When November began, we were still in quarantine, and now that Halloween was over, I could finally rest, and it was glorious! This virus just zaps all your energy and sometimes even your breath. Literally.
The kids stayed in quarantine for most of November. They got pretty good at getting their assignments done first thing in the morning.
I tried to inspire the kids to do some Halloween crafts to make up for their lack of parties. Here are some, finally captured for posterity in November.
Rachel lost another tooth and left this cute note for the tooth fairy:
We passed this rocking chair off to a new family who is expecting their first baby. It felt good to let it go.
Cal and Charlie came for a visit.
I felt the need to model Michael's helmet that he made out of paper mache. Clearly quarantine was getting to me.
We watched Stake Conference on Zoom. The broadcast was terrible, so we couldn't hear what the speakers were saying. We tried though. We really tried.
Michael left this sweet note for Rachel.
Before Lea and Shayne went to Hawaii, we got together for games, maybe dinner too. I don't remember. I do remember that it was a lot of fun.
We got our first snowfall of the winter.
This amount of snow was a big difference from Saratoga Springs, and we wondered what kind of winter we'd be in for.
One of the good things about this whole pandemic has been the ability to watch events virtually, so we've been able to attend things we wouldn't otherwise be able to. This meant that the kids could watch one of Papa's concerts, since we normally can't take them with us when we go.
Did you know that Rachel sleep walks? Sometimes, we can't help but laugh when she makes her nightly wandering, like this time when she put her dress on over top of her nightgown.
She clearly is not awake, but she talks to us like she is.
Rachel continues to have lots of creativity when it comes to writing and creating games. Here was her November masterpiece.
I took a senior portrait mini course.
We vacuumed our rugs and places where Harvey peed on our carpet during his visit. The rugs really needed it, so I guess it was good Harvey gave us the push to do it.
Gracie started to question her place in our home.
(Totally kidding. She just looks so unsure in this photo.)
Here's Gabe waiting for someone, or just watching something.
Sweet Gabe.
My backyard neighbor has a little boy the same age as Gabe. We laugh at the shoes that are left at each other's houses, as well as the coats and mittens. They're always roaming around, often without a coat or shoes. My neighbor and I laugh at them, and she says, "They're like wild animals!" Here's the proof:
But, when you throw a suit on one of those wild boys, he is so sweet and reverent, coloring carefully while (hopefully) listening to the speakers in our Church Zoom broadcast.
It's a blessing to still have sacrament meeting, even if it's over zoom.
We had some beautiful sunsets in November.
And there was some pantry raiding.
After recovering from Covid, we felt pretty invincible, and we were ready to go out and help where others couldn't. This led me to take my first classroom sub position at the local middle school teaching classes that related to what I studied in college. This is also the school where Lea used to work, so I took this picture for her while I was there.
By mid-November, the kids finally got to go back to school, and we finally put the puzzle together that our neighbors gave us.
Things really started looking up around here.
But, Rachel made these reminders for us all to stay happy.
Morale improved. We made muddy buddies (those two thoughts might be related).
We discovered that Rachel has the ability to ignore everything if she finds a good book, like the one she got at the book fair.
After laughing that I couldn't get her attention, and taking multiple pictures with her in the reading zone, I finally got her to look up.
As for this picture below, I don't know, but I was glad they were having a good time. 3 weeks is a long time to be stuck in the house!
We got a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, and they were kind of missing the cheese. It was bizarre, but I suppose it made sense for the kind of year we've all been having.
Harvey joined us for a week and a half or something like that. The kids enjoyed having another dog in the house.
We continued having our church lessons at home.
We kept reading together, and by the end of the month, we busted out our Christmas books.
We started the month feeling exhausted for no reason and ended the month being exhausted from working hard on our cabinets, which was exhilarating and satisfying. Yay for a return to health and projects!
