Remarkable. A month and a half of living and working and learning from home.
The property we bought surprises us with edibles - this weekend we discovered that one of the trees is most likely a prolific plum; another, a pear. These in addition to the apple trees that are already the dominant feature of the backyard landscape.
Everyone's hair is in overdrive; Jack's remarkable hair-growing speed has him looking like an ever-increasing bird nest. I searched for hair clippers on Amazon to find that it's a hot commodity currently delivering at the end of May. Oi.
Distance learning is meh. They do work and they do an OK job but the precision implied by teachers will not be achieved by me (for sure in Jack's case; girls are typically fairly disciplined and want to succeed at this new endeavor). Emery just cracks her tiny assignments like nuts, shortly after breakfast, and occasionally needs to redo when she rushed through it; Maya has penciled out her weeks into days and is tracking one subject a day. Jack fights through it all, has a hard time staying focused, and wants to play. Which is fine but I just want him to do a little, pro forma. As long as he's reading / writing, I'm not overly concerned (sorry, Ms. Thompson, it's just not worth the fight and Ivy League isn't his immediate next step #SelfGrace).
My reading list benefits both from at-home of it all; and from weekends which I've easily mandated as no-work zone. So far this year: "Mink River" and "Plover" and "The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World" and "The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be" (all Brian Doyle because the world needs that kind of joy influx right now); "The Unwinding of the Miracle" by Julie Yip-Williams (Jessica McCoy's recommendation; supremely depressing); "A Severe Mercy" by Sheldon Vanauken (a life/love memoir with finding-faith storyline & C.S. Lewis letters to the author, remarkable); "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller (I've followed Don on social media for a while, cannot recall how or why; similar theme of finding-faith and quite a readable book); "Lead Yourself First" (Raymond Kethledge & Mike Erwin; more of a business read on importance of solitude to leadership). And I re-read Gregory Boyle's "Tattoos on the Heart" (the softest, deepest look at God loving everyone - and bringing people back from the margins).
I think there are more but I didn't write things down (which is very much my tagline for my effort to journal, at large). Next up is Brian Doyle's "Chicago" and I'm excited again. I've never not liked what Brian Doyle had to say.
Also cooking. I like it and yet I've forgotten somewhat of a toil of doing it daily. Spent $1,200 at two stores this week - it terrifies me still but then I remember I'm shopping for weeks to come to minimize store trips. If this lasts much longer, I may need to consider an extra fridge/freezer... To help with cooking (and to engage kids), I've made a stellar move of (finally) buying the chairs for the island in the kitchen; the idea is that they can sit there and help prep! Knife skills, here we come (Maya did peel potatoes this weekend; I feel appropriately smug).
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