Made blueberry pies for Independence Day...a lot of overflowing blueberry juice...opened the door to see actual flames shooting up from the back of the oven, also catching the drip pan above on fire. That’s a first for me. Burning stuff is a running joke in our family, but I've never had a fire in the oven! All is fine now. Hope these pies end up being worth it!
At the little Bentonville Airport, a flyover was arranged in support of all the healthcare workers. Emergency personnel like police and firefighters also lined their vehicles along the street with lights on. There were some cool planes, and Brendan got some great photos.
The most recent advice is that everyone should wear masks anytime they are around other people to help stop the transmission of COVID, since scientists believe that it is spread through air born particles. Disposable masks are very expensive, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control says that a double layer fabric mask will help, so I found a YouTube tutorial on mask making, dusted off my sewing skills, and made masks for each person in our family. I had fabric on hand, but no elastic and most elastic is sold out, so I had to improvise using hair bands. Emily looks cute; I look like I'm about to rob a bank...
Emily's school is trying to come up with things the kids can do and post online to make it seem a little like they're still part of school. This week was spirit week and Emily really enjoyed dressing up each day!
Day 1: 'Merica Monday
Day 2: Team Tuesday
Day 3: We Will Rock You Wednesday
Day 4: Throwback Thursday (pick an era - Emily is Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly)
Day 5: Favorite Time of Year Friday (Emily chose Valentine's Day)
Much of the world may be shut down, but we can still celebrate at home! Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020:
Today we got an email from the school district saying that schools would be closed as of this week due to the pandemic. Steve's school's last day in person was Thursday, so Steve will be home with the kids while they switch to virtual learning. We have been hearing about COVID 19 since late 2019. It was first identified in China and has been spreading throughout the world. Last week, we saw reports that Little Rock was seeing a high number of cases, which made us nervous since we had just been to the zoo there. Fortunately, none of us seem to have caught it.
From Wikipedia:
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified in an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Attempts to contain it there failed, allowing the virus to spread to other areas of Asia and later worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
Happily, even though indoor activities have been shut down, we are still free to enjoy the outdoors!
Brendan qualified for the state math counts contest! Math counts is for kids in 6th - 8th grade. He had a good time participating, and the speed round was really exciting to watch.
We made a mini-vacation out of our visit to Little Rock, and stayed overnight at a hotel. I chose the hotel specifically because it had an indoor swimming pool. Unfortunately for us, they had a heater problem and the pool was closed. Also, the internet was down in the whole city, so of course our hotel didn't have the free wifi they advertised either. The kids were REALLY disappointed about the pool. I wish I had known in advance - I would certainly have chosen a different hotel! Oh well, the next day we had decided to visit the zoo, so between math counts and that, the trip was still a success!
Brendan took some amazing pictures at the zoo. We sent them in a Facebook message to the Zoo and they even published them on their Facebook page with a shoutout to him!
