COVID-19 #3 Reading Books

Besides walking the neighborhood, playing pickleball, and baking new recipes we did loads of reading while quarantined.  Here are our favorites from April/May!

We read this for family worship in the weeks prior to Easter.

After Easter we read this and watched the videos for our devotional time

Read this book along with watching Ferguson's teaching on the Ligonier App.

Love the truths in this book!

A delightful love story that is so rare in our "modern" age

After studying NK with Seth in homeschool, I decided I wanted to learn more and read this book. 

Both this series and the one below tell the creation, fall, redemption story in a wonderful fantasy type of way.

After reading this, I think Anna has read most of Austen's works

The kids have also been dabbling with the paints

Seth made us a lemon cake with a whipped cream/lemon curd frosting!😋

Our first time in corporate worship was not with Cloverdale URC, but with a church that met outdoors at Kleiner Park.  Josh Bales, the pastor of The Well, is a good friend of Russ and does the weekly radio show with him.  We met with this church the first two Sundays in May (after listening to Russ' taped lessons) and have now met in our church for the past two Sundays.  We sit every other pew, only socialize outdoors, and do not pass a collection plate.  It has been lovely to be in church worshiping again!

Lest you think all the kids and I  have been doing is reading, we have kept pretty busy at home.  On nice days we have been doing lots of yard work--trimming trees, planting herbs, fighting aphids on the roses, mowing the lawn, etc.  On not as nice days we've been organizing closets, sorting ten years of homeschool materials, and painting/freshening up rooms in the house. Now that things are opening up we have lots of appointments in the next few weeks--haircuts, dentist, physicals, mammogram.  We have a senior track dinner planned at our home next week and we have a former seminary friend of Russ' staying with us next weekend.  Life is getting back to a kind of "normal"!

Anna's Graduation

Anna not only has the distinction of being the sole Bleeker/Herman cousin to graduate from high school in 2020, she can also someday reminisce about being a COVID-19 graduate.  She would agree that this is definitely not how she pictured her senior year.  Finishing up her senior year online, taking modified AP exams from home, not wearing her beautiful prom dress, no graduation, no state track meet, no grandpa and grandma visit, no brothers home, etc.  Most missed things haven't bothered her too much, but I know she was pretty bummed that grandpa and grandma and Caleb and Nicolas could no longer come to Idaho for graduation.  She was also immensely disappointed she wasn't able to run her senior year of track.  She looked forward to being coached by her dad and running relays with her sister one more year. 

The school took pictures of the senior spring athletes and highlighted them.  At least Anna got to put on one of the new uniforms!

Cole Valley Christian rescheduled graduation for June 28, but that is smack in the middle of our trip to Iowa.  Once she found out that there were others in the class that would not be able to make graduation, she felt a little better, and we do have plans to Livestream the event from grandpa and grandma's house.  

We are all in need of haircuts!  Thankfully, things are opening up and we can cut our "quarantine" hair soon!

This girl loves her watches, so it was fun to give her a nice watch as a graduation gift.

CVCS has done a great job of making the seniors feel special in the midst of all their losses this spring.  When Anna drove through the school parking lot to pick up her cap/gown the teachers lined the parking lot, taped signs to her car, and threw candy in the backseat.  

On graduation day (May 17) one of the teachers dropped by with a bunch of balloons and a bag of goodies.  The school also had a sign-up for families to "adopt a senior" and was blessed with another balloon bouquet, a lawn sign, and more gifts. 

 More recently as things opened up, the school sponsored an "Amazing Race" type event for the seniors that began in downtown Boise and ended at the Parma drive-in theater.  Parents were invited to meet the teams at the drive-in theater where they showed the senior tribute video and the senior video that they will show at graduation.  

Lydia did Anna's senior tribute--made me cry.  The spots are raindrops on the car windshield.  If you look a few pictures up you will see the ominous dark sky just prior to the downpour.

We were all thankful that Anna scored a dozen free donuts from Krispy Kreme as a 2020 graduate!

Our church plans to recognize their graduates after the morning service on July 19 with a small reception. Longest graduation celebration ever!