Social Distancing: Week 1
Week 1 of social distancing and our days are about 90% the same as they’ve always been.
We homeschool and are home a lot, so things aren’t THAT different.
The few things that I have noticed during this time.... I am not very organized. I don’t really have a plan. I have 7 kids and a full pantry, but that mainly filled with items from what I like to call “panic buying”. Our pantry includes 4 HUGE, 3 lb bags of dried mango and even though we have eaten oatmeal like twice in the past year, I bought enough to last far into the lives of my grandchildren. I also have like a gallon of vanilla extract and an abundance of jarred peaches and canned pineapple. I didn’t do a lot of planning before I ordered these items. There have been too many times this week a kid would open a random amazon package and bring me ANOTHER 12 pack of canned pineapples, shaking their head in confusion.... “It’s MORE pineapple mom....???” 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️I think they’re losing faith in me as their leader.
I also have the most irrational fear and sadness that I don’t have ALL THE FOOD I can think of for a possible lockdown.
Someone was eating corn chips yesterday and Caiya came in the kitchen and thought she smelled popcorn, which sent me into an irrational panic of, “We don’t have any popcorn! How will we survive without popcorn?!” Even though we *rarely* eat popcorn. Like twice in the past year. So I’m not sure what I’m so panicked about, but the fear is REAL.
I also panicked when I noticed our pecan jar was empty, especially now that we have an abundance of oatmeal and nothing to top it with! (Except pineapple of course....) I am now quite aware that we are a family of wasters as well. Nothing like a good ole pandemic to make you realize just how much is wasted.
My kids are worse than hobbits, and have not only breakfast and second breakfast, but snack, second snack, lunch, second lunch, afternoon snack, second afternoon snack, pre dinner snack, second pre dinner snack, dinner, second dinner, post dinner snack...topped off with a pre bedtime snack.
We don’t really buy in bulk- I mean buying for a family of 9 is a lot of food anyway, so buying a couple of weeks. weeks worth seems like a lot. Our kids aren’t used to this and apparently the little ones have been in heaven opening ALL the boxes of crackers and bags of chocolate chips. It doesn’t mean anything to them that one is already open, they go right ahead and open a second or third anyway.🤦🏻♀️
So we had the discussion as a family to be super careful about servings, and please pay attention to prevent waste....but honestly, habits are hard to break.
We almost shipped Calix off to boarding school when he chunked some shredded cheese that was left on the counter instead of bagging it.
It made me horrified to know that he ever thought that was acceptable to begin with!
What has been going on around here pre-pandemic?!
Bread is valuable these days, with stores sold out, and once again I found 3 different lives open, and more than once I found toast abandoned in the toaster! Someone cuts a slice and then forgets while it’s toasting and runs off to play!
We realized we will have to have super specific times to eat, ESPECIALLY for breakfast and snack time. Those are the two times it’s a free for all and each kid fends for themselves.
So
Much
Waste
Happening
Lawd
Help
Me
The days of Carstyn carrying around strawberries as little friends is now forbidden. Those fresh strawberries are basically currency, second in value only to toilet paper.
Another realization— I am not very creative.
All of these homeschooling posts have me feeling insecure!
Our kids’ daily schedule has pretty much been this for the past 15 years:
Basic school
Lots of free time
Waste plenty of food in between
No clue how all of these brand-new homeschooling moms are managing to do 17 subjects per day, along with insane science experiments and crazy DIY projects, but major props to all of you! 👏🏼👏🏼 Mine are mostly self taught-
Carstyn apparently learned about electricity this week, and came in telling me “Shock you!!! Tiny guy, SHOCK YOU!” While holding a butter knife and pointing to the electrical outlet.
I did not teach him this. Sure seems like he learned it on his own 😳
Caiphas taught us all a new phrase this week.... We found the right “flush” dosage of vitamin C for him, and in turn, he graciously gave us the phrase “toot soup”. I cannot even type that without laughing hysterically! He came out of the bedroom with different pants on, and when I asked him why he changed, he told me with 100% seriousness that he changed because he got “toot soup” on his other shorts.
I apologize to my future son and daughter in laws, as I’m sure this family will proudly and forever use the phrase “toot soup”.
Caiphas also turned 5 and his birthday was awesome.
His siblings did EVERYTHING for his party, and it was a blast!
They all stayed up late the night before, wrapping presents, decorating and making dough for yeast donuts and Pizza.
His day was filled with organic candy, trolls presents and decor, and lots of fun on an indoor bouncy house. (This bouncy house was the BEST purchase for when you’re stuck inside! It rained all week and this was hours of entertainment!) We ate delicious donuts, meatball pizza and fresh strawberry cake with buttercream frosting, all made from scratch by Calandra and Calix.
So we survived week 1! How are all of you guys doing?!