Quarantine Day 15: Outdoor Fun, Cleaning Crew & Virtual Shabbat

Today was 62 degrees. So our schedule was P.E. all day long. First we walked Pip and checked in on our cold frame. Our radishes seem to love this weather as they are the ones with the most growth. Today we also think we saw some flowers and loofa seeds peeking out of the soil. We'll keep checkin in to make sure the plants are growing!! It seems that there are many references out there for victory gardens to be grown due to the craziness with the pandemic and not knowing when things will go back to normal. We were ahead of the game with our cold frame planing but I hope to continue growing veggies for us throughout the summer and fall.

After that we hung out most of the morning on the front porch. It was so warm and sunny. The kids went inside after sitting outside for 10 minutes, to change into shorts and t-shirts! We got out the mud kitchen and the kids made a bunch of delicious mud pies, and cakes and soups while mom relaxed in the sun. Until Pippin would bark. And bark. And bark. He barks to let you know that someone is there, or that no one is there...I think it is going to drive JP bonkers all the barking. If only we had time on our hands to train him not to bark. Oh well.

After a while of being outside, we came in to cool off. (Yes it was cooler in the house and we had to come in from the warm weather and cool off. ) We typically have a person come and clean our house on Fridays, but with the social distancing we told her not to come. So today we were the cleaning crew. Juliet cleaned all the toilets, Naomi cleaned all the bathroom sinks and both kids cleaned their bathtub. I cleaned up the kitchen counters and kitchen sink. We put the roomba on in the girls rooms while we were cleaning. The only thing we didn't get to was vacuuming the first floor. Hopefully we'll get to this tomorrow.

After cleaning Naomi had a virtual meeting with Ms.Malloy, the CFB assistant principal and guidance counselor. We contacted her and Naomi's and Juliet's teachers when I was going in for surgery just to have them keep and extra eye out on the kids. Elise was following up and seeing how we were doing recovering and dealing with the school closure. We chatted together for a minute, then I let Naomi talk to her alone. It was good for her to check in with another adult to process what's going on in life right now!

We started the dough for a challah and then we went back outside. The kids spent the rest of the afternoon outside playing together. Our neighbor came out and played with the girls from across the street for some time. It's hard for the kids to not be able to play with the neighborhood kids. Hopefully someday soon we'll be able to get closer to one another and play!

At 5 o'clock today Naomi had her first virtual gymnastics session. She did some stretching and conditioning with the teacher and 3 other kids on a conference call. I'm not sure Juliet will be on board with this type of gymnastics. But Naomi seemed to like it. If it's nice out again, maybe we'll bring our gymnastics low beam, mats and mini trampoline outside and have a mini gymnastics session with the girls. We could do it in the basement but it's chilly down there.

After gymnastics we prepared for Shabbat dinner. We got out the challah (it didn't come out super great, I think I have old yeast and need to get new yeast but it is sold out at Roche) and the candles and heated up the leftovers. Leftovers are my favorite meal, because it make meal prep really quick and easy! Naomi had a burrito, JP had stroganoff, Mom had lasagna and Juliet fell asleep on the couch and slept through dinner. After dinner streamed the temple shabbat service and we got out the game clue. We woke Juliet up and she had leftover tomato soup and played clue with us while singing the songs that Rabbi Karen and Micah were singing on tv. We played a few rounds of Clue and then headed up to bed. Tomorrow is Saturday. So we get to sleep in! Yippee!!!