Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2020 April

A couple days ago, the California governor announced that schools will not reopen this school year, and we’ll be doing online learning for another two months. We’ve been enjoying spring break, but hopefully it will be nice to get back to the new normal.

Arthur just gave me a math problem. There’s six people and then we buyed a dog. How many people do we have now?

Three years ago (three years ago) when decluttering, I put away all my silverware except ten of each. I think I even got rid of it the next year. Because I never needed it. Until now. With six people eating at least three meals a day at home, we’re definitely going through silverware and plates. Plus John has been cooking real food for breakfast a lot.

Three years ago (three years ago) when decluttering, I put away all my silverware except ten of each. I think I even got rid of it the next year. Because I never needed it. Until now. With six people eating at least three meals a day at home, we’re definitely going through silverware and plates. Plus John has been cooking real food for breakfast a lot.

I started doing something I saw on Instagram, where you pick three things to accomplish each day. Some people are using quarantine to start enormous projects, but I have significantly less time these days. But I also want to make sure I keep exercising, keep on top of the housework, and have fun. So my three things are one each of those.

Today: Pilates, wash towels, dye Easter eggs. Success.

I also found that I have to plan what exercise I’m going to do, or it doesn’t happen.

We weren’t able to host our annual flashlight egg hunt this year. Despite, quarantine, it was pouring rain all week, so even my social distancing ideas didn’t work out. We did a hunt in the house after dark, and I gave away most of the dozens of prizes I had already bought.

Tonight I realized we don’t hear the Disneyland fireworks every night at 9:40 anymore. (Obviously.) And also no cars.

The lack of traffic is astonishing. And the clearing of the pollution all over the world. It makes me wonder if Mother Earth is just saying “stay home and enjoy your families, and let me breathe.

One of the highlights of getting a dog is listening to Dalton use his baby voice to talk to him.

Wally is a great dog. He is so shy that he spent the first three weeks mostly hanging out on Maggie’s bed, and still prefers to hide out there. But he’s started following us around the house a little and begging for car rides and sitting under the table while we eat.

I noticed he came downstairs while I was cleaning up after dinner.
Me: Good thing we don’t have to worry about Way eating that goldfish (cracker on the floor).
*walks over to the sink and back*
Wally: *Eats goldfish cracker as I’m turning around*
Me: Huh.

Today we took the family on a walk around north lake in Woodbridge. John and I used to walk around this lake when we lived in Costa Mesa. When Maggie was a baby, and now she bikes by it every day on her way to school. (If school were still a thing). She was in her element, showing us the difference between the 18 adolescent Egyptian geese, who were babies last time she was here, and the adults, and pointing out other types of birds, and baby rabbits, and goose eggs, and turtles. It was a fun walk. Wally also enjoyed it. It was crowded, but there were fewer bikes than I expected.

I just took something out to the car and when I opened the door, Dalton waved to me from the backseat. “Just getting some alone time,” he said with a smile.

Today we headed to the beach as soon as everyone woke up. Dog hours are only until 10, and it was supposed to be hot and crowded. When we got there, before 8:00, it was still foggy and some people thought it was too cold. Dalton latched onto a half-dig hole, and I was enjoying the beach, but we left after 20 minutes to do a paved trail in Laguna instead. Except after we drove there we realized all trails in Laguna are closed. So then we drove home. After that enormous time in the car, we changed and walked a bit of our trail, except further from our house. It was a nice walk with a tunnel and lots of trees.

Also today, we did the drive through farmers market at the Great Park. It took nearly an hour and we spent $125. We got oranges, strawberries, eggs, kettle corn, empanadas and chimichurri, tamales, dog treats, beef jerky, and hummus and pita. Yum!