Thankful Trees

(10/27) Busy Tuesday for us all. Dad and I worked, and the boys had school. It was really nice out, and J had a blast playing at the park.

(10/28) I had the day off today and didn't do a whole lot other than monitor online schooling. By the time the boys' days were done my brain was pretty fried. J has renewed a friendship with a kiddo down the street so there was a lot of coming and going and dog barking. Wee! The kids did learn that it was National Chocolate Day today so we celebrated by making cookies.

(10/29) Work and school for the boys and me today and Dad had the day off. D completely inventoried our kitchen and rattled off a list when it was time to go grocery shopping. Now we have ALL THE GROCERIES! Which will probably be gone in like two days with this crowd. 

(10/30) The kiddos had the option to wear their costumes to Zoom class this morning. J wore his Steve head from Minecraft for part of it. The children were bonkers today, and I hid upstairs to stay out of the fray--I mean so I could work. 

(10/31) Happy Halloween! The only one that wanted to trick-or-treat was J so we bribed the boys with a big ol' bag of candy to just stay home. Dad and I sat masked out front and were set to dole out candy with the treat slide but we only had one family stop. We gave up and turned the light off at 7:30p. The boys watched the original Jumaji and argued about whether it was new or the old one and whether it was animated (it's not). LOL! Dad and I watched the Titus special after the kids went up and enjoyed a quiet night in. 

(11/1) The time change always makes everything wonky. The pets and children are hungry at the normal time but the clock says it's still too early. I wasn't able to sleep in and enjoy that extra hour but did have a lazyish day of reading and loafing around. I got the Halloween decorations down and now it feels so dark. Any bets on how long I'll hold out before getting the Christmas lights out? 

(11/2) Poor Dad forgot to adjust his clock and was up and at 'em at 4am instead of 5a. The dog had gotten sick in the night so it started off shitty and went downhill from there. He did make us snickerdoodle cheesecake bars this evening--which smelled absolutely amazing--but we had to let them chill over night. They will make a fab breakfast! 

(11/3) Here we go ~ Election Day! Being that it was a Tuesday that also meant lots of meetings to squeeze in amongst school. After work we watched as the polls closed and I finally went to sleep after Biden spoke briefly and told us all to be patient. 

(11/4) I'm glad I had today off and didn't even have to pretend to try to stay focused at work. The boys had school and I doom-scrolled Twitter while listening to a book. I couldn't focus on it though and chose instead to return it and watch the news. 

(11/5) Back to work with me today. Dad was off so I got to work upstairs. I started a very appropriate book today: Donald Trump v. The United States and listened throughout the morning but switched back to the news this afternoon. I made it 'til about 10:30p before I gave up and went to sleep tonight. The votes were slowly coming in, but not enough that it looked like they'd call the race tonight. 

(11/6) GA & PA are blllluuuueee today! When they call PA, that's the game! I watched the news all day, and marveled at Kornaki, who was up last night when I went to sleep, and who was still on this morning waiting for those votes. The promised votes trickled in all day instead of coming in regularly, so they let him power-nap this afternoon. J had a doctor's appointment today and got his flu shot. I've gotta get the rest of the gang in too. Fun times.  

(11/7) Oh happy day! Our Christmas bell arrived, D rang it, and then the election was called. Hallelujah!! I caved and pulled out the rest of the bells, our Santa pics, and did a tiny bit of decorating while we watched the celebrations on TV. I pulled out the kids' Thanksgiving decorations from years past and put those up too. It's starting to feel festive! 

(11/8) Lazy Sunday for the boys and me today. After having the television on all day yesterday, we didn't have it on at all until this evening. We watched some Leslie Jones and cooking shows instead of anything newsy. Leslie's Twitter feed was HI-larious during the counting of votes. 

(11/9) Back to work & school for us all today. Sarah and I are doing a walking photo scavenger hunt this week. Since we walk in the dark it will make picture-taking interesting, but it still sounded fun so we're going to give it a go. Everything was pretty quiet today, which was a refreshing change. 

(11/10) It was a meeting-less meeting Tuesday. Kind of strange!  I listened to my book and got to work mostly in peace once the live learning was done and I no longer had to monitor the twinadoes. 

(11/11) Happy Veterans Day! The boys were off from school, and I had my normal Wednesday off from work. I took the opportunity to take C & D in for their flu shots this morning. We argued over what we'd get as a treat lunch and finally settled on the teriyaki place that just so happened to also have D's favorite food: orange chicken. 

(11/12) Today was a work and school day for the kiddos and me and Dad had the day off. My "uplifting" shows were finally back and I was most happy to veg out to them. Although they started off in April back at the beginning of all this. Fun times, fun times.

(11/13) Sarah and I skipped our morning walk because it was pouring, but then I couldn't get back to sleep so ended up walking on the treadmill instead. Dad had the day off and went to get the dreaded Covid test. We are planning to travel for an early turkey day with Opa and are all staying home as much a possible. 

(11/14) We attempted to play D&D with the boys today. Dad made us taquitos for lunch and we had lots of snacks available. Our goal was to run the campaign all afternoon. We made it a few hours as that was all the boys could really handle. Dad and I declared "date night" and holed up in our room to watch Titus. The boys came in asking for my Kindle at bed time and then took turns reading our story. We were going to skip our nightly call with Nanan but I sent them out with my phone and they figured it out. 

(11/15) Lazy Sunday for the boys and me. I slept in, and spent the morning reading. The boys video gamed and played at the park. It looks like another round of restrictions is headed our way, so Dad stocked up on toilet paper before he headed in to work at 5:30am, and we watched the craziness on TV. Seriously peeps, just settle in. It's gonna be a bit. 

(11/16) Work and school for us all today. It was a pretty low-key day; just how I like my Mondays! I had an IEP meeting for D and it went great. He's really thriving in this remote school environment. For all of its downfalls, this has been the silver lining to this crazy time. 

(11/17) Meeting Tuesday was packed today. It's so fun trying to juggle keeping the boys in their Zooms and trying to ignore the herd of elephants racing around downstairs when I'm in mine. I spend a lot of time on mute. 

(11/18) I had the day off today, and went walking with Sarah this morning before the boys started school. We didn't do a whole lot and it was rainy, so even J didn't go out to play. D kept trying to convince me that I needed to go out in the garage to watch Rachel and "get my steps," which is code for him wanting to the TV. Subtle he is not. 

(11/19) Today was a work and school day for the boys and me and Dad had the day off. Dad ran some errands and picked up some Panda Express for dinner. Yum!

(11/20) Dad and I took the day off and got us all packed to head over the mountains. The boys had school and we left a short while afterward.  The drive was beautiful--it was easy over the pass and we caught a gorgeous sunset on the other side. Opa's new place is perfect for him. We love it too! 

(11/21) The twins were awake at 7am on the dot and were up jabbering at Opa while he made breakfast (blueberry pancakes--yum!). We sent them off to play but they were most anxious to get started on the cookies. The twins love to bake and got to help make Opa cookies. After lunch we headed out to visit Oma. There is an amazing playground across the street, so the twins were able to play while we visited in groups of three. We tried a Duo call with Oma and the twins but that ended up being too difficult. But at least the twins got to say hi and that they missed her. Once we got back, we got the turkey in the oven and a few hours later shared dinner. Dinner was delicious as was the pie for dessert!  

(11/22) We woke this morning and had sausage and eggs at Opa's before getting packed up to trek on home. He saved us some Opa cookies for the trip and a couple even made it all the way home for dessert!  It was a lovely albeit short trip. 

(11/23) Monday already? I need more weekend! We worked and had school today. The folks dropped off a taste of home today. I so wish we could be celebrating together!  They brought pumpkin, apple, and mousse pies along with coffee cake and Grandma's stuffing. Nom! We're going to try to do stocking together online for Christmas so they brought all those goodies too. We're so spoiled!

(11/24) I worked today, but it was pretty dead for a Tuesday. Not too many meetings, which makes for a calmer day. The children were bananas because they know the holiday is coming, so I spent a lot of time hissing angry consonants at them to get back to work.  

(11/25) I had the day off today, and the boys had an early release. They did "Thankful Trees" in class, and for the scavenger hunt, J pulled me over as the "something he loves."  I miss the school projects, but am glad I can still capture of some of their creations.

(11/26) Happy Thanksgiving! We did a Zoom with Grandma and Granddad and all my siblings. I made spicy (deviled) eggs and Dad made an awesome turkey dinner. We tried a new stuffing recipe that we liked a lot, so it may be a contender in the next stuffing war when we are once again able to gather. I spent this afternoon going through the twins' rooms to gather all the too small clothing and to restore order. It was a big project but definitely needed to be done! 

(11/27) Today what not at all what I had in mind. Moosey woke me up early having exploded everywhere. I guess turkey necks are no longer on the menu. This is twice now. After I got him cleaned up, I then tried to air the house out and go back to sleep but wasn't able. Once the rest of the house got up, I ventured in to D's room to tackle the mess under his bed. I got about halfway done and was late getting out the door to visit with Nanan. We had coffee together and I took her some turkey dinner from yesterday. Once I got home, I thought we were all going to go get a tree at the U-cut place and do our family pictures. It finally ended with me going for a walk with Sarah and Dad scoring a tree from Lowe's. 🤣 The lights I ordered won't be here til Tuesday now... I give!

(11/28) I took a Zumba class this morning and just as I was set to run out and grab lights, they were delivered to my porch. The boys helped me decorate. No pictures of them helping because they were wearing their uniforms (read: underwear). The tree looks great! I did run out and grab more command strips so we could hang the stockings, but other than that, we had a relaxing day at home. 

(11/29) The break went too fast and it's already Sunday. The boys and I were home and Dad had to work. I finished up the photos for the monthly challenge this morning while listening to Christmas music. We did our normal Sunday stuff and I guess we're ready to get back to it tomorrow?