Weekly Wrap Up - Goodbye April

This past Saturday was Olivia's 17th birthday.  For obvious reasons it was a lot more lowkey than usual.  We started her day off with a breakfast of bacon, sourdough French toast, with Nutella and fresh strawberries.  The extended family had sent birthday cards through the mail, so I held those to give her with her gifts.  Her official gift from us hasn't arrived yet.  Disregard her bed head in the first photo.

My brother came in the evening to have dinner with us.   Olivia had requested crack chicken sandwiches and cheese fries for dinner.   Her birthday cake was devils food with homemade frosting, and we also had ice cream that I've been hiding away in the freezer since the first weeks of social distancing.  I've been snatching things here and there when they were available and ended up having some delicious meals for the day!

We ended up watching King Arthur, Legend of the Sword (201) on Roku.  Olivia and I really liked the movie (we're into sword fights and the whole good kicking evil's butt theme.)   We liked the humor, and the valor.  There was a little foul language, with one gratuitous drop of the f-bomb.  However, compared to the DC and Marvel movies, it was very tame.

Sunday was chilly and rainy again.  We had church online with Elevation Church again at 11:30.  We spent the day binge watching Chip and Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper and napping.   Dinner was left over birthday fare.

Monday was an early start, with Jayce arriving at 6:30am.  He went straight to bed and slept until almost 9:30am.  Bella arrived around 9am (her dad's week to bring her).  Olivia and Lindsey got all their school work done early in the day.  Lindsey worked with the little kids on their reading, hand writing and math skills.  I went to pick up the free food for the kids.  Then it was time to do laundry.  You'd think the house would be spotless, but trust me, it's not.  After naptime the girls took the littles for an afternoon walk.  They returned sometime later with a small kid on each of their backs.  Apparently these little kids aren't used to be outside doing a great deal.  We'll have to rectify that once the rainy season is over.   Late evening brought a 2-hour zoom meeting for Olivia and her youth group.   Dinner was flounder, great northern beans, cornbread and pineapple.

In case you missed it on Monday, I also had a blog post about Medicinals in Your Flower Bed and Herb Gardens.  I'm trying to do my part to help people think outside the box now, and for the future.

Tuesday our day started a little later, since we didn't have Jayce; and Bella didn't arrive until 9am.   At 10am, Lindsey had a 2 hour babysitting gig (4 kids) on the street behind us.  Lindsey subbed out to Olivia to watch Bella.   I took Olivia on a longer driving lesson after lunch.  She's improving, but sharp right turns are still a challenge.

I had a graduation executive committee meeting online at 7.  There are 3 of us on the committee.  Last week, we sent out an anonymous survey to try and get a feel for who is/isn't wanting to proceed with graduation if/when we can do one.  We had 10 graduates, one pulled out completely last week...so out of the remaining 9, 5 voted no graduation, 4 voted for graduation to be held.   May 11 is our next full committee meeting, and it falls several days after one of our governor's executive orders is supposed to expire.  That will at least let us see if he extends this particular order and give us a bit more direction as to what we think he's going to do.  I will tell you, I was one of the 5 who voted not to do a graduation at this point, not because I'm worried about the virus, but because it's become to much of a train wreck to be enjoyed.

Wednesday was a lovely warm day.  Both girls finished their school work early. Lindsey took Bella out to play in the sun and fresh air and Olivia decided to sunbathe.  I spent most of the day deep cleaning the kitchen (washing down the cabinets, decorations, appliances, windows and floor).  I went ahead and deep cleaned both bathrooms after the kitchen was done.  I love the smell of a freshly scrubbed home.    Dinner was homemade Salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes/gravy and fresh asparagus.   Lindsey has deemed Wednesday as "cookie night" so she made cookies for us after dinner.

Thursday's early morning brought more high winds and heavy rain.  Bella arrived very late (9:30am), which threw my schedule for the morning off.  I don't like to leave home when there's a dad dropping off a childcare client.  I know this dad, and have no concerns about him, but I don't like to leave any room for error.  Typically I'm out the door before 9am to hit the grocery store and be back across town by 10:45 to pick up the school food. I ended up waiting to pick up school food first, then headed to the stores.  Thankfully the heavy rain seemed to keep people in so it wasn't super crowded.

Both girls finished up their Health and Nutrition class for the year.  Lindsey also completed her Consumer Science class for the year.  Lindsey has about a week or so of language arts left, and both girls still have Spanish 2 to finish up.

We had hamburgers (fresh from the butcher) and chips for dinner.  Then we started binge watching the first season of  the Masked Singer, this was SO entertaining!  We got through the first 4 weeks worth of shows.

Friday was my brother's birthday.  Once Bella got here I headed out to the bakery for hummingbird cake.  Then I was on the road to spend the day with him.  The kids got their school work done and took care of the house while I was gone.   We made homemade pizza's for dinner, and then binge watched the rest of season 1 of The Masked Singer.   All we have left to watch is the final show, that'll be tomorrow (we ran out of time tonight).

Have a great weekend!