Friday Favorites: The Week Evan Turned 13

It's official; I am now the mom of three teenage boys!  We also survived our first week of distance learning-- it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared (boy I hope I didn't just jinx us for today!).  We have had distinct fall-like temperatures all week and I had to pack away the flip flops and take out my booties.  The leaves are starting to turn everywhere we look.

 Evan and I settled down to schoolwork pretty quickly on Friday (after I dropped Alec off at school) and were joined by Ian once he woke up.  They were both done school by 10 and Ian headed off to work on the patio with his grandfather.  Evan and I cleaned the house a bit and then I headed out to run errands before picking Alec up from school.  

Alec's final shop to try out was Automotive Collision Repair & Refinishing.  He learned how to spray paint while masking off colors.  They made little tiny "almost" cars.  

For dinner I had put some pork tenderloin and teriyaki sauce in the crock pot in the morning so all I had to do around 5 was roast some potatoes and throw a salad together. 

Alec, Evan, and I cleaned house on Saturday while Ian was at work and my husband was back at the hydro.  I made some homemade granola and read my latest book.  In the afternoon my father and his wife came to visit; we haven't seen them... since I really can't even remember when.  We had a nice visit though.  

After they left Ian, myself, and my husband decided to go out riding. Unfortunately, we got our Ranger stuck in the mud and I mean STUCK... several hours, several helpers, and a million attempts later by full on darkness we finally gave up and came home without it.  

We tried getting our second Ranger to pull out the first one but couldn't park close for fear of getting them both stuck!

It's not so easy to see but the front tires are sunk in the mud so the rear tires are hardly touching the ground

I cooked up burgers and hot dogs for a quick and very late dinner-- letting everyone pick out their own sides to go with it. 

My husband and I headed to his shop to load up on chains, cable, and plywood for the next day.

At first light on Sunday morning Ian and my husband set out to bring the Ranger home with the help of my father-in-law and nephew too.  Just a short hour or so later they were home and successful!  The younger two boys went to breakfast with their grandmother and I took advantage of a quiet home to craft Evan's card and make a few scrapbook pages too. 

In the evening we had a small party for Evan's birthday with a few of the grandparents.  I had cooked up my special meat sauce (with sweet sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs) to serve with spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad.  

Evan, once again, requested ice cream cake for dessert. 

I drove Alec to school Monday morning for his last in person shop day at school before two weeks of academics with mostly distance learning.  I sent him to school with a whole list of questions for the following day's lessons and he, thankfully, got them all answered.  

Once home Evan, Ian, and I worked through all their schoolwork quickly so Ian could leave to work on the patio with his grandfather at 10:30.  They're hoping to finish up this week if all goes well. 

I started a new Thanksgiving themed craft before heading out to pick Alec up from school.  I'm trying like crazy to get ahead on posts for next month not knowing how I'll feel after surgery next week. 

For dinner we had steak, rice pilaf, corn, and asparagus.  

Tuesday Ian headed off for his long day of work and driver's ed. while Alec prepared for his first day of distance learning.  I had picked a lightened load of work for Evan that I knew he could mostly do on his own so I could be on hand for any technical difficulties.  

Evan was finished his work in under an hour and while Alec did have to log on for each class and stay logged on it was just a half day so he was finished up by noon.  It was the perfect intro to what we can expect for full days going forward.  

I even had time to pull together a soup for dinner, a salad, cut up some fresh fruit for the week, hard boil eggs for breakfasts for the rest of the week and even made some more 2-ingredient bagels. 

After lunch I talked the boys into an hour hike, we swung by the library to pick up books.

I convinced Alec to help me make some fresh bread to go with the big pot of chicken soup I had made up in the morning. He had so much fun making the no knead bread-- even if he did try to knead it!

Wednesday Evan had plans with his grandmother so he had no school but I pulled out work for Ian.  

We learned that while Alec had school none of his teachers were going to be available for classes. Each teacher left an assignment for him to do... it was a nightmare trying to get assignments completed with no real instructions and not knowing our way around the different programs that well.  We did our best.

I had a pre-op appointment with my doctor in the afternoon so I was relieved that we seemed to have finished up all of Alec's work before I left.  The appointment went well and I came home with my fears mostly quelled.

Alec had his last karate class for the foreseeable future as I don't think I'll be up to taking him for a bit and my husband had haircuts with the other two boys so he offered to pick up dinner.  We all ate D'angelos grinders (heroes or subs for all you southerners) for dinner. 

Ian and my husband left for a full day of work (followed by driver's ed) on Thursday. I had picked out a stack of work for Evan and Alec logged onto his online schooling.  The day went pretty well and Alec finished up early as his last two classes weren't requiring him to stay. 

We headed out for a walk with my mom and then spent the afternoon at her trailer visiting.  We saw so many beautiful trees. 

For dinner I heated up some quiche and we had salad/ fresh fruit with it. 

How was your week?

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