Day 16 :: What's in My Purse

Literally no one cares about the contents of anyone's purse. Some of these topics are just dumb.

HOWEVER

I did just realize it's been a LONG time since I've used a purse. 

First of all, I'm not going anywhere. 

Second of all, when I do go somewhere, I leave as much stuff home as possible. I don't need germs attaching themselves to my purse. I use touch free Apple Pay wherever possible, or just put one credit card into my pocket and head out the door. 

I'm amused that this round of "30 Days" has become a Corona Log. 

Is it day one thousand of lock down? Could be, who knows. 

Here are some things we are doing. Saturday it rained alllll day.

We are gonna paint every page of this entire book before this pandemic ends. 

I wandered down to the forest in the rain to see the kids' forts and weapons. 

Today,

after a video ward council meeting (my nightmare),

and home church,

we had dirt church in the sun.

I saw one of my old soccer players and the kinder teacher, Mrs. Smith, on the trail. 

It's so fun to see people! We hallooed from a distance.  

I'm out of things to say. The adrenaline has worn off, and I've hit a wall. 

Lindsay said the other day: Kelli we are going to run out of things to talk about.

Yep.

5 years ago

Day 15 :: Something I Crave

There is this great Indian restaurant across the border, My Shanti. 

I crave eating there. 

There will be no border crossing for us any time soon. 

I pulled out my giant bag of beans today. 

I bought them many years ago as "food storage" for when the world ends and we have no other option.

It turns out when the world ends, there will be no rice and beans on any of the store shelves. 

It also turns out I get a second wind with making dinners because I have all the time in the world to make dinners. 

Tonight we had homemade refried bean burritos. 

I also crave having friends in our actual house.

This was the last time we had our Blacks over. 

The boys took a nap while me and Lisa talked and talked. haha

In other news:

We did some art during "school" today. 

We started with some math, and it did not go well, and there was some fighting and wailing and teeth nashing.

But the minute I pulled out the water color and the Bob Ross, 

all the kids settled and were happy.

Me and Avery decided we are going to paint a picture from each page of this book. 

(It's my favorite! It has poems for each season: "When Green Becomes Tomato")

Here is a surprise bonus to the world ending:

The kids have been giving more time to be carefree kids. 

Every day after "school" my kids and the Dickson kids go down to the forest and play for hours. 

I don't know exactly what they play, but I do know that they have pretend names, opposing forts, handmade weapons out of forest fodder, and they come home super dirty. 

This makes me so happy, specifically for the middle schoolers. I thought the time of playing pretend was long gone. I'm so happy for "not yet".

PS Me and Lindsay have chosen to be each others' social cohorts and allow our kids to play together (outside) because it's a less draconian way of living through this social isolation situation. 

5 years ago

Day 14 :: Things That Make Me Happy

1. :: Frogs singing to tip off the advent of spring ::

It happens in late February or early March:
the frogs start up their racket on a sunny day, and we all step outside the door to make sure we heard right.

2. :: Freak coincidences ::

You want to know something about coincedences? When you tell someone about the coincidence, they don't think it's that interesting. (I heard that factoid on some podcast). Only the people involved in the coincidence are blown away. Everyone else is a shoulder shrug about it. 

Example:

Today we were getting ready to go on a walk, and Jim said "text Lindsay and see if we can take Juno for a walk."

This is not something we do, ever.
We have zero times asked the Dicksons if we could borrow their dogs.

I said "no, that seems weird" and I didn't text her.

THEN we walked out the door, and here is Juno running full speed at us. No Dicksons are around, just their dog on the loose.

Zero times has Juno ever been running around on the loose.

BUT here she is, running over to Jim, rolling at his feet, making the happy/crying dog noise.

So I knocked on the Dicksons door and told them Juno is on the loose, and they had NO idea. 

So I asked if we can take her for a walk? and yep we can. 

Isn't that a great coincidence? 

You don't think so, but me and Jim do.

3. :: Being outside, wandering around ::

 Especially in the forest. Especially with friends. 

I know that's not a novel thing, but this past week with anxiety levels on high...getting outside and being at the beach or on a trail makes everything feel right and normal. My brain can see that things are going to be ok.

4. :: Reading good stuff ::

There is this website/blog called "Brain Pickings" that always has great poems and ideas and links to things.
This particular post just really hit the sweet spot for me today. We are just a speck of time on this Earth. This current history we are making will come and go "first noisily, then just another silence".
The best part about reading good stuff is the discussing with Lisa later. haha

TODAY, ANOTHER UNIVERSE 

by Jane Hirshfield

The arborist has determined:

senescence beetles canker

quickened by drought

 but in any case

not prunable   

not treatable   

not to be propped.

And so.

The branch from which the sharp-shinned hawks and their mate-cries.

The trunk where the ant.

The red squirrels’ eighty-foot playground.

The bark cambium pine-sap cluster of needles.

The Japanese patterns the ink-net.

The dapple on certain fish.

Today, for some, a universe will vanish.

First noisily,

then just another silence.

The silence of after, once the theater has emptied.

Of bewilderment after the glacier,

the species, the star.

Something else, in the scale of quickening things,

will replace it,

this hole of light in the light, the puzzled birds swerving around it.

5. :: Playing games with my family ::

Lately BOGGLE is super fun.

5 years ago

Day 13 :: Something I Don't Leave Home Without

HAND SANITIZER!

Can you believe how fast we have become germaphobes? For good reason. 

It is a heavy burden to bear, thinking on a microscopic scale ALL day. 

Today Jim picked up the ClickList groceries. A gal walked out of the store and delivered them to our trunk. But Jim touched the receipt she gave him. Then touched the door handle. Then touched the steering wheel. Then touched the hand sanitizer bottle. 

When he got home with the groceries, we clorox wiped all the things. The bags went in the garbage, the table got wiped, the ketchup and mayonnaise bottles, wiped.  

It will drive you MAD. But COVID is alive and well in Whatcom County, so how do you not? 

It is a mental burden. 

5 years ago

In other news:

I love to document what we do every day. I find it SO fascinating how quickly things are changing.

ONE WEEK AGO we got the call to shut down the school. I felt like maybe that was overkill? 

Now I can't believe how long my kids were in school with all those germs. Day by day things get more and more microscopic. 

Day by day the house of cards crumbles. 

This Wednesday was the most helpless and hopeless I have felt so far. 

We took a bike ride field trip down to the bay to see our Blacks in a safe, 6 foot radius outdoor space. 

The border is closing.  Joe works in Canada. Lisa and children are at home in America. 

We have a Berlin wall situation. At this point she was packing bags and fixing to get on that side of the border - go to the island where there is family and a place to stay so she can be on the same side as her husband. 

Me, the optimist in the relationship, was at a low. I agreed. "get your family out. the optimists are no longer smiling. there is talk of a lock down."

We actually took this picture to document our last time together before we were separated by the wall. 

We talked about Jacob 5. Lisa always sheds light on the worst Book of Mormon chapters (anyone else speed read right on through Jacob 5? haha)

Anyway, she pointed out the major amount of dunging and pruning going on here on Earth. 

It is a good thing. 

But it's a scary thing. A terrible and great thing. 

The children found "a fossil!" (it is a rebar fossil)

and beach treasures. 

I promised Avery we would do a rocks and minerals unit. 

Then it was Thursday. 

Joe went to work, but was tipped off by the border guard that marshal law was the rumor. 

The border would be guarded by police and it would be a hard close. 

He turned around and came back to this side of the wall to be with his family.

Meanwhile, Jim got the news that Bellingham base will be shut down for two months. 

There are no Canadians and there is no Las Vegas, therefore there are no people flying on Allegiant from BLI.

Thursday was the biggest of question marks. The biggest of unknowns. 

So naturally we put all the bikes on all the racks and we went to Galbraith to mountain bike with the children. 

We took a lap around some easy trails. The kids had fun messing around in the safe, 6 foot radius of trails. No touching. 

We found a bench as a central point while the kids did more laps,

Joe and Jim went on their big boy trails, 

Lisa and I debriefed. 

We will just take it day by day. This is this day, and this is the information that we have, and this is what we do ON THIS DAY.

Tomorrow will be different, for better or worse. 

But it's like the boiled frog...we just slowly get immersed into this crazy place where the world has fallen off its axis.

If I would have been told a week ago that BLI is shut down and I am home schooling my children and my best friends are going to the north side of the Berlin wall for weeks... I would not have been able to cope.

The low hum of menace is all around, and thankfully it comes in small doses. 

Look at these pictures. Look at how lovely a time we are having. You would not know we are at war. 

This is the low hum of menace. 

Side note: I don't allow devices/tv until 3:00.

As me and Andrew were flying down the trail, him on my handlebars, heading back to the car, he asks me: 

Is it 3:00?

:: shaking my head ::

Today is Friday.

Today everything felt like it was going to be ok. I'm not sure what the shift was, but the optimist was back in the drivers seat. 

We started our rock study and the kids love it! I love it. I learned so much today. 

This "home schooling" thing is so much fun for us. I know it's not mandatory or whatever, and blah blah blah, but it's how WE are keeping things from flat lining. 

I have often wondered what it would be like to teach my kids from home, and here is this freaky opportunity fallen square into my lap. 

(Avery is such a great teacher's aide. She is helping Evan with some math here. She said under her breath "this math is too advanced for Evan").

Later we went on a field trip to Semiahmoo to stack rocks. 

And also to hang out with our friends in a safe, 6 foot radius open beach. No touching. 

They ended up doing this great kid game of throwing rocks at rocks. 

Us moms circled up and debriefed.  Always. 

Joe went to work today. The border isn't doing a hard shut (at least not yet! stay tuned),

they aren't moving to the island (for now! stay tuned),

Jim will be pay protected through April and just be grounded for a while. Which is good news (as of today! stay tuned everyone! you don't want to miss whatever will happen tomorrow!).

Please bless Allegiant makes it through this alive. 

Even through the low hum of menace,

there is this great feeling of having NOTHING on the calendar. 

I feel like the mom I was when I had babies. So much time to do little things, slowly - the pace I move while camping. 

Like, I made chocolate zucchini muffins one day.

and 

We've been eating dinner at the actual dinner table.

The other night after the table was cleared and the kitchen cleaned,

I had nothing else to do, so I made myself a cuppa Pero and sat at the table and just sat and stared and sipped. 

Day 12 :: A Show I Like

 

If you're looking for a Netflix series to pass the time on your coronacation:

THE LAST KINGDOM

is one of my favorite series ever. 

I've watched it twice, actually, and I plan a third viewing before season 4 starts.

5 years ago

So we started "home school",

as did everyone else in the whole country. 

If the economy wasn't hanging so heavy on my mind, 

I would say this complete shut down of society is the biggest gift we've ever been given. 

*SO FAR* 

doing school at home has been a great experience. 

The "first day" as we gathered in Avery's room for scriptures, 

 Andrew said to Jim: "I'm scared of my teacher!"

haha he's such a joker. 

Then he made a sign for our door "Larsementary".

(well he tried but couldn't spell it, so he had me write it)

I was calling it Larsen Academy, but the sign on the door makes it officially Larsementary.

I have a schedule, but I keep if very loose and malleable. 

After breakfast I read out loud to them. We started "The Witches" and it is such a fun, silly book.

Then we do math, board games, silent reading, writing, science. 

My main objective is to keep them on a routine and avoid TV/devices all day every day. 

They loved it and wanted school to keep going.  It was fun because mom was "playing school" with them. 

When 11:00 rolled around and the Dicksons were having recess outside, we dropped everything and went to recess. 

Then me, Jim and Evan went mountain biking.

(Dirt School)

It was Evan's first time on Galbraith. He was so fun to ride with. 

As we were peddling up to the trails he kept saying, "I have butterflies. I'm shivering".

I quickly reassured him that there would be no dangerous trails ridden by us today. Heaven's sake. 

He told his brain we wouldn't be doing flips or big jumps - that helped him calm down. 

TODAY

we watched about how rainbows are made. 

I scrounged up all the items we needed to make that one crayon rainbow art thingy. 

We didn't totally think it was going to work...

but it did!

As soon as the first bit of red started dripping down the canvas Andrew exclaimed,

"it's working! it's working!"

Look at that misspelling of "completed".

Larsen Academy is not an accredited institution. 

We also made shamrocks and hung them on the windows. 

Avery said "I love when you take holidays seriously". 

I told her when we have nothing but time on our hands...we have no choice but to take holidays seriously. St. Patricks day is a very important, serious holiday.