Last Day of "School"

Yesterday was our last day of online learning. Mark's school celebrated with a parade at Dragon Stadium where all the teachers lines up to say good-bye. It was a bittersweet moment. After it was all said and done, I still did not feel like a normal end of school celebration. I miss the pool parties, the school parties and the good-bye hugs.

Some of us moms decided to get together before the parade to decorate our cars. I didn't get a picture if our car, but it was decorated and I thought it was really cute. I'm still trying to get the window paint off my car windows, but whatever. It was cute.

I told them to give me their best smile and this was what I got.

My friend Meredith was over teaching her kids at home. Can you tell?

Mark ditched me for a cooler ride with these little guys.

I had the boys pose for their last day of school picture. Only one was not too happy about it. I'll leave you to guess on which. No shoes required for last day of online learning.

I am ready for the summer break and I'm hoping that we can start the next school year at school!

Friday Favorites

It's Fri-yay! But frankly, it's Friday everyday these days. I'm playing along with Andrea and Erika and showing you my Friday Favorites.

{ONE}

Playing Yahtzee with this little guy. He is quicker with the math than I am at this game and usually wins because he's also got more luck on his side. He almost always rolls a Yahtzee EVERY game.

This guy doesn't play around when it comes to Yahtzee!

{TWO}

My hibiscus mini tree is blooming and it's so pretty! I got it from Lowe's for less than $10 and I didn't have high hopes for it because I usually kill everything but this little guys is actually blooming!

{THREE}

We did a family session for a local magazine cover a few weeks ago. Because of quarantine we had to have a front porch session. I'm excited to see which ones get selected to be published, but the photographers sent a little preview. I think these turned out quite well.

{FOUR}

Obviously, the needs at our local food pantry has grown so we are trying to do our part in helping as much as we can. We've been taking up food donations to GRACE every few weeks. Me and the older boys have also been writing notes of encouragement to deliver to senior citizens and patients at our local hospital. They are not big fans of doing this because they would much rather play video games all day but I'm really trying to teach them to be compassionate. Not that they are lacking compassion. I just think they need to be reminded.

{FIVE}

My favorite clothes to workout in are from Lululemon. I love that they last forever and are really cute. I still have leggings and tanks from 6 years ago and they still look new and I still love putting them on. I ordered these shorts a few weeks ago and love it. It's a new version of my go to workout shorts -  it's longer (I'm no Spring chicken) and it's higher rise (not more muffin tops). I would love to order a couple more, but it's sold out right now so apparently, it's a favorite for lots of other people too. Boo!

This is all I've got - a total random mix of stuff. Have a Memorial Day weekend!

Hello, Monday!

Happy Monday! Well, online learning is winding down and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The older boys are done with their assignments except for a reflection project that's not due until next week. Mark only had a couple of assignments for this whole week and another Zoom call with his classmates.

I'm feeling a little sad that this school year has come to a close. I'm not sad about the end of online learning. Because honestly, I'm not teaching these kids anything. I'm sad that there's no closure to the school year. No end of year parties, no yearbook signing, no pool party with friends. I know the kids don't care, but I guess I have major closure issues.

We had a nice rainy weekend. I prefer this to the 110 degree weather that is inevitably coming. It rained all Friday night and all Saturday. I love sitting outside and watching the rain.

I worked out in the garage while it was pouring outside. I love that I have the option of working out from home "with" other people.

The boys asked for French toast for breakfast so we had French toast for breakfast.

This little guy doesn't like French toast. What?! So he had frozen waffles.

And M actually sat down and watched a corn hole tournament because there are no sports on. I texted this picture to my friends and one of them texted back and said her husband was watching the same thing. Haha! These are desperate times for sports.

 

License to Drive

Last Saturday, Michael took his road test for his driver's licensed and passed! Yay. This has been a long journey. He was suppose to take driver's ed when he was 15, but he didn't seem all that interested so a let it pass. By the time he asked me to sign him up for driver's ed, things got busy with soccer and other after school activities that it was too difficult to make his schedule work. We had to wait until summer after his 16th birthday to get his driver's education done. He got his learner's permit in August right before we went to Hawaii for two weeks.

The requirement was that he had to practice driving with a parent for 50 hours before the can take his road test. Well, it took him forever to get that done because, frankly, he was not motivated to do so. He had friends who were willing to drive him anywhere he needed or wanted to be so it wasn't a big deal for him, I guess. 

So finally in March, he met his requirement and I registered for him to take the test on his 17th birthday, March 26. And you guessed it, Corona happened and the driving school and the DPS closed. Then as things started to open up again, he finally took his test on May 9th and PASSED! 

DPS is stilled closed, but according to their website, I can still have his license application processed by mail so I sent everything to them last week. If all goes according to plan, he should have his license in his hot little hands in a little over a week at the ripe old age of 17! And we can check off another milestone. I'm going to stop right here before I get all nostalgic.

Week 139ish of SIP

Happy Friday! This week went by really quickly. Here's a little of what's going on in our little COVID 19 world.

My friend Meredith turned the big 40 this week! She was so looking forward to spending her 40th sitting by the pool in a beach resort with all of her friends, but unfortunately, Corona. So anyway, tried to make lemonade out of lemons for her and surprised her with a birthday cheer and a parade. Later today, we will celebrate her with a small group gathering at our friend Amber's house. Margaritas are involved, but because we are responsible teachers, we will have our kids' schoolwork done first.

.

I'm not sure why I look so wide in this picture. I hope it's the camera angle and not the COVID 15.

The Blue Angels flew over our town this week to honor our frontline workers. Mark and I took a little break from schoolwork and went to meet some friends at a local park to watch.

Our little garden is coming right along. I spied some jalapeños and itty-bitty tomatoes yesterday. Mark loves to see the progress everyday and he loves pulling off the little dried up flowers at the bottom of the baby tomatoes...

We all missed going out to eat Korean at our favorite restaurant so when M discovered that they sold meats and sauces that we can take home and cook ourselves at home, we were it! We quickly ordered some grills on Amazon and on Cinco de Mayo we celebrated with an at home Korean barbecue. It was the perfect day for it too.

All 3 of my boys have taken to go shirtless nowadays.

On a side note, we had to get a new table for the barbecue that day because our old glass top table got taken out by a storm the night before.

Michael is finally able to take his driving test to get his license tomorrow. It's been long and painful journey so wish us luck!

A "Normal" Day

Welcome to the first day of May. This is the month when it's super busy with all sorts of end of school activities and events, and sports. This year is obviously a lot different. However, we are starting to see things heading back toward real life. Restaurants will starting to open up again in a couple of days on  a very limited basis. I know things will eventually get back to normal.

I am actually enjoying this new normal that we are living now. The weekends are free and if I wanted to sit out in our backyard for a couple of hours, I have the time to do that. Normally, we are on some sort of time clock rushing from one thing to the next. 

Here's what our "normal" day looks like nowadays. This is a day in the life of us last Wednesday.

5:51 - Gotta get the morning cup of coffee going. While that's brewing, I put dishes away and clean up anything in the kitchen that didn't get done the night before.

When we renovated our kitchen, we put in 2 dishwashers. At the time, I thought it might have been overkill, but it turned out to be one of the best things we did. 

After I pour myself a cup of coffee, I remembered that I hadn't watered the flowers on my porch in a few days so I went to do that. I'm notorious for killing plants due to neglect. Got treated to a beautiful sunrise. 

6:30 - I head into my office to read and evaluate some SWC scholarship applications. I am on the scholarship committee for the Southlake Women's Club and The Southlake Women's Club Foundation so I get to read all about these super smart and inspiring kids' application and rank them. It's really hard because these kids are all exceptional. 

7:26 - This little guy woke up and wanted toaster strudel for breakfast.

7:45 - Time to set up for my CG virtual workout with some girlfriends. 

8:00 - 9:00 - It's peak week and the workouts are harder than normal. I may have taken an illegal break when we were suppose to be running. Being able to text my friends while we work out together makes this time more fun.

9:50 - Wake the older boys up (sometimes it takes 3-4 tries) after shower and getting dressed. I use the word getting dressed very loosely here.

I poured myself another cup of coffee and head back into my office to read a few more applications.

10:30 -  Time for schoolwork. We had a meltdown this morning over some sentence writing, but overall it was a good day. We even got some extra work done so he would have some free time on Friday.

The older boys don't have as much work as Mark does so I make Michael do 30 minutes of SAT Prep every school day. Other than schoolwork, they are left on their own. They play video games with their friends most days. I consider that necessary social interaction these days.

12:50 - Lunch for me, Mark and M. The two older boys come down to eat later. As I have my lunch, I'm looking for inspiration for dinner because the dreaded "what's for dinner?" question comes up 10 times a day.

1:45 - We head outdoors. Mark decided to swim.

6:45 -  Dinner! A simple meal of burgers and fries outside.

After cleaning up, watching a show or two with M, it's time to get ready for bed. I'm in bed by 9:20pm. Good night!