Quarantine Day 53: May the 4th Be With You!

Monday! This was probably the best Monday of all time. I know that's a big statement, but how can you compare a regular Monday that I would get up at 5:30 (before its light out) and groggily hop in the shower and leave for work before the rest of the house is up. And then teach inside all day and have a faculty meeting after and not get the girls until 5pm. Today I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping at 7:30 because we slept with the windows open last night! Then I got to slowly wake up, check any notifications on my phone and then get dressed. By the time I got downstairs it was 8:30 and the kids were up. JP was down first and making them breakfast. Then we took Pip for a walk around the block in the beautiful warm sunny weather. After Pip's walk I made breakfast for me, JP went up to the office and the kids and I went outside on the front porch to sit in the sun and eat breakfast.

After breakfast we had our first shop lesson of quarantine. We sanded down the two wooden adirondack chairs that we have. They were in bad shape and needed some TLC. So we sanded and then we cleaned them off to get ready to oil them. The kids lost interests at this point, so mom ended up oiling on her own while the girls rode bikes around the neighborhood with the neighborhood kids. It was another gorgeous day. Juliet really got the hang of the two wheeler, she was more confident as she knew she could do it. She tried on her own several times in the circle and was great, but the chain kept falling off. Finally I had JP look at it and he fixed it. Turns out the back wheel can slide forward and back a bit and it was slide a bit forward as the screws were not tight. So easy fix. I thought I'd have to call baba and learn how to take a link out of the chain!

After biking they played in our 'pool' the little turtle sand box we never put sand in that has sat in the back yard under the deck since we moved from our old house. This has been a big hit in the warm weather. I hope the sprinklers get turned on soon, that is always fun. In the mean time, maybe Baba has a sprinkler in Needham we can borrow.

While the kids did all that, I oiled one of the chairs. And then ran out of oil! So I decided to run over to Ace and get another bottle. This was the first time I had gone out to a store since March 1st, before my surgery. Before I left, JP gave me the run down on how to do it. With my mask, my disposable gloves and hand sanitizer I set off. Oh but before I left, I called Park Street Books and placed an order for a few activity books, a puzzle and 2 skippers. So I headed over to Park Street first. The order was all taken care of on the phone and left outside on their patio, so no human interaction! I placed the bag in the trunk and then sanitized my hands with the hand sanitizer. As I was driving over to Ace, I noticed that Ann & Hope was open, so I popped in there for some bird seed - as we are running low, and a few plants - herbs to keep the mosquitos away and to cook with! I did make it to Ace, they had one bottle of teak oil left! So I grabbed that and headed home to put my plants out in the herb garden and planters on the deck. The kids where right where I left them, on their bikes in the circle!

Oh all the while I was in the car I was attending a faculty meeting on google meet! It was the best meeting! I love working from home!! Seriously, I'm not sure how we'll go back to life before. Life is so much slower paced now, I'm not rushing around anywhere. Everything I need is at my house! We're spending so much great quality time together as a family. I'm actually able to talk to my husband about stuff during the day and not have to remember to tell him when I get home. Its nice. Sure we have days where the girls are fighting and the dog won't stop barking and we are fed up being stuck inside. But most of the days are good.

JP finished up with work and started dinner while I finished planing the herbs on the deck. Roasted winter squash from our Needham Produce pick up. It was so delicious. JP and I have been watching a cooking masterclass with Alice Waters and learned that roasting brings out the intense flavors. Root vegetables are best roasted with just a little olive oil and salt. I was skeptical, but after tonight's roasted squash, it was delicious!! Another thing we learned was 'Steam for Delicate Flavors.' If you want to preserve the flavor, you steam. Don't steam old root vegetables, but fresh ones. We'll have to try some of these things out next batch of fresh veggies we get. Anyway, to go with the squash, JP made rice with tomatoes and sausage. Again, it was delicious. Naomi thought so too, Juliet not so much. She's been a picky eater these days, except for the fruit, she could eat all the berries, bananas & mangos in one sitting! I'm not upset when she comes in and gets a snack and its all the strawberries or all the bananas. It could be all the cookies, but it isn't!

As it is May 4th - Star Wars Day! We watched an episode of the cartoon Star Wars Clone Wars with the kids after dinner. Then we headed up to bed to read some Star Wars books! JP and I have also been watching 'How To's' on finishing the basement. We're thinking that now that we've got all this time we can chip away at finishing the basement. We're on video 3 on framing. It seems complicated to me! We would definitely need a framing nail gun to make all that building go much faster!