Keplingers Visit

Andrea and Dennis Keplinger are some of our favorite people. Andrea was a part-time nanny for our kids about six years ago. I was expecting a new baby, Nathan, and was trying to work from home and also handle four older kids. I was overwhelmed and Nate and I were not sure how to handle the load. We were trying to think of somebody who could help us out but to no avail. The Keplinger‘s had lived in Fort Wayne a few years prior and then had moved away. One day Nate learned that they were returning to Fort Wayne for a job switch. He did not think anything of it, but immediately I knew that Andrea was the answer to our prayers. We reached out to her and she came over to meet the kids and it was a perfect match. She kept the kids upstairs and played with them and loved them while I worked downstairs in the basement office. I would hear my newborn baby crying and know that it was probably about time for him to nurse, and she would bring him down to nurse while I continued to work payroll and paperwork. When he was finished eating, I would send him back up to Andrea and she would continue to love my kids so I could support Simplx.  Andrea and I had many moments of connection and I look up to her very much. She had six kids as well and learned to get through hard times with her family. She is an example to me and I love her very much. Dennis reminds me of Dennis the Menace. He is so happy and energetic and the kids adore him. They are like family to us and Andrea treated me like a second mom. I am grateful that they could come visit from Oklahoma.

Best Bear Ever

Nathan wrote this message to Bear:

"You are the best bear ever"

Kittens are growing

The kittens are growing!  They are fast and bouncy and fun!  They chase ping pong balls and feathers and anything that looks like a toy or a game.  They have learned to use the litter box outside and Kaylee is learning how to scoop that!  They get to take turns coming inside for some cuddle time and play time throughout the days.  Mittens will sneak her way inside whenever she can as well. 

There are 3 boys and one girl.  Felix, Covey, & Gravy are the boys.  Rona is the girl. 

Mittens brought her kittens a dead baby bunny 3 times in one week.  She brought it up to the kennel, put it in, and stepped aside for them to eat.  She knew they needed more than just her milk at this point in their growth.  What an amazing motherly instinct.  So it was at this point that we decided to buy kitten food.  We bought some canned food and dry kitten chow and they eat that stuff up!  Some of the kittens are territorial when it comes to food.  One of them, Gravy, would not let any other kittens touch those dead baby bunnies and he would NOT let go when we tried to get it away from him.  Another kitten, Felix, the largest of the bunch, is territorial about his kitten chow.  He puts his paws over the entire container to make it harder for his siblings to get to the food.  And sometimes he will intentionally and forcefully stick his paw in the way of his siblings or on them to stop them from getting a share. 

Its likely that the 3 boys will be heading to the Owen's to join their household.  Madison wants one kitten and Melissa Owen wants 2.  We will see!! They head to the vet in a week to get shots.  This has been so fun for all!

Messy Games 2020

The Lower Elementary at Oak Farm has a tradition at the end of every school year to do Messy Games.  The third graders come up with the game ideas and they go to station after station of messy races and games.  With "homeschool" happening, messy games had to also move to home.  So we participated :-)

Our messy games were compiled by favorites from each kid in our household.

We had raw egg on a spoon races.

Throw the raw egg as high in the air as you can contests

Shaving cream on the head and cheetos throwing

Ice cream sundaes built on top of our heads complete with chocolate syrup and a cherry

Whipped cream in a pie tin shoved into faces

Popcycle sword fighting

Find the bubble gum with your mouth and no hands inside the whipped cream pie on the table

And run around getting more whipped cream on each other and then dipping in the pond to wash off!!

Fun times!!  It will be a "messy games" to remember forever!

Homeschool & e-Learning

We spent about 10 weeks doing homeschool due to the COVID-19. This has been a whirlwind adventure. Oak Farm, being a very hands on learning type of school, had to scramble to figure out a plan of how to function as a school and support the learning from home. It has been difficult on everyones' part. The school created a website that held all the resources for every class and grade level. Each set of teachers put Montessori works onto the site for parents to print off or follow or accomplish online. Many materials needed printed in order to function as a learning work. Many teacher lessons were placed as recorded videos online with follow up work to print. Many "zoom" meetings were scheduled for each class at different times and for different subjects; from middle school all the way down to the toddler classroom. I spent my Sunday evenings going through the upcoming weeks' calendar of zoom meetings and the teachers' lessons and options for work, printing materials and worksheets and other resource materials. 

We created Montessori-like shelving by subject and placed works on the shelves as "choices." Later we rearranged the shelves by child, keeping all that childs' work from all subjects in the same vicinity. Owen had his own cupboard of "works" that I would change up daily. The kids would start the week with a work plan, learning what works were available to them and choosing how they would spend their work cycle. Even Owen got into routine with this "work cycle." He knew everyone was doing "work" and he would go to his cupboard corner and pick out works to do independently. Middle school was very independent and we did not see a lot of Jaxton through all this work cycle stuff. He had his regular middle school classes one after the other all over zoom. Thankfully the middle school curriculum did not have to change much through all of this. 

 This all was very challenging because all the kids would have questions for me or need help with a work, it seemed like constantly. I continually encouraged them to do work that they could do with no help. Often, however, it was rather boredom or loneliness that they wanted to work with me or could not focus without encouragement. Their learning did continue, and we did our best. It was fun to watch them learn things and see their brains working hard. I enjoyed those "aha" moments they each had when a concept clicked or a math solution was found. Or when a book or project was finally complete. I also enjoyed doing "3 period lessons" for Owen and watching his cute eyes light up to learn that when the caterpillar came out of his house, there wasn't all of a sudden a new bug, but he had actually turned into a butterfly! These were special moments. 

 Other special moments included the kids teaching the kids. Kaylee would take the opportunity to work with Nathan on his numbers, cursive, or math work. And she would see Owen getting distracted and create a "name tracing work" for him to do at his table while I was busy with another child. Cooper took Owen on a color scavenger hunt while I was busy with Dawson and he was waiting for me to help him with math. It was a well rounded effort and all of us were involved. 

 We struggled with focus some. And we struggled with not wanting to do work at all. We struggled with choosing a morning work cycle and then switching to an afternoon work cycle. We struggled when the work cycle just didn't work at all. We struggled with fighting, arguing, kids bothering kids. We struggled when I could not find myself a good "teacher" and needed space. We struggled with emotions, frustrations, messy kitchens, lunch and multiple snack times, rainy days being stuck inside, and a constant messy house. 

 We did Cosmic Kids yoga for PE. Yoga as Trolls, Star Wars, Wizard of Oz, and others. We did work with friends virtually over personal zoom meetings. We learned from Mo Willems, the author of Elephant Piggie books, how to doodle, write stories, and make games. We learned about the weather from the Fort Wayne Channel 21 Weatherman who gave us lessons over you tube. We learned many recipes as we did virtual cooking classes with Kids Taste Buds Kitchen. We learned how to draw cartoons using you tube Art Hub and we did art projects over zoom with Grandma in Utah. 

 Boy am I glad this is all over with. School has ended and summer is here. A mix of positive and negative emotions revolving around COVID-19 homeschooling.

Chef Dawson

Dawson is our chef!  He loves to cook. He has been cooking a lot during our homeschool days. He made pretzels from scratch one day using the kids kitchen zoom class. Another day he made a yogurt parfait that looked like a professional! He loves to cook pancakes, eggs and bacon. Whenever I’m cooking he wants to cook right alongside me. He wants to own a restaurant when he grows up and he has named it the fast cookers! Go Dawson!  You have so much potential!

Owen writes his name

Owen was signing Grandma's Mother's Day card and he truly wrote his name the way he understands it.  He made a big circle for the O.  Then he made a zig zag line for his W.  He intentionally made a squiggle for each letter E and N.  I was so impressed!  He is such a sweet and smart boy!

The Friendly Porcupine

This was a story that Dawson wrote that he is so very proud of.  His teacher was brilliant in coming up with this method of story telling.  She broke out the process into several steps.  First, Dawson was to choose creature pictures, cut them out and color them and put them on a popcicle stick.  Then we were to go outside in the trees and grass and play with them.  As we play with them, we come up with a story line of what is happening, making sure that there is a problem our creature has that we can solve for them.  Dawson loved this!  He and Kaylee and Nathan all printed and colored them and played together and naturally there were many "conflicts" for the characters that the kids pretended to solve.  As they played and replayed, Dawson came up with his storyline that he liked best.  We took a picture of each piece of the story with my camera. 

The next step in this process was to write down the "beginning,"  "middle,"  and "end" of the story; the middle portion containing the conflict.  After getting this done, he was to read it over and captialize all the beginning letter of a sentence and all the proper nouns of characters' names.  We had to look for periods at the end of the sentences and change them to questions or exclaimation points as needed.  Last he used some quotation marks in a few places where he noticed his characters were speaking.  After these edits, he separated his story according to the photos we took and wrote the corresponding sentences on a single sheet of lined paper.  Once each of the pieces of the story were written, we added the photo that went with each piece, and his storybook was created!!  

I was so proud of Dawson's hard work on this project, as well as his teacher's efforts to make this fun and exciting.  He worked so hard on this project that we actually printed his book out for him to keep.  Great work D!!

Riley

One day we noticed a kitten that seemed weak and tired.  It worried me a bit.  The next morning we found that kitten had passed away.  We imagine that it was the initial kitten that had been pushed aside on the day of birth.  In researching kittens a mother cat often will reject a kitten that it knows will not survive or a kitten that the mother knows she cannot care for if there are too many.  I believe that Mittens knew from the beginning that this kitten would not make it.  Our "saving" it helped it live for a couple weeks, but Mittens knew all along that it would not survive.  So of course this experience led to discussions of death and why and where and what.  We did not know whether it was a boy or a girl, so the kids named it Riley and we buried it by Bella, our dog.  Rest in peace, Riley.

Egg Salad Sandwiches

The kids made lots of decorated hard boiled eggs for Easter, but of course no one wants to eat them.  So I decided to make egg salad sandwiches for lunch, something new to all the kids.  It was so fun to see how each kid reacted differently to the egg salad sandwich option for lunch.  All were required to take at least 3 bites before choosing something else. 

Child #1 chose to eat his grapes and put the egg sandwich in a baggie in the fridge for later saying that he was "not really hungry."

Child #2 chose to take one bite and then finish lunch later after her classroom zoom online meeting.

Child #3 chose to throw a full out tantrum with screams and cries so loud we couldn't hear each other speak throughout the entire house.

Child #4 chose to eat most of the sandwich and then opened it to lick the insides of the bread till there was no trace of egg salad left.  Egg salad remains were all over his hands and face.

Child #5 chose to grit his teeth and take a bite and then smiled and ate the rest of the sandwich.

Child #6 chose to cautiously take the 3 required bites and then ate a banana to fill his belly so he could have a piece of candy. 

I say that is egg salad success!

Kittens

Our stray cat who comes around all the time because we keep her fed just had kittens on our back porch.  We knew she was pregnant, as no cat could possibly be as fat around her belly as she was.  It seemed like we were waiting and waiting for something to happen; and then one day it did!

One evening she laid on our back patio porch and began to meow loudly. Nate and Jaxton quickly realized what was going on and they recorded it.  She began giving birth on our porch!  As each kitten emerged, she licked that kitten clean and cleaned up all the evidence of birth.  Once 2 were born, we carefully moved the newborn kittens and mom into a small kennel on our porch for safety and shelter.  We let her continue doing her thing as several more kittens emerged.  One small kitten seemed pushed aside and unable to find its way to its mothers' milk.  Even Mittens did not help it find its way over.  She tended to push it further.  It was so strange.  We picked up the kitten carefully and laid it on top of the litter of kittens so it could find a tit for milk.  It found one and stayed put.  We saved it!

By morning, we realized there were 5 kittens in that kennel!  We couldn't believe it.  All afterbirth evidence was gone; just these tiny kittens feeding on their mother.  What a miracle of nature!  It has been so neat to witness this miracle of life!

Easter

Easter was somewhat different this year for more reasons than one.  Easter in Coronavirus isolation is definitely unique for one thing.  No family dinners, no visiting Grandma Great, no visiting anyone, and no going anywhere.  We were just home.  Nate cooked a yummy meal and we did an easter egg hunt outside in our backyard around the pond and property.  We spent time outdoors in the sunshine, rode bikes, played in the sand and with our kittens. 

Easter has brought some new meaning for us too. This springtime has brought more life to our outdoor environment than ever before. Well, maybe we just are noticing it more than ever.  

Dawson found a large spotted turkey egg randomly at the farm amongst all the chicken eggs. 

We have baby birds that chirp from their nest in the ceiling vent of our basement. We hear them every time we are in the craft room/spare bedroom.

We have had baby ducklings following their parents and swimming around in our pond.

We’ve had baby bunnies and baby chipmunks around the yard, some of which have unfortunately been targets for the neighborhood cats.

We’ve had our own litter of kittens be born and have watched them open their eyes for the first time and be cared for so tenderly by their mother.  

All of this new birth and new life has been so fascinating this spring, this the Easter egg has become more alive and meaningful for our family in a real, concrete way. 

Coronavirus Craze

We are making history.  This will be in all the future history books.  The time when the whole entire earth shut down.  Beginning in China, we watched the interactive maps online of the Coronavirus spreading across the planet country by country.  As we anticipated it hitting the United States, all international travel was stopped.  Things began shutting down one after another.  The schools shut down till May 1st with the possibility of not returning till fall.  eLearning has taken over or zoom classroom meetings and homeschool assignments.  Restaurants were ordered closed except for take-out & delivery.  All non-essential businesses were ordered closed.  All outdoor playgrounds and public places like movie theaters and roller skating rinks are closed.  Airlines shut down and credited/refunded tickets.  Beaches were closed and spring break plans squashed.  All nursing homes are on lockdown since the elderly are particularly at risk of catching the virus and developing life threatening pnemonia related illnesses.  Spring soccer, all clubs, sports, Kaylee's gymnastics, all cub scouts and boy scouts everything has been cancelled.  The NBA and March Madness has been cancelled.  The Olympics have been postponed till summertime of 2021.  All churches were ordered to not gather.  Gatherings were ordered by the government to be under 10 people in a place at one time and all people keep a social distance of 6 feet between one another. Surgical masks for the healthcare workers went into a shortage.  People like us began sewing face masks for the healthcare industry to help with this shortage.  Even Kaylee and Jaxton have helped sew.  The government has passed three laws which assist employees who are infected by the virus or must care for a child out of school or family member infected with the virus.  Businesses are receiving tax credits and aid to help during this shut down that is affecting the entire economy. Toilet paper is on a shortage, as are cleaning supplies as everyone in the world is trying to stock up on these essential items last minute.  It is the craziest of times.  Our annual business conference in Las Vegas was cancelled as well as our spring break trip to Destin, Florida.  The kids and I are isolated at home trying to keep busy and find things to do this week, which is our spring break.  When school starts up next week we will be trying to homeschool according to the teachers' instructions and direction and through zoom online meetings.  Nate is navigating our 40 employees and their various needs and desires during this crazy uncertain and germy time.

Never before has the world been so shut down.  Never before have we all been in such isolation and afraid to give a high five or a hug.  Never before have we not been allowed to visit grandparents or family members like this. 

China is recovering while the United States is currently at its peak.  But we will recover.  It will take some time, but things will return to normal in a few months.  This is a time that we will all remember, the year 2020, the uncertainty of the world...

Hearts in the Window

The coronavirus has caused a lock down in most all nursing homes and long term care facilities.  Grandma Great Martha and Great Aunt Marion are in the Lutheran Life Villages in Kendallville.  We miss going to see them on Sundays and were planning to take shamrocks to hand out to the old folks, but with the lock down we couldn't do that.  Instead, we decided to join the "hearts in the window" for the Coronavirus and put paper hearts all over their outside window.  It was a joy to see these sweet old ladies, but somewhat sad to realize that we could not hug them or sit with them.  They put their hands on the window and we did the same and we talked briefly through the window.  The kids will remember this experience more than Grandma Great, but we still hope that we brought joy to these ladies today.  

Kauai Luau - February 6

We couldn't come to Kauai without seeing a real live luau.  We found one with great reviews and it turned out to be one of the great highlights of our time on the island.  The Smith Family Luau.  The Smith Family has been tilling their land for generations, and have beautified their space with every type of flower, tree, and vegetation that is natural to the island of Hawaii.

Kauai Trip Day 5 - February 6

Princeville Resort is utterly beautiful.  We are surrounded by the magestic mountains of nature.  We woke up to a breezy morning with fog settling on the mountain and the waterfalls ebbing and flowing with the nights' rainfall right before our eyes.  We began our day eating a fancy breakfast buffet out on the balcony overlooking Hanalei Bay.  Birds were chirping and flying onto our table.  It was chilly but crisp and perfect sweatshirt weather.  After a slow morning we went down to explore the beaches below the resort.  Nate spent time with his sharpie drawings relaxing on a lawn chair listening to the beach waves, while I read my book next to him.  We enjoyed the sand in our toes and the breeze in our hair.  We ventured along the coast through Hanalei Bay.  We had to hike over and under tree roots all along the edge of the jungle beach shore.  We remembered doing this same hike along the coast as newlyweds.  We also remember swimming across the river that feeds Hanalei Bay.  Looking at that river today it seemed so incredibly dangerous.  It could sweep us out to see or under the current so easy.  Maybe the current and tide is up with this rainy weather, or maybe the river has changed over the last 15 years.  We decided not to attempt that swim this time. 

Kauai Day Four - February 5

Day Four of Kauai happened to be a rainy one.  But the rain is what keeps this island greener than green.  So that made it ok.  We began with some exercise and our breakfast buffet.  Then we enjoyed a nice drive around the island.  Lots of traffic, but great scenery as we got to experience the coast all the way around.  During our drive we decided to catch up on Hawaiian history and culture to better understand the place we were experiencing.  We began to learn about the Hawaiian Queen and how the US unrightfully took her power and overthrew the Hawaiian government.  The Hawaiian Islands were essentially taken over wrongfully.  It was a fascinating story full of corruption.  It sounds like a few years back President Clinton apologized officially to the Hawaiians for this wrongful takeover and attempted to give soveriegn land back to the Hawaiians.  It became a very messy story, but fascinating.

We stopped at the Bistro Lighthouse for dinner in Kaleuea, a town full of history.  We studied the history of this town, which began with Hawaiians on a sugar plantation.  They sought laborers from all countries, including China, Japan, Polynesia, Guam, and many others.  It became a hodgepodge of cultures all mixed together with the Hawaiians.  The Queen came to Kaleuea and honorably hammered in the first stake of the new railroad.  It is an important town.

After dinner, we headed up to Princeville Resort, the same resort we stayed at on our Honeymoon fifteen years earlier.  It looked the same but different.  We were young and inexperienced and likely did not take the time to notice much.  There is so much to see and notice now!

Kauai Day Three - February 4

Day Three in Kauai began with some great exercise classes at the Grand Hyatt Fitness Center.  Nate enjoyed his Pentonx Bike Virtual classes and I enjoyed Zumba and Barre like never before.  The dancing was so much fun and knowing that I would never see any of those people again, I danced my heart out with little worry. It was great to just let myself go and enjoy the music and flow with it.  Afterward, the Hawaiian instructor asked me if I had done much Zumba and I told her no.  She suggested that I should look  into becoming an instructor because I was so good.  What a confidence boost!  I plan to take more classes at the Y and maybe look into becoming an instructor one day!

Following our exercise, we enjoyed another buffet breakfast and then headed out to the pool.  We spent most of the day at the pool, with fun beverages and sunshine.  The pool had a waterslide and lazy river that we enjoyed much!  We made some friends, Bea and Bill, who were on their honeymoon and spent several hours talking and hanging out and sharing stories at the pool.

Following our pool time, we got showered and headed out to explore Waimea Canyon, apparently the second largest Grand Canyon in the United States.  Could something like that possibly fit on a little island in the middle of the Pacific?  We took a side highway up the canyon, and every lookout that we stopped at was less than fascinating.  We began to wonder if this really was worth the trip.  Finally, the side highway connected with the main canyon highway.  We almost turned around to head back south, but decided to go up north up the canyon a little further.  We made it to a large lookout point with a parking lot and signs.  As we headed up the stairs to the lookout we were overcome with amazement.  The most beautiful scene was before us.  The most magnificent green mountains huge stood before us with the largest and deepest valley below.  An amazing landmark that we almost missed!  The beauty of this earth is beyond amazement and miraculous.

Kauai Day Two - February 3

Day two of our fantastic trip we were awake early to watch the sun rise over the water.  The most beautiful morning.  We could see the stars so clearly in the sky as the dark transformed lighter and lighter into day.  The miracle of this earth is fascinating.  We enjoyed a late morning breakfast buffet and spent the day out on the beach.  The waves were super strong and massive, almost dangerous.  It was a lot of fun to jump the waves and try to ride them before they crashed.  If you missed the right moment, the waves would grab hold of you and shove you up the beach.  I got water up my nose several times as the waves swooped me off my feet.  But oh so fun!  The beach is my happy place, no doubt.  We just spent time reading and relaxing out in the sun.  There is a saltwater lagoon that we spent time in afterward to wash off the sand that was stuck everywhere.  Refreshing!

For dinner we went out to Paco's Tacos over by a golf course overlooking the sea.  Fantastic food, great ambiance and a live Hawaiian singer with his guitar and ukulele.

Anniversary Trip to Kauai - February 2

It's happening!  We are headed to Kauai!  After 15 years, we are headed back to the place we called our honeymoon :-).  The kids are all situated.  We have Kaylee, Nathan, and Owen staying at Grandma's house in Kendallville.  We have Jaxton with Mike & Kim Routsong and cousins.  Cooper is staying with Jordan & Lauren; and Dawson is staying with Melissa & John Owen and Jace.  They have school all week, so we are hoping things are not too complicated for those they are staying with.  Hopefully no one gets sick or there are not snow days :-).

We got the three sent to Grandma's Saturday night.  We left early, around 3:30am, and left the other 3 sleeping at home.  They will be picked up by their respective relatives throughout the morning.  We flew from Fort Wayne to Charlotte, and then to Phoenix where we caught a quick bite to eat at the AMEX Centurion Lounge.  From Phoenix we headed straight to Lihue, Kauai and landed around 3pm Hawaii time, 5 hours earlier than Indiana.

The plane ride was long and sleepy, but here we are!  We were greeted by roosters and chickens everywhere we looked :-).  Apparently they are protected here.  We also enjoyed a silver convertible to enjoy in the sun.  We headed to our hotel, the Grand Hyatt located at Poipu on Shipwreck Beach.  A beautiful place to relax and regroup.

Day 1 we ate dinner at the Tidepools Restaurant which is located surrounded by tidepools and large fish.  We were right on the water.  Food was just alright, and overpriced, but the ambiance was fantastic.  Glad to be here with Nate and to try to relax our minds from out normal craziness.