April 2020 was literally "at home" the whole month because of the Corona Virus. But it was the most beautiful spring I think we've ever had in SC, and it felt so relaxing!
Our last day of Foundations and Essentials for CC was done virtually. For the writing portion of Essentials, kids made videos in lieu of doing a live Faces of History event. Caleb recruited some helpers and did a pretty sweet video for Robin Hood!
April 1 was supposed to be "Wacky Day" at CC. Abby and I still pulled it off! I also played a good prank on the community by announcing (during my "announcement video") that we would continue to meet 3 more weeks online and that every family needed to contribute a video for either science, fine arts, or memory work that they would have to make up ourselves. I totally got some people before announcing APRIL FOOLS!
We did a Zoom call to play an Essentials "escape room" review day that Ms. Rachel led. It was a little chaotic, but really fun!
One evening this big owl came and landed in our backyard and just watched us!
Most of April involved cornhole, yard golf, and enjoying the backyard!
One evening, a friend of ours organized a "worship together" time at the local hospital. The radio station played worship music for one hour that we could all tune in to. Everyone worshipped in their own cars and honked to say thank you to all the hospital workers. The entire parking lot was full when we got there, so we had to park across the road.
We've needed to replace several outlets all around the house ever since we bought it 5 1/2 years ago. Corona Virus finally gave us the time on a Saturday to do it!
Zoom church!
Communion over Zoom.
I'm so excited! Wes and Joyce repainted our table for us!!! (I recovered the seats.) It looks amazing!
My pretty clematis in full bloom:
Reading before bed...
We went to Confederate Park when no one else was around. The boys hit golf balls, we played tennis, and Abby climbed trees. We actually did this several times during quarantine.
More house projects! We also are finally getting around to painting the trim and doors.
...and building obstacle courses in the garage:
EASTER! Zoom style of course...
Funny thing.. an Amazon delivery came just as we were doing communion. I ALMOST asked the deliver guy if he would like to take communion with us, and I think I would have if Ben wasn't the one actually leading it. (I'm sure it would have totally thrown off what he was saying if I talked to the Amazon guy in the background.) 😂
The kid's table :) Abby and Caleb still wanted to dress up for Easter. I even put on a skirt!
The mayor of Rock Hill told everyone (via social media) to go outside at noon on Easter Sunday and make as much noise as possible and all the church bells would ring. We were the only ones in our tiny neighborhood to do it, but we could hear some distant church bells. :)
Listening for the church bells...
Turns out what the Amazon delivery guy was delivering was the flower girl dress Abby is wearing for Kelsey's wedding!
We did lot of walks/bike rides in April. Ben often would take one kid for a walk, then come back and take another kid. It makes for some good discussion time!
The big "trend" this month is to do "drive-by" birthday parties. Our friend Chase turned 15, so we made a few posters and drove by his house .
His future's so bright, he needs to wear shades. :)
When Dad is working from home, you sometimes get an impromptu lesson on stimulus checks and inflation...
Every year the kids do a "Peep Challenge" where they use marshmallow peeps and bunnies to display some piece of memory work they did in CC this year. Here was Abby's. (How do animals react to environmental change? They adapt, migrate, or hibernate.)
And of COURSE Caleb had to do the one that involved a guillotine...😳 His executioner even wore a black hood. :)
He did a second one too. "What are some ways light is observed? (Or "absurd" as Caleb wrote.) 😂 Reflection, Refraction, Spectrum, Wave, Particle. (I think he switched the spectrum and refraction guys.)
More house projects! I ordered black porch lights to take the place of the old brass ones we had. We didn't have black screws, so Ben and Micah used sharpies to color the heads of the screws. :)
This is happening. For real. Planet Fitness is closed, and we keep making cookies!
Next project! A "mini remodel" of our bathroom. Painting walls, painting the vanity, replacing the top of the vanity, and putting in new hardware. I wish I had taken a "before" picture!
After! We still want to get a frame for the mirror. But I was very happy with what just a few little changes could do!
Ben's "fun thing" over quarantine is reading the Harry Potter series. He hardly ever reads for fun, so this is pretty cool. :) Also, we somehow started getting the Rock Hill and Charlotte papers without ever having subscribed to them (???) The kids are enjoying the comics and Sudoku. I even wasted some time on a crossword puzzle. :)
April 29 was our official "last day of school" (Day 180) for the school year! Micah was supposed to have Challenge class that day to take his Blue Book Assessment, but since they didn't get together for class, he finished his assessment Monday and Tuesday. Here are videos he made of parts of his assessment:
Drawing the world from memory:
Human Anatomy drawn from memory:
On Wednesday for his last day, he went with Ben into the office to learn all about Financial Planning. Ben said he asked really good questions! Now he's keeping a notebook of all the 'financial terms' Ben uses. He's gotten to sit in on some webinars while Ben is at home too.
BEN TURNED 40!!! Not quite the big celebration we had originally planned. Originally, we wanted to go to the mountains or the beach, but with everything closed, I'm glad we never actually made reservations. So we stayed around home. First, morning snuggles...
After he took a few work calls, we went and got Starbucks, picked up his car which had been in the shop, and drove down to Fountain Park. We thought maybe we would go hiking, but since it had rained off and on all day, we just walked around by the fountains for a while.
I love this church building. Someday I think it would be fun to try to draw and watercolor. :)
Like seals sunning on the rocks...
That evening we finished by using Door Dash to order some good food (steak for Ben of course!) from Outback Steakhouse. (All restaurants are only allowed to do carry-out and delivery right now.) Then we watched the movie Harry Potter 3, the book he had just finished. We had planned to have the Kaufmans and Ziebers over to our backyard for a little campfire, but with the rain, we decided to do that the following evening. (That was the first we had hung out with them in about a month and a half!)
Other stuff from April:
Caleb was supposed to be doing soccer, Micah was supposed to be doing First Tee golf, and Abby was supposed to be taking dance classes. I was supposed to do final Memory Master proofing, have an End of the Year program run-through and an End of the Year program. BUT NONE OF THAT HAPPENED and it was honestly kind of glorious to have such a slow month. Of course, I was supposed to also have my friends Angie and Althea also come for a girls weekend in Charlotte, and our family was supposed to go away for a mini-vacation and THAT didn't happen either, so there's that. :( But we are healthy and employed, so we have no complaints. (Actually, as of April 15, Ben is officially full-time - 40 hours - at Carroll Financial. He and Mike began to shift around a few things, and that means a big raise for Ben. I like the way Ben turns middle age!!)
