Catch Up #1: Continuing to find ways to entertain ourselves

Ooof.  I guess it has been a while!  Distance learning (or, more accurately for me, distance teaching) took up more time than I anticipated.  And as we adjusted to quarantine living, our “new normal” became, well, normal—so much so that I forgot I should be documenting this time in history.

While I am going to (hopefully) post a few things from the last month, we are right now experiencing quite a loosening of quarantine rules.  This began on April 17 and continued as VT didn’t quite see a spike in cases.  While so far, things seem to be going well (and I actually went INSIDE a store for the first time in two months), I am right there with Health Commissioner Mark Levine that we need to be careful of complacency.

While we have been getting out more, and there may be some kids’ activities starting up, we have still had to be creative to stay entertained.  I am going to steal from Facebook for this example:

My kids aren’t particularly compatible when it comes to playing outside, so we created a game that combines creativity and athleticism. It is a badminton/volleyball/tennis/racquetball mashup. But here’s the kicker: Anyone who was 5 points ahead received a new racquet, including (but not limited to) a crock, a sprinkler, and a yoga ball. Both players received a new racquet if there was a 10-10 tie. Feel free to suggest a name for this game. It was a huge hit!

We even had a tournament with friends, complete with a winners bracket and a consolation round. There were even prizes that were given away Yankee Swap style. While rules were loosening at this point, I still made everyone sanitize their hands and the ball all the time!

Oh, and we also joined the puzzle craze: