life on lockdown

the last couple of weeks have been...interesting.

on the third day, the bean's school began "distance learning."  using zoom and a block schedule that had her in front of the laptop for three classes a day, she was reunited with her teachers and classmates.  they log in to their first class at 8am for an hour, get a break for a half hour, and then jump into the next class for another hour.  the third class starts at 11 and they're done by noon.  they do math/bible/language arts on tuesday and thursday and history/literature/science on wednesday and friday.  monday is reserved for catching up on assignments and independent study.  it's actually a pretty sweet schedule, and the kids were super excited at the prospect of seeing each other's homes and pets and taking classes in their pajamas.

the first day was more of an introduction to how things would work, and most of the classes were spent just catching up with each other and introducing everyone's pets and stuff like that.  it was really fun to hear her giggling and chatting with her teachers and classmates, and they'd all clearly missed each other.

while she was in class, i went into my room and busted out the hand weights and turned on the "orangetheory at home" workout of the day.

and then as she was in her second class of the day, i cleaned up after my sweat session and then found one of the twilight movies on tv.  cocoa wasn't a fan of the werewolves, barking and growling every time they appeared onscreen.  it was pretty funny.

the bean decided to go for a change of scenery for her last class, taking the laptop outside for some fresh air.

the house remodel is plugging along.  look, we have a new fireplace!

and those red and blue tubes are the water lines for the kitchen, powder room, laundry room and guest bathroom.

another day, the old lady and i finally sucked it up and headed out to the laundromat.  i hadn't been to one of these in years, and it was...well, it's a laundromat.  at least they have these huge capacity machines all lined up, and i got to wash and dry 12 loads of laundry within about an hour and a half.  again, there's a silver lining in everything, right?

with not much else to do at home, i decided to bust out the ol' face masks.  might as well try for some clear, glowy skin, amirite?

poor teddy was so confused when he saw me.

cocoa couldn't have cared less.  and i had to take this extreme closeup of her to show you something i hadn't noticed before - look at how long this dog's eyelashes are!  crazy.

oh!  i also learned that i can still braid my own hair.  i hadn't tried to do this in forever.

a couple of my new favorite t-shirts.

another day, i tried out a dance fitness video that my friend dailygluttony had posted on her instagram stories.  it was really fun, but proved to me once and for all that i really canNOT dance.  oh, man, it was so bad.

the bean picked up her ukulele for the first time in months, using youtube videos to play songs for us.

it seems that when springtime comes, so do the birds.  they took up residence in our patio cover again, building a nest and watching over their eggs until they hatched.  we've got a new family in the back yard, much to the hub's annoyance (because they poop all over the patio).

speaking of critters, the hub had discovered the presence of a rat somewhere in the backyard.  he'd laid out a trap with some peanut butter as bait, but as it turned out, that thing somehow landed in the pool and apparently couldn't figure out how to get himself out.  the dogs were going nuts one morning, barking their heads off at the pool, and because the floaties were blocking my view i couldn't see what was happening until i walked over to check things out.

and speaking of the hub, i find it super amusing when he and teddy sit down and have these meaningful conversations.

once they're all talked out, teddy is usually pretty wiped out and makes his way over to his bed for a nap.

i finally let myself start watching netflix's "love is blind."  whoa, what a train wreck.  it's like "the bachelor" on crack.

we've done lots of take out and had many meals delivered via uber eats and grubhub and postmates.  there's been lots of napping and snacking and movie nights in the backyard.  most of all, we've enjoyed a lot of family togetherness, which has been really nice.  we have meals together, we relax together, we just hang out.

silver linings.  i tell you, they're there if you want to find them.