Oh, happy green washing machine power indicator light, welcome back.  We missed you.  Thankfully, Mr. Appliance is an essential worker.  Also, it should be said that the oft-maligned Home Depot seems to have honored the five-year service plan we purchased with the washer their installers declined to install and which broke after a year and a half.

Anyway, we can do laundry in-house again.

Other things that we can do around here:

Have taco salad for dinner

Enjoy viritual moms’ night out

Clean chainsaw, shape pottery and take a violin lesson all at the same time in the same room

A new month dawns.

Jen turned the calendar from March to April, and suddenly it became clear why Zoe and Lanie were giggling so much.  Even after I was reminded it was April Fool’s Day, I still got tricked.

The school lunch coordinator is usually such a trustworthy guy.  No one actually got lobster roll or prime rib (in our district at least) in their lunch bag today.

As for what Zoe and Lanie were up to:

Remote learning is still the focus of our household these days.  Except when Jen’s in a video meeting, then the focus is her puzzle.  As for remote learnig:

I made a new video for the kindergarteners.  This one is about seeds.

Zoe went to the high school to pick up a big slab of clay for her pottery class.

Here are some other things that happened:

Lanie’s pretzels were served with dinner.

Ivy and Ebby napped together.

Before

After

Nadia is adept at avoiding getting her picture taken, but when it comes time to clean the kitchen she can get the job done.

In fact, we have total confidence that she can do anything she sets her mind to, as long as she can watch NCIS at the same time.  Today was her kitchen clean up day.

Other items of note from today:

Daisy sang along during Lanie’s violin practice.

Jen carted a hundred or so masks to the distribution hub.

Dinner was lasagna, made by Lanie.

It was a calm, quiet Sunday — until the thunder and lightning started around 9 pm.  We got a good walk in before the rain really made a nuisance of itself.

Also today, there was this:

A cake baked last night and the dishes still around this morning

Online church meeting

Followed by online Harry Potter Escape Room

A nearly-ocmpletely terraformed Mars

Most of us have barely gotten out of the house for two weeks.  For those who were interested in getting out, and also interested in being outside, we offered a hiking trip in the Lakes Region.  The actual hike we chose was to the summit of Mt. Roberts, looming over the Castle in the Clouds  It was suggested to us by our friends, the Goldsmith-Steele family.

The last college acceptance photo for a while

It’s rare that we have a spare Saturday to get out and hike;  there’s usually lots of other demandson our time.  We also curently have a new appreciation for anyting outside of our yard, so our steps were lighter than they might have normally been.  Beyond that, we were also celebrating the end of college acceptance season.  That season ended on a high note this morning with a positive email from Olin College of Engineering the last place Zoe had been waiting to hear from.

Here are some sights from our hike:

We are so frequently glad we found a home with places we can walk and ride to.  I rode my bike to work at the high school today. Then, when we were all done working, I jogged out to meet some of the family at the Longmarsh Conservation Area. After a little hike there, I did not feel like running back home, so I accepted a lift.

Jen cleaned up at Splendor.

Here are a few more things from today:

We reserved books for pickup at the library.

Busy beavers at Longmarsh

Ready to rock

The traffic in masks and mask components is booming  The snow is melting.  I started my recording career with a video of my cover of Bingo was His Name-o.  it’s my contribution to tomorrow’s remote kindergarten learning.

Bio lab

Speaking of remote learning, Zoe finished a bio lab in her bedroom (with two lab partners in completely different places).  She and Nadia both took math tests, and Lanie finally returned a library book, and the governor announced that school won’t start up again until May at the earliest.

Video check-in with orchestra director

The govenor’s press conference had the effect of sending people to the Market Basket for fear that all the stores were going to close soon, even though he specifically said that grocery stores and hardware stores (and breweries) were considered essential for public welfare and would remain open despite his stay-at-home order for other non-essential businesses.  The check-out guy’s nerves were frayed by the time I got to the front of the line.  Still, we have egss and bacon, now and even all-purpose flour (though I did not get it at Market Basket and I refuse to reveal my source).

Jen enjoyed a nice virtual happy hour with co-workers.  Tomorrow is Friday.

We celebrated with lemon cake and Azul.

Here is more from today:

Zoe accepted to Brandeis

We continue to learn.  Today we learned that Ebby really doesn’t like to swallow pills and Home Depot really doesn’t want people to enact buyer protection plans.   We’re cautiously optimistic about overcoming each of these roadblocks.

Here is more about today:

We became a supple depot for Seacoast Mask Makers.

We played Dominion. It’s not important who won.

It snowed last night.  This conveniently allowed me to run the gas out of the snowblower — a task I’ve considered undertaking several time over the past several mild weeks, but I never got around to it.  Now, instead of just letting the thing run until it was out of gas, I moved some snow around.

So close

There was enough gas to finish 95 percent of the driveway, so it all worked out nicely.  Here’s to procrastination.

The snow cover also allowed us to have a camp fire in the newly-cleared fire pit withouth having to obtain a burn permit.  It was a lovely evening to cook out over a fire.

Then, after Brooklyn 99, Zoe unveiled her Bakeshop project: eclairs.  Everyone was delighted.

Here’s what it all looked like:

Studying by the woodstove

Cooking on the campfire