Stay at Home

We've had a Stay at Home order in Illinois since mid March. Currently it will remain in place through the end of April but the Governor has said the kids will not go back to school this school year. To say it has changed things around here would be an understatement. I have been so pleasantly surprised, though, at how well the kids especially have adjusted. They have been very nice to be around and we've had a lot of fun with them. Jason has also been working from home; we've enjoyed getting to spend the three hours he normal commutes playing with him!

This is a very common sight: at least two kids in the dining room doing school work, wearing PJs. Jason's company gave everyone $1,000 to make their work from home experience more comfortable and we used part of that to buy a chrome book for the kids to use for school work and we rented one from the school district as well. That has made all the difference in the world-the one week where we had one computer that four people needed was tricky to say the least. Now we have a good system and I am so thankful Ali and Logan can do what they need to with little or no direction from me!

Jake doesn't get dressed until he feels like it, usually after lunch and sometimes not until he changes into clean PJs for bed! He's also sporting a haircut I gave him. I've done three so far: Logan (whose turned out quite nice), Jason's (hard to get wrong), and Jake's (the best thing I can say about his is that it is shorter...)

In the month or so before the quarantine I did something I seldom do: I bought quite a few "surprises" for the kids, planning to give them to them during Spring Break. I bought these things over the course of a few weeks and kind of lost track of how much I had gotten, until the pile got quite large. I have never been so grateful for a pile of frivolous purchases in my life. They have been put to good use and brought lots of fun and happiness. Play dough and play dough toys were one.

Several puzzles were also a huge hit.

For her birthday Ali had wished for lots of Dungeons and Dragons things and they spent days planning for the game and then more days playing. Great timing!

I've been wracking my brain trying to keep the sisters in the Relief Society connected when we can't be together. I have organized a Zoo Hunt (everyone put stuffed animals in the windows and we drove around to see them, leaving messages in sidewalk chalk), a Scavenger Hunt, a challenge to do something physical as a family and post pictures, and a challenge to minister to their sisters in an unusual way and post pictures. Some were more fun than others, but most were well received!

The weather has been nice most of the time and we've really enjoyed being outdoors. Here are the kids playing 500 in the backyard (with an added call of "Moose" -their nickname for Max- which to win the points they have to be the first to touch Max).

We've gone on walks around lakes near us.

This walk had a great hill.

This walk had a great lake.

And Jason has gone on bike rides with the kids. This picture sums things up quite well-look at the sign!

Jason has made the best of the situation, as he always does. He spends almost all his time in the basement bedroom as he both sleeps and works there!

As for me, I'm keeping it all running and enjoying my "me" time the only way I can: by staying up way too late. But I'm also loving sleeping in until 9am every day; sleeping in is one of my most favorite things in the world.

These five are some of my most favorite people in the whole world. Being stuck at home with them could certainly be worse!