Summer Vacation Week 5 Part 1

Monday 7/6 - Another week of Summer vacation in the year of COVID.  Our family continued to battle our strange health issues, this week M, T, and I all ran fevers all week.  On Monday T was complaining that her legs were itchy.  I looked at them and they were full of bumps.  We have no idea what she got into or if these were a symptom of the fever/sickness. The picture doesn't fully show the rash.  There is one area (on the pic) that looks worse than the others.  Both legs looked like that area.  I had already put on calamine lotion when the picture was taken. 

Very hard to get a good pic, but this is sort of what they looked like.  

T spent a lot of time in the basement creating this amazing doll house castle while I puzzled.

The inside view

The proud builder with her creation. 

Tuesday 7/7 - We were feeling the sickness and the weariness in a major way. 

Cozy time with the kids. 

Brandon had a meeting that night and it started to rain.  I told the kids that it can be fun to watch the rain while being outside, so we headed to the front porch and watched.  It was really pouring and a memory maker. The kids didn't last too long, but they can now say they sat outside in the rain.

Pouring outside.

Nice and dryish on the patio.

T spent more time creating castles in the basement while M and I continued to work on the same very hard puzzle.

Check out the updated entrance. 

Wednesday 7/8 - Today's biggest highlight was hanging the new TV in the family room.  M really wanted to help and enjoyed using the drill. 

M: This is so cool!

M: I really had to focus (I just couldn't choose which picture so chose both).

M: I liked being part of the project. 

Even though the TV was hung 2.5 weeks ago, Our living room still looks like this... with three TV's.  Our new TV is on the wall.  The old one will eventually move to the basement, and the one on the floor will go back to church.  A funny sight for a family who doesn't really do TV!

The finished product.  As you can see, the new TV is a bit of an upgrade. 

Thursday 7/9 - On Thursday afternoon Charissa invited us to come and play in the pool for a bit.  We only stayed about an hour because very dark clouds were rolling in, but it was fun to be together.  The big boys didn't get wet, and just stuck with jungle gym.  We have a tradition of taking pics of the two boys each summer when they are both the same age.  We decided it was the perfect day for the 10 year pics.  The boys wanted to hold up fingers.  L wanted to hold up 2 since there are 2 boys and M wanted to hold up 10 since they are both 10.  I asked if we could do an additional one without hands up.  

Two 10 year olds. 

They usually have their arms around each other, but this year we have some social distancing happening. 

It is very hard to keep the kids distanced, but we stayed outside and I don't think they actually touched each other so that has to count for something.

T: J and A and I had fun in the pool!

Buttercup is so incredibly loyal to M and he always lays on M's little sleeping bag.  On this particular night he put his paw on M's leg and M insisted we take a pic.

Best buddies!

Friday 7/10 - 

On Friday I harvested my radishes.  It wasn't the most impressive harvest, esp because the big one on the upper left was rotten inside. 

The entire harvest!

We had Mexican pulled chicken in tortillas with guacamole for dinner on Thursday. M didn't want to try them that night, but the next day for lunch he couldn't stop eating them.  He thought they were great. I needed to take a picture so he will be willing to try them again sometime.

M: Sometimes I forget what a good cook my mom is. (He might not have said that)

After lunch I attempted a favorite recipe from my childhood, Oatmeal Candy Cookies.  Brandon and I loved them.  They turned out so well that I have made another recipe since.  I am not sure how great they are for us, but oats and almond butter are not horrible.  They are basically like energy bars, right?

So much yum! 

On Friday afternoon we had quite an experience with M... see next post.