Today is the first day of school in the new year, and first day after a nice long break. We are hoping the teachers go easy as it will take a few days to get back in the routine again.
Our morning routine was pretty normal actually. I woke up, got my coffee started, then got Bia up. Bia started her class. I made her breakfast. I tried to work on posts and stuff in between. Then Bella woke up and started school, and I got her breakfast. And Carol woke up earlier than usual around 8, so ok, maybe that was a change :).
Carol wanted to do laundry this morning, so she ate, changed and started working on that. She went to the laundry room at the campground and came back a few minutes later with “bad news”, their laundry is closed and they just listed some places in the area we should go to. Yikes. But, ok. Carol loaded the truck with all the laundry and towels, and left to go wherever the closest one was, which I think was 12 miles away. She was away for a few hours, but got all the laundry done and did some grocery shopping. She said the laundry she went to was in Pamlsdale, and it was quite big, with many machines and big machines. It was a bit expensive, but she was able to do it all at once, so it didn’t take too long.
Bia had a regular school day, and was done mid morning and only needed to log in again late morning. Then she logged in again, watched that last class and was all done before lunch. Problem with that is that she wants to interact then, and ends up distracting Bella.
Bella had a good day of school. She started by logging in to her ELA class at 7:10 here, and just kept going from there. She even did an art project with her class in the morning. She had much more work than Bia, but just got it done. Bella finished even the science book work for the week today, so she does not need to do science the rest of the week.
I worked on writing, then did some catch up on personal emails, and started doing some work emails. I talked for a buddy of mine, Joe, for almost two hours. Good catching up with him.
The girls and I had left overs for lunch as we tried to finish some stuff that had been in the fridge for some time. We had hamburgers, ham and cheese sandwiches, one empanada, etc. Carol arrived just as we were finishing lunch, and ate a plant based burger herself. By this time the girls were pretty much done with school, so we started getting things ready to go. Carol decided we’d go back to her cousin and spend the night and tomorrow morning we’d go explore and come back. We checked all the websites about visiting Channel Islands National Park, but no boats are going there now due to the Stay at Home orders, so we will not be able to go there at all this time. The only way to get there is by boat. So, she decided we’d go spent time with her cousin instead.
We started packing to go, putting the laundry away, packing school stuff, clothing, etc for the overnight and getting the trailer ready to be empty again overnight. We were all packed and ready to go around 3. Our drive into Thousand Oaks was good, easy, all highway and no traffic. We could see major traffic building the other way. When we got to the area, Carol wanted to go to a pharmacy, so we went to the closest RiteAid. The pharmacy was next to a Trader’s Joe, so she went there too and got some stuff for the night and tomorrow morning. She got some cheeses, some bread, milk and some beers. There were lines to get in to the places, as the occupancy numbers have been changing and they can’t fill up the stores, so she had to wait a bit to get in. Also, when it was time to pay, they asked Carol to put the stuff on the counter but then move back while they rang everything and until it was time to pay. Then she could approach, pay and leave.
We got to her cousin’s place around 4:30, and after unloading everything Carol got started on making dinner. She had planned on making Sfihas (Lebanese pockets filled with meat). The girls were just walking around, playing with their phones and chasing the cats. Hahahah. After I got things put away downstairs, and got some messages sent out, I went upstairs, got a beer and sat by the dining room table. Alex joined me, and soon after Adam did as well, and we were all chatting while Carol made the food next to us in the kitchen. Carol was part of the conversation as well, just from the kitchen. We all talked for a long time, and had lots of laughs. Great times chatting here. When the food was ready, we all sat down and ate. The Sfihas were delicious. After we ate, we just sat around the table for a while chatting, and when it was around 8:15 I took the girls downstairs to get ready for bed, as they have a normal day of school tomorrow. We said good night and went down. I got the girls ready, they had already showered before dinner, so they just brushed their teeth and such, and went to bed. Carol was upstairs helping put things away and clean up after dinner, and came down about 30 minutes later to say good night to the girls. I got ready as well, and after doing some emails and checking Facebook, I went to bed. I will be up with the girls, and also want to go for a run in the morning. Carol later showered and worked on some computer stuff, downloading pictures and videos and making sure everything was backed up, etc.
And that was our day, low key back to school day, getting things done, then enjoying time with family and a nice dinner.
Oh, we got news today that a good friend is battling covid and was tubed today, we are thinking of him and praying for a quick recovery. He’s a healthy guy, it’s crazy he got that sick.