Quarantine Life

Cora updated her calendar to reflect her current schedule.

We're blessed that Cora's sport/activity CAN be done from home, via computer instruction.

Her dojo is like a family, and she misses a lot of the in-person karate banter and sarcasm. But this is better than nothing, and many other athletes on team sports are just not able to get in any action.

Sadly, the girls' tennis outings are over for now. Just after we went to the courts over the weekend, the city closed them for the time being.

Basketball courts and playgrounds are also closed - padlocks on the tennis gates, wood planks secured to the hoops. I suppose kids can ignore the yellow tape to use the play structures, but they'd certainly get dirty looks from passersby.

Interestingly, the day after we went hiking at Rice Canyon, the agency in charge of many of the trails in SoCal, including Rice, Towsley and Mentryville, closed them all to prevent people congregating. So sad! We'd better be careful where we go, or else more places might be shut!

Stace has been working from home every other day, so that his office has fewer people in each day, and everyone can more easily keep their distance from each other.

On Wednesday, after his home-work day was done, he and I went for a walk, and he decided for us to take that walk on Creekside, our Auto Row. He really enjoyed having a look at the cars as we walked by, without any sales people bugging him. (Auto sales are not an essential business, so they aren't working now.)

We've been certainly watching more television lately, since we're home so much. We've watched movies, the girls have watched a lot of Horrible Histories, and we found a new show to binge. It's called The Chosen, and it's a series based on the Disciples. I had a few friends recommend it, and we're all really enjoying how it brings the Biblical era and characters to life in a new way.

Seb has enjoyed our TV time...

...very much.

So has Spencer.

Speaking of screens, Violet's connecting with her friends from KidZone every morning on Zoom. Liana takes part, and Melanie does sometimes, along with other children she normally sees every Wednesday evening. She looks forward to this time, and brings her Bible so she can take her turn to read a verse or discuss the topic of the day.

Weekend Fun

 With a free Saturday, we took advantage of the parks still being open, and went to Valencia Summit Park.

Stace played tennis with the girls, while I went around the big paved loop on my roller blades. Cora roller-bladed with me for a bit, and then Violet went with me on her scooter. Stace also kicked a soccer ball around with the girls.

 Violet was really enjoying tennis in the fall, but the winter class I signed her up for was cancelled due to low enrollment. Then, I signed her up for a class starting in March, but of course the coronavirus meant all classes have been cancelled.

So, she and Stace have been going out every week or so. Cora also has enjoyed playing with Stace off and on.

 Wheeee!

 Cora and I walked over to Granary Square while Vi and Stace finished up, and we ordered milkshakes at the Habit. Restaurants and grocery stores are still open, but lots of other places have closed temporarily. Customers can buy food at eateries for take-out only, as the dining rooms are closed.

We needed to go to Ralphs to pick up a Redbox film - the murder mystery hit Knives Out - and had to wait outside in a line, because Ralphs is limiting how many people can be inside at a time. That way, people can stay six feet away from each other. And Cora preferred a frappuccino to a milkshake, so she went down to Starbucks, only to find them closed. For the time being, only Starbucks with drive-thrus are open locally.

Also this weekend, Violet learned how to take off a tire - Stace discovered the Vibe had a flat, and Vi helped put on the spare.

We loved Knives Out - highly recommend it! I watched it again on a rainy Sunday before we returned it. This time, I took it to a Redbox at the 7-Eleven, because I knew I wouldn't have to wait in line just to go inside the doors!

Coronavirus Weirdness

 Cora's friend Vivian turned 13 Saturday, and for weeks, the girls have been looking forward to a celebratory overnight trip to a beachfront hotel.

But Coronavirus changed everything, much to Cora's disappointment. (We are so fortunate Cora's milestone birthday was in February! Of her group of seven good girlfriends, four of them have birthdays in late March and early April, and will be affected by the pandemic.)

In Vivi's case, we attended a last-minute non-party at the park, where we all stayed the requisite 6 feet away from each other, and did lots of sanitizing.

 It was so nice to see each other and hang out!

Violet's friend Victoria was supposed to have a 10th birthday sleepover this weekend, too. Violet wrote her a postcard during the week, and we'll drop off a gift and card soon.

The weirdness has apparently infected our cats - Spence has decided the upper pantry is a great place to hide...

 ...and relax.

Rice Canyon Ramble

 Our weather has been rainy off and on, but I saw a forecast for a few hours of dryness Thursday and forced us out to a pretty canyon for a walk.

It was muddy, but the girls wore their rainboots as we explored Rice Canyon for the first time (just south of Towsley Canyon).

 The rain started up while we were out, and it was showery off and on. But no bother - these girls are half English!

 We saw several spots of oil! Not a huge surprise, since we weren't that far from Mentryville or the Newhall oil fields.

 This picture is a little hard to make out, I know, but Cora is on the right side, tiptoeing across the stream to reach a very large patch of oil coming down the hill.

 When there is mud, and one is wearing rainboots, one must get as muddy as possible.

 And then, clean up one's boots in the stream.

Cora at one point got stuck in the mud so deep, she needed me to cross the stream to help pull her out. I didn't get a pic of her while she was stuck, but this photo of her boots shows how deep she was in.

It wasn't all mud - there were sweet wildflowers, too. It was nice to get out for a bit and get some P.E., also.

Baking in our New Life

Our lives have dramatically changed in just a few days - from Disneyland and flying to Arizona, to school being cancelled and getting together with friends, frowned upon.

The girls have school work to complete, and they are self-motivated, so the homeschooling part of our world is pretty simple for me.

I'm missing seeing my own friends, taking walks with them, and having alone time in the house. But we're all good, and it's for the good of us all, to lessen the spread of coronavirus.

We've been cooking and baking more - here, Cora is making pumpkin muffins, using the pumpkin we've had since the fall. 

 Violet made our latest batch of oatmeal cake pretty much on her own.

We've watched lots of Horrible Histories, the British show that's as entertaining as it is educational. 

Working from home, fourth-grade-style.

Interesting Sunday

Very quickly, our lives have all changed with the coronavirus causing the government to pretty much shut down all large gatherings.

So, we took part in church online Sunday morning, in our jammies.

 Later Sunday, Vi and I took a little walk up the hill, where my lovely girl picked me a little bouquet.

Later, we took a longer walk in Mentryville, which we hadn't visited in several years.

 Mentryville was an oil town on the west side of the Santa Clarita Valley. A few buildings remain, including a schoolhouse, and this outhouse.

We hiked back to the oil apparatus, which was next to an old picnic area for the workers.

 Our budding archaeologist was excited to find this bit of pottery in the mud.

 Both girls were happy to play in the creek. Our recent rains have been good for something!

We checked out Charles Mentry's big house, but despite Cora's attempts, it was locked tight.

She was able to walk right into the chicken coop, however.

Week in Review

Violet and I returned from Arizona to a rainy few days, and Violet also needed her blood drawn Tuesday for her coming appointment with her endocrinologist.

I always get her a boba treat when she gets her blood drawn, and since we were having Charlie over, I made it a group field trip to Cozy Tea and Juice.

That boba gave the kids energy to burn, or at least Char, and despite the rain, he had fun on the trampoline. He even convinced Cora to join him; they both ended up soaked to the skin. So fun!

 On Wednesday, I took part in our school's Women in History week, dressing up as pioneer and author Laura Ingalls Wilder. I pretended I was Laura, with notecards and a script that, after a few class presentations, I had pretty much memorized.

This was a bit out of my comfort zone, but Violet's dear friend's mom was organizing the event and asked if I'd consider it. When she told me this year's theme was authors, and Laura Ingalls Wilder was an option, I agreed.

 I've read all of her books, and loved them, and have read them with both girls. So it was easier to present some of the details, since I knew them from my own repeated readings. I was in each classroom about 15-20 minutes.

Thanks to Mrs. Zamperin for taking this sweet shot of me and my favorite fourth-grader!

I had a full day of presentations Wednesday, and a full half-day on Friday, all together going to 15 classes.

While in and out of classrooms on Friday, I was in the school office as well, where we all were discussing the big news that was coming in fast and furious.

Because of the Coronavirus, first L.A. Unified, then the Hart district, then the Newhall district, all decided to close their doors for several weeks. This way students wouldn't be near each other to pass the virus around; we'd be homeschooling, with work given out by the teachers. Unprecedented times!

After school Friday, Violet and I went to her doctor - she continues to grow well! She's now in the 28th percentile.