Day 54

Elizabeth and I completed a virtual 5K this morning. It was a beautiful morning and a really nice run with my daughter. It won't be long and I won't be keeping up with those long legs!

 She had riding in the afternoon. Jelly Bean, the friendliest barn cat I have ever met decided my lap was a good place for her afternoon nap.

Day 53

 Lots of checkers and Skip-Bo today.. I don't love the game of checkers. However, I was down 1 king to 4 and I managed to win!

 We we don't fall in line we get to reorganize kitchen drawers!

 And when you get really bored you just start putting your clothes on the dog. This is how I found Auggie when I came home from the store.

 We had 3 boxwoods that were struggling and we decided to replace them. This method went a lot better than I thought it would!

 Brandon or my dad give Grant his haircuts...however he requested me this time. I got to do a little before Daddy took over.

 He is a bit ofa wiggle worm.

He doesn't wiggle under Brandon's cutting.

Day 52

Nothing like rain ALL day to lift your spirits! I have been working on St. Jude stuff this week to keep myself busy and schoolwork seems to be getting done by 9 or 10 am. We had a drive by birthday parade for a friend today and then I swung by Taco Bell to get Grant a special lunch. He was invited to a special Google Hangout with his teacher for reaching his reading goal for the year. It should have been a special celebration and I give his teacher a lot of credit for trying to make it just that. However, Grant dropped part of his taco onto the upholstered kitchen chair (I am not sure how this has not happened before now!) and then they were playing a game as a group and Elizabeth tried to help him with a split screen and something went bad and he was in tears and then the chat got dropped. Not quite the magical celebration I had hoped for, but this is where we are.

The afternoon was spent hunkering down to Ultimate Beast Master and dreaming of warmer, drier spring days!

Day 51

Two weeks to go and I think we finally have the hang of this e-learning thing. Figures right? About the time you find your routine it is time to adapt to a new one. Grant is knows what I am willing to help him with and knows what he needs to do independently. Elizabeth continues to plug along. Both kids asked for new books to read. Who knew that getting a hold a an actual real book would be so challenging. There are lots of online reading options but honestly they don't love reading on a screen. Which I can completely understand, I don't either. They both wanted a next book in a series they had started so they had a very specific book request. I was able to get Grant's at the local book store and Elizabeth's had to be ordered from Amazon. I miss the library! We also went to school today to pick up their belongings. I almost cried when they loaded a garbage bag in my car. Their whole year wrapped up in a garbage bag - with drive-thru service pick up. They haven't remembered yet that their teachers didn't get to write in their "Oh the Places You Will Go" book. Their teachers have written a note to them each year since pre-school. I will find a way to make it happen, it just might not happen until next year. At any rate it is just a cruddy way to wrap up the school year - especially since they still have two weeks left. But the dining room table is littered with their notebooks and markers and glue sticks. Last night when Grant went to bed he asked if he could read his student dictionary. This is how much he needs a book....he is asking to read the DICTIONARY!!

Neighboring community is starting to open up...our curve is flat...there is hope!

Day 50

Painting day. The kids are getting really good at bringing us drinks and helping get lunch ready. Today we discovered a turtle dove nest....IN A TREE!! Good job birdie!! Now the nest wasn't very big so either they don't build big nests or she didn't have time to get a proper one built after we took the other nests down. The kids researched the egg color and how many days until the eggs hatch. We don't know for sure if there are eggs but we were 3 feet away from her and she didn't move for hours!

Then the rain came and we had to put the painting away and maybe didn't get quite as much accomplished as we wanted but it's good to take a break too! Ribs are on the smoker.

After the clearing shower we went out to pick up the tarps and I looked at the nest because the mama was gone and there two baby birds! So we won't be waiting for any eggs to hatch! These babies had wings and will be leaving the nest shortly!

Dinner was great and afterwards we had a piano recital. Today would have been Elizabeth's actual piano recital. So we all treated the family to a special concert! Apparently my 12 page piece was a little long (and at times loud) - I told Brandon he just doesn't understand dynamics!

Day 49

The beautiful spring day lends itself to a big day of progress on the fence. By days' end all of the grinding was done and priming too!! This is what we did all day! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Day 48

Happy May Day! We were hopeful for a few more restrictions to be lifted today but they have allowed a few things to open today...fishing, golf and green houses! This also marks the day that Brandon and I officially started acting like old people. Here was the start...6:00 am wake-up and we went for a walk. We went for a walk to get our body moving in hopes of not being quite so sore. That and when I tried to work out Wednesday morning I got light headed 3 times! Next we discussed how much rain we had the day before. We got home and had our coffee and talked about what time we should leave to get to the greenhouse!

Latte art by Alison (it's an elephant!)

The car line as we were leaving the greenhouse!

\Luckily we went to the greenhouse a half an hour early. The line of cars was starting and we were maybe 6th or 7th in line. They opened a few minutes early and Brandon was such a champ to help me. First I really needed him because it took two carts. He also googled flower pictures and then tried to find them. I had been working on the schematics all week. I had diagrams and spreadsheets and when we left the only question he had for me was "Did you think this is what the total would be?" I smiled and said "less actually! Thanks for all of your help babe!"
We went for a hike later and Brandon had taken the day off to work on the fence/flower shop with me :)

It's beginning to look like spring!

Flowers planted!

GUEST BLOGGER: GRANT PAULI

On Friday morning me and my grandpa got up at 6:30. We ate breakfast then we pack are lunches then we brushed are teeth. Next we hook up the boat to the trailer then we were on the road when we got there we put the boat in the water.