Peaceful Day

We had zero drama yesterday. Thank you, Lord! I let Nadia sleep in since she was up later than usual last night. While she ate her breakfast and Ian did a puzzle, we listened to more of Pay Attention, Carter Jones. Shortly after that we went for a walk. All three kids played at the playground for the first time this year. We were the only people at the playground this morning. The boys and I had lunch while we came back. Nadia worked on the puzzle Grandma and Pop Pop gave her yesterday while we were eating and listening to more of the audiobook. Abby arrived at our house around noon. She and Nadia ate lunch a little after that. After they ate, I took the four kids to the swimming pool where they swam for about two hours. The rest of the day the kids played inside and outside the house.

The pool was in my opinion rather crowded in light of COVID-19. It actually made me a bit nervous. There were very few people there on Tuesday evening. I know that they say the virus can't live in chlorine. I felt a bit better once the school age program from a local day care center left the pool. I chatted with one of the day care teachers because she was a student teacher of mine during the spring 2019 semester. I saw some kids from three other homes in our development at the pool today. At least three of the community pools within 20 minutes of our house chose NOT to open this year (Milton, Lewisburg, and Muncy) due to COVID-19. I hadn't planned to join a pool this year. We had been members for several years, but then it seemed we weren't going enough to make it worth the money due to vacations, camps, etc. If I had made the decision to join this pool earlier in the month, we would have saved $25, but I am quite certain we will still get our money's worth. Aside from when the kids are at camp next week and the week we spend on Long Island (if we are able to go), I think we will be making many trips the pool this summer. It's about 15 minutes from our house. They have a diving board. They removed all the chairs and chaise lounges because of the coronavirus. You have to bring your own chair or blanket to sit on. Abby passed the swim test. Oliver and I haven't taken it yet. I don't plan on taking the test as I don't have a desire to go off the diving board and be in the deep end of the pool. Hopefully Oliver will pass it sometime this summer. Addi and Westyn were also at the pool today, which made the time far more enjoyable for Ian and Oliver. I enjoyed finishing reading a book. 

Abby gave Nadia a 1,000 piece tiger puzzle yesterday. We shall see if she attempts it or not. Thus far the biggest she's done is 500 pieces. I realized on Tuesday night I made a mistake. One of the Barbie dolls I got her was Hermione, and she already had that one. I had intended to get her Ginny Weasley. Oops! I asked her if she wanted me to try to sell the second Hermione doll, and she said no it would be okay for her to have two of them. Tuesday night she used her money to order a Ginny Weasley doll on Walmart. I contributed a few dollars toward it since she was a little short, and I was feeling badly about my error. She received some money from the Towfighis on Wednesday, which more than replaced what she spent on Tuesday night. Yesterday I decided to order her another Harry Potter puzzle (also 550 pieces) which was a little less than $10 in light of the fact I goofed up with the Barbie doll. I also bought the kids one more puzzle multipack. I definitely have spent far more on puzzles in 2020 than I have any other year of my life, but the kids have spent far more hours doing puzzles the last few months than they ever have before, and I enjoy listening to audiobooks with them while they do puzzles. The set I ordered for them yesterday has five Frozen puzzles - two 300 piece puzzles, two 500 piece puzzles, and one 750 piece puzzle. Between Nadia's birthday gifts and the set of Frozen puzzles I ordered today, that's a total of 8 new puzzles for the kids to do ranging from 300 to 1,000 pieces each. Hopefully that will be enough to carry them through the rest of the summer. I'd much rather see them do a jigsaw puzzle than stare at a screen of some sort.