Sewing Masks, Outdoor Fun, and Journaling

Last week Olivia and I decided to get out the sewing machine, fabrics, thread, etc., wash all the fabric, and start sewing masks.  We made the first one quickly to see how it'd turn out, and Liv is keeping the mask.  We also used fabric from what were probably my favorite pair of hemp beach pants, the beautiful purple pair I wore completely out.  We kept a purple mask for our own use.  Carissa must venture out on Friday to pick up packages from the post office, so she will wear it then. 

We will donate all the other masks we have been making.  People need them during this covid pandemic.

If you'd also like to sew masks to donate or to use personally, the pattern we used can be found here, and a video with instructions can be found on Youtube. 

 

We didn't have elastic in our sewing supplies, but we used ponytail holders, rubber bands with yarn wrapped around them for ear comfort, and even plain doubled yarn.  We will continue to double yarn to make masks until we are out of fabric. 

I make sure all the kids are journaling almost every day, and I'm especially making sure Elizabeth practices writing.  I truly believe one day she will write well.  She's just got to get to a point where she enjoys it, and I believe that is within her.  I'm working on getting her to align her paragraphs correctly. 

It seemed I had fixed a quinoa breakfast for Carissa and myself a couple years ago, and I even seemed to keep a vague memory of it being something we didn't like much, but I gave it a go for all of us, and we will not be doing that again.  It doesn't matter that it's got cinnamon and dried coconut in it.  It doesn't matter whether I added berries (cannabis and flax seeds, as well as almonds are also components).  It doesn't even matter that I decided to add honey to sweeten it.  It tastes terrible, and we had to force it down.

Pizza was as fancy as it got for our last Sabbath meal, but homemade pizza is good. :-) 

It was Carissa's turn to choose dessert, and she requested some sort of "blondie brownie" with cocoa butter pieces.  I added chocolate chips to my corner. :-)

We spent a lot of time outside, at least during a couple of the days.  We played Kick-the-Bucket two days in a row, and that left me so sore.  I'd not run around like that in a long time.  I also got to spy on the insect world while hiding.  After one round, I ran in to get my phone to film this:

 

The kids are mainly working on math online.  The girls log in to their accounts with login info with which their teachers supplied me.  Since Trusten finished his original school packet, I've assigned him lessons from Life of Fred.  One of his teachers gave me a list of things they had planned on teaching during the remainder of the semester, so I'm covering things on there.  I suggested he read Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry.  He said his English teacher read The Giver to him last year.  I will give him an assignment afterward for him to work on debate/argument skills. 

Liv is enjoying more time baking.  She makes breakfast some mornings.  I'm getting more time with  getting Elizabeth to the point of fixing something entirely by herself, minus taking it out of the oven.  She is not developmentally ready for that, yet.  She sure wants to, but nope, she can't. 

This week we are doing a lot of geography activities, so stay tuned for my next post.

Until next time...