COVID with the Grandies Week 18 – Thursday

 I woke at 4 a.m., eventually I fell back to sleep, after listening to the news, and an Ideas program. Then, next thing I know Grampa was nudging me awake at 7:40.

I roused the girls, making sure Iz was REALLY awake. Grampa and I logged in while there was bandwidth!

8:19 a.m. – GRAMMA: "Have you done your teeth, Izzy? If you get cavities..."

            "Momma will rip your head off!"

Grampa went walkies. Apparently, Nutmeg was happily skating on the frozen wetland. 

8:26 – Two girls reading on the couch! Teeth done. Breakfast had, time to read.

8:47 – "Jos, do you know what time it is?"

    "No, what time?"

    "8:47"

   " I'll wait until 8:50. "

9:00 – Cinnamon was on top of the fishtank, again. I could hear a peculiar noise. I sprayed him with water to get him down, and found the intake valve was loose. Sigh. 

From Isabelle's office: "Cinnamon, leave my ear buds alone. Cinnamon, leave my iPad alone!" Cinnamon was kicked outside.

10:00 – I went downstairs to do my workout, hoping all was well. Grampa was off to Carleton Place to fetch his supplements from Dr. Jenn.

11:00 – lunch 

    I gave the girls menus from our local restaurants. Thursday is our Take In day! The consensus was Asian Fusion from the Hot Wok. 

Momma and Papa are having adult food at home!

11:43 – They are to be back online for 11:45. I waited to see, but both of them took off down the hall to log back in. They are great independent learners! I don't nag if I don't have to.

12:15 – I heard a yell from her office. Izzy was yelling, PAPER! I need PAPER! I snatched a piece from the printer. 

    Next, I heard, "TAPE, I need Tape, Gramma!" We found tape. (Izzy gave a note to self: "I probably should have gathered my equipment first!")

    We lost the scissors, under her book. Apparently, someone (feline?) may have knocked equipment to the floor, behind the door. I suggested Iz turn on her video so that the teacher would know where she was at in the process. They were to fold the paper in thirds, lengthwise. Iz did it the other way and had to begin again. Couldn't find the geometry set. She needed to mark out 5 cm along the paper.

    She was to predict the ball bouncing. I already know that. Papa explained that it won't gain momentum. When push someone on a swing, it never comes back to you.

        TEACHER: "You can talk to a scientist."

        IZZY: "I can do that any time I want. My mom's a hydrogeologist!"

2:00 – afternoon break

Josephine and I went to fetch the trailcam cards. I warned her I'd moved the 2nd camera. She said, "Don't tell  me where it is. I want to find it myself! It's a big yard, but I can find it."

She did!

Down we went to the meadow, and across into the forest.

From there, we checked out the partly frozen frog pond. The ice was melting, as we are a bit warmer than before. 

Jos peered down the post. It was a pipe with a frozen core. We poked it and it bounced up and down.

Next, we were talking about mice friends. I told her I'd show her the vole tunnels. She did, just like I do, when she stepped on one she said, "Sorry. Sorry, vole!"

I showed her the gypsy moth eggs on the tree. She asked if we should remove it. "How do you remove them?"

        "We scrape them, then drop them into soapy water. But we don't have a scraper. Or water. Or soap!"

Next, incorrigible Nutmeg ran away.

Speaking of running! I finally snagged Isabelle on the trailcam. She didn't use the stopwatch properly, and didn't have an accurate time. Her afternoon asynchronous session tells her to run around the house twice. Today, she was 53 seconds, I think because she was checking the watch while running!

We ordered dinner from The Hot Wok. Wonton soup, egg rolls and broccoli with shrimp. I tucked them in, banked the fire, and off to dreamland they went.

Jos and Nutmeg.

COVID with the Grandies – Week 18 Wednesday

 It was a cold morning.

I'm having issues with the weather station. First thing this morning, 20 C.?

I replaced the batteries in the receiver outdoors. 

The mattress is holding up. The girls are sleeping on an inflated queen-sized one. They woke up Sunday, and were just about flat on the ground. Momma figured it out, before they went home. I found her some duct tape, which is working. Whew! I think it was a cat or two...

I had my coffee, then, at 7:30 toodled on downstairs. "Wakey wakey time! Daylight in the swamp!" (That's what my dad used to say, back in inner city Toronto!)

Josephine sat up, I asked if she wanted privacy to get dressed. She did. We talked to Isabelle. Jos had breakfast and fed the fish. At 8:00 o'clock I leaned over the railing and reminded Izzy it was 8. I went downstairs, and she said I never woke her at 7:30!

Izzy asked for eggs Monday. We didn't get any until Tuesday afternoon. We had scrambled eggs, fruit and toast.

8:53 Josephine: "Gotta run, you guys. Don't want to miss the bus."

2:38 Isabelle: "I've got a coworkers."

Break time. Voracious readers.

I keep dropping my drug store reading glasses. I've crazy glued them three times.

The cats chose not to be out in the yard. It was cold, about -7 C., according to the other thermometers. 

Fungus beside the dead tree!

Grampa and Cinnamon checked out the pumpkins in the forest.

JB & Cinnamon from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The raccoons like the pumpkins.

Raccoons from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

COVID with the Grandies – Week 18 Tuesday

 Grampa was up early, he had to take the car in for 8 a.m. to get snow tires on. 

I woke the girls up for 7:30. Jos said Cinnamon was asking to go out in the dark, and kept meowing, waking her up. I felt badly. Isabelle was up at 5:45 to stoke the fire. I asked if she was cold, and she said no. I suggested that she could just leave it. It was too hot at bedtime. We're going to have to work on that. 

We had two gallbladders, on each of the front and back steps. The cats were hunting voles. (We've a lot of them!)

GRAMPA: "My sweet little Meggie May. If cats could get tattoos, she'd have killer down her arm."

Grampa returned with horror stories from getting the snow tires put on the car. Apparently, we have a cracked axle, to be repaired next week. Something wrong with the brakes, too. He's booked in for next Thursday.

Grampa picked up a library book for me. It was funny, as the last borrower put a note on it, saying it was in bad condition and they were replacing it!

Poor Isabelle. They are sent off to work groups of 5 or 10. They were using a new graphing tool. In these small groups of ten, 10-year-olds were supposed to interview one another on favourites (colours, foods, etc.) and make a graph of the selection. This is something I've done with students in person. Never online, though. There was frustration, as they all respond at once to a student question in their Google meetup. It would make more sense if the teacher assigned a kid to be a leader, and lead them through. SO frustrating.

This doesn't happen with the president-elect, I bet!

 Lunch, some reading, back to work. Isabelle's afternoon run was 50 seconds! 

The girls have coworkers! We had snow on and off all day. Just a skiff.

I fetched the trailcam cards and the mail. 

Meatloaf for dinner, as requested. Mashed potatoes for Grampa, as well as cooked veggies. 

Isabelle did Virtual Girl Guides. There was an art project. They had a little kit, with paper and a wee paint set. I could hear a yell down the hallway, "scissors!" I fetched some for her.

Josephine had her shower. Both girls were tucked into bed. The deal is, lights out for Izzy at 8:30, Josephine reads with the booklight until 9. 

I had the pleasure of cats on my afternoon walk.

Clip1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

COVID with the Grandies – Week 18 Monday

We woke up Monday to power. That was a good thing. We've some tree branches down. Rain and snow were anticipated. Although central Ontario has snow, it'll change to rain when it gets to us.

The birds at the feeders have been frantic for food. It's as if they know a storm is coming. Blue jays, goldfinches in their winter clothes, chickadees. One pair of cardinals. Lots of mourning doves.

The goldfinches have turned olive. I had trouble getting a photo. Mind you, I was pretty lazy, and sitting in my arm chair, but any closer and the birds take off. The video camera is pretty lame.

Up on the hill, there were two bucks. One older one, the other I couldn't see behind a tree. It was too dark for a photo at the time. We lost a branch in the storm.

Grampa was up early. He has garbage to put out, and a physiotherapy session at 8 a.m. The cats are a bit tired.

Isabelle and I were working on breakfast. I was refilling the cat food crunchies container. (It's pretty loud!) This is Daisy supervising, in 2014, just so you understand the process. 

Isabelle said, "To the cats – that must be the sound of heaven. It may as well be the angels singing!" 

After breakfast, some play time. Unfortunately, the paddles were scraping off the hardwood finish. I moved them to the kitchen.

Clip0 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I set the girls off at 8:48 to log on for 9. Isabelle couldn't see all the images of the classmates. The Internet isn't working well for her. I think it might just be the wind moving our tower extension. I don't know. She couldn't see all her classmates. We'll keep on it. 

Eventually, the faces began to pop up as the wind slowed a bit. 

Also, there are kids with multiple zoom images. Iz says it's because they have more than one tab open. She was quite disgusted, as if the screen isn't busy enough! The teachers can close them, but she didn't seem bothered. 

Caitlin sent me an email memo from virtual school powers-that-be. It was information that the teachers are going to teach the kids a Shutdown protocol. If there is a medical emergency, the staff member will say "SHUTDOWN" three times, and students are to log out. I imagine there was a medical emergency somewhere, sometime, and it's not something kids should view.

These are some of the pages the kids work from. It's rather interesting.

At 9:30 I went downstairs for my workout, satisfied that all was well. 

Grampa returned from physio. A bit of panic. Grampa is taking in the car for snow tires on Tuesday. He couldn't find the lug nut (AKA wheel nut). We looked everywhere. Even Josephine was enlisted for help during her lunch break. I did find our lost flip phone! 

Then, Josephine needed a protractor. I looked everywhere. In my office, desk, cupboards. Nada. Finally, a brilliant thought, I asked Isabelle. She had one in her geometry set, which she'd been told to bring for this week's math. Whew!

At the afternoon break, (1:45 – 2:30) we went outside while Grampa napped. It was just at the right time. It was cold, Josephine had to go in and get my coat. Then, back for asynchronous activities until 3:30. Both worked until 4 p.m.

Jos was too cold, and went back into the house for my raincoat.

When we got back into the house, hail!

Momma had left us some pineapple for snacks. I broke the container. Sorry Momma!

After another 45 minutes of work, Isabelle did her run around the house. Grampa bought us a stopwatch, she ran around twice in 52 seconds.

Dinner went over well!

At dinner we were talking about 'the pot calling the kettle black!'

After dinner, we vegged watching TV. Border Security is always fun. They are all reruns. I like the role models. Well, in the staff, not the perps! A sniffer dog always amazes us. It's wonderful seeing women in these jobs!

Buried Worlds with Don Wildman. Oh my. Witches, spirits. Dr. Dee's Shew Stone.  

Disasters At Sea, as well. 

Finally, I'd taped a 7-minute tribute to Alex Trebek, showing him in various sitcoms, and walk-in parts. Josephine really likes Jeopardy. We finished off the day watching Monday's show while Isabelle showered. "It's kinda sad," mourned Jos. But a great life, I replied.

I couldn't find Isabelle, after the shower. I went downstair, no Izzy! She was in her office, writing poetry!

She was tucked in for 8:30, Jos read until 9.

A good day for all of us.