Governor Walz extended the "stay at home" order last week for another 2 weeks, but started to allow certain services to open back up again. So hopefully I'll just have 2 more weekly updates like this after this one. Here are some daily updates from last week:
Day 43: The kinders sent a birthday message to their teacher today!
Charlie's in the bottom row.
A “social distancing” I’m-here-to-split-and-steal-your-hostas date with my favorite former librarian Jean:
When it’s 75° in April:
And my wife posted this Monday night: "I love my kids, but man. Boys are really terrifying. I know this from working in a peds trauma hospital, and my kids are no exception. Every crack in the sidewalk is a jump to be conquered. Every neighborhood hill is meant for obtaining top speed. Dead squirrels are prized finds. Bonus points if they stink. I feel like I’m living in a constantly streaming episode of Jackass, and every night I ask myself if I’m helping to get their energy out or building up their endurance."
Day 44: Tongue out for concentration. 👅😂❤️
And my wife posted this in the evening: "Charlie has been begging for someone, ANYONE to have a slumber party with him. Henry likes his own space. Daddy isn’t into it, so Mama’s taking one for the team."
Day 45: Another post from my wife: "Dandelion season might just be my favorite season. Be still my mom heart!"
Day 46: Pics from an evening hike from my wife: "Another quick hike to Shadow Falls. This deer scared the heck out of us, but we seemed to only inconvenience her. The ducks were also super tame. #CityAnimals"
Day 47: Henry and I stayed in and played games (he's a homebody), and Charlie and Mama went for a tag-along bike ride: "12.5 mile bike ride with this fella tonight! We listened to some classic AC/DC on the way home for motivation because it’s his new favorite band and because he’s not even six and already cooler than I’ll ever be."
We're doing a lot of yard projects (see "day 47" below), and I
hacked out a SOLID shrub with my small camping hatchet. Whew.
Day 48: College buddy (and groomsman) Jamey biked over a heavy box of hostas (from NE MPLS to St. Paul) for my yard project. #ThatsService #ThanksFriend
Sidenote: many of the days and evenings this past week, I worked on procuring and transplanting 19 "hills" (mounds?) of hostas and 7 ferns under the tree in our front yard. When the leaves appear on this tree, it makes DENSE shade, and it's surrounded on 2 side by a tall privot hedge as well. We've been in this house for more than 10 years, and I spent the first few years trying to get all kinds of shade grasses to grow under there. Maybe 4-5 years ago, I split some hostas and put a small field stone-lined shade garden around the trunk of that tree. It's cute and does well, but there's still a LOT of yard around it that grows nothing. So I'll be dismantling that field stone "edger," picking up more stone from my parents, and making a bigger "wandering" edge around a much larger shade garden. But we'll see how the hostas and ferns do this year and make plans to move/transplant anything we need to next spring, and hopefully THEN finalize what to do with that space (and redo the stone edger). All the hostas seem to be doing well, and we'll see if the ferns take off. Here's a pic from last night (evening of day 48):
A few things about that pic: notice the blue grass seed to the right (trying to get a little more grass to grow in areas that get SOME sun). Notice ALL the bare dirt (with newly planted hostas) in the middle - I did not dig up any grass. That's just all the *nothing* that grows there. There are 19 new hostas just right-of-center, and a lot out of view along the slope to the left. And the ferns are totally out of view to the left. And finally, note the bushes being thinned - there's lots of DEAD in those bushes, and notice how thin they look to the left, and how dense (and DEAD they look to the right). We're currently in the middle of a big THINNING that we don't think we've done since Sarah was pregnant with Henry 9 years ago.
Day 49: I went on my first REAL ride of the year! I've pulled Charlie in a "tag-along" ride a while back, and I
rode about 9 miles with Henry 2 weeks ago. But this was my first tri bike ride. I've just been spinning in the basement otherwise. Yesterday, I snapped a photo at my turn-around showing that I made it up Big Rivers trail to the tunnel near Hwy 62 and Hwy 13:
20 miles total. Yeah, I think that was a bug on my chin.
I also posted this on Facebook yesterday: "There's a banner outside of St.Thomas More Catholic School that reads 'distance makes our hearts grow fonder.' And here are Henry and Charlie among some other student photos (Henry's between 2 of his classmates). ❤️"
And then we worked in the yard all evening as noted above.
YARD WORK is our only big plan this week. We will keep working on thinning the bushes; keep trying to get the grass, hostas, and ferns to grow; and ALSO hopefully build some raised beds in my neighbor's yard for her AND for us! Garden expansion!! I have some projects due from my students in my photo classes later this week, so later in the week (and next weekend) will be a lot of grading.
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