Guest blogger, Naomi. Thursday, March, 19th

Today was a very meh day. Everyone kinda just hung around and did whatever. Some of the interesting things we did today were...

In the morning...

• Mom went to donate blood (they really needed donors)
• Dad set up a Kahn academy account for the family

In the afternoon...

• Mom and John baked brownies (I didn’t really care because I don’t like chocolate)
• All of the kids did a lot of questions on Kahn academy 
• We had our first FaceTime music lesson 
• They ate the brownies they made earlier today 

John, looking very pleased that he and mom
Made brownies.

Looks like mom likes her book.

Guest blogger. Naomi. Wednesday, March, 18th

Naomi plays goalie against Adam.

Violet's birthday gifts.

Adam, getting ready to shoot.

~Hour long walk there and back.
Then came home to dinner made by Adam

Dinner. Made by chef Adam

Before Bedtime

What's that saying? "Never tell your mother you're bored." Keeping occupied shouldn't be a problem tomorrow.

This is what we call "double-fisting" around here. Notice that each of them is using both a hand-held gaming device and their desktops simultaneously.

We are doing other stuff besides screen time. Today, we walked for over an hour, played Pandemic (so close to winning. literally one action short) and Hanabi, worked on a craft for a gift, on practice math contests and filled in some more of Pascal's hexagon. The kids also practiced violin and piano.

Early Days of Social Distancing

So far, so good. We're in the fortunate position of not needing to worry about ourselves very much but to protect the well-being of others, we're taking a pretty strict approach to social distancing. For now we just need to figure out what to do with ourselves. Here's some stuff we've done.

Naomi did most of the planning and building. If it weren't for her, we'd be on our screens a lot more than we are. Today's MVP for sure.

Dion, Adam, and Naomi did most of the ball hockey playing.

John wasn't really into the hockey, but he was into building stuff. 

There were some glitches. like wind.

After hockey, Naomi started to learn how to use the 3D pen that she got for Christmas from Poh-Poh and Gung-Gung.

These are giant over-lapping Pascal's triangles. More progress has been made after this pic was taken. We are still in negotiations over which multiples will be highlighted.

This is apple crisp. We're eating better than on a usual Monday.

I don't have many other pics, so far. But we've also been doing chores, going for walks, practicing music and math contests and playing board games when we aren't on our computers. Once March Break is officially over, I'll take on the marking pile while I'm working from home.

The Lead Up to Social Distancing at the Lew House

I don't see why I wouldn't blog a least a little bit until things are back to normal.

In roughly chronological order, here's the last week and a bit.

• Last Monday, the Canadian government advised against travelling by cruise. And so, we cancelled the Disney cruise, to which we had been really, really, really looking forward.
• We also cancelled the flights and were irritated by WestJet's handling of that. And almost a week later, well, that money might be right off.
• The kids were disappointed but understood that we were doing what was necessary.
• We then hemmed-and-hawed about some kind of local trip for a couple of days. But no.
• Thursday at 3:45 pm, we got an email from the TDSB more-or-less reminding us to wash our hands regularly.
• Not 15 minutes later, I got the news from the CBC that publicly-funded Ontario schools are closed for two weeks after the March Break. 
• As it happens, I had a lieu day booked for Friday the 13th, the last day of school before the March Break. It was kinda lucky because on Friday, there would have been many more questions than answers. So on one hand it's a little disorienting to have been out of the loop but on the other, I don't mind that I missed out on the confusion at school that day. 
• I'd kept the kids home that day also because we had dental checkups around the middle of the school day.
• So our social distancing got an early start, compared to most teachers and students.
• I also got to go grocery shopping off-peak on Friday. And while the store was strangely busy for early business hours on a Friday, it was no busier than the typical after-work rush that I usually experience. The store was also quite well-stocked.
• As it happens, I'd already been gradually stocking up on long-shelf-life groceries and supplies for a couple of weeks, because I considered it possible that we could be asked to self-isolate after our cruise and didn't want to come home to nothing. So on Friday, I just needed to pick up some perishables to restock the fridge that we'd been emptying in preparation for the cruise.
• Friday evening, we got an email from our vice-principal indicating that teachers are to be available to work-from-home (most certainly not travel) during the school closure. There are still lot of questions about what work will look like after the break but I'm not worrying about that until after March Break.
• Last week, Dion's work had started with a work-from-home rotation but has now moved to remote working for everyone for at least two weeks.
• All of our extra-curriculars have been cancelled, except for music lessons, which will happen via video.
• Since Friday, we've only had a few F2F interactions with anyone besides ourselves. One stop at Indigo and one stop at a local game shop to buy some gift cards (me only.) I'm seeing online that this is one way that people are trying to support small businesses who will surely struggle during mass social-distancing.

I think that most of my coming posts will be filled with pictures and anecdotes of how we are keeping ourselves well and occupied.

Naomi's first day of school!

 

John, I love you through and through*

I love you through and through.

I love your top side.

I love your bottom side.

I love your inside

and outside.

I love your happy side,

your sad side,

your silly side,

your mad side.

I love your fingers

and toes,

your ears

and nose.

I love your hair

and eyes,

your giggles,

and cries.

I love you running

and walking,

silent

and talking.

I love you through and through,

yesterday,

today,

and tomorrow too.

*Poem by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak


I'm getting this post done a YEAR past my self-imposed deadline of John's first birthday. Like a similar post I wrote for Adam, and this one for Naomi, this contains pictures from John's twelfth month (and one from the day he was born.)

Happy 6th Birthday, Adam

 

 

Christmas 2012, Part I

I was too busy Christmas Day to spend much time behind the camera, but here are a few of the ones I took and like. If you have pics or video of my family from Christmas day, do drop a link or attachment in a comment or email.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had commented on most of the photos, but some uploading error ate that post, so I'll just post as-is and maybe update later.