Thankfulness

We are finishing week 7 and are seeing light at the end of the tunnel! While we will be under curfew until the end of Ramadan with Friday complete lockdowns, and work is still severely restricted, this week more businesses are opening up. Electronic, automotive, barbers, nail salons, clothing stores, and many restaurants are open for delivery. Buses and uber will start working in a limited capacity, and later this week, people were allowed to start using vehicles every other day, based on odd/even license plates.

Through all this, we have been tremendously thankful for many things. Extra time together, daily family worship, time to slow down, overcoming obstacles, and learning new ways to do things. I know I will look back on this time with a lot of thankfulness.

Earlier this week, my mom and I celebrated our 114th birthday (she turned 73 and I turned 41). It is very special to share this day with my mom. I love this painting of my mom and I.

This was from their visit in to Jordan in November 2017. We were at Little Petra in this picture.

This year there was a birthday breakfast waiting for me of cinnamon rolls, bacon, and sausage egg casserole on our 'You are Special Today' plate, and some sweet cards. I love this plate and how full it is.

Tes cooked up a storm that day and made pancit, a Philippino dish that is typically prepared on birthdays or to congratulate people, lasagna, one of my favorite dishes, green beans, and a cake. It was very sweet of her to make all this food for us to enjoy!

Final product...it lasted 3 days!

Tes has been making cakes for our family for years and they are delicious.

Nathan and I went out on two walks that day. It was so nice to get outside and walk around the neighborhood. We have enjoyed the recent freedom of getting out for daily walks!

After dinner, we enjoyed the cake!

Another day we did something the boys have been wanting to try for a while...make a soda fountain with mentos. All you need is mentos and soda. To get maximum fountain height, we taped the mentos to scotch tape, so they could all be dropped in at the same time.

Rushing to the field across from our house.

This is what they had been waiting weeks to do!

                                         
A lot of the soda came out in the fountain, and they were happy to have some leftover to drink afterwards.

In the evenings before curfew, we have been walking to a street nearby our house where the kids ride their bikes. They call the slopes in the sidewalk 'ramps' and have enjoyed doing 'wheelies.' Now that cars are allowed on the roads again with limited capacity, we may take a riding break because people have been cooped up the past 7 weeks and have been driving extra fast.

A friend gave us a bubble set, but we had to make the bubbles. It seems like glycerin is the main ingredient in bubbles, which we don't have, so we found one with dish water, dish soap, and honey that sets overnight. It smelled good, and worked pretty well.

Until Eliza dumped all the bubble solution out....

They tried making a quick solution with just soap and water, but it didn't work well, so we may just try to find bubble solution this weekend, now that we can drive!

Distance learning is going, well and the kids have been such troopers adjusting to all the changes. Some days are better than others, and I am working on my patience, but they are doing great and have two weeks left. Each day they have reading, writing, and math in some sorts and a special of either art, Arabic, music or PE. We do school from 10-2 and take a lunch break in the middle and other breaks when needed :). This is Benjamin working on a an art assignment teaching about camouflage. He drew a ladybug and camouflaged it in red and black flowers. Benjamin loves art

Caleb is working on a poetry writing unit at school. He had to write a repetition poem and he chose to write one about his sister.

The boys are good friends and we caught some sweet moments throughout the week. They eat lunch outside every day and have recess in the middle of the school day.

Walking around the neighborhood one quiet morning.

One afternoon, a couple of their high school friends from their bus walked by the house. It brightened the boys day to see them :).

Benjamin recently learned how to play the pink panther on the piano, but they had never seen the show. They enjoyed watching it one night.

A lot of flowers are in bloom now and they are so pretty and colorful. Here are a couple from our walks this week.

Caleb is ready for battle. The boys have been having nerf battles the past couple of days.

#Coronacutsgonebad #sorrynathan #goodthinghishairgrowsfast.

We found another rock throwing hill in the neighbhorhood.

 We had a friend meet us at a field by our house today and the kids rode bikes and we tried to fly a kite, but it was not windy enough.

Just kickin' back and relaxing. Hope you have had a good week!

Week 6

We are finishing week 6, and I think today is day 39. We are all doing well and things are pretty much the same. We were initially scheduled to depart Jordan this week, and spend a couple of months in the U.S.  before going to Turkey. We realized once the pandemic began that our plans would change, and we are rolling along with Plan B. We are now going directly to Turkey, whenever that may be, and will probably be in Jordan at least a few more months. We will miss not being able to see family this summer in the U.S., but we are thankful to be able to ride things out here. 

Friday was the first day of Ramadan in Jordan. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast during the day and break their fast in the evening with an iftar meal. They typically gather in the mosque for communal prayers, often with worshippers flooding into the streets, however this year the mosques are closed and gatherings are banned, so culturally things will be very different for Muslims. Streets are typically very quiet during Ramadan, so things will get even more quiet this next month. 

The weather was great this week and we spent a lot of time outside. It was only a 3 days school week because they celebrated the Orthodox Easter and had Sunday and Monday off. School continues to go well and they have three weeks left. The teachers and school staff are doing a great job balancing distance learning while taking care of their own families at home.

We decided to mix things up and bring some toys outside. The kids have had these magnet tiles for years and they are still a hit. The boys think of all kinds of creative things to build with them.

Fort building fun and hanging with daddy. Eliza is a daddy's girl!

We also play in the garage under our building a lot. Our building only has a few occupants, so there is plenty of space to play. They can ride bikes, play catch, tennis, or frisbee. We recently took out a remote control helicopter my parents gave us a while ago, and the kids have enjoyed flying it all over the place (if you can see the spec at the top of the picture).

This week the boys made a robot crab, that that received for Christmas. They did a good job filling the instructions to put it together and enjoyed placing it in different locations to watch it sense and avoid edges as it moved.

This girl...she is sweet and fun and loves to be around everyone.  She recently discovered juice and to no surprise, she likes it a lot :). 

She also loves shoes...just not her own! She has so many cute sandals and shoes that were gifted to her, but she loves being barefoot most.  If we can get her to put shoes on, it's her sneakers. She does however love to put other people's shoes on, especially her brothers'.

Lots of biking in the yard.

This week we decided to venture out for a couple walks. The streets are very quiet during the day, but the the evening time, more people seem to be getting out to walk, so we decided to do the same. As a bonus, the government announced extended curfew hours from 8am - 6pm during the month of Ramadan. And this is the first weekend in a month that we are only only complete lockdown on Friday, instead of both weekend days! On our first walk, Benjamin was concerned when we saw the police and said he didn't want us to get arrested and he wanted to go home. After being re-assured it was ok,  we a have been enjoying some walks in the evening and it has been really nice. Spring has sprung and there are a lot of beautiful flowers in bloom. 

A friend gave us some sidewalk chalk. You can't see it well, but Benjamin drew a mountain night scene with a moon and stars.

He drew the scene on paper too.

I went to the grocery store for the first time in 6 weeks. We had been doing delivery and it is working well, but there were a few things I kept ordering and not receiving so I decided to go one afternoon. The line was not long to get in. They make people wear a mask and gloves to get into the store, and if you didn't have one they give them to you. 

This was the first time I wore a mask. I understand why they are required, but I'm not a fan and was glad to take it off for the walk home!

I was also glad to have brought the jogging stroller with me, since we can only visit the store by foot. I initially planned to get the select items I needed, but decided since I was there to get more so we don't have to order groceries this week. The stroller worked great and allowed me to carry about $200 worth of groceries. As a bonus, the bakery inside was making pizzas so we got a salami pizza as a treat.

Yesterday was complete lockdown so we played around the house. As the day went on, the sky became more and more orange as a dust storm moved in. Latest yard improvement was Nathan and the boys trimming the trees. Eliza tried to help too...you turn around and she is halfway up the ladder.

I tried making banana chips yesterday since we had some very ripe bananas...and it was an epic failure, they were mushy even after additional baking time. Maybe I'll just stick to banana muffins.

Happy Saturday!

Lockdown week 5

We are finishing the 5th week of lockdown and everyone is doing well! The kids (and we) are getting the hang of online school, and it getting smoother. We have a good routine during the week for school, alternating work schedules, ordering groceries, piano, and lots of time outside, and then we have lazy weekends since the country goes on complete lockdown from Thursday at curfew until Sunday at 1000. The government announced we these conditions will remain until after Ramadan at the least, so we are embracing this time since we have another 4-6 weeks likely to go. We may even start taking small walks in the afternoon because there seems to be people outside that are not getting groceries, to include families that are taking walks. 

Happy day when fruits and veggies arrived from my favorite place that just got their permit to deliver!

We had too many lemons, so we made lemon with mint juice.

In exciting news, Nathan put the legos back in the boys' room and it has been a huge hit! They have been away for a long time, and the boys have been really happy to play with them again. So far, Eliza seems to be leaving them alone and the boys are doing a good job making sure their small parts go back in the drawers when they are done playing.

Each week at school, Caleb has a non-fiction topic he has to come up with, research, and make a poster or mini-book about. He uses a lot of online learning resources the school provide, but their books on the shelf are getting a lot of use too...this is is book of Why....perfect for Caleb! Look how studious he looks in Nathan's glasses.

When I got home the other night, Nathan and the boys were on the roof listening to the curfew sirens.

This week the boy's school had a virtual talent show. Caleb read poetry and Benjamin played the piano. Here's is Caleb's poetry reading. Yesterday, we watched the show. It was creative of the school to do this, and the kids enjoyed watching their friends' showcase their talents.

Poor Twix....the magical cat. She is 17 years old and still patient as ever.

Other happy news is Nathan aired up the boys' bike tires and they have really enjoyed riding their bikes again. They ride in the yard and down in the garage under our building.

Nathan built the boys a bike rack with some spare wood. He is always busy creating something.

The weather has been beautiful and have enjoyed eating dinner outside many days.

The boys got Corona cuts, even Nathan did too! He did a great job on the boys's hair. I think it looks so cute short.

Yesterday we tried making a gingerbread house we received before Christmas.

It was an epic failure, but the candy tasted good!

It has been a good week, and we are ready for week 6...and probably another 4-6 to go.