Homeschooling – school at home – VACATION! All in one week! Zing! Boy our week quickly descended from a great schedule on days 1 and 2 to an unscheduled, loosy-goosey, mamma’s-stress-cleaning kind of a week.

I hate cleaning, I love organizing, and I hate to throw away anything (I might need it!!) I grew up in a family that fixed things, my parents were great at doing so. Me – meh – I’m not amazing at fixing everything, but damned if I’m going to throw it away when its broke! someone might be able to fix it. Which leads to a basement full of things. And the perfect place to stress clean. Boy did a lot of items get tossed out at the beginning of this week!

The upside of having so much time at home is that my son now has his coveted play room in the basement, complete with a new lego table, a TV with an Amazon firestick (https://amzn.to/3biN5lT), and most of his loose parts toys. Eventually we will put in some shelving to hold the bins with all these toys, but for now the bins are just piled up against the wall.

He’s been having Zoom playdates with a few of his friends, and this is DEFINITELY helping him out. He said to me that “its nice to talk to someone besides you and daddy – my friends understand me”. HA! gosh how true. They play legos together, build train tracks, and just chat. Its pretty great to watch him interact with friends. I’m amazingly grateful for technology that allows him to stay connected with his friends.

This week we’re going to incorporate more science into our play time. I recently got a wireless digital microscope (https://amzn.to/2y0q09f) and we’re going to find things around the house to view in it. A few suggestions so far have been fish poop, fish scales, the dead midgey bugs from outside, leaves and spit. What would you put under the microscope? I’d love some alternate options besides poop and spit!

Yesterday was our CSA farm pickup at SpringDell Farms. I’ve never been so grateful to be part of a farming community. Jamie Cruz, the farmHer and owner, has been partnering with other local farms to help make sure members have fresh food. We got eggs, lettuce, oranges, carrots, potatoes, beets, parsnips, parsley, apples, ground beef, milk, cream and cheese in our box. We got a beautiful head of red (or Boston) lettuce, with the roots and dirt it was grown in….. along with a few lady bugs! Perfect for science class. I harvested the majority of the lettuce leaves, left some for the lady bugs, took the plug and plopped it in a mason jar with water, and put all that into an old butterfly mesh pop up container. We’re now watching to see what the ladybugs do.

Tomorrow, well Monday ( is tomorrow monday? ugh i’m losing track of days) I’m going to try and go back to some sort of schedule, even if its just for the morning hours. Its hard to not have a schedule. We’re all getting a little cranky and on each other’s nerves because of it. Counting to 10, deep breathing and external measures can only go so far. I’ve found that when I want to yell, taking a quick walk around the yard helps as does finding a big stick and hitting a tree with it. I’m slathering myself with my stress reduction blends, but I’m quickly going through my stash of Thieves, CBD oil, Stress away, and lavender oils, as well as my keep well supplements like Multigreens, SuperB and vitamin C chewables.

How are you all holding up?
What oil information do you need?
What supplements do you have questions about?
How can I help support you with how you’re living in these times?

Let me know and I’ll see what I can make happen!