picture perfect

So far the day is picture perfect. Anders and I went to Hudson to renew his license. Osten has been working hard at learning and Katie splinted my arm for her health class.

Right now I'm making lunch and then we will have Harry Potter read aloud--learning part 2 and Katie and I plan a 2 mile jog to our River Falls vantage point.

Later this afternoon, I plan a walk with my friend Jenny and a family bike ride. I hope all our friends and family are safe!

did someone say sunshine?

In one word. WOW. What a beautiful day.

Osten is eager to get outside to play a game of baseball, so when we have done that, I will post a photo. He found his favorite baseball bat in a pile of leaves over at Charlie and Nancy's house...wonder how it got over there?

Day was spent learning/planning for teaching from home. It will be interesting to see how we get this all together. Kind of sounds like we will be doing small amounts of instruction every day versus three full lessons...60 minutes of work for 1st graders and 75 minutes of work for 2nd and 3rd grade. We talked as a whole staff and then our classroom touched base about touching base with our families to make sure they are doing ok...one of my students has a fever (hopefully not Covid) but we just want to make sure parents are feeling successful and supported.

Here is a photo from my Zoom meeting:

Here is a picture of Osten doing his school work today:

Went for a 4 mile run--first mile was walking to my friend, Michelle's house to drop off some paperwork for one of her students--so my first mile was pretty slow, but the next three miles were faster. The sunshine was like medicine as I was making my way around town.

Got to see a former student, a sibling of a current student, our Principal's wife and her parents along with their two sweet kiddos, Ms. Michelle and a current student who almost jumped out of the car to say hello to me. It was a truly satisfying adventure.

Now off to baseball with Osten and I will post some photos when we are finished with our game.
Osten won the game 3-2.

and now Anders is practicing his baritone for band class...it is music to my ears.

new little nest and rainy day

Today is another rainy day here in River Falls. We got a chance to watch church on YouTube this morning downstairs in our newly established little nook with TV, ChromeCast, Wii and a couple of chairs. Katie is currently camped down there casting Disney shows and playing video games on Anders' old Nintendo Game Boy. I did a little Leslie Sansone walking video from YouTube and an ab workout. Brad is making baked chicken for dinner and I'm going to jump into some online learning about how to teach online. Should be lots of fun!

Here are some photos I found on CDs while cleaning out the area downstairs for our little nook, they are from Christmas 2006:

blowing bubbles and playing games

One of the highlights of our recent trip north not including hosting Ibby and Mike for a bonfire and traveling down memory lane with photo gathering, was blowing bubbles outside the shack. Katie blew some epic bubbles.

Along with these epic bubbles, our family played a game of Yahtzee. Anders was the only one who didn't score a Yahtzee. Osten was super jazzed to get his first one!

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photo extravaganza

One of my missions on our most recent trip up north was to take Anders' photo albums, take photos of photos and upload them to my photo sharing site so I have a more permanent storage solution. Mission accomplished. Some favorites:

meeting Grandpa Bud for the first time at 412 Brook Drive Bloomington, Illinois

with Grandma & Grandpa B at Hooters July 2001 Mall of America

Blomgren cousin family photo June 2001

Liana, Evan, Abby, Vance, Ryan, Ross, Jenna, Anders, Anna

Kyle Jr., Adam, Stuart, Thomas

beach time near Los Angeles with Grandma Betty August 2001

 moving into our first house together 2755 Linda Circle Idaho Falls, Idaho

Ibby, Karen, Anders and Brad photo September 2001

family photo in a Limo July 2005 near Livingston, Montana

the sun is shining and everything is fine!

What a difference the sunshine makes! We are preparing for another trip north to cut and load wood for the 2020-2021 heating season. I'm going to head out for a 3 miler--get cleaned up--and then load up the truck and drive due north.

hot pot and a cozy fire

Rainy day in River Falls--I finished tagging photos on Shutterfly this morning and went for a jog this afternoon--getting absolutely soaked to the bone. Brad made a totally delicious dinner of hot pot and then I did dishes and made a pan of brownies. Katie finished the puzzle we got from Fox Den on Monday...it's so fun building a puzzle!

Our plan for tomorrow is to get up and get going to the hunting shack for another visit/more wood splitting. We will bring some good board games and I'm excited to head for the woods another time.

clothes on the line and a lovely day for a jog

On our second day of official spring break, I worked on organizing part of my bedroom and did laundry/hung it on the clothesline. Then Katie and I went out for a 2 mile jog. My first outside jog since October 6, 2019. It sure felt invigorating! The pace was slow, but the destination (top of Mound Park in River Falls) was inspiring.

day of productivity

This morning, I slept in and planned a day of organizing and cleaning. I did get a closet cleaned out that has been on my "to do list" for a while. I hope to use all the lotions I've been gifted in the past few years. Also tackled the stove as I found oven cleaner in that closet I'd been avoiding ;).

The upstairs bathroom got a good scrubbing too. That is where the cleaning stopped. Then Katie and I inventoried what we needed to bake oatmeal raisin cookies. We didn't have as much oatmeal as I had thought, so it was:
1. to Aldi (didn't find oatmeal, shelves bare of oatmeal) but we did get lettuce, bagels, blueberries, chips and salsa and batteries
2. to Walgreens (found quick oats, but not the other kind of oatmeal) and got Easter candy (Osten found out I help the Easter Bunny and I told him I'm worried about Covid 19, so wanted to make sure we had SOME candy and we also picked up some photos I printed for the Zizu students.
3. to Fox Den to pick up a book and a puzzle and complete my wish list--I found out all non-essential businesses are going to be closed starting tomorrow...no more Fox Den until further notice
4. to Family Fresh to get our oatmeal

Then it was home to make our cookies and a pan of chocolate chip cookie bars (Brad's favorite). Lindsey spent the day with our family so she tried some cookies (her Dad is a legendary chocolate chip cookie baker) and also had meatloaf for dinner. She had never tasted meatloaf before and was very polite and said thank you for dinner.

 

Before we had dinner, the kids and I walked over to campus for a game of basketball. We had a blast playing full court basketball...it was great to spend time together outside.

After dinner, Katie and I went for a walk and I got to see the inside of our school--it's coming right along and gives me hope for school with all the crazy health concerns.

Talked to Mom after our walk. So great to hear her voice and hear that she is still well and able to get around...not able to see her friends, but she is able to get out of the building from time to time and is still making trips to the grocery store.

After talking to Mom, I was looking online and found a camper van that I think would be pretty amazing to have:

I'm going to have to try and dream about getting one of these...

another day in the and happy 2 dozenth Anna Gracious

This morning we woke, played quite a few card games, went to the Drive Inn for lunch (I had the Big Gust and a rootbeer) and headed back to the shack to eat.

After cleaning up and packing up, we went back to the woods and chopped/split a full load for the bed of our pickup. The kids and I also played a little Bo Bo Skeewatan Tottan while Brad was using the chainsaw.

Back to the Shack to pack up. Driving home we noticed the ice was out on the St. Croix and we talked about heading back up north again later this week to spend some more time there while we are technically on Spring Break.

Now we're hanging out in the living room eating pizza and will start strategizing on home improvement projects for the week ahead.

Katie did a little work with the sledge today...sister sledge!

Happy 24th birthday to our terrific niece Anna Gracious Blomgren!

here is Anna and her boyfriend, Josh at Blomgren Christmas 2019

traveling north

With the danger of interacting with people who may have the virus and not wanting to infect family members who are senior citizens or immunocompromised, the Olsons are headed to the north woods near Grantsburg to the hunting shack. Plans are to cut wood and prepare the shack for our inhabitance for the next two days. We dined at KFC in St.Croix Falls taking it to Lions Park. We’re now on our way north and will be without WiFi very soon. Be well and stay safe.

Update: we are home on Sunday night. We got to the shack--it was in great shape--it was a little bit of an adventure getting into the driveway because there was a fair amount of snow. On Saturday, we went out to the woods for about an hour, finished up our KFC lunch for dinner, had some popcorn and then watched the movie Hugo before hitting the hay.

We did spend some time in the hammock, on a walk and playing cards. Osten learned how to play crazy 8s and seemed to do a great job learning.

the ice still on the St. Croix on the 21st--when we drove back on the 22nd, the ice was out!

KFC in a shelter

goofy face

trying out the hammock

on my walk yesterday

my new socks lounging in the hammock

yummy beverage choice for dinner

the kids and I enjoying the movie Hugo huddled around my tiny phone screen...it worked!

Happy birthday Ivy Marie

Happy birthday to one of my faves former Ivy LeFaive now Langeberg. We have been friends over half our lives. Your smile and wit can brighten any day.

Trish, Ivy, Julie, Anders, me and Jessie in November. Happy birthday Ivy!

first day of Covid 19 school

It's just after lunchtime on our first day of Covid 19 school. Anders is currently working online on work, Katie is in Brad's home office working on school work, Osten is playing in his mind, I am updating here and then will do a little work on photo work followed by Harry Potter Read Aloud and another 30 minute learning block with Osten. We have quiet screen free time also planned before our 4:30pm return to screens for Osten.

The day started with 10am school start followed by a popcorn snack, recess (played basketball outside on campus and saw our first robin of the season) and then we got home and prepared lunch--kids spaghettios and ravioli and Mom pancakes.

We are currently boiling sap down on the stove watching a lovely early spring day outdoors.

Here are some photos of our day so far.

 first robin of the season toward the top of the tree

 lunch with the beautiful Olson children.