School, Groceries, Workout Recap, and Meal Plan on Repeat
Happy Monday!
Current situation:
We are now in full-on required remote learning assigned by teachers for all four girls. Pros: they have quickly learned how to check their assignments and complete them independently, so I don't have to manage as much and am free to complete other chores, or blog! Cons: there seems to be very little written work, and mostly online computer work, so they are all on screens for most of the morning. Not my favorite, but I get why it has to be that way right now. Each girl has averaged about two to three hours of schoolwork per day with about 80-90% of that screen-based, so it's not too terrible. Nevertheless, my plan is to have them spend afternoons mostly outside going forward, or at least away from screens if the weather isn't nice. We shall see.
J only gets assigned "schoolwork" from her preschool teacher on the days that she would have attended school (Tuesday and Thursday). On her off days I still give her a little something to do because she, of course, always wants to be just like the big girls. She is eating up these Frozen activities that I downloaded from totschooling.net back when L was in preschool.
This one was practice with cutting and counting all rolled into one!
As I mentioned in the post on last week's meal plan, I shopped for enough groceries for two weeks, rather than my usual 1-week supply. So far it has worked out great, and I may even consider making this a permanent change. It was SO nice not to have to worry about doing a big shop last Friday, and go through the ordeal of sanitizing myself and my groceries afterwards as I have been doing, according to the advice in this video.
Tips for the two-week shop:
1) Freeze the week-2 items that might go bad more quickly like dairy milk, cheese, and cold cuts (you can't freeze eggs, but they will keep for two weeks if they're fresh)
2) Buy more hearty greens like kale and romaine that will hold up for a longer period-- we are having salad into week two and our greens are still good
3) Citrus fruits keep well for week 2-- I stocked up on oranges and grapefruit
4) I'm using frozen berries to make smoothies for the girls in week 2, rather than the fresh berries they would normally be eating
5) Cruciferous vegetables last forever-- cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and brussels are my friends! Beyond that there's also frozen vegetables!
Other than fresh produce, we are living on pantry items like rice, beans, pasta, canned chicken for casserole, boxed vegan mac n cheese, etc. Since I'm already in the habit of making our bread, I can keep supplying us with that as long as we have flour. So again, everything seems to be working well!
I'll share a couple of pictures of our last few days of quarantine here, and then the workout recap.
We rearranged our bedroom into an at-home virtual music teaching studio. M has been using this as a home office on the days that he works as well. The standing desk is my dresser!
The end of last week was cold and rainy so we did indoor exercise with Cosmic Kids Yoga. Dad joined in!
M worked a lot this weekend, getting teachers and technology ready for the launch of virtual schooling this week. To keep the girls busy we found a new-to-us wildlife sanctuary nearby and took a walk!
As you can see there were lots of people there also walking, so much so that I felt a little uncomfortable at times since it felt like "a crowd". We tried to keep our distance from people as best we could. Everyone is itching to get outside, apparently!
We saw lots of wildlife-- hawks, turtles, fish, muskrats, and SO many birds! Beautiful!
When we got back from our walk we planted some seedlings. I know we're a little early but it was something to keep the girls busy, and they have really enjoyed the ritual of watering them every day! Hopefully at least some of them will survive!
Spring is just beginning to spring around here... the forsythia in our yard just popped!
We
have seen a lot of wildlife in our yard too... deer, SO many squirrels,
and these huge male turkeys who visited us early Sunday morning.
After a long 9 miles with my running friend yesterday I felt like putting my feet up, so I procrastinated on my usual Sunday food prep and binge-watched most of the 1988 BBC miniseries of the Chronicles of Narnia, a favorite from my childhood!
L suggested we get out the fancy china and have tea while we watched, after seeing Lucy's beautiful tea with Mr. Tumnus on screen. You never have to ask me twice for a tea party!
That's about all the updates for now! Here's my workout recap from last week:
Friday, 3/27: 6.75 miles with my running friend, 9'59" pace
Saturday, 3/28: rest day
Sunday, 3/29: rest day, wasn't feeling well
Monday, 3/30: still feeling yucky so I skipped my morning run and just did a long walk with the girls, then hopped on the treadmill for a quick 3.1 miles in the afternoon, 9'30" pace
Tuesday, 3/31: this Fitness Blender (sense a pattern in recent weeks?) I was feeling better and it felt good to get this done!
Wednesday, 4/1: 6.75 miles with my running friend again, 9'59" pace
Thursday, 4/2: I combined two short Fitness Blender workouts for abs, first this one and then this one, with a warm-up before and cool down after. I ended up repeating some exercises but it was a good combo and definitely worked my whole core!
That's it for now! Love and healthy hugs to you all!
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