After yesterday’s big rain and wind storm, I finally just fixed our wifi! Home-school was kind of a bust today, ok not a bust just a shortened day. I spent the morning cleaning the freezer since we had to empty it last night and get stuff packed into our smaller freezer in the basement to stay good. I could not in my right mind look at this mess and put all the food back in, after all, when am I going to empty that freezer again(probably in another 2 weeks when we lose power again as that seems to be our pattern round these parts!). So I did my due diligence and wiped clean the fridge and the freezer, another quarantine project that would just not be done if this was just a regular day. I got to listen to some music and just work. Christopher had all of his work on his ipad and Evan and Logan were happy to just spend the morning playing Lego.

When we finally got to work, after lunch, we just did some catch up stuff and some work sheets. I pulled two rocket sets out of the basement that we have had for years and decided science today would be assembling Rockets. Evan, Logan, and I put together a land rocket powered by baking soda and vinegar. The box says for age 8 and up. I do not know a single 8 year old who could put this thing together. It took me hours and then the chemical reaction shot the top off before we could put the rocket on the ground… TWICE! Vinegar is on the shopping list, that thing will launch for real this weekend! Christopher’s rocket did not require much assembly, and launched pretty high into the air.

We were all pretty tired today after the excitement from a 12 hour power outage. But I hope some sweet memories were made yesterday. First of all, the dark brought out the crazy in my people and after two rounds of hide and seek(I told my people I would count to 1 million and then find them), I was completely over stimulated by the wrestling and the sound of hands smacking skin that I gave those boys a fair warning that mom is reaching her limit. I was so thankful that they all settled into one room to play Lego together. That hasn’t happened in ages! I didn’t even want to interrupt them for dinner for fear that they would not go back, but they did, and they played until well after 9pm, so nicely and did I mention, TOGETHER? Kenny and I got to sit and catch up in peace and quiet.  After that we had some ice cream(because I needed ice cream to sustain me) and then they played some more. We finally settled into the couch for shadow puppets per their request and stories to go with the puppet show. Christopher surprised me by requesting a story about 3 of his stuffed animals that I used to make up stories about on a pretty regular basis. I was so tired and struggling to keep my eyes open at this point, but how could I refuse? So often I look at these boys, who are all so big now but not too long ago were all so little at the same time, and I miss those little boys. I miss the simplicity of little ones running under foot. And now everyone is running underfoot and overfoot and everything is so simple at home while the world is in so much chaos and I look at last night as a huge pain in the butt but an even bigger blessing in disguise. Truth is, looking back I probably won’t remember emptying the freezer at 10 pm because my frozen fruit was getting a little soft. But I hope I will always remember the sounds of them chatting in the bedroom, using nice words and complimenting one another, sharing their toys, asking one another to please have a sleep out on the couch, and waking up to find all three of them sleeping on the L-shaped sectional, all looking so sweet, so peaceful, and so much like the little boys I remember in big boy bodies. The boys who can very normally be at each other’s throats have had their lives stripped down bare and I pray that when this is all over, they will have fun memories of brotherly friendship that got to take root and bloom during this time in our lives.

Be well.

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