May Days, May Days!

Corona was (and is) still alive and well as we wrapped up the last weeks of school in May. The idea of heading into a summer locked in the house with absolutely nothing on the schedule had me shouting "MAYDAY!" all month long, but here's what we did between my outbursts. 

Lincoln has taken the older brother role of making sure his younger brother is looking his best for church. 

He is also teaching Jonah all there is to know about garbage and recycling trucks. We have to keep a cleared schedule (not too hard right now) on Mondays because we have a weekly date with the garbage man. We hear the garbage man roll into our neighborhood at 1:00 every Monday afternoon. We scurry outside so as not to miss a single second of his entire route through our neighborhood.

Luckily (depending on who you ask) our neighborhood is set up in such a way that we catch glimpses of the garbage man along his route every 5-10 minutes for the hour he is in our neighborhood before he finally reaches our can. I mean, we loved the garbage man before COVID, but we are living for the garbage man mid-COVID.

The garbage man knows us. He honks at us. He does little tricks with his grabbers when he reaches our house. We sing to him as we await his arrival. We clap once our trash is removed. We enthusiastically wave to give him our thanks. I like to think the adoration between us and the garbage man is mutual.

After the garbage man visits, Lincoln and Jonah go in the house and play "garbage man" the ENTIRE rest of the day. They methodically hold their arms at 90 degree angles to act as garbage truck grabbers while dragging laundry baskets behind them all around the house, picking up and dumping piles of toys along the way. Then at night they demand Jeff and I play them garbage truck songs before bed, which luckily, there are many.

Four boys and never, ever have I had one as obsessed with the garbage man as Mr. Lincoln. I have had to make a rule that he isn't allowed to play garbage truck at dinner because every time he's about to take a drink out of his cup he starts up his motor, gets the hydraulic noises pumping from his mouth, and positions his hands as little lifters, prepared to pick up the "trash can" (his cup) to dump into the "garbage truck" (his mouth).

I admire their passion and am tickled by every new way they turn their world into that of a trash collector's.

One day while waiting for the garbage man we raced various vehicles. My, my, look what Lincoln chose every time. Shocker--it was the reigning champ!

I figured if we were stuck at home all day I should maybe make an effort to try to teach my kids some kind of skill I don't otherwise feel I have the time for. Enter cooking lessons!

Each boy has a special day per week that's their day to help me cook. They get to pick a recipe they want to make and then they get some special time, just me and them, in the afternoon to make their treat. It's been rewarding to help them learn something new, to spend some special one-on-one time with them, and to get some built-in treats for snack time in the afternoon. Quarantine win! 

Eli has made pull-apart bread and two different kinds of brownies. 

 Lincoln made Rice-Krispie Treats, freshly squeezed orange juice, and waffles.

Carson made doughnuts, pasta, and cookies. 

I don't know if we saw any April showers in the desert of Nevada, but we certainly saw some May flowers! The flowers in our yard exploded seemingly overnight. 

Lincoln (I think) accidentally put this shirt on backward one day but we were amused at the joke he created. He was amused by our amusement and now only wears this shirt backward.

 You could say Jeff hosted his own cooking lessons with the boys out back over the fire.

I don't know that Jeff will claim he taught Jonah this form for mallow roasting. 

 And then it was Mother's Day. A day where all a mom wants is a great shot of her with her kids.

Well, if I can't get the picture of my dreams, at least I can have the Sacrament Metting of my dreams. Jeff created a special church program for our at-home church.

It was adorable and sweet and thoughtful and cute. 

 Then they begrudgingly enthusiastically sang "Mother, I Love You."

Hey, look! I finally got a smile out of Carson. 

My favorite joke leading up to Mother's Day is to say, "All I want for Mother's Day is..." My list usually includes things like my kids not fighting, the house to be spotless, and for me to get that Instagram worthy picture with the kids. Jeff tries his hardest to meet my unrealistic demands, and he knocked the most important one out of the park with three delicious meals that I didn't have to cook, plate, or clean up after. 

Still coming off the laziness of my Mother's Day Off, I winced when a package showed up at our door. It was a swimming pool that the boys had seen I had ordered off Amazon and had been anxiously awaiting its arrival. Trouble is it was a little too cold, we still had school to worry about, and this was supposed to be a gift for Eli's birthday so I was planning to have the pool make its debut as a special activity on Eli's birthday.

The boys were having none of it. As soon as the box arrived, they relentlessly pestered me, asking if we could set up the pool. I explained my reasons against it. They explained "But it would be fun." We went back and forth. They would NOT drop it. Finally, in a huff I said, "Fine! IIIIIIII am not setting up the pool today. If YOU GUYS want to set it up, you can. But I am NOT going to do anything."

I was sure they would never be able to figure it out and would tire themselves out trying. I severely underestimated them.

They turned into a problem-solving team of miniature adults and got the job done, by golly! 

If you give a man a pool, he'll swim for a day. Teach a man to pool and he'll still only swim for a day because the water was too cold and now he thinks he hates the pool you got him for his birthday and will refuse to use it ever again. But hey, I got a quiet afternoon of no boy fights out of it so I'll just check that off the old Mother's Day request wish list (a day late) and call it a success. 

I did some art with Lincoln and Jonah one evening while Jeff went hiking with the older boys. Lincoln painted a hot dog on the top left which I found completely endearing. 

Well, HOT DOG! We May-ed it through every day in May! June-o what's next?