The Corona Diaries Week 24 - Getting Into A School Groove

With school getting rolling (and the teachers and students are taking our time getting rolling which is a good thing) I realize that what Harper (and the entire world of 8 year olds) is missing by not going to actual school is the autonomy and independence she would be building on from last year. This is part of the whole socialization thing, I realize, but sharing an office with her made me realize it even more. She has to be in school with me being in the room most of the time. I've arrange the desks so she can't see me at least and hopefully that helps somewhat. Plus just getting used to it will help as well. At least that's what I remember from being in shared work spaces - you just tune out all the people around you.

The week was momentous for the whole Frey family as we got our hair cut! First Harper washed her hair and I helped her comb it out, then stick it in a bun as she she had an after school zoom class while Kurt and I got our hairs cut.

It was an outside, all masks affair.

I even got a little bit of a blow out!

Harper and I haven't had our hair cut since December. Kurt not since I cut his in April (was it April?). Our stylist does a fantastic job of having super clean/sterilized capes and scissors and etc. She constantly wiped down the stuff she used and cut our hair as much as she could without being in our face. Tough with Kurt's hair though, but she kept it as minimum as possible. Overall it was just refreshing to have tidy hair again!

School lunches are interesting around here. Harper made her own one day. I promise she also ate green things for breakfast and a snack! Her favorite thing right now is edamame. (not pictured)

I made a super lettuce-y sammich for myself with garbanzo bean salad (like tuna salad but with beans.) It was yummy!

One night we made snacks for dinner and Harper did her own plate complete with a monster eating cheddar bunnies.

Another night was pizza roll ups which Harper was so happy to help with and seemed excited about! I thought they came out yummy! But she ate half of one, Kurt ate one and then no one ate the leftovers except me during the week. So okay fine.

We made up for it by having damn good sushi delivered. I could have eaten all of this myself, but held back. I hope we get to do it again this week. What a treat!

Mr. Biscuit got a lot more time outdoors as his training continues (not pictured). As does the yowling when he gets put back indoors (not recorded). We did catch Mr. B and Willoughby hanging out as though they get a long... but these sessions don't last too long.

Willoughby seems so small now!

Biscuit has found a new sleep spot - on Kurt's jeans in the closet. He's pretty damn cute.

I had to go to the Post Office to mail off a baby gift to friends and HAD to buy these GORGEOUS stamps.

Kurt introduced Harper and me to one of his favorite games as a kid. A game he played with his brother. There might be a name for it, but basically it's States Darts or something. You throw handmade darts (they grew up on the pioneer days) at a big map of the US and whoever hits 25 states first wins. Oh my god it takes forever! But Harper had a good time. I kept score. Biscuit kept players on their toes by grabbing them by the leg from time to time.

Okay yes, secretly it's a great educational tool!

Harper also got some more VR time in.

Her dolls got settled in.

I checked on Harper one night before I went to bed and found everyone tucked in and snug. SO cute.

And then I was talking to my mom and Harper handed me this note. She wanted to chat with Gammo and they did!

One of her first assignments at school was to talk about PE and what your favorite exercise is and why then draw a picture of it. Harper wrote (and I'll fix the spelling for you):

Go Noodle is my favorite exercise 'cause you get to jump, dance and wiggle around. Also there is lots of channels you can choose. The people who do it are very funny. Good Noodle is amazing!

But the best part is the picture she drew. I just love it. She captured herself from behind, drew the monitor image to be truly behind her and included the zoom gallery of other classmates doing Go Noodle. So good!

One night before dinner Harper and took a walk around the neighborhood.

And stopped to smell the roses.

 

Today I Kicked Ass And It's Only Monday

And I wanted to document it! (Though now it's taken me until Wednesday to finish this!) It was a day where I felt I accomplished a lot of good things that made me feel proud. I ended the day on a high and felt a lot of joy.

*Did my shift at Open Progress Text Out as Leader/Moderator and got TWO AMAZING compliments by two separate people there that just made my whole pandemic.

*Texted a bunch of potential voters as well.

*Exercised

*Picked up books at the library

*Picked up stuff at Target

*Came home and Harper wanted to watch tv (school day so, no). Instead I had her help me make a snack station and two big calendars as she said she didn't know how to read a calendar. She made an August and September calendar.

*I made a new log in just for her on the desktop mac and shifted her minecraft account with lots of online search and help from a tech savvy friend. But I DID IT. (there were specific files you had to copy and paste over and it was not so straightforward.)

*I also did revisions on a story and am starting a new story.

*I'm ready for bed!

 

The Corona Diaries Week 23 Part 2 - First Day of School (and more)

Last week I didn't realize how anxious I was about school starting until the second day and I could feel myself getting really impatient and short tempered. Then I realized, oh, right, yes. Crazy Distance Learning Pandemic Third Grade is starting and it's new and weird and nobody is super clear on how it all works yet. And that's okay. I'm allowed, we are all allowed to be flummoxed. New systems to learn, new teachers, new classmates. Whenever I couldn't figure something out, I would start getting really really annoyed, especially with some extremely non-intuitive online school systems that we have to use (OMG SO MANY CLICKS!) then I would just remind myself to let it all go. It's a marathon, not a sprint. A marathon we started in March. I also worked hard to stay positive and calm with Harper so she could ease into school without any of my crap piling on to whatever she might be feeling.

We have talked about how we feel about school still being from home and how frustrating and angry it makes us both. I try to have those "check in" conversations every now and then when we are in a relaxed mood. I hope it helps. I guess none of us will know what has helped or worked until we are years in the future.

By the end of the week I had started thinking - this will be over before we know it, much the same way I feel "the holidays will be here before know it." Maybe it sounds stupid to say it, but it made me feel better that "this too shall pass." I don't believe things will be exactly the same as before, by any means. But when there is a vaccine and standard treatments for Covid-19 then schools and businesses can really open up again and that will feel more normal. We all look forward to that day.

There's an election in November which will be critical to how soon this shall all pass. But let's not even talk about that now. (Though it will be here much sooner than you think!)

Let's talk instead about how Harper invented her own Mocktail. She was pouring herself some watermelon/cucumber juice while there slices of watermelon on the counter. She cut a paper straw in half, garnished with the watermelon and VOILA!

Sunday before beach day, Mr. Biscuit got more outside training.

Willoughby is annoyed she can't supervise from outside.

But Willoughby did get some comfy towel drawer time.

Then Tuesday was the big day! We took our traditional First Day of School picture outside the front door, which of course was kind of a joke this year. Harper got some new t-shirts for Back to School. She chose this one for Day 1.

Then we marched into the "classroom" and took another one.

There she goes. Third Grader starting school.

She started the day with a good breakfast and a pretty one if I do say so myself.

Lunch was also visually stunning.

We rearranged the room a bit to make space for two of us working in the same room. This used to be the guest room, and some day will be again, but for now it's a dual office and so we needed a bit more floor space.

Day two included another new Back to School shirt.

And a new spot for food/drinks at her desk.

I had avocado toast with my own cherry tomatoes for lunch!

Late she got to play some VR just for fun.

I got some actual mail! So exciting. The top one was a lovely long letter from a friend in Seattle.

The second was a gift from a friend near Boston! We've known each other for ages and bond over love of donuts. So kind of her!!

Tuesday was Mr. Biscuit's first birthday! What a Big Boy Biscuit! Harper made him a "Cake" which was... uh.... super gross looking! But we split it in two so Willoughby could have some as well and they both loved it.

What do you mean I have to share??

Not as much outside time this week (aside from the big beach day!) as the fires that are burning Southern California are making the air smoky and not good. Also it's h o t so no fun to be out there with heat and smoky air. But, a sprinkler did provide some fun again. (the weather image was from 7am)

We had fun making treats. Had a leftover box of jello so we tried flat jello and cookie cutters. Alas, there must have been too much water as the jello didn't set well. But it make a yummy "drink".

On Saturday we made a chocolate cake - kinda. I had to futz around with the recipe a bit and it came out too dry. But it's still yummy.

Especially when you add whipped cream!

Harper gave me a hairdo!

Biscuit helped clean out under the deck again on one of his training runs. Good boy, Biscuit!

Harper, with a BIG boost from Gammo, was able to save up and buy LOL doll #2! (The blue hair one). It arrived today! I wonder how long those buns will last...(UPDATE: they lasted about 90 minutes.)

I try to get my walk in before it gets too hot and am please when I am rewarded by a visit to this gardenia bush.

Sweet.

Until next week!

OMG I have a third grader!

 

 

 

 

The Corona Diaries Week 23 Part 1 - Last Day of Summer

Last Monday was the Last Day of Summer! We told Harper we would finally go to the beach and she got up and made an important list of what we needed to take:

Umbrela and Shade (not sure if she meant an actual thing that provides shade or snarky asides)

Snaks (food or reptiles?)

plastik cups (Russian?)

bech towel ("like, OMG she's such a bech!")

shvel (It took me a WHILE to figure this one out)

Clearly in third grade we need to work on spelling. And that's okay!

We went our favorite Santa Monica beach spot in front of the Casa Del Mar Hotel and set up our shade area. It was very cloudy to start and not a ton of people.

The sun started coming out and so did the people, but mostly keeping their distance and mostly wearing masks when walking.

The police flew over pretty low a couple of times.

A girl's favorite toy at the beach is a shovel! (shvel)

I helped her dig a hole with walls.

And it all went great for a while, but inevitably at the beach, the ocean takes over.

It was a lovely last day of summer to hang out before school started.

 

The Corona Diaries Week 22 - Third Grade Prep Camp Part 2

That was it.

The last week of summer vacation. Tomorrow (Monday) will be the last day of summer vacation and I think I'll surprise Harper with a trip to the beach. It's finally hot enough and you can legally go and sit. So we'll give it a shot, take some treats to celebrate.

The week was another pretty summery week of lots of tv and video game playing time.

I sorta planned our week like this:

With more third grade prep worksheets. Harper would grumble a bit about doing them, but then really set to work and she finished all six weeks of sheets (it wasn't that much, honestly) in the past two weeks. Her spelling is not great, so that's one thing I know to focus on. She and I played tennis and she won $3 for hitting me with the ball. That's a good thing because it means she aimed and hit her target! I got another solid half hour of hitting against the wall and also serve practice. Now that school is starting, it will be harder to get tennis in but I'll try. Oh also, we didn't bike ride AT ALL. Seriously kind of a lazy week. 

We did turn the tv off, I promise. And she was forced (FORCED!) to figure out stuff to do on her own. One afternoon she asked me to play legos with her, I said, I had work do to, sorry. A while later she showed me this. Nice.

We also cleaned out her room a bit. I forgot to take before pics as I was just so ready to clean up! But imagine the messy version of what you see here.

Not quite sure why she saved this for so long (Since last October) but she did and finally said we could toss it. So we did.

She also wrote a fabulous birthday card for our friend who has a snake. A snake eating a hot dog and a hot dog holding up a rainbow. I love this girl's artistic brain.

Harper opened up drawers in the hallway and discovered some antiques. Our old cameras and a box of slides I had done for a photography class in the 90's! Then Kurt dug out a slide projector that was his mom's from the 50's! Harper was intrigued.

The smell of hot light bulb in a projector is something that stays with you.

But that doesn't mean we didn't do stuff outside! Bought a cheap/cheerful sprinkler which was a hit and also inspired friends on the east coast to do the same for their 6 and 2 year olds!

 

And some days it was simply float in the pool and eat a popsicle.

And with shade.

We had a wide open park play date with Harper's school mates, that was fun for us all. H insisted we bring the wagon (which she rediscovered in one of the No TV times.) Kurt kept saying to be careful with the wagon as it could tip over easily. I pointed out that when we were 8 we would do crazy shit with wagons without a parent or a helmet anywhere near us.

As it was Third Grade Prep Week (part 2), I made a trip to Ikea to buy a new desk for me as Harper got my old desk/table for her (she needed more space as she will have a school provided laptop and the desktop we already had). This was the line waiting to get in 5 minutes before opening. Eesh. Luckily it didn't take toooooo long and 99% of people had a mask on and were distancing.

All except this Gucci clad jerk. He had a mask hidden in his hoody so he could get in. The woman that was with him also didn't have her mask on. But no one confronted them in line.

Here are our new desks. I got a tall one for standing/sitting. The chair isn't ideal, but it's a start. Biscuit likes it.

Speaking of Biscuit - he got more outside time this week. First it was supervised time.

Look at that face.

Then, with Willoughby inside, biscuit got to stroll about on his own. He went under the deck and discovered ALL THE COBWEBS that Willoughby either hasn't found or can't reach. We weren't sure what he would do. Luckily he just slowly explored right around the deck. We'll do more soon.

I repotted my Italian garden. Lemon and Olive trees. God I miss Italy.

Harper sported some looks this week. She was a cat one night.

Then ready to face the world another day.

Watermelon came in handy this week. I'll get another one as this heat wave will be continuing.

The city is redoing some corner sidewalks and on my walk the other day I saw this stamped into it. Kinda cool.

The week ended on Saturday night with some homemade pizza and some home made margarita.

Fortifying myself for the coming week of school ahead. THIRD GRADE VIA ZOOM!

Cheers?

 

The Corona Diaries Week 21 - Third Grade Prep Camp Part 1

Another quiet week of summer. Another week of cool weather, which has been refreshing since LA normally starts to get hot in August/September/October. So far, not too bad, which suits me just fine.

The big thing that happened this week was Kurt had a birthday! He usually likes it pretty quiet anyway, so pandemic lock-down rules suit him just fine. We had a nice family celebration. Harper wrapped his three big presents all by herself. She worked so hard and did a great job!

I was especially impressed with her ampersands!

She also drew him a new family picture.

I wrapped the bottle...

Kurt has a childhood favorite pie - Strawberry Cream Pie - which Harper and I made for him. The ingredients are SOOOOOOO old school. I maybe have blogged about this before because "Dream Whip" always freaks me out. A package of white powder that you add milk and vanilla and sugar to and whip up with a mixer? Oh and + Jello. Yikes. The amount of sugar in this dessert is mind numbing. BUT! It's Kurt's favorite so we had to make it.

Et voila.

Once you cut into it, it's a giant jello-y mess.

We didn't have any candles so Harper improvised as we sang Happy Birthday.

Then the Birthday Boy got to enjoy a Pimm's Cup (the bottle gift was Pimm's.)

It was a lovely celebration.

In ten days Harper will start Third Grade. We have an idea of what it will look like as all of LAUSD is starting with distance learning this fall, as it was in the spring. But we don't have exact details about what it will actually be like yet. We will find all that out in the coming week. LAUSD had sent out a booklet of worksheets for over the summer to help keep up with the school work. I decided to have Harper do some prep to get her back into the mindset of math and grammar and reading comprehension. I was going to do more (see the "oral reports") but I got lazy with it and she just did sheets almost every day. This coming week I'll do that as well.

We did play tennis again and that made me very happy. We have another court booked this coming week as well. I need new tennis balls! We have a giant bag of tennis balls, even some unopened cans of them, but they are all much older than Harper so even the unopened ones are not great. I'll get around to new balls later.

Since putting up bird feeders outside our window I've become obsessed with them. 100% of the birds that came are house finches. BUT THEN! A new bird arrived. I downloaded an app for bird ID (Merlin) and discovered that it is a Black Headed Grosbeak. It came around for a couple of days, but I haven't seen it since. The Merlin app says it is uncommon to see one here. So that's cool!

This little finch has a funky beak. I've seen it come and go often.

I put up a hummingbird feeder as well, but all my pictures of it this morning are terrible. Going to wait until the day goes on and retake. The Hummies quickly took advantage!

With all this bird activity, the cats, especially Biscuit, go bananas. He would move from window to window, walking all over our desks and knocking things over. So we put up a little shelf, a catwalk, if you will, so the beast could have his own route.

BUT HE WON'T WALK ON IT! He took a couple steps and went right back to the desks. Not sure why he's spooked by it. It's pretty solid. We'll give him time to keep trying.

Willoughby was on it and totally casual. She's a grown up.

Harper made Biscuit a new box/bed.

He is a box cat through and through.

A neighborhood feline spotted near our driveway. Looks different than the little black and white one I saw last week.

On the schedule above you might have spotted the "Make Butter" item. We made butter! Why? SOMETHING ELSE TO DO. Luckily it was via cuisinart so it didn't take forever. And the instructions I found were great because it made me realize that butter is what happens AFTER whipped cream. The heavy cream becomes whipped then you keep going and blammo! Butter.

Then you put iced cold water into it and run it some more, replacing the water until it comes out clear. Then you put the butter in a jar and shake it around to work out the last of the water.

THEN YOU EAT IT! mmmm. It takes like butter and also faintly of whipped cream (unsweetened whipped cream). Mmmm butter.

While it's not blazing hot yet (yay) we enjoy dinner outside more often. Also, I worked to rearrange the lanai for this purpose. However, we did a very last minute dinner outside so the red bucket never got moved. Or the old pez things or the pool toys. Life.

One more week before school starts. This coming week will be busy with cleaning out drawers, shelves, etc. and also coming up with a new desk set up for Harper. We'll see how it goes!

 

 

 

The Corona Diaries Week 20 - Mom Is Tired Of Camp Camp

Weirdly, time seems to be flying lately. For months it was     S     L     O     W     and now the weeks seem to hum along. Not sure if we are just getting used to it, or if the anticipation for school starting and other fall activities is making time move along again. It's not like "normal" - let's be real about that. But I kind of like it better.

One thing that helps is the volunteering with Open Progress which I mentioned before. I have moved up to Pro level and they asked if I was interested in becoming a volunteer leader to help with training and moderating in the slack support group. I said yes immediately. November is coming fast and it is so important to turn state houses blue, to elect democratic AGs and of course flip the senate and the White House. YOU CAN HELP TOO! Click here to learn more about it and to sign up. There is a lot of work to do and we can do it together!.

After two weeks of Art Camp and Science Camp, my camp fuel tank was empty so we had "Summer" last week. Harper got to watch a bit more tv and play a lot more minecraft. We had bike rides and bike play dates and even tennis a couple times.

The garden is still growing, I have zucchinis that are started but not ready yet, and cherry tomatoes that are started but not ready yet. The beans are getting tired. And for some stupid reason I had bought/planted bell peppers. But I had remembered doing it years ago and there being ONE pepper that grew. Same thing this time. I think also the bugs LOVE the bell pepper plant which doesn't help. So, one pepper grew and I was waiting for it to turn red because I don't like the green flavor.

And it finally did turn red. And Mr. Grasshopper seems to be enjoying it so that's great. Happy I can feed the world. Ugh.

Luckily Debra had a gorgeous tomato to share with me which I devoured.

While there is still much growling and hissing from Willoughby, the cats are getting along better and better. Sleeping near each other on the bed, being in the same room without fighting. It's nice. I know one day I'll catch them snuggling and that will be a banner day.

The most exciting day was when Kurt and I were both reading on the big bed and the cats were both there and then this happened:

We thought FOR SURE Willoughby would attack. But no! Progress.

Careful, there, Willoughby.

There was some bike riding around the neighborhood. Harper wanted to see the back alleys of Rancho Park. She found them very bumpy.

And we played Tennis! It was so nice to get out and do something sporty. Harper had a week of tennis camp last summer and I was looking forward to having her do more this summer, but this will have to do.

She did remember some stuff:

Tennis Tangent:

I was lucky to learn how to play tennis when I was about Harper's age. We lived on Oahu and Punahou had summer camps and I had tennis for probably a week(?). Back in the days when the racquets were made of wood and the kid's racquets had a short handle. I remember vividly being told we were going to learn how to volley. The instructor asked if anyone knew how and one kid raised their hand. The rest of us got behind him. Then we moved to Maui and we could sometimes play at the club. Jen and I would hit balls around. In the summer time when we had to go visit my dad and stepmom and older sisters, Jen and I would go the tennis courts at the Waikoloa clubhouse. I think my Dad and Stepmom were living in the condos there while their house was being built (this part is fuzzy). But I remember so clearly playing with Jen and she liked to play for real, not just rally around.  She loved yelling "Advantage Jen!"

I feel like we played a lot. We watched a lot of tennis too. Someone had a tennis racquet called Miss Chris after Chrissy Everet. (click for bigger)

All that to say I'm so grateful to have played so much as a kid (Thanks Mom!) because that muscle memory is STRONG. I might not be fleet of foot or have very good grip strength at my age, but my body knows where to go and I can build those two things again. It feels good and I want to play more - which we will as I've booked two more hours at the courts, one this week and one next. And I got lucky booking the court with one open side and one end has the cement wall that you can play alone against. This is helpful when Kurt and Harper are playing on the other side and I can play against the wall. Tennis makes me happy.

Speaking of Happy: Harper saved and earned money to buy a doll - this one to be exact - and she is sooooooo happy. She did promptly undo the detailed hairdo...as you do when you are eight. Now she's saving up for another one. I'll take pics of the doll this week. She's been playing with it non stop. I love that.

We had a bike play date with friends from school.

More backyard blow up pool time.

Then a park play date with masks and bikes and kites. I had to tell the three girls to not sit SO close to each other a couple of times. I apologized to the other moms there, but they were fine with it.

And Harper cleaned out her shoes. She still has plenty and then asked for more. Uh. No. If we were actually going back to school, then probably when the other shoes were fully destroyed, but now? Not so much.

Had some gourmet lunch one day.

I baked a bundt poundcake. OMG

There was a Saturday Night Gin and Tonic or two. Refreshing.

And that about sums up the week. xoxo