from the kitchen:

Sourdough everything.  A friend sent me some starter and I am trying to get up to speed about its care and feeding. I actually have no idea what I am doing but hey, I've never let that stop me.  Family reports that the pancakes today were "much better than usual," which I think is a compliment.  

wearing:

Pajama pants.  Not gonna lie.  We started this quarantine thing more official like but we are in more self comfort and support mode now. After a late movie with the girls I let them sleep in today so I got semi-dressed and ready to face only the fam anyway.

The girls and I had a talk about some positive, creative steps we could take during lockdown and they decided to sew.  We are going to get the machine set up and work on some paper bag skirts. Looks like we will be making or mail ordering spring outfits this year. 

watching:

Pride and Prejudice with the girls last night.  I love the Kiera Knightley version. It was two hours of complete escape. 

The Office with the guys.  Often.  This plague may seriously go down as The Office Pandemic for us.  

outside:

Most of the snow is melted.  At the moment.  It's spring in the Rockies and it's quite likely that was not the last hurrah.  Snow means green grass later though. Meantime, the stellar jays are making a clatter out back.   Tiny finches have made an appearance.  We are going to try to get a bird feeder set up by way of first steps to bring more winged creatures to the yard.  

The deer have been feeding out near the fence line. I never tire of them. 

From the learning room:

The Current War was a hit with me anyway.  We covered electricity and circuits in middle school science this month.  Youtube Kids has many short video demos to flesh that out. 

Still on our WWI study and we hit the Romanov family and the Russian revolution.  The girls revisited Anastasia and read about all the Anastasia imposters and how the mystery was sadly resolved with the advent of DNA testing. 

around the house:

We bought a clipper set to groom the dogs ourselves.  (Insert dramatic music here.) The groomer is closed and the dogs cannot wait weeks or longer.  Again, YouTube to the rescue.  See above comment under "from the kitchen."

reading:

We began The Door in the Wall together.  It is a fast read with lots of spiritual and practical relevance to our current plague. Resources we are using include…

Door in the Wall study guide

Bubonic Plague video

Spanish Flu for Kids here and here

Also doing a personal reread of Simplicity Parenting more on that next

big thought:

As with any public crisis I have returned to and referred folks to Kim John Payne and Simplicity Parenting.  Highly recommend a listen to Podcast #5 lower on the page entitled Filtering Adult Information is More Important Now Than Ever Before.  I love this man.  He has such a heart for children and families. It is easy to let ourselves off the hook and blame circumstances beyond our control but we need to sincerely consider the ways we might be contributing to their stress.  There are simple steps we can take to get our children and ourselves through crises like these. He urges us to consider whether our words are true, kind, necessary, and securing. I know its a temptation for me, especially with the adult kids handy, to jump into conversation without that consideration. 

Also included in the podcast is good info about pacing and imagery in contemporary cinematography and its impact on young brains.