spring at last

This was originally written before we went under another Stay-at-Home order in Ontario after the second week of April. It's hard to describe how demoralizing this is. But I want to keep recording here even with all the gaps in my postings. 

It's the early days of April and I feel like I finally have some life stories to write about other than the same routine of housework and schoolwork mixed with reading and getting groceries. I mean, I can tell you, we've all had haircuts after they reopened the salons and teeth cleanings in late February. Riveting. 

And then there's the weather. March gave us some windy warm days and some windy cold days. Days with sunshine but chilly cold and overcast rainy days that were mild. But to have sunshine and warm breezes is what I've been dreaming of. Some of our trails and walking paths are still muddy but the snow and ice is gone so we walk carefully through the boggy parts and clean up our shoes when we get home. Just being out and then coming home is such a change after having many days in a row where there was no where to go so we didn't with the exception of Seth going to work at Tim Horton's several days a week.

In mid-February, our pastor suggested that we put together some activity kits from our church for school-age children to enjoy on their school breaks. So a few weeks later, several of us met one evening at the church office and we brainstormed ideas and hatched a plan for advertising, registration and contents and distribution. This was the perfect project for me to get me out of my winter isolation slump so I gave myself plenty of time to look for projects and printables that we could include in our Easter themed activity kit. Between emails, the small team made suggestions, shared ideas and asked questions to iron out all the details. And then on the night before Good Friday, a few of us gathered to assemble all of our offerings into a bag for each registered family. It was a great project for me to be part of and helped put the wind back into my sail. 

In addition to working on this for our church, I also volunteered to take over the homeschooling co-op that we were part of for the last couple years. Right now, it's only my girls and one other family with five children who run their own livestock farm. We keep it very informal, but I do make a list of my plans on an index card each week so I stay on pace and don't forget to do something. We start off in their living room with singing and usually a Bible reading. Then I read a picture book aloud and we discuss the story a little and sing some folk songs. Then I've been working on teaching one main component of study each week that is more enjoyable with a small group rather than one on one.

We celebrated Easter at home with Sunday breakfast and hidden eggs for the girls while Seth went to work and then an angel food cake for dessert. 

Then the next two weeks we attended our church's outdoor service even though it was a bit windy and cool. We sat together in our chairs and then visited with church family afterwards before returning home.