Jennifer's 365 Project

I have a few vegetable plants growing, including this tomato plant. Exited to see what food I can harvest in a few months.

Being able to work from home means taking lunch breaks and hanging out with the little one while he cools in the pool. It's going to be a very hot week, so we set everything up just in time.
Cases in Michigan for COVID-19 continue to rise. We're seeing 200-300+ cases each day for the last week. That isn't anything like what is happening in the southern states who re-opened much earlier. It is an indictment that opening too soon and not having mask compliance will absolutely cause clusters and spread of COVID. Michigan is not immune to this, as evidenced by the increase in cases and the outbreak that continues to grow based on just one bar in East Lansing, Harpers, which have 100+ cases linked to it now.

We spent the afternoon hanging out and enjoying the pool, mosquito-free.
The water isn't quite warmed up, but little kids will make it work if they can, just for the excitement of it all.

I set up a little pool area in the back, complete with screened tent. It will help combat the mosquitoes, which absolutely love the pond out back in the woods.

This is just so hilarious to me. Look at him playing animal crossing while laying in bed.

He's been having fun with his theatre summer camp this week.

Walked by this morning and saw Chris helping the little one with his lines for theater camp.

He really enjoyed his class a few weeks ago on Saturdays, so I signed him up for the local theater's virtual summer camp. It's one week and all on zoom. Since dad is a graphic designer, he whipped up a nice Zoom background and a green screen for appropriately themed backgrounds.

Every time I get up during the day I come back to this guy hanging out in the new office chair that came last week. It's like we are fighting over enjoying it.

Sometimes lunch is stressful, I guess.

It's hot out, so I finally set up the little pool I snagged online awhile back. We have a pretty hilly yard with a lot of trees, so we didn't want to get anything too elaborate since we'd constantly have to fish out leaves and what not.
We spent the whole day outside in the sun and heat. He had a great time.

Someone is trying to be sneaky and spy from between the tiles on the table.

Rather than make sourdough pancakes, I made some sourdough pretzels. Tasty and made the house smell great today.
In the evening we took a trip to downtown Grand Rapids and picked up a packet from Grand Rapids Civic Theatre for virtual camp. Next week is going to be an exciting one for him.

Someone had tons of fun in the sprinkler this evening, making mud pies and splashing it around everywhere.

It's hot out and time for more sprinkler fun!

Lots of fun with costumes today. It's fun to come out of the office to grab some water an run into a super hero.

We painted some rocks this afternoon.

It's been a busy day! We opened May's Sago Mini subscription box, which was water themed and came with fun different activities.
Then we spent several hours outdoors. I planted some seeds and day lilies between two of the brick areas we have built out. There's still a lot of work to do on the terraces, but this is a good start.
We also put a little counter up where the 5 year old can run a shop, or have a patio, or anything else he can imagine for his house.

There are two flowers!

The physical edition of realMyst I ordered back in February arrived this week. I've been enjoying working through this classic 90s point and click game.

My one leggy, lone cucumber from indoor planting has a flower! The others I planted in May are chugging along, but this little guy has been at it since April. The squirrels chomped on the others before I encased the plants in netting.

My favorite office companion.

It's a hot day! After work I pulled out the sprinkler and he had a little fun before the storms rolled in.

We've had an incredibly long day. The 5 year old has been up since 5:30 in the morning. That meant getting an early start on some sourdough bread, yard work and more. 
I also introduced him to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild today. Or rather, I let him start his own save and start fresh. There's still a fair amount I hang out and help with, but his hand eye coordination is getting better.

I did some baking today, including a bunch of lemon poppy seed mini-loaves. Since we have a bunch of lemons, I might as well make some tasty lemon-flavored things.

Today's costume is Captain America. We're really getting a workout with these costumes.

Today the city of Washington DC completed a mural of Black Lives Matter painted on a major road (16th St renamed Black Lives Plz). The president will be forced to see it each time he flies over toward the White House.

We've turned some sort of corner and he's now finally eating new food. Today he ate chilli with hardly any protest. 6 months ago he would have gagged and maybe even vomited. We are making progress.

He's enjoying going through superhero costumes lately, partially inspired by Lego Batman 3.

We spent quite a bit of time out on the deck today, enjoying the sunshine and warmer weather. The governor moved the entire state into phase 4 of the reopening plan for Michigan. She also said she's hoping to move the entire state to phase 5 by 4th of July.

In addition, over the last several days there have been marches, protest, and even riots in multiple cities across the country. These are in response to police brutality of people of color, and specifically how the black community is treated. These started in Minneapolis in response to police murdering a man named George Floyd. The murder was filmed and has been spreading across social media. This has grown a national movement, with protests in multiple states and riots over the weekend.

I'm not nearly as eloquent as a lot of people out there speaking on this topic. I encourage everyone to visit #BLM for more information and resources on how to lend support. Read social media. Lift up black voices in the community, listen when people tell you their experiences, and educate yourself, especially if you are white (and therefore privileged) on how we got here and how to recognize and see what systemic racism is. And call out family and friends when they are bigoted.

This warmer weather is wonderful!