Need I say more? Week Six was an adventure and by far the toughest one (for me). We had lots of run-ins and redirects, and my patience was (is?) clearly wearing thin.

Though I love people (especially my family), I’m a person who needs some space, and one thing blatantly missing lately is space. I don’t mean just physical space per se but more importantly mental space, and I’ve done a bad job of finding that. Doesn’t help that “kids will be kids”…

Let me share an example. As a pop quiz (like Zoe’s 2-month mission project being due in 2 days last week), we found out on Wednesday morning as we were pulling together our schedule for the day that Zoe:

• had her final music concert on that day at 2:45 pm
• had until end of day to record 4 songs on 4 different videos and send them in

Right. Let’s be clear: Since Zoe started taking weekly music lessons at school on January 30 she has played maybe 3 notes on her flute at home. Now you may be thinking that’s a failure on the part of her parents. You’d be right. But what better time to find you have a tight deadline to achieve the seemingly impossible than at the start of a busy day?

Anyway, as luck would have it, Zoe’s lack of home practice apparently didn’t prevent her from learning things during her music classes. How many times do I have to learn that my daughter is quite talented – especially when music is involved?

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The coolest part was how their music teachers captured the “concert”. All the kids got on one Zoom call and “played” (remember they had submitted those videos in advance) to get a recording of them all in one room together. Then the adults worked magic to weave together all their sounds into ONE performance! Though the video won’t be up here for long, you can see their concert here.

And here’s a picture of Zoe “playing” with the rest of her class:

Last week was also the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and what a perfect time to “use and reuse”! The LA Sierra Club had some activities for kids, including a Comics Drawing class with Lauren Davis, contributing author of Debian Perl: Digital Detective, which I had never heard of but drawing sounded fun!

Here’s what happened with that. Zoe quickly drew a character based on some brief instruction then watched the teacher the rest of the time:

Meanwhile, Ella started and stopped two drawings, also based on instruction, then decided she didn’t like what she was being told to draw and drew this instead:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM THE ARTIST: I drew the people bigger than the house to show how far away they were from home. That’s “Dad” and “Baby Joey” in the window; “Mom” is thinking of how Lovey might make some new friends on their walk; and “Lovey” is thinking about how she could win any game ever. (To clarify, Ella assured me that ANY game is board game, iPad game, whatever. Take that.)

Also on Earth Day, we attempted a few craft projects. First, Zoe tried to make a beehive out of a half gallon milk carton. No go. Then she tried to make a pan flute out of straws. Glue issue, no go. Then she decided to make an abacus with a square of cardboard, 20 nails, some leftover wire and beads. She finished MOST of it, then left it with pointy nails up on the floor of her room, and we agreed to recycle it, in the spirit of Earth Day.

Ella made a birdie house out of a quart carton, straws and colorful tape, adding sesame seeds for bird food and tying it in a tree with a pink string (and Daddy’s help):

I think everyone gets an A for Earth Day Effort! We have a TON more coronavirus saved craft materials (toilet paper and paper towel rolls, egg cartons, etc), so for any of you who know of great craft resources (I am not crafty), please share!

And speaking of Ella and Effort, she also whipped up this little drawing for one of her SeeSaw school activities that asked her to share what she missed about school:

That’s her bestie Isla and as she pointed out for the teacher, two broken hearts for how much they miss one another because the can’t be together. I miss my frienbs, too, Ella.

Zoe hosted her first Happy Hour on Friday for her friends, introducing some of her school friends to a new friend. To make it fun she picked a “FAB” virtual Zoom background with rainbows and created a scavenger hunt! She took the “party” from room to room to find clues that ended with a stuffed pink rabbit.

Then (and I highly recommend this) as they were falling into “chat” time, I handed over a box of Ungame cards, a conversation game with a kid version that has prompter questions. Not that I was eavesdropping (I totally was), but it was so cool to hear them answer questions like “Tell me about a time you needed help.” or “If you had a lot of money what would you do with it?” or “What famous person would you like to have for a friend and why?” After the party I asked her what her favorite part was and she said, “The Ungame”. Score one for Mom.

By Friday it was 94 degrees here in LA. Yes, ninety four – and similar on Saturday and Sunday. It would be so amazing to have a pool right about now. You know what – let me catch myself there and be THANKFUL to have this one:

Yep, that was our first ever Saturday night backyard pool party, courtesy of Zoe & Ella, which my mom joined by FaceTime (thanks, Nina!). We had an “Ocean” theme and even got a Zoe singing performance out of it! Not sure what the cones were supposed to be for, but thankfully no one mentioned them; however, the girls set up all the rest, and it was nice to have a change of venue. Note: We vetoed the “swimsuits required” part (and before you ask, we did NOT skinny dip).

I spent this morning doing our weekly coronavirus deep clean and disinfection of the house. You may think that’s crazy, since we rarely LEAVE the house, but I’m just that person. Meanwhile Bart took the girls on a bike ride, which apparently didn’t last long because even at 8:00 am it was already hot. So they went for a drive. Guess what they came home with? Donuts. Just what we need in the carb-filled home we’ve created over the past 6 weeks (they were delicious). Yes, we are WAY off the Keto. Maybe next week.

Tonight we are having our first ever virtual book club with an awesome group of friends on Zoom (or is it frienbs?). We also had our own Happy Hour on Friday night with friends we don’t see very often – and a drive-by socially distanced hello from our friends Holly & Panda today with their cutie pie daughter. So overall, we are extremely fortunate for our health and to have so many incredible people in our lives – even at a distance.

Even if Week Six was a tough one, as I read back over this post, I feel like maybe some really great things came out of it – and I should focus on that. Stay safe, and take it from someone who forgets often (me): Remember to be grateful.

Let’s wrap with what Ella would bring with her to a deserted island, because in a way, aren’t we all on deserted islands?

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