Covid Chronicles #8

State chess is online this year and this was the online practice tourney. Very helpful to get our bearings. Dae didn't do so hot considering he was very confident  - ha! - only 1.5 wins out of 5. Christian got 1.5 points, Olin got 3 points and I got 2.5 points.

Early Mother's Day gift! I am so happy to have it. I can now go for jogs and not have to lug my phone with me for when the kids (inevitably) call to ask what they can have for snack. It also has the always-on feature so I don't have to tap it to get the time. And I have thoroughly enjoyed the noise level indicator. Turns out my Vitamix produces 90 decibels of noise. I always knew it was a lot! I can't wait for a concert or Orange Theory to see how much noise there is, and to use my earplugs. :)

We went for two long walks in Seattle this past weekend and Olin got cold. It was surprisingly sunny out both days, fortunately.

So much pink and purple this evening.

Carrying their Top Pot Doughnuts.

Cherry blossom season. Our doughnuts as well as some fruit from the Pike Place stand.

Olin was playing 'blind'. Ev and I used to play this when we were young.

Views.

Current home school setup. Much messier than a month ago if you scroll back in time.

Olin's plants have been doing well. Radishes were quick to sprout through, followed by basil, and finally tomato.

Finally, a visitor! He's a Rufous Hummingbird as my friend told me based on the photo.

Field work. Christian went out to collect weeds with different root structures for school.

At Onnie's house for lemonade in the backyard.

I was sifting through my Fred Meyer coupons and recycling the ones I didn't need. After I was done, Christian actually fished this one out of recycling, came and found me, and asked "don't you need this one, mom?" I started laughing SO hard. I don't have major roots, as my white hairs just tend to spring out randomly, but the fact that he chose this particular coupon during quarantine was hilarious.

Covid Chronicles #7

Irish Barmbrack bread. Slightly sweet, quite delicious!

Gyro-Bots. Toys are coming out of the depths of our storage areas to re-entertain the kids.

Kinetic sand

Dae set up a little golf in the backyard. They try to hit it within a quadrant area.

All it took was quarantine for Christian's typing to really ramp up in speed. He's at 30 wpm. Up from 11 wpm a year ago. hahaha. It's all the computer work and especially the online chatting with schoolmates.

Reading perch.

He's been helping me cook a lot. 

Christian is really in to static electricity and bending water.

Rubbing on his shirt.

Olin's plant project for school. He's planting two different brands of basil seeds, heirloom tomato and radish. He told me he's so excited he needs to calm himself down so he doesn't overwater them.

Covid Chronicles #6 (give or take)

Bought a cute welcome mat for our nonexistent guests :)

Trimmed up this Japanese maple. I didn't even know it was called a Japanese maple until very recently so I'm giving myself a pat on the back for trying to trim it to be light and delicate and airy. This is the before pic....

....and after. It's supposed to have a 'veil' type look to it where there is some green on top and lots of air throughout. I think it looks good now, but what I'm mostly worried about is if branches start dying or growing in the wrong direction years down the road.

Kids made these popovers pretty much start to finish entirely on their own. They were buttery and delicious!

Seattle

We ventured to Seattle for 2 nights. We knew it wouldn't be filled with excitement and we'd be more or less sequestered in our condo but a change of scenery (literally) was nice.

It was pretty much shut down. A few shops were open, but it didn't feel any eerier than when it's early morning and nothing is opened yet.

Video stills of Oreo Challenge. Take an oreo from the forehead to the mouth. Olin is the only one of us who consistently practiced and he's got it down!

Set up the kids' legos in the main room so Dae took his new seat in the hallway.

Fun pub trivia with Ev & Jeff. I think Jeff won, I got second place, Dae third, Ev last?

Poor Olin's eczema has really resurfaced with all this hand washing

Some fine knitting here by Christian

Still love Paas

Christian's pieces

Olin's favorites

Who knew Venus Fly Traps grew flowers?

Days of our Covid Lives

Caught him practicing piano with his eyes closed

Nick's Pub Trivia. Haven't been doing so hot. It's twice a week and fun.

Tiktok videos - this one is the Mission Impossible "Koala challenge"

Riding bikes with Safranski girls

First (and last, for a while) geocaching experience. Apparently the city collected all the geocaches up today because of Covid. It was fun while it lasted! We found 3 and couldn't find 2 yesterday.

Olin found this one hidden in arborvitae

Christian found this one in the rocks by the WSU sign

Creative reading perch

Black widow spider on our 4th search. We didn't find the cache but this spider was pretty cool.

Whipped coffee (aka dalgona) which is all the rage these days. I did matcha dalgona instead of coffee since I didn't have instant coffee.

Dae's work schedule is pretty light. These are the types of pictures his staff is sending me about their 'work days'

Making my family do TikToks. I love it. This is "Blinding Lights"