We Made It!

Unfortunately, the last day of school did NOT go as smoothly as anticipated.  The internet on the tablet went out at the most unfortunate time, kicking Ethan off from his break out room session.  It took me over an hour trying to get him back on and couldn't thus he missed his two live sessions.  He was crying, I was crying.  It was awful.  Finally, we were able to get a new link from the admin only for him to log on the last 10 minutes before everyone left.  Thankfully, his teacher has lunch bunch afterwards and he was able to get his closure then.  Oh my word.  I love technology when everything is working as it is supposed to.  But when it doesn't, it's just so stressful...especially on the last day of school.  By golly, resilient we will be!

So proud of them!!

Monkey Bread for the win!

On Friday, CES put on a parade at school where we could drive through the parking lot to see the teachers and say our good-byes.  I was so touched by this sweet gesture that I ended up getting teary seeing everyone.  Hey, maybe I needed this closure as much as the boys do, if not more.  It has been the most whirlwind three months ever and I am so GLAD it is finally over!  Now switching gears and onto summer while I figured out what we're doing.

Our last Happy Friday - homemade Turtle Sundae

For the rest of the weekend, the boys spent the nights sleeping in the brand new tent that we bought.  

It's like a giant fort really!

Happy Friday 5.05

Wendy's failed us but Sonic came through

Happy Friday 5.22

Poison Ivy

So apparently, Gavin came home from WV with this on his fingers:

At first, I didn't realized what it was and simply thought they were bug bites so I just used anti-itch cream.  His face was also red, but I just chalked it up as the boys playing a little too rough and Gavin got whacked in the face.  But by Wednesday, when he was looking like this:

it had dawned on me that it might be something else.  I remembered our friend, Jenn mentioning something about clearing out a lot of poison ivy on their property and that their kids would get it all the time.  So I texted her those pictures and she confirmed it was indeed poison ivy.

The story from what I can gather was that Gavin had picked up a stick while there not realizing that it had poison ivy vine on it.  At some point he had an itch on his face and proceed to scratch it with his infected hand.  So that was how it spread onto his face.  By Thursday, he woke up looking like this:

Poor guy!

I was going to ride it out with just calamine lotion, but Jenn suggested I get the Technu Poison Ivy & Oak Scrub.  This stuff is amazing I couldn't believe it!  His face had cleared up for the most part and now I'm hoping his fingers will too. 

Happy Friday 5.15

Takis for the road

A Day Full of Surprises

1st surprise: a special delivery on my front door 

2nd surprise: this surprise Mother's Day video - both from our church

I was so touched by what the boys said and I feel so honored that I get to be your mom!  I also got the sweetest text from a friend who used to be in our old small group:

Watching your kiddos say how much they love you (and your food, Kay) and I just want to say I'm super thankful for many things about you, but I very much appreciate that I get to see you being a great mom! And although I'm not a mom yet, I have loved learning from you and watching how you love your family. I am thankful for you! Happy Mother's Day!

So thankful for God's continual love and wisdom through the years in guiding me to be a mamma to our boys!

 3rd surprise: flowers and Starbucks from Brian; beautiful cards from Ethan + Gavin

4th surprise: warmer weather than expected so we hit the trail

05/10  Another section of W&OD - 9 miles

05/02  Capital Crescent Trail - 10 miles

04/25  04/25  Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail (W&OD) - 9 miles

04/24  Our house to the Blounts' house - 6 miles

04/19  Cub Run Trail System - 5 miles

Total:39 miles

Dinner from Chili's (not a surprise) picnic style in the back of the car (5th spontaneous surprise) - Hey whatever works!

Lastly, a special shout out to our moms for all the love and sacrifices they have given us and still do to this day.  We love you!!

Happy Friday 5.08

Today they get to choose where they wanted their treats from:

Oreo cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory

Slurpee from 7-11

Here's to another great week.  Good job boys!

Happy Friday 5.01

What's better than sweet tea from McAlister's Deli?  

FREE sweet tea from McAlister's Deli!

They were giving away sweet tea today to everyone as a toast to our hometown heroes.  Well thank you and Happy Friday!

Hard at Work

School has been somewhat challenging this week.  The boys are tired, bored and have lost the initial enthusiasm for distance learning which I don't blame them.  I'm feeling pretty much the same way.  But I'm trying hard to motivate them...and bribe Gavin with candy.

Despite all that, they are still working hard and here are some of their recent work:

• Gavin's online book:

https://app.bookcreator.com/library/-M4Lb-j4zoDGR4YHtxJ9/lcwxWVELExclNsP7DBRwK23MxII2/8cY33uVZR1KMdUnzHSxPcA/pNoP2-HCQ0Su4LB4zIyT_Q

• Gavin's acrostic poem:

Shoot hard!

Oh my, that was a long game!

Cold day, hot day you still play

Crowds cheer for you.

Extremely awesome.
Rush to the ball!

• Ethan's acrostic poem:

Sunshine

Peace

Rainbows  

In the rain 

Nothing but flowers

Green grass

• Ethan was selected by his teacher and was featured as CES's Weekly Soaring Eagles 5^th Grade today:

Ethan B. – always has a positive attitude in class and has done extra, optional assignments such as Earth Day Acrostic Poem Activity.  Great job, Ethan!
http://www.viewpure.com/XKDXaG4eGq0?start=0&end=0 (2:20)

Boys Day Out

Brian took Ethan and Gavin biking so I could have a quiet house to myself and for that,  I am SO thankful.

We're going to start keeping track of all our biking trips:

04/25  Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail (W&OD) - 9 miles

04/24  Our house to the Blounts' house - 6 miles

04/19  Cub Run Trail System - 5 miles

Total:20 miles

Happy Early Earth Day

*They were featured on the school news this morning
http://www.viewpure.com/CMtsCg7eqQM?start=0&end=0 (0:45)

I woke up this morning feeling super tired and unmotivated.  Couple that with the fact that Fairfax County Public School (the 2nd largest public school system in the country) is having more issues with their distance learning and cancelling all live classes the rest of the week, I decided we're going to do Legos this morning.  That was our "creative time."

We're trying to be flexible and patient through all the learning curves as the school system tries to figure out the security issues for the teacher-led virtual instruction and at the same time be able to support the traffic of 189,000 students all logging on at the same time.  Apparently after day 1, they came up with a patch that was installed last week only to find out this week it didn't work like they had hoped.  So I guess they're scrapping the whole thing and is now looking for a new system altogether.  Who knows.  I feel terrible for the teachers who are trying to figure this all out only for it to change on a daily basis.  I do appreciate that they're trying to keep parents informed with what's going on, but at the same time, it's hard not to feel overwhelmed with ALL the texts and emails from FCPS, our principal, and the boys' teachers that come through multiple times a day.   

Anyway, the boys continued their morning routine as usual as I stepped outside to get some fresh air.  That's when I realized it's a really beautiful day today.  So on a whim, I told the boys that we're going to bike to a nearby trail and pick up trash.  Like.right.now.  And so off we went!

 Ethan's new gloves

 Gavin using the new trash picker upper

Beautifying Centreville one spot at a time!

Hand Washing

Since Ethan and Gavin are visual learners, I thought this video on hand washing was super helpful!

Happy Friday 4.17

I try to celebrate our success each week with a Friday treat...as a motivation and something we can look forward to.  So far we've gotten:

-smoothies from Tropical Smoothie Cafe

-lunch from Chick-Fil-A

This Friday treat is an Oreo shake from Pot Belly!

Distance Learning

Day 1 of distance learning has begun and we're off with a good start!  Gavin woke up a little tired because his sleep routine is all messed up.  For some reason, he's struggling to fall asleep at night again so we'll have to try to figure something out.  

Since some of their live teachings coincided, we had to split the devices for them to use in different rooms.  I typed out schedules for each of them so we know who needs to be where and on what devices.  Thankfully Brian has a spare work lap top for us to borrow.  Otherwise I'm not sure we would be able to do this only on the tablet!  

All in all, I thought the boys did really well!  I had to tweak the recommended schedules and decide to scrap science and specials (PE, Art, Music, etc.) because it was too much for them.  Instead I implemented part of our COVID-19 schedules in the afternoon so they're doing the same thing at the same time (like Quiet Time).  That seemed to work out so much better!

I'm also thankful for Centreville Elementary School's principals and teachers who are dedicated to making this experience educational, fun and memorable for the students.  I'm learning that, for all of this is more than distance learning but also opportunity for character building - being flexible and resilience, having patience with each other, having patience with technology, problem solving skills.

Never thought of it this way, but Mr. Douds, our principal sent us this email:

Today is a historic day for the FCPS Educational system and CES.  We often talk to our students about history and ask them to imagine what it would be like to be a student during those times.  Well, we are truly creating living history today and the next nine weeks.  Distance learning and the COVID-19 pandemic will be discussed for generations.

Who would have thought!

Saving Grace

The outdoors and take out have been our saving grace lately!  

Brian recently bought a hitch and a bike rack for the Pilot so we could haul Ethan's and Gavin's bikes with us as we hit the trails.  Now we just need to get bikes for ourselves so we could keep up with the boys.  Today we revisit an old trail at Thaiss Park where we used to go walking when we lived in Fairfax City.  A fun trail that I totally forgot about.  We'll definitely be back!

Flash back to 2012 - oh my, how little they were!

Switching It Up

I've been trying to switch things up around here so it's not so mundane:

Friday: forego all school work and had a movie day
Monday: forego all school work and made cards
Today: a facial with "spa" music in the background

 followed by outside time after lunch instead of in the late afternoon.

The boys wanted to go back to the creek and do a little bit more cleanup.

God is Bigger Than the Air I Breathe...

I got through the week just fine only for Friday to come and then I hit a slump of depression.  Two weeks down, now how many more to go?  Ugh, I don't want to do this anymore.  I enjoy family time, but being at home all together 24/7 makes me feel a little claustrophobic.  Thankfully by Sunday, I realized the need to be alone so I decided to go for a walk BY MYSELF and journal my thoughts.  That helped a lot and I returned home more sane.  That afternoon we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to the Great Falls for a hike.  Another needed breathe of fresh air!

Here is our Monday morning STEM activity:

Then this afternoon I took the boys to pick up miscellaneous trash at our HOA tennis court and the school playground.  They biked there and then walked around - got out, got their exercise, enjoyed the day and now we have a cleaner school.  That's a win-win in my book!  And all that was inspired by Ethan and Gavin's lead effort (with Brian's help) in clearing a gigantic log and unclogging our neighborhood streams a few days prior.  Way to make it happen, Billman Boys!

Unfortunately, we got home to learn that Virginia is now under the "stay-at-home" order as of April 1st.  I tried not to panic, but it sure was another blow to my already downcast spirit.  The Holy Spirit brought this song to mind and I just let the Truth of it washed over me.

I can't perfectly keep my eyes on the Lord everything single moment, but I don't know if He's asking me to.  What I'm doing though (or at least trying) is to continually coming back to His Truth and clinging onto those promises!

Centreville Elementary School Virtual Spirit Week

Pictures that we sent in:

Reading Day

PJ Day

Sports Day

CES Day

...Thriving

I remembered a friend who was homeschooling her children (at the time) sharing that homeschooling isn't about school but actually learning to love each other while being together 24/7.  And that isn't easy.  How true is that right now.  I'm surrendering to how God wants to use me in this very unique opportunity to disciple our boys in ways I wouldn't have otherwise.

This is what we've been doing lately:
-a devotion every morning with the boys and memorizing scriptures together
-learning life skills (how to use a knife, prepare our own lunch, cooking and baking, etc.)
-thinking of ways to serve others (making cards for the elderly)
-finally got a Facebook account so the boys can virtually connect with events happening at school (like FB Live reading)
-letting the boys figure things out on their own without swooping in too soon...even if it means they fail
-virtually meeting through Zoom for church, small group, and BSF
-working on loving/guiding them instead of over disciplining (especially when it isn't necessary)
-working on being flexible to what is working and what isn't and adapting each day
-truly relying on God's strength
-blogging again =0)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We celebrated in the morning with a fun "Find the Shamrocks" around the house.  Then ended the day with sipping on McDonald's Shamrock Shake sitting on the porch.

And can't forget it is also our 8th year Anniversary of moving to Virginia!  I can't believe we've been living here longer than in Iowa now.