Still Isolating

Daniel is supposed to quarantine until Wednesday morning, 

so he continues to isolate in our living room . . .

. . . playing Dragon Quest . . .

. . . and his own mashup of "Ticket to Ride" and "One Deck Dungeon."

Tia: Was that move legal?

Cici: I'm not even sure what the rules are.

Craving a change of scene, Daniel asked to go up 

to the bonus room for a few hours this afternoon.

When the Forbidden Living Room suddenly became available to 

non-quarantining Hendricksons for the first time in days,

the girls decided it would be a great place to read and do homework.

It's funny how declaring something off limits for a little while

dramatically increases its appeal.

Quarantine

On Friday, I got an email from the COVID-testing company which partners with our local schools.

They said Daniel had tested positive for COVID.

That surprised me, because he was the healthiest, most energetic person in our house that day.

So I administered an at-home test to him . . .

. . . and although you have to squint a little to see it, that "positive" line is definitely there.

After all the "abundance of caution," "does that runny nose mean you have COVID?" tests

I've administered in our home over the last couple years,

it was weird to finally see a positive test 

(especially from someone with no symptoms at all).

Given that we had probably all been exposed at that point, 

I asked our family if Daniel should even bother quarantining.

Daniel was determined to follow protocol though,

so he has been isolating in the living room for the last two days.

By this afternoon, he was really bored of that room,

so I brought Tia and Cici in to keep him company

(mammals can catch COVID, but birds can't).

We've read that parakeets should get out of their cage

and get some exercise every day, 

so we let the birds out to fly around a bit.

We find that they like being held more when they're out of their cage.

We love holding them, so I guess letting the birds out

is good for humans too.

Teaching an Old Mom New Tricks

 Recently, I started feeling kind of tired of my haircut.

It looked OK on a good day, but I didn't love it, and some days it looked downright unruly.

I got it trimmed this week, and I liked how it turned out, 

but I wondered how much of that was because of the haircut itself, 

and how much was due to the fact that my hair was blow-dried by a professional.  

I was afraid I'd wash it and discover it was really just a shorter version of my old haircut, 

and I wouldn't be able to replicate how the stylist styled it.

So I washed it, combed it, and let it dry, and here's how it turned out.  

This is definitely NOT wash-and-wear hair.

Wait a minute while I head over to YouTube and search

"how to blow dry a bob haircut."

[Cue the Jeopardy music]

Hey, not bad!  I guess if I can learn to give myself a decent haircut

I can learn how to use a round brush and blow dryer

in my forties too.

Who says you can't teach an old mom new tricks?

Where's Colter?

Todd's friend Colter came over to play today.

Wait, where is he?

The kids assure me that he's around here somewhere.

I think I see him!

Yep!  There he is!

Zipline Dreams and Yogurt

The weather was warm today . . .

. . . so the younger kids and I decided to spend some time in the tree house . . .

. . . eating an after-school snack . . .
 

. . . and brainstorming possible locations for a zipline.  

I don't know whether we'll ever actually install one,

but it's fun to daydream about it.

These Aren't the Leprechauns You're Looking For

In our house, St. Patrick's Day usually means corned beef for dinner

and a leprechaun hunt at dessert time.

No, not THESE leprechauns.

See's leprechauns!

Not in the mood for chocolate tonight?  That's OK.

Cweepy says you can trade your leprechaun for a pot of gold

from the end of the rainbow (AKA jelly beans).

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Sunday Afternoon

What did you do this Sunday afternoon?

At our house, the younger kids worked on a puzzle . . .

. . . and drew dry-erase pictures on the chore chart . . .

. . . while the older kids played Checker Flick.

Victory!

A Little of Everything

With New England weather, the only constant is change:

Sunday - sun thawing the snow

Monday - warm and rainy

Wednesday - snowy (with a snow bird on the deck, for good measure)

Thursday - sunny (but also snowy, since there's 

fluffy, frozen water all over the place)

Birds in the House

When I taped a chore chart in a page protector onto our fridge . . .

. . . I little expected that it would become a canvas for dry erase Bomberman art.

Anna drew this picture of Green Bomber lovingly holding a bird because . . .

. . . we acquired some parakeets today!

A friend's daughter was giving away her two birds 

because she's leaving for college soon . . .

. . . so we offered to adopt Tia (white) and Cici (bluish).

It's fun to see and hear cute little birds inside our house.

Of course, it's fun to see and hear birds outside our house too. 

Meatless Meat

I've heard that plant-based "meat" has made great strides lately,

but I was never very tempted to try it until a few days ago

when I watched Mark Rober's YouTube video entitled

Feeding Bill Gates a Fake Burger (to save the world)

I liked the idea of a plant-based product that had the taste and texture of meat

but was much better for the planet,

so when my family clamored for baked sliders yesterday,

I made them with Impossible meat.

Then I showed them Mark Rober's video.

Joy: "You should make sliders with that stuff sometime."

Me: "I just did."

Joy: "Wait, really? (Also, put the camera away.)" 

Eddy "Helps"

Joy often spends Sunday afternoons baking desserts 

for the elderly people who attend Neighborhood Supper.

Anna wants to help because she enjoys baking and service.

Eddy wants to help because . . . um . . . why does Eddy want to help?

Eddy: "People are doing things, so I want to do things too."

Joy: "All right, Eddy.  Please get out the muffin pan."

Eddy: "OK.  What is a muffin pan?"

Decluttering for a Cause

If you think . . .

. . . the front of my van is crowded . . .

. . . you should see the back!

I drove clothes and toys some wards donated to a nearby charity this morning.  

They'll be given to local families in need, including dozens of Afghan refugees 

who have been relocated to our area.  It was a bit of a drive, but I was grateful

that I could do something to help our neighbors.

Todd's First Concert

Todd performed his very first book concert this evening!

He whizzed through his songs . . . 

. . . then cheerfully answered questions for his grandmas and Uncle Andrew.

One of Todd's songs was a little variation of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," 

and he and Daddy decided to play a little encore performance 

with Todd playing the familiar melody, and Daddy playing 

the fancy left hand from Mozart's variations on that theme.

 

Two Years Later

We're coming up on the second anniversary of the COVID shutdown in our area . . .

. . . and the shelves in Trader Joe's look about like they did two years ago when people were hoarding things.  TJ's has had a lot of supply chain issues lately.

Market Basket looks a bit better, but that's partly because they fill empty spots on their shelves with similar products that they have in stock.  A week or two ago, I thought I was going crazy because the cereal shelves looked completely full, but I couldn't find the brand I was looking for.  Turns out the store had just filled every empty spot with extra Honey Bunches of Oats.

 When I came home from the store with a dozen out-of-stock items still on my grocery list for next week, I spotted these robins feasting on whatever that fruit is that's falling from one of our trees.  They may not have their favorite foods either while the ground is covered with snow, but they have enough to get by and even thrive, and so do we.