Jennifer's 365 Project

We had another few inches of snow overnight and this morning. Mid-morning we went out to shovel and he started in on a fort.
This afternoon we continued to work on it. I'm sure over the coming days we can continue to expand upon it.
 

We made another Popin' Cookin' this afternoon.
This was perhaps the one he liked the taste of the least. I think it's because the broth is cola-flavored which is, in my opinion, gross.
 

We've been busy this week building a city in our creative world. I built this building and the 5 year old added some themed letters. 

ST are in stone bricks.

O is grass for the overworld. 

R is made out of netheRRack. 

E is made out of endstone.  

He was very happy with his theme.

Chris printed a little Bernie Sanders as he was from the inauguration last week. This meme has been everywhere and it's been quite cute. 
 

We went sledding early in the morning before work started. This is one of the great things about being able to work from home. I really enjoy being able to use my old commute time to do something fun with family.
We also went sledding together at lunchtime!wy
 

The snow has started to arrive.
 

The last of his Christmas gifts arrived. He absolutely loves his Alex plushie from Minecraft that Uncle Jeff bought him.
 

He's loving these Minecraft pajamas.

 

It's a sunny day and that means getting out and enjoying some of the blue sky!
We also spent some time in Animal Crossing with Grandpa Oslund, while also doing silly faces together on FaceTime.
 

I've started in on House of X/Powers of X comic books. I'm enjoying them, but the navigation is somewhat annoying in the Marvel Unlimited app. I'd rather it just recommend the next book in reading order, but since it's two series intertwined, it recommends the next book in the series (not the next that you're supposed to read).
 

We took a walk together after work this evening. Chilly, but worth it.
 

My brother built a cool water slide in the creative Minecraft realm we share. The little one absolutely loved it.
 

 

400,000 Americans have died from Covid19. This doesn't include missed diagnosis earlier in 2020, this doesn't include the impact of having hospitals overrun and unable to treat other issues, such as heart attacks and cancer treatments.

The Trump administration has been a colossal failure in their response to virtually anything, including how they handled the pandemic. They got theirs and the hell with anyone else.

They sowed division on the simple science of masking up, of paying people so they can stay home, of a national lock down, of the severity of Covid19 and how it is not like the flu. 

The profited while those around them suffered and died. Press conferences over the summer were timed so that stock markets would not be impacted with negative news (after the markets closed) or would boost them with "positive" spin (held right before markets closed). 

The rapid testing was misused which meant positive people who didn't show symptoms assumed they were free (since it is intended for people WITH symptoms). 

It took ages to roll out any sort of testing at various pharmacies and it was up to states to really implement anything since there was no national guidance. 

If history has taught me anything, it's that there will be no reckoning. There will be no justice served for the negligence of this administration. If anything, he will continue to push harder to divide the already horrific Republican party until it morphs into something akin to the Nazi party, and attempts a full take over.   

Tomorrow a new administration begins, and the work to undo damage wrought over the last 4 years begins. It's going to be a long, slow process and I have my doubts that we will be able to overcome a sitting president allowing kids to be separated and put in cages, 400,000 Americans to die with thousands and thousands of others suffering from longhaul symptoms (covid symptoms that persist for months), and fomenting an insurrection on this nation's capitol. 

We cannot heal and move on. We must address and root out those still in congress who supported the insurrection, we must weed out those in military and police forces who abuse their power. We can only move forward if we address this and not sweep it under the rug, as so often we do as a nation.

We took a hike at Hagar Park. After yesterday's excursion to Seidman, he wanted to get out and do something fun again.
There were snowballs.
And drawing in the snow. Hagar was a lot emptier than Seidman. I'm sure some of that is location and some of that is the fact that's its Monday and most businesses do not close for MLK day.
 

Today was a pretty full day. We played around in the backyard, where a Tiger-Quinn pounced and we had a snowball fight.
We did one of the Mo Williams doodles on YouTube that ran last March (we never finished the series).
And we went hiking at Seidman Park.
It was a long hike for him and it's hard for him to maintain focus for that long, but he had a great time exploring woods that looked very similar to a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.
 

It's the winter term, which means it's a new round of virtual theatre class. Today is the first day and he had a blast!
 

I dug out one of my old books and I feel like I need to start reading it soon to 5 year old.
 

Little one has been very into Calvin and Hobbes so I started building a Hobbes sprite in our Minecraft realm that we share with Uncle Jeff.
 

He loves Harry Potter so much.
 

We have a little bucket that we keep all of the little one's wands and man...he has quite the collection going.

I really enjoy working from home and getting to hang out with this guy in the office all day. I've been working from home since March 2020 and I'm not tired of his companionship yet.
 

We did a loop around Millennium Park this afternoon.
 

We went on an adventure together in the cold to a nearby nature park.
He had a lot of fun running around, climbing hills, and enjoying being out in the sunshine.
 

In the latest Adabox, this awesome e-paper device arrived called a Mag Tag. It came with some strong magnets where you could attach is to a fridge or another metallic surface for regular updates. We opted to load it up with their sample code that pulls from the Covid19 Tracking Project. So we have this grim reminder of how spectacularly our government has failed over the last year in addressing the pandemic. This is showing yesterday's numbers as it's set to update nightly at 8pm.
 

He wrote me this note, which I love.
He's been enjoying this tofu chocolate mousse I made the other day. I had some tofu I needed to use up and this seemed like an easy recipe.
 

Today is the day congress certifies the election results. Our current president, Trump, incited those he called to DC today to march on the Capitol.

And they did. 

They broke into the capitol, ransacked offices, attacked Capitol police. The national guard was called in. 

The sitting US president incited an insurrection. 

He should have been removed a year ago when the impeached him, but he was not. 

He should be impeached or removed with the 25th amendment (of which I doubt will occur since he's spent years ensuring everyone near him is loyal). 

Those in congress, such as Ted Cruz and Hawley, should be removed from their positions. Their insistence that there was election fraud, despite evidence to the contrary, is sedition. 

If nothing happens, if there are no consequences (as there were none in April when people stormed the MI Capital), the next time this will be more bloody and may succeed.
 

He's been bringing these guys around with him everywhere lately.