Covid Quarantine: The Beginning {March 2020}

March started off normally for us, for the most part.  I was planning for a month of almost no work so that I could put in my required pre-clinical experience hours for my degree, but beside that, March was slated to a be a normal month.

Elizabeth went on to perform in her grade level spelling bee, and I kept that day open to go watch her, at her request.  Three winners were chosen, and my Lizi came in third place.  Another child from her class placed first.

This meant that Elizabeth was to go participate in the regional spelling bee.  We would have driven the long way to Kirbyville on April 30.  I was so excited for my sweet girl.

Life went on.  I fixed delicious food...

...and I worked in my ceramics class.

I received my first two free issues of Popular Science as a member of the NEA (National Education Association)...

...and continued to work in my ceramics class.

I finally got to take Jaden William's senior pictures, of which I selected just two here:

We got Elizabeth's swing frame concreted in so that she could enjoy her swing:

We received March's Yum box from Brazil...

...and then March 16 arrived.  March 16 is easy to remember.  It's Carissa's birthday.  The kids and I went to their schools.  I was doing PCE in the elementary school, just down the hall from Elizabeth's classroom.  I would finish 42 hours of my required 75 hours at the end of that day.  We would go home and celebrate Carissa's birthday, and then Trusten would dress up in the new black dress shirt I bought for him, and we would all go to his band concert, when we would finally get to hear him play the drums.  I was so excited!  Carissa was looking forward to it, too.  It was like a birthday gift to her.

We were told the schools were going to close, and the band concert would be canceled due to the coronavirus covid-19 pandemic.  I finished the day, and the kids and I went home.

We still celebrated Carissa's birthday:

Then we started planning for a new routine, but at first it was chaotic.  We did some of our own things, but the kids' schools had sent home worksheet packets for two weeks.  Jaden's school shut down, too, a day sooner, but he's doing school online on his school-assigned Chromebook.  His graduation was canceled (or maybe postponed?).

Since Elizabeth had coin-counting worksheets, I decided the girls could play Bookstore.  Carissa got really excited about homeschooling.  She insisted on playing the major part of Bookstore. 

I made coffee to sell, too.

Carissa and I drove to Crowder to pick up supplies to work on our ceramics projects at home.  The entire rest of the semester was moved online and at home.  We were supposed to spend the second half of the semester working on potters' wheels, but that was canceled.  Instead we are to make mugs by slab, the same way we were to make our personal avatars.  I was able to pick up my glazed brain coral, though:

I also finished glazing my teapot, but I don't know when it will go into the kiln and when I'll get it.

It flooded, and it didn't matter since we had nowhere to go.  Trusten found a tiny salamander, and I'd thought it was the smallest one I'd ever seen, until I happened to come across one William had found a few years ago when I was going through pictures.  I had posted it to the blog, too.

I made our own slip for our ceramics work:

My ugly avatar took a lot of work, but I finally got it changed and finished to a point at which I could be content.

I was able to drop it off at school, and Carissa finished glazing her natural object.  That is the last time we were allowed at the school (though we had not been allowed to classes for longer). 

I was able to see and take pictures of my bisqued coil pot.

I made us green smoothies to keep our immune systems strong.

Our days became filled with a mix of what the kids' school assigned and our own choices in learning and getting outside.  We started watching the Blue Planet series again and finished it, then we started Planet Earth.

A few things I'll use for stamps on my mugs

Lamium album (white dead nettle)

I am cooking more from scratch again, which is wonderful.  We are making plenty of delicious food.  I'm not missing or skipping sabbath desserts, which has happened a lot over the past two years because of our insane schedules.

Carrot cake

We are all really enjoying the break from the stress-inducing society.

We finished reading Wildfire:

A memory popped up in my Facebook memories of Carissa, Jaden, and I going on a night walk that day last year.  I asked the kids whether they wanted to go on a night walk, since it'd been a good while.  Though it was rainy and too wet to go that night, we ended up going the next night.  We all are making the best of this.  We really miss family members and worry about some of them.  I miss my Jaden William terribly.  But we are enjoying our time, too.  I had worked myself sick.  I've worked so hard that this all has, in some ways, been very therapeutic for me.  

Stay tuned to find out what we did during the first week of April.

Until next time...

Basketball, Spelling Bee, Ceramics, and More! {January and February 2020}

A lot happened during January and February.  Olivia played fourth grade basketball.  Elizabeth placed third of four places in her class spelling bee to move on to the grade level spelling bee, Trusten geared up for a school band concert scheduled in March—he plays drums—and Carissa and I shared a ceramics class on the Crowder College main campus.  The rest of her classes this semester are online courses, and I started my second term with WGU at the beginning of February.  I used my lifetime learning credit with Crowder to pay for my tuition for the ceramics class, while Carissa must take the class for her Art Education degree.

We all six went to one of our favorite hiking trails in the Big Sugar Creek State Park.  The sun was setting as we made it to the last stretch.

During one of my walks on which only Elizabeth accompanied me, she kept asking me to watch her run.  Here she is geared up to run.  She finally talked me into racing her.  I do not run, people, unless I'm naked in the yard when I hear someone driving down the road or when my life is in danger—then you ought to see how fast I can blaze, even barefoot across rocky terrain—so she fairly beat me.

Elizabeth worked on a writing assignment at school:

The girls dressed alike one day, and Olivia painted hers and Elizabeth's toenails to match:

I got to enjoy a walk with all four of my babies down to the icy cliffs (though a lot had melted away, already).

My dad signed us up for six months of Yum boxes from other nations.  This Monster Munch was one of the surprises in January's box.  Aren't they cute?

Olivia played basketball for the first time, and I really enjoyed watching her games.  She made a basket during two of the handful of games they played.  Though I got some good moves on film, I never caught her making a basket.  Someone else did, and they were kind enough to share the footage:

Looook at the curls on this frostweed.  I took this picture on a fun, lengthy hike we all six took one day.

The first project Carissa and I worked on in our ceramics class was a simple pinch pot.  Later on in this post, I shared my finished product.  It looks ok, but it was my first time ever making anything out of clay, and it wasn't great.  The next project was a "natural object," using hollow form.  I chose to do brain coral, and I'm pleased with this particular project.  Yes, the object is entirely hollow inside with vented holes beneath.

Carissa chose to make a stump for her natural object, which can be seen on the left in the following picture.  After we produced our natural objects, we were to make a teapot inspired by our object.

I am mostly pleased with my brain coral tea pot, though I think I made my spout too long, and perhaps the handle is a bit too big, too. 

Trusten and Elizabeth were excluded from public school for a week because someone at the school had come down with a case of mumps.  I'm almost 100% certain all four of my kids (vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and non-vaccinated) got the mumps, but it was such a mild illness that I never took them to the doctor, so it wasn't on record.  The school would not accept Trusten's partial vaccination.  Olivia was able to stay at school. 

I'm continually awed by the great sycamores, but I especially love seeing their white bark brightly sunlit.  It looks far more awesome (the true meaning of the word) in person.

After one of Olivia's games, the team got together at Mazzio's to eat pizza.  The boys had stayed home, but Elizabeth enjoyed with us, and we took food home to the boys.

We had so much fun exploring one day, but the boys were outfitted in such a way that I wouldn't dare share their pictures.  They'd come after me.  I loved this moss-covered tree.

February's Yum box was filled with goodies from France:

My natural object and teapot were bisqued in the kiln:

Wow!!!!!!!  My day was totally made by finding the fossil below.  We find plenty of crinoids around here, but this appears to be some sort of brittle star, but I can't find one online that has more than five arms. I think I'm going to have to say this is my favorite-ever fossil find. 

I glazed my pinch pot, and here is the finished product.  Some places I needed to glaze more, but I found myself needing to hurry so that it would be included with a group to glaze.

The next project we started was a coil pot.  Mine was the largest by far.  I am hoping to pot a plant in it. Unfortunately, I meant to cut a hole at the bottom for drainage, but I ended up forgetting until I thought it was too late.  I mentioned it to my instructor, and he said that it would be against the project's specifications, anyway.  I made leaves like those of Albizia julibrissin, and the animal is supposed to be a fox.  The pot is far from perfect, but I'm relatively content with it so far.  I have not yet glazed it, and as I write this, I am not sure when I'll be able to go glaze it. 

I ate chocolate cheesecake for breakfast one morning. Mmmmm!!!!!!!

I really like the picture below.  It captures such joy, and it looks neat!

The picture below was taken on the same day.  Olivia is dragging her foot because she can't walk.  She was playing around, but I don't remember why. 

We went to Crystal Bridges again with a free family ticket and went through the "All Things Being Equal" exhibit that featured artwork by Hank Willis Thomas.  The purpose of the art was to get people to meditate on how black racism still is very much alive in our nation but is reflected in different ways than in the past.

My Lizi won third place in her class spelling bee.  Four winners and an alternate were chosen. I'm so proud of her!  She gets so discouraged about things, but I know she can do them.  Spelling is something at which she excels. 

The last ceramics project before moving to throwing on the potter's wheel is that of a hollow avatar built from a slab of clay.  I envisioned a beautiful piece of art, but that was not the end result.  Pictured here is first my chosen sketch and then a quick 5-minute maquette that I was supposed to reference throughout my building of the piece.  I'll post my pre-bisqued pictures of my avatar in my next blog post.

We read the following two books during January and February.  I was pleased that Trusten really enjoyed Hatchet.  He likes survival-like stories.  Hideout was a suspenseful read, too.

Until next time...