Happy Easter!
Usually we take a break from lessons during Holy Week in order to have time for Easter-related activities and church and community events. This year, however, all the events were cancelled, and we have standardized testing coming up (public school kids are out for the year here, but home schoolers are still being held responsible for all the usual things). However, we still got creative and made time for what Easter traditions we could manage. The church service itself happened via Facebook Watch as it has for the past several weeks.

Usually we decorate with fresh flowers, but the florist is closed.
This year we pulled out fake flowers from the craft supplies as
as well as making a few paper ones of our own
(finished products below)

The Easter Bunny (one of Daddy's bored coworkers)
 did a drive through the neighborhood to entertain himself and the kiddos. 

Bug made bunny craft kids for our preschool friends across the street.
They loved them! So cute!

We gathered for our traditional Easter breakfast: dyed eggs,
shaped bread, and candy!

Not Easter related, but here are some other happenings: Lion is still trying to figure out how to cope with the loneliness and sadness (we've had lots of good talks and snuggles). One of the highlights of each week has been the hymn studies the chapel children's leader has been posted every Wednesday. Because she is also tired of waiting, Lion decided to film a read aloud for a few of her little friends:

So, taekwondo happens via Zoom these days, but it's a frustrating experience. This week, the girls asked Daddy if he could lead them instead on the weeks he's home from work. Apparently it's a much more satisfying class--and it involves sparring! (the video doesn't feature sparring, but maybe I can catch that next time.)

Shelter in Place

Tuesday's "tea time and reading" happens as usual!
Lion is especially excited about the cookies a friend gave us.

I've joked with people about how "we home school--we quarantined before it was cool!" but in all seriousness this isn't what normal home schooling looks like! Real home schooling involves library and museum visits, park visits, beach days, playing with friends, and for a lot of people co ops--all things that have been cancelled.

Technically, our life doesn't look that different: we do our academic lessons at home following our usual routine, and all our scheduled activities (church events, music lessons, and even taekwondo class) have all migrated online. What isn't happening for the girls? Hanging out with other home school kids during my Bible study, Lion's running around and eating dinner with the kids at chapel, Monkey and Bug chitchatting about life with the other 6th grade girls during games and dinner at youth group, playing card games with their friend N at music lessons, building multi-generational friendships at our chapel's Sunday service, spending hours outside with neighborhood friends, etc.

Taekwondo via Zoom! When classes happened at the rec center, Daddy participated
too, but our house just doesn't have enough room for him.

The neighborhood kids are still spending plenty of time outside,
but now they're limited to their own families and yards. So sad.

The girls are handling this stressful and isolating time in their own ways. Monkey (our extreme introvert) has had her moments of boredom and grumpiness--usually relieved by sending her outside--but otherwise seems to be rolling with the punches with ease. Bug (the most likely to get stressed and anxious) has been successfully implementing coping strategies that we've taught her previously--finding the good stories and humor in a situation, keeping a thankful journal which her sisters have been contributing to with much success, and being intentional about her entertainment choices ("I can't handle historical fiction right now. I'm dealing with my own historical crisis, thank you very much!"). Poor Lion (the lone extrovert in our family) has definitely been hit the hardest by the shelter-in-place order. She is truly grieving the loss of friends; there've been tears, lots of tears. Fortunately, we watched Inside Out years ago, and it's given her a great framework and vocabulary for processing and expressing her emotions

Sometimes you just need to snuggle up with a kitty and forget the world.
(For the record, Pidge loves this. He was purring loudly, and they
stayed this way for quite a while.)

(I highly recommend this movie!). On the first evening it really hit her, we snuggled in my bed while she cried and explained it like this: "I don't want to be sad, but it's like Sadness just keeps taking over. I think Sadness touched a core memory--one about the G girls [our neighbors and best friends] and friendship. I just start crying every time someone mentions them." As a parent, it was a heartbreaking moment. We cried together, prayed together, and brainstormed some ways we could try to connect with her friends even when we couldn't see them in person.

Pre--Covid-19 Moments
Once again it's been ages since I've posted. Here are a few pics from a month ago:

A picture perfect Hawaii afternoon: We moms circled our lawn chairs,
a dozen or so kids ran around, and I caught this bestie moment with
Lion and her friend from across the street. 

The girls were awarded their purple belts for taekwondo!

We decided to do donuts and a park day, and just happened to be
there for a meet up of other home schoolers! They were a great
group, and we're looking forward to seeing them again once the
shelter-in-place order lifts.

Potato Got Hitched!
Just as Covid-19 was beginning to show itself in the US, we headed to the mainland to visit family and see Potato get married! In light of the impending pandemic, he and Aunt KJ decided to cancel the big, fancy wedding and we spent a crazy three days pulling together a backyard, wedding-party-and-family-only event. It may not have been the wedding they planned for, but it was beautiful, and--more importantly--they are now husband and wife! In the meantime, we had a great time hanging out with family.

We also got to spend a couple of days with Daddy's side of the family--playing games, roasting more marshmallows, hot tubbing, reviewing firearm safety, watching movies--lots of good times!