Another Week of Quarantine

I have been trying to write this post since the end of last week and never feel motivated enough to complete it. Slightly behind over here, but better late than never. 

Hey there, friends. How was your week? 

Here are some pictures and random thoughts from ours. 

The weather continued to be hot and sunny all week long. Accordingly, we spent much of our time in the yard. 

 Lunch time picnic turned into a spa day. 

 The kiddos continue to do well with their classwork. We have four weeks left of it. Some days that feels so long and at the same time, I know it will fly by! 

Donovan was so proud to share a screencast he recorded this week based off of what he was reading. I was so impressed with it! I can't believe how easily technology comes to this generation of learners. So much has changed since I was a classroom teacher. The possibilities are endless these days.

Speaking of classroom teacher. Two weeks ago, my principal called to tell me that our school district would no longer be funding my Instructional Coaching role. Our school budget for next year appears to be grim and they are beginning to make some substantial cuts. My principal was quick to tell me that they were still going to rally up our own site funds to sustain the position. But honestly, I can not stop thinking about the idea of going back to the classroom... like obsessively. In a good way! I miss the thrill of having my own set of students and families. I miss the bond that you form with them. I miss having my own classroom space to design and make my own. I miss... a lot!
I ended up calling my principal back early the following week and telling her exactly how I felt. There are so many things guiding me in the direction of wanting to go back next year.
Like, this sweet text from a student that recognized me as he and his family were working on a house on my street. I was playing with the kids out front and he walked over and asked, "Are you Mrs. Hein?" In a split instant, his now 20 year old face transformed back to his 7 year old self... Luis!
Although, I recognize that the work I do makes an impact amongst the adults that I support. The impression we get to make when working with children feels even more significant to me.

All that to say, that this has been on my mind A LOT over the past week or so. It's made even more uncertain by the unknown that the pandemic will bring over the summer and into next school year. It's so hard for my controlling, need to know... NOW, personality. But I am trying my best to put my faith into practice and know that God's timing and direction are perfect and I will know the answers when I need to know them... not necessarily when I want to know them. 

Back to the kiddos. We have been finding itty bitty frogs jumping in our lawn. We decided to start a collection and have been naming them all, skipper, jumper, dotty, sticky...

They stayed with us for a few days and then we let them go over the weekend. We have no idea where they came from or where they're heading but they're certainly fun to observe. 

Little man continues to be my right hand in the kitchen. This day he was determined to make homemade ice cream. 

This is the recipe we used and it was easy and delicious! 

Some more Taylor. This girl. I could write chapters about her right now. 

Here we are walking baby dolls around the neighborhood. Having mommy conversations and taking in the sites around us. 

She also gave herself this lovely pedicure. 

This was our Cinco de Mayo picnic in the front yard. Which, actually just kind of felt like every other day. Isn't it weird how all of the days blend together? It did end with some loud music and a family dance party in the driveway. 

In a recent post I talked about putting a freeze on clothes shopping. I opted for wearing more of what I already have rather than grabbing for the same few t shirts and shorts. I thought I'd document that here. 

A few side notes: It really helped me to unsubscribe from every retail email that floods my inbox. What a difference! 

Honest Confession: I have replaced my online clothes/sale browsing with Pinterest classroom tour searching and 20 Things Teachers Need from Amazon searching. (Just in case) Still not the healthiest of past times and still driven by a desire to consume... so I am mindfully working on that. 

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday- this is how I looked 90% of the time in the weeks leading up to this work my closet challenge. Knowing I am taking a picture every day is good motivation to get dressed and ready for the day. But Friday I waved the white flag and took a day off. 

Saturday

The Amuad Arbery case rocked me last week. I found myself drawn back into Twitter where I learn so much from so many people willing to share their open views. I can't even begin to touch all the feelings and thoughts I had about this, but this tweet above definitely resinated with me. I devoured this book in a 24 hour period a few months ago and learned a whole lot. And this article was an interesting follow up. I could definitely relate to this and want to do better. Claiming to be "colorblind" and believing that we should not discuss race with our children will do nothing for eliminating systemic oppression. I have so much to learn and such a desire to understand how I can help. 

And it seems completely inappropriate to jump from that to pancakes but that is pretty much how a day in the life feels for me balancing all of the different things that are a part of who I am. 

These pancakes, guys. I pretty much make them every single Saturday... especially during quarantine where Saturdays are no longer dictated by sports schedules. The first time I read RICOTTA pancakes, I was a little unsure. But once you try these, no other pancake can ever stand up to them. 

The recipe is from the first Magnolia cookbook. 

Taylor wanted you to know that she gives them a thumbs up and wants you to try them!

After pancakes on Saturday, we all hopped in Dad's truck and literally drove all around local neighborhoods for absolutely no other reason than that we all needed to get out! I haven't been out at all in the last few months. It felt so good to just take a random drive like that. 

Whew, what a week! Thanks for coming along for the ride my friends. 

I hope you all had a wonderful week and Mother's Day, too. 

Until the next one, 

xo

Catching Up

It's been a hot minute, friends. How have you all been? As strangely slow as these days are, the weeks have seemed to fly by around here. I am catching up on photo dumps here today so that I don't forget these unique weeks at home in the midst of a very unexpected pandemic. So here we go. 

One thing I have learned in the past 5 weeks of being home with this crew is how freaking lucky I am! For all things, but especially my family. I love watching Donovan guide Emmerson into the new norms of distance learning as a very savvy, technological expert. I love seeing Emmerson go from being a bit timid on her big bike 5 weeks ago to full on crazy, jumping off bike ramps, getting air at a level that makes me cover my eyes in fear. I love every single word that comes out of Taylor's 3 year old mouth... complete with the cutest lisp on the planet. I love that when the kids are finally in bed for the night, Dustin will crack me up so hard I nearly pee my pants. I just love each of these people so much and I am feeling extraordinarily thankful to spend this time with them. 

The sunshine brings us all outside for good chunks of the day. We have fallen back in love with corn hole on afternoons that feel so close to summer. 

An evening viewing of Tinkerbell sent us on a fairy garden spin. We used a good part of a weekend day to create this fairy house out of delivery boxes and random craft materials found around the house. 

And, can you believe it, the morning after we set it out, there was fairy glitter all over the front porch. A little fairy magic that was especially well received by our youngest little Hein. 

Spring has officially arrived which means that it was time to tend to the neglected spaces of the yard. We planted seeds and re-stocked our veggie garden thanks to a little drop off surprise from Oma. 

Unfortunately this promising patch has already been consumed by pests. Gardening isn't for those that give up easily. We just have some brainstorming work to do before we have at it again. 

Some rare days of late have brought us glorious and very welcomed sunshine. On these days I sit outside and dream of the promises of summer. Particularly summer afternoons in Sacramento, floating in Uncle Dave's pool and being luxuriously spoiled by Grammie who wakes up with the energetic bunch, allowing Dad and I to sleep in like teenagers. I sure hope summer, is still summer. Time will tell. 

But more often than not, these weeks have brought us an unprecedented amount of rain. Like, insane amounts for southern California. 

And not, warm spring rain, either. It has been cold and wet and stormy... a lot!

I must say that I don't mind it at all. The kids have been having a blast with puddles that tuned into full blown streams of water. They created boats and challenged each other to whose would float the longest. 

And I have found time to read more than ever. I finally finished Little Women, and devoured Stay and have tried to dive into lots of school reading, too!

Grammie has sent lovely care packages with goodies to keep little hands occupied indoors. Lego sets are a favorite to create for the bigs and a favorite to destroy of the little. 

And oh my goodness, the kids have found so many cool tutorials for directed drawing online. They have spent HOURS drawing everything. This picture that Emmerson drew went right up on her wall. It reminds me so much of her and Molly. She literally treats Molly like she's her baby. This picture was perfect. 

After day after day of rain, Dustin climbed the rafters of the garage to find his old Play Station 2. Our kids have been so deprived of technology so you can imagine how excited they were to try these games out... even if they are more than a decade old at this point. We played Guitar Hero, and Dance, Dance, Revolution, and Tiger Woods Golf. I swear Dustin and Donovan looked like college roommates one night refusing to go to bed until they finished just onnnnne more game. 

And the forts, oh, the forts. Every day there is a new fort. No pillow or blanket is safe around here. 

I have baked... a lot! 

Another amazing gift of this time has been being able to do Sunday worship altogether as a family. We've been tuning in live to Emmaus church in Lincoln, California, listening to Dustin's childhood pastor that married us. We love their church so much. The ability to worship live with them makes us feel so connected to their church community. Sundays have been so full after spending the mornings here. 

PS this is not TV. We set up a drop cloth over the fireplace as a fun spot to project movies on the weekend. 

Emmerson's church notes. 

School during the first few weeks was sort of hit or miss. Our district initially provided optional activities for the kids to do. Some days I would get creative with them and do projects... other days we scratched all of it and played. We set up "school" here on the kitchen counter but now that actual school has begun, our little office spaces have shifted to other areas around the house. 

One thing that both bigs have enjoyed is their Google Meets with their teachers and classmates. They miss each other so much. 

Work has been busy, busy for me. In fact, I think I devote more work hours now from home than I did when I was working at school... but the moments in between meetings and planning have been here. In my pajamas, loving on my crew. 

And for those moments I wouldn't change one thing about this quarantine time. 

So here we are. Still lots more to update on... but in a nutshell, this is where we've been and what we've been doing.

Now, how are you? May you be filled with JOY.