These two made a trip to the Colfax Dollar General this evening and are having "real" Kraft Mac'n'Cheese at 8:30 pm.  It's the little things siblings can do to support each other through life's trying times. Seriously. 

It's been a good week.

Sylvia got to participate in an awesome virtual drum major camp through Phantom Regiment Drum Corps. The entire DCI season has been canceled for the year, so they are running several online camps. Regardless of whether or not there ends up being a marching band season, this camp was an excellent  learning experience and wonderful opportunity for Sylvia.

Some of her conducting notes

Working on her conducting in her mirror

On Wednesday night, Sylvia and Caeden went to a special youth group talk about race reconciliation.  They both said it was really good, and they stopped to get McD's on their way home.

Gram hosted a tea party with fresh fruits, zucchini breads, and Bengal spice tea on her porch!

Caeden spends a lot of his time at his music production station these days. It is very therapeutic for him, and we really enjoy getting to hear the music he creates!

Sylvia had her dearest girlfriends over this evening. Jeremy made a fire in our backyard fire pit, and they all brought snacks and just had a wonderful time together. They talked about their fears and frustrations during this time of Coronavirus and prayed over each other. 

There are blessings in the midst of our struggles in life, all because of the grace of God and the hope of Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Caeden saw the orthodontist today. He was entertained by the long wires left sticking out of his mouth while they worked on him.

He got rubber bands!  Woohoo, fun!

I needed some alone time last evening, and the rest of the fam was watching a movie I didn't care to. So, I was upstairs crocheting and doing my own thing when I heard loud shrieking coming from downstairs.  It is always hard to tell around here if the screaming and yelling is of the laughing kind or the crying kind.  Usually it is the laughing kind, but tonight I couldn't tell.  After a while Caeden came upstairs and said he missed me and asked me to come down.  This is what I found...

Also, I asked Annah to put away her recorder from elementary school, but Caeden got a hold of it and repeatedly played That's What Makes You Beautiful. 

Also, Annah decided to make buttered noodles and refused to share.

These teenagers are so silly.  And I love them.

Last Day of School?

Today was the kids' official last day of school--more than 2 weeks early, actually, due to the COVID19 shelter-in-place order and remote learning.  Honestly, neither of them had much actual class work this week, but each had a few Zoom meetings to see their teachers and classmates and say goodbye for the summer.

I honestly almost forgot to do last-day-of-school photos, since they haven't grabbed their backpacks and driven off to school for 61 days!

Sylvia actually liked the online learning for most of her classes. She liked that she could go back and re-watch specific parts of lectures as many times as she wanted to. She liked the fact that classes and lectures weren't interrupted with other students' asking questions. She missed in-class discussions, friends, music, and lots of other things though. 

Even if the end of it was odd, there were plenty of awesome, amazing things during her junior year. 

Caeden did not like remote learning at all--except for Zoom meetings with his favorite teachers/classes, Biology and English. It wasn't that a lot of work was done during those Zoom meetings, but the teachers needed to see their kids just as much as the kids needed to see each other and their teachers! (On one Zoom with his English class, kids were apparently showing each other around their houses, and kind of having a show-n-tell where they were trying to come up with the weirdest random item they could find in their house.  One student showed up with a baby, and he won!) I know for sure that remote learning was just as hard for the teachers (if not harder) as it was for the students. For Caeden, it was very hard to stay focused and complete his work at home. He usually does almost all of his work in class, and he feels like home is where he unwinds and doesn't think about school work.  So staying on task with classes on his own was a bit rough. Also, Caeden is such a social person; not seeing his classmates and friends has been the hardest part. We did grant him the concession of SnapChat, and he has connected with so many friends that way...it has been the best thing for him, really...as much as I hate SnapChat and hate to say that.  

His freshman year started out loaded not only with new classes and high school academic responsibilities, but vocal jazz, marching band, cross country, and fall play keeping him at school for about 13 hours a day! Talk about ending the school year in complete opposite! 

Now officially a senior and a sophomore, oh wow!

I'm calling this group the "socially distanced skateboard gang."  Coby bought Caeden a skateboard and gave it to him today so he could actually skate with them; so sweet. And they got Jackson to come along too! 

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17

Fun Orthodontist

Caeden was supposed to have an orthodontist appointment way back in March, but of course, they had to close their office for COVID19. He had a chain break a couple weeks ago, so I finally called on Monday and asked if that was considered an emergency.  It was! So, we got out of the house today!

It was annoying to have to wear masks (mostly because we wear glasses and they fog up when you have a mask on too), but we totally understand and complied! 

I had to sign a paper verifying the fact that no one in our house has had fever, cough, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, fatigue/exhaustion or been around anyone who has. We were asked to use hand sanitizer as well.  No problem!

Dr. B fixed Caeden right up, and we scheduled his next appointment. This was the first place we had been inside besides our own home in 53 days. We talked with Dr. B about how, strangely, no one seems to be talking about how this shelter-in-place is so detrimental to mental health!

As we were leaving, Caeden said, "That was fun!" He is such a social boy; this shelter in place order is pretty hard on him.  And you know it's getting to a person when a teenager genuinely says that going to the orthodontist was fun! We do love Dr. B and his staff though; they're great.

 This evening, Jeremy and the girls and I took a walk around Arrowsmith.  We kept seeing these square concrete slabs that we had never noticed before. Sylvia decided they were spots for posing as a statue--until we saw one with a half-barrel planter on it and remembered that they all used to have them. I think the barrels just disintegrated and were removed. 

Another weird thing related to COVID19...

We received this information today for returning Chromebooks and other school property and getting the kids' items from their lockers.  They won't be allowed in the building.

 And, you know, the murder hornets are coming! (I actually read that praying mantis kill them, so I'm not worried because we have lots of those!). I also saw that these are shark birds are sure to arrive this summer in the midwest...!  ;)

 Today we watched the Anikin-turned-to-the-dark-side-and-killed-younglings-and-is-cut-in-half-and-burning-on-the-side-of-a-hill Star Warms movie. It's so sad and dark.  

Annah eats all the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms, and she has no shame about it. I personally don't care because marshmallows are disgusting--especially rock hard ones in cereal--but everyone else in the house is annoyed.  I think it's funny!

I think this is funny too!

Coronatime Cut

This boy (who sits in such weird bendy ways!!!) was getting pretty shaggy on the sides.

So, Sylvia put his curls in several tiny ponytails, and I went out of my comfort zone to give him a haircut.  I started with a 1/2" guard, then a 3/8".  I used the taper guards around his ears, and then a 1/2" to clean around the edge and sideburns before doing that with no guard. 

He really does look better, but didn't want a picture taken, even though he spends all day every day sending pictures of his face to people on SnapChat.  

 

New Glasses and a New Friend?

Caeden has needed new glasses for a while, and last night at wrestling practice they got smashed.  I super glued them back together and got him an emergency appointment this morning to get his eyes checked and order new glasses.  Our eye doctor combined her office with several other doctors and they built a huge and gorgeous new office.  This was the first time we'd been there.  It is very nice.

A funny thing happened while we were in the lobby filling out our paperwork before seeing the doctor.  Caeden was sitting next to me, and I was trying to get him to pay attention as I asked him the pre-existing symptoms questions quickly.  I saw a guy walking towards us, looking at Caeden, but I didn't recognize him.  (This happens everywhere we go...people he knows from wrestling or other things that I don't know.)  The guy was holding his clipboard of paperwork and he kinda whacked Caeden on the arm with it in a teasing way and said, "Hey, what's wrong with you. Pay attention to your mom.  Help her out."  Then Caeden looked up at the guy and didn't recognize him and the guy realized he didn't actually know Caeden either.  He then said, "Oh man, I'm so sorry! You're not who I thought you were!  I swear you look just like this kid I know...same hair, same clothes, same shoes...I'm so sorry!"  We all laughed.

I think Caeden actually enjoyed picking out his new frames.  Hopefully they come in soon, because I don't know how long the super glue is going to hold his lens in his old pair!

Caeden had an orthodontist appointment today, 

and it was our first one at Dr. Bowers' beautiful new office!

Just a new wire and chain today, and he went with silver and blue school colors for his brackets.

vs. PC

The Mustangs traveled to Fairbury tonight to wrestle Prairie Central.

It was a rough night for the team, with only 3 individual wins.

Caeden had a good match.

And was one of the victories!

Back at home...

Good morning!

I wish iPhone Live photos showed up on the blog, but the animation/video doesn't come through.  This boy was looking for some socks this morning and found Annah's plastic recorder from 4th grade music class living in the unmatched socks basket.  (Who knows why!?)

He had a seat on my bedroom floor and played a little tune at 6:45 a.m.  

I texted it to our family group chat, and we all got a morning chuckle out of it! 

Annah responded with this view out her new dorm room window!

I love this photo and what it represents.  Not the fact that I'm in it.  Not that at all!  What I see, and what the momma that took this photo sees is the 2 front rows of our church full of teenagers standing together and worshipping Jesus!  This is the current "normal" at our church, and I love it so much!!!