't listen to me and bring tennis shoes.

Mother's Day came and went without too much fanfare this year since we couldn't really go anywhere.  I made this Bible cover for my mother-in-law which turned out better than I was expecting for my first one.

I finished and mailed off the Saint Stephen doll.  I was so very pleased with the finished product.  I ended up adding "St. Stephen, Pray for Us" in Latin on it, used memory foam pieces to fill it, and used a soft back to make this a very cozy stuffed and lovable doll.  I can't wait to get my two Mary designs embroidered to make them into dolls as well.

I was having to motivate Bobby to continue in his reading lessons a bit by having him do scavenger hunts after he read a couple of words to me.  Judah wanted tasks to, so I had him find enough sticks to spell his name whereas Bob only had to find enough to make one letter "M."

Drew saw Genna getting creative with her lunches one day and then asked Dad if he could make a banana split parfait with yogurt.  Dad said only if he made one for other younger people who may see him eating it and want one too.  

The reason for the title is that this quarantine is gradually being lifted here in Texas, however, the virus is still a threat and about half of the people have been throwing all out parties to celebrate the end of this, then another big chunk is venturing out with masks and hand sanitizer, being very cautious, and then there's a small amount who are still staying home.  With how tricky this virus is showing no symptoms for two weeks or ever in some, it is going to be interesting to see what happens with so many people thinking that because the "shelter in place" order has been lifted that there is no danger.  This gray area is a difficult one because it is hard to know what to do.

Week 7 Quarantine: The Mask

Masks have become semi mandatory now.  So I finally gave in, put my bandana and hair tie contraption away, and made the family all masks, plus some for my nephews.  For the kids, I made these reversible ones.  For the adults, I made a few different kinds to try out.  My favorite is the "surgical" mask style with pleats and one ribbon going through a sleeve on each side so there is only one place to tie it and it scrunches up the sides and makes for a more comfortable fit without leaving gaps.  Our church started back up with Masses this Sunday and we needed these masks to wear during the service.  The other precautions our church took was to have every other pew seating, assigning you to your Mass time by last name, not use our Communion rail, and have ushers seat and dismiss, as well as have only two families going up for Communion at a time.  I felt very safe since we were so far from everyone, but I would have preferred everyone to actually keep their masks on.  If my four year old can do it, everyone can, right?

Genevieve's side one

I have been accused of making "beak-like" masks for the kids.  I don't see it as a problem because it at least leaves more room for their mouths to not be touching the masks, which I felt like would be more comfortable over time for them.

This is Genevieve's mask reversed.  This side has birds on it.

Here's Bob modeling my nephew's mask, side one.

Reversed

I have quite the pile of masks in my purse now with all sorts of ribbons and fabrics, but the most popular patterns were the black with treble clefs and the super hero patterns.

This one is Bob's.  He saw that I had rainbow ribbon and insisted on having that ribbon for his mask.  This side has robots and his reversed side has super heroes.  

We went to my sister's pool a few times this week and are counting my sister's family as inside our quarantine tight circle since they are staying very safe.

One night we set up the blow up screen and projector with a Disney movie.  The boys all really loved it, and I watched from the hot tub.

Otherwise, this week was very low key and I ran out of creative ideas.  The only special things we did was a Movie night with pizza for our family at our house and a trip to my Mother-in-law's house to help her clean out the garage.  Brian is still working from home.  We are still plugging along with homeschool. 

This coming week contains a birthday at our house.  It will be an adventure to see how to make Genevieve feel loved and appreciated here at home.