Life on the Home Front: End of School Term

In which I discuss schedules, the weather, and a headache.....

The children and I are sleeping in most mornings. I want to get up, but without the need to get the kids out the door at precisely 7:15am I don't feel as much pressure and sleepiness drags me to press the snooze button. Really I want to sleep in until 9 each morning, but it would be best if I got up by 8.  I am happy that the kids are getting more sleep -- I don't think they get enough during regular school times and it worries me. Moods are greatly improved by sleep.

My morning routine involves all the usual getting dressed, brushing teeth sort of things but I've got to be vigilant to throw in 15 minutes of gentle yoga. If I don't, I get all sore and achy and it takes weeks to get back to feeling well again. Everyone gets their own breakfast and most of us drink tea which everyone in this house is capable of making. The kids have had online school this past week so family worship has been at 8:45am before the 9am start of school. Michael reads the next passage of Scripture and we discuss prayer requests and pray. Then everyone heads off in their own direction.

Laura has been using my computer for her e-learning and that means I get a bunch of background commotion while I sit down to do my morning quiet time -- I mark the weather and temperature in my five-year diary, write a few lines in my yearly diary, record 3-5 things I'm thankful for in my gratefulness journal and then arrive at my Bible and prayer journal. I'm focusing on psalms right now in this crisis and trying to even pause and read one mid-day and evening as well. It doesn't take long (even 30 seconds) but it helps to re-focus.

David had a virtual cello lesson yesterday. Michael set the iPad up with the perfect angle and at 11am our teacher Face-timed in. Imagine this pandemic hitting 30 years ago without all the technology available to us now?

Outside the day began in the mid-60's but was predicted to drop about 35 degrees so I had to prioritize getting out for a walk. It was glorious! Temps in the 60's is wonderful! I have a severe allergy to cold and temperature change and try not to go outdoors if it is less than 55 degrees. I had to get my walk as the temps predicted for next week are colder until Wednesday. Our gym is closed now too -- so no indoor walking. I have to rely on the real deal.

For our first week at home we made a loose schedule:
8:15 Get up and Eat Breakfast
8:45 Family Worship
9-12 School
12-1 Lunch
1 Reading time (alone)
3:30 Tea Time
4 Chores
6:30 Dinner
8 Family Time with an episode

Loose schedules help me. We all know "what comes next" and can get ourselves on track. Today we are going to come up with one for "spring break" which runs for the next two weeks.

I managed to take a little time to try a daffodil painting with gouache. I paint at a table in my bedroom because that's the space I have. Our daffodils popped open in the night so it seemed the right thing to paint! I checked my diary and they bloomed a full 2 weeks earlier than last year! By the way, I've been posting Nature videos the last two days so others can see spring as it unfolds in my part of the world. You can find them on Facebook under Heather 'Winslow' LeFebvre or on instagram under heather_winslow_lefebvre.

It was Michael's day to bake and Laura volunteered to help him. They decided on shortbread. Every two minutes she ran up the stairs to ask me about the next step. It turned out great! By the time they finished it was quite past tea time and the shortbread was too hot to eat without crumbling so we decided to make into dessert later.

About that time I came down with a nasty allergy headache. I've been so thankful not to have had one of these intense headaches for some years and thought I had reached a good level of self-management to avoid them. I guess not. Or this is a bad year. Or something. Dinner plans changed. I went to bed and Michael got put on duty to make frozen pizza. Good thing we had some! I was grateful the headache calmed down after about 2 1/2 hours. What a relief. But I stayed off duty the rest of the evening to keep from lowering my head and bringing it back. Just as the headache was ending its worst we managed to get James out back to play his bagpipes as promised to the neighbors on the Next-door App. He valiantly stood in the 39-degree weather and played about 8 songs, ending with Amazing Grace. A few neighbors had come out to sit in their backyard to listen.

With Friday finished we ended the school term and have two weeks of break ahead. The Governor of Indiana did shorten the school year requirements by 20 days this year though. We wonder if our school will take advantage of that and give the kids a longer break? I don't know. Drew is a senior and is pretty sad that this is how his final semester of school is ending -- no prom in April, no sports, no getting together with large groups of friends, no "being a senior."

Food Eaten: Two leftover scones for breakfast with tea, toast and leftover sausage gravy for lunch, a piece of toast for snack, and leftover turkey soup for me for dinner while the others ate frozen pizza.