Non Traditional Learning

Yesterday, the kids wanted to wash my car. I thought this was a good team building opportunity. However, the spigot at the front of our house was leaking, so David tightened it up and covered it until he had enough time to fix it. It was on my list of things to do while he was home. Unfortunately, the kids put that at the top of the list. I told them they could not use the spigot and offered to fill a bucket up with water and dump it on my car. Carter took the bucket and said he’d do it himself. Then he ran off. I reminded him not to use the spigot and went inside. He decided I was wrong and turned on the water anyway. Then he could not shut the water off. It just dumped and dumped. We had to shut off the water to the house. David had to run to Home Depot to get something to fix it with. Thank goodness they were open. They have reduced their hours, so he only had 30 minutes until they closed. He pulled the thingamabob out and tinkered with it, but he still couldn’t get it to seal. Fortunately, he has a scope that can be hooked up to his phone/tablet/laptop. He was able to go in the water pipe and see that there was an old screw and a washer that had washed up or broken off. He pulled them out with some long pliers (because his fingers would not reach) and sealed it up.

Meanwhile, Beckett and Roslyn realized the water wasn’t working and panicked. They took cups to every faucet and collected water. Then, they went to the basement and realized water was still coming slowly there. They filled up a water jug. Water dripped and spilled EVERYWHERE. Their biggest concern was that they couldn’t use the toilet. I told them we have three toilets and they all flush once, so we will be okay. Apparently, the water in the toilet was not what bothered them – it was the fact that they couldn’t wash their hands. I am proud to say, all our hand washing conversations have paid off!

Ah, the adventures of home ownership and raising children.

Today, David taught the kids about car maintenance. He pulled each child in the shop at a time. Beckett got to help change the oil, check the fluids, and check the tires on my Saturn wagon. Carter got the same education on David’s Subaru wagon. Roslyn got an age appropriate version on my white Mazda. These are the things I am hoping to teach the kids while we have this awesome opportunity to take a break from classroom learning.

We had two celebrations today: a birthday party and a missionary homecoming. The birthday party was celebrated from 11 to 12. We drove by, honked, and waved. The missionary homecoming was more of a parade. People decorated their cars and we drove by her home in a procession. Everyone got the chance to yell something out the window while she stood on her porch. I miss socialization so much. These were definitely bright spots to the isolation.