Keeping busy during this pandemic has not been a problem for us, in spite of being mostly locked down. Trying to stay sane is an uphill battle, me losing it most of the time and then making small advances that tend not to last long. It’s work in progress.
Keeping busy means I don’t have enough time to do all the things I want with the blog: I have so many recipes to type up, share our homeschooling resources, update the look and feel of the site. Patience is not my strong suit – I want it all happen asap! But I also have a full-time, stressful job, a family to take care of, the house to clean, and other such things. We’ll get there eventually.
We have a certain structure on the weekends: catching up on chores in the morning and relaxing, or trying to relax for an OCD – me, the rest of the day.
In the “chores” department, after taking care of cleaning the bathrooms (my LEAST favorite thing to do around the house, anyone else?), I meal plan for the upcoming week. Sometimes I do that on Fridays, this way I don’t have to worry about it on the weekend – I do not enjoy meal planning but I hate to come with dinner ideas on the spot, so I plan religiously.
CHORES:
I use Dropbox Paper app to keep track of my menus and file ideas for future meals. This is what is on the menu for this week.
I also make a study plan for Phoebe for the week. When schools were shut down last Spring, I did that to supplement our school’s online curriculum. During the Summer, with not much else to do, we are keeping up with her lessons to occupy her, and also to avoid the summer “brain drain”. Ethan and Sonia are doing their own summer school (Codecademy and Khan Academy, respectively).
This is a great little encyclopedia with a good balance of educational material and illustrations.
Each chapter is two pages (of tiny font that I need glasses to read) long, perfect for a 7 year old.
FUN:
A nice book to keep the kids busy. The activities can be done with supplies you have at home, or can be easily found at a grocery store.
The first activity the girls tried was making a tower using marshmallows. We talked about how to make the towers sturdy (the “engineering” part of it), turned out play dough works better than marshmallows. The marshmallows were eaten as soon as the girls were done (the “fun” part of it).
Also in the fun department:
Done with the chores, getting geared up for movie watching
A movie-watching snack, Ethan’s signature “recipe”
Phoebe is the only one of all four kids that has interest in Lego. She inherited a ton of mismatched sets from Ethan and added to it with her own growing collection. In the past I tried different methods of organizing Lego, none very successful. I basically gave up on that and now we have a few large containers of mixed sets.
It doesn’t stop her from creating these intricate housing situations for tiny Lego dolls and their pets.
IN THE KITCHEN:
My idea of relaxing: baking and cooking a special weekend dinner.
I want all kinds of the fruit dessert in the summer. This puff pastry strawberry tart is my idea of a perfect summer dessert. Stay tuned for a recipe.
It came together in no time, I love to get help in the kitchen.
A few berries didn’t make it to the tart, you can tell by that face
Our dinner last night was crab cakes and a caprese salad, with steamed broccoli and home-fries.
A nice big salad with grilled chicken tonight:
Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, chick peas, Kalamata olives, fresh dill, and green onion.
BOOKS:
I have recently finished this book by Bill Bryson and loved it. I picked it up at a beach condo in Florida where we stayed a coupled years ago (I left my own book in exchange). It was such a sweet reminder of the normal vacation in the pre-Covid time.
New York Times bestseller Bill Bryson’s irrevent and hilarious journey through the beloved island nation he called home for two decades. From Downing Street to Loch Ness, this is a delightful look at the United Kingdom.
Currently reading “The House by The Lake”. With all the political turmoil going on in the country right now, this book has an added significance to the story that covers the Germany during the early Nazi days.
“By tracing the lives of the different families who lived there, Harding sheds fresh light on the German 20th century, a tale of war, spies, murder and political, racial and social division. His account of the house is a superb work of social history, told with tremendous narrative verve.”
How are you keeping busy? I hope your weekend was relaxing and peaceful.
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