Happy 15th Olivia!

Olivia turned 15 today, wow. She is such an awesome kid, cannot believe she is one year away from driving! Her birthday was a little different this year due to the pandemic, but it was a gorgeous day so I took her to see a friend in her driveway, stopped by Grammy's place, played in the yard and found a snapping turtle and a snake by the pond! Happy Birthday Olivia, love you!

Some car cleaning

Girls wanted to clean my car this afternoon, I see one tiny flaw here....at least the bottom 2/3rds will be clean!

End of 6th week & house updates

Today marked the end of the 6th week of the kids being home and our quarantine. We got the word our governor is extending it until May 15th, however there are some relaxing of rules. But the weather has not been great, generally cold and rainy, so we have been indoors much more than we would like. This has been beneficial to getting a lot of work in the kitchen done and finally getting up the beam in the fireplace living room that had to be removed when fixing the water leak this winter. I got to buy a nail gun to help put it back up!

End of home schooling week 1

Well, at the end of week 1 of the school from home program and I know who are my early go-getters! At 9:30 Emma and Alex are still hidden away sleeping, Olivia is asleep on the floor, Abby is up watching tv but Izzy is up and hitting the books!

School is in session!

Well, classes started today for our in-home schooling. So far so geed, all electronics seem to be connecting ok with only a couple hiccups. Kids are not thrilled, but this is something they have to do to finish out the school year. Updates to follow...

Limited Slip Diff works on the Bird!

Well, it looks like the LSD works good, the first attempt at some tire marks was alright, but then i let it have it on the second and the rear end started yawing with the crown of the road. It's too expensive to do this very often so that will be it for a while!

Got the Dodge out today

Used the Simplicity Sovereign to pull the Dodge out today. The car fired up and I drove it to my friend Garrett's house so we can slowly start looking into the fuel issues it had last year. So I got the TBird back and swapped places with the Dodge at Garrett's house.

The upgraded TBird is out!

Got the TBird out today, so excited to drive it with the new rear gears, driveshaft, intake manifold and all the other goodies it got. Still waiting on the exhaust which is about 5 weeks overdue, really wish that hadn't been delayed, but everything else is good. After the exhaust gets on there, she will sound mean!

No soccer - officially

Our soccer club was actually hoping to at least get an abbreviated spring season in but today made it official, no soccer this spring.

Winter is back

Well, winter decided to pay us another visit. This was Wednesday and Thursday mornings. The snow didn't stick around very long, but it was still a little depressing when we are really looking forward to spring since we are basically stuck here at home.

Easter

Easter was a little different this year. After watching church on tv we did some stuff outside and then went to walk at the cemetery in downtown Mason. It was just good to get out. Then we had a Zoom meet up with the Hoffmans online and then ate dinner. After that we played a game together. The kids have been doing well, getting more used to our 'normal' for now.

Getting serious!

Our governor extended the Stay-At-Home order until the end of April, and made the guidelines even stricter as to not even visit family or friends. Before this it wasn't a problem to go visit someone and stay at the 6 foot distance and converse. But now it is pretty much the rule to stay home unless getting food for the family. Not much more can be taken away at this point.

My Tractor Girl does some yard cleanup

It looks like it might be our last nice day for a while so Mandy got out there in the yard and did a little spring cleanup. She even started the tractor on her own!

Abby's turn at a Lego project

Not to be left out, Abby wanted a Lego project to do so we got her an ice cream store. Izzy helped a little but they put this together in about an hour. I love how Lego's make the kids minds work and figure things out, but these are too pricey to be doing too many more of, they are just too fast at it!

Some outdoor fun

With the weather getting nicer we are trying to get the kids outside more. Mandy went and got a volleyball/badmitten set and the kids have been having fun using it. 

Some RC car fun

Got the RC/10 all buttoned up inside so we can have more fun with it. Izzy was really having a ball once I set up a jump and let her do burnouts in some sawdust. Not sure I'll be letting her drive a real car anytime soon... 

Karen Hodgman

Today the CV-19 pandemic hit home in a devastating and heartbreaking way. My aunt Karen, who was always a second mother to me, passed away from complications from Covid-19. This is so hard, as she was always so full of life, generosity, enthusiasm and love. She was always so giving. So many good times are flooding in my mind, from Mackinac Island, Disney, being together for special times in our lives and just making each other laugh like the time we exploded a whole party bag of M&M's she had hidden from us on her kitchen floor. It was always special when we got to go up north and see our family up there. Karen, you will be missed by many, especially me.