I went to the Farmers Market on Saturday, excited for the opportunity to support some local farmers, get some needed food and get some fresh air. They required everyone to sanitize their hands before entering the area and all the farmers were wearing gloves and masks. I was excited to see fresh eggs and berries and was quick to pick some up, without even looking at how much they were asking for.
All of this cost me way more than it ever should have.
In fact, I was pretty mad about it the rest of the weekend. The produce didn't last as long as it should have and the eggs tasted funny. I was excited about the idea of going to the Farmers Market every Saturday and am bummed that it was a fail.
Sunday, after we did church, Eli and I spent a good portion of the afternoon playing Fortnite Monopoly. Time spent playing games is always a win to me.
This afternoon, we started listening to the Chronicles of Narnia (for a second time) and painted outside on our patio. This was the boys' first time painting on canvas and I was really impressed with what they came up with on their own.
Alison and Colin ran off to play when they were finished and Eli asked if he could do a second one. I found painting to be so therapeutic today...I think we may need to find some more things to paint.
The products for today. Most have layers that need to be added.
This new term has certainly created a weird vibe in society. I wouldn't have said before that I live *close* to people, but when you see a line of people all standing 6 feet apart, it puts life in perspective.
This was my view, while waiting to go into Trader Joe's. They were only letting a few people go into the store at one time, and people had formed a line outside the closed doors, for their turn. I found it really interesting how single people formed this "social distance" line, even when there wasn't a sign or an employee instructing them to do so. On the positive side, once inside, they were well stocked on food and everyone was still just as cheery and friendly as ever. When I went to check out, they had blue tape on the tile to show you were to stand to wait in line and then a box in front of the cashier, to show you were to stand while checking out. California creates an extra odd air with the bags. Usually, you are encouraged to bring your own, reusable bag, or you have to pay extra money. Now, they won't even touch your bag. I totally understand and actually felt bad for the employees that had to explain this new system over and over.
Grocery shopping has been making me feel like I'm in a movie; people are wearing gloves and masks and not talking to one another.
I'm thankful that running was already in my life, as it's one of the few things that you can still do and is great for sorting through all these weird things. They have now put this sign up at the beginning of the bike path I run on pretty much every day.
I've loved seeing more people out than usually, especially when I see a family enjoying time together. Social distancing creates some funny moments when people are trying to pass each other at a wide distance, but it's still great just to see people.
Maya loves quarantine. It's her favorite. We're all home, all of the time (Ben has worked from home several days) and she gets a walk pretty much every day.
I love that this trail is just half a mile from our house.
The kids have ridden their bikes (the only thing they can do that doesn't involve touching the same thing or being close to one another) some with the neighbors, but have not played outside nearly as much as usual. Tonight, Colin asked if he could make some money so he could buy some things on the xbox so he can play games with Eli. I asked him to make me a list of jobs he could do...
I realized today the importance of making your kids use scissors. Eli was supposed to make geometric shapes for math and got so frustrated. It was one of those moments as a mom, that I thought, "Hold on. Do you not know how to cut? What else do you not know?"
He is brilliant at math...and can't cut out a shape. Good thing for him, he has plenty of time to work on that skill right now.
Apparently, he also does not fully know his address. During grammar, we were working on abbreviations and I asked him to write his address. He said, "I don't know all of it...we move too many times!!!"
No worries, we're working on that as well.
I also realized this week that quarantine feels very similar to deployment. You spend your time trying to figure out a temporary new normal, but really just waiting for the old normal to return. Life feels weird and you just feel off and you spend a lot of energy trying to make the most of it.
I don't think anyone could have foreseen the coronavirus pandemic, but it is yet again another reason I am thankful that we are homeschooling!
Today was one of those days that we all felt a little off. I've tried to relax into these days instead of stressing out that they don't look like "they're supposed to". I had planned to do an art project in the afternoon, but I found these two coloring together so nicely while I was getting ready for the day. It's not very often that Alison has some one-on-one time with the boys, so I didn't disturb them and let this be art for the day. Colin did the best coloring he's ever done, so I would call it a success.
Real life.
At least 3 times a day I have to call Colin in from outside for a subject. Today, he came running for grammar and didn't even bother taking his helmet off because he knew he was just going to run right back outside. He's working on prepositions and doing a great job!
We pretended he was a king on his throne:
Reading today=at the counter while I start cooking dinner, eating cashews and fresh strawberries from a local farm. You can also see his artwork from the day.
I bribed Alison with gummy bears to let me record a few of the new songs she's learned. Miss Erin just had a baby and now we're on lockdown, so it's been over a month since she's been to lessons. But I always say that the best things happen over breaks and Alison proved my point. Not only has she continued to play piano over the break, but she's taken it upon herself to learn more songs and memorize a couple.
She really is doing an amazing job. She plays so much during the day that she almost got in trouble for it yesterday...I couldn't get her to stop playing when she was supposed to be doing math. This was life while I was cooking dinner (Colin's outside riding his bike).
Finished bridge + boys in pjs.
I checked a few more things off my "didn't have time list" today. I updated our budget and walked up the infamous steep hill. Pretty much since the day we moved here, I've said that someday I'm going to walk up this hill. I see it every day; it's the same road we drive/run up, but always turn right. It's been a mysterious, very steep road that we always talk about..."Can you imagine skateboarding down that?", "Can you imagine trying to park on that road?", "What if you had to walk up there everyday?". I finally did it and it was worth every step. It was so beautiful!
I can feel pretty okay with this whole quarantine situation, until someone mentions how long it might possibly last. Then I have to take a deep breath. The rebel inside of me does not like being told that I can't go somewhere. Our morning was starting to feel a little tense and I realized how long it's been since the kids have been out of the house. At the last minute, I declared it was time go to In-N-Out for lunch because we just needed to be outside of our little house. It felt nice to see people, but a little eerie how quiet In-N-Out was.
We may be picking up lunch more and more as this pandemic goes on.
Eli was feeling so strong after his burger that he had to show his muscles.
I went to Sprouts later in the afternoon and almost had a party right there. I walked in to find bread, meat and they even had a few cartons of eggs! It was such a beautiful sight, I had to take a picture. When I was there on Thursday, this entire things was empty.
Our church is cancelled for I don't know how long. Again, we are so spoiled...church can still go on for us. While everyone else is trying to watch something online, we had the privilege of having our very own music director and pastor.
It was not a typical Sunday though. Before we did home church, Ben roasted coffee and I sat outside with him and we just chatted for awhile. It was so nice to have a relaxing morning together. Then Ben gave Maya a bath because she was starting to get super itchy and stinky.
Doesn't everyone play Fortnite while they wait for the pastor to start church?
Alison brushed out Maya, I sipped another cup of coffee and Colin got the song books ready. He loves singing!
I'm trying to convince Ben to put his sermons online so that everyone else can enjoy the same morning that we did. We are lucky to have him.
After some soup for lunch, I worked on the boys' room. Yesterday, I decided that now is the perfect time to do some spring/disinfecting cleaning. I made it through most of the house (yea for a small house!) but honestly I'm scared by the boys' room. I think that is justified because it doesn't stay clean for very long. They are little boys after all. Point in case:
It was clean. And then a bridge needed to be built. It was yet again another day that I prayed that Eli's creativity would bless him one day. Some day all of the Lego creations will pay off, right?
Eli asked me last night if this has ever happened to me. He meant, has this pandemic ever happened in my lifetime. I told him no, but it was something he would probably always remember. I've caught myself saying, "We'll do that when the world starts running again." It's weird to live in a paused life that you don't know when will resume.
I wrote more about this on our school blog (see right side of page for link), but due to the coronavirus pandemic, our state is in lock down and are all forced to quarantine. Right now, we are only allowed to go to the grocery store, bank or pharmacy. Actually, I think we can still get drive thru food as well. Which a good thing because food is scarce at the grocery store. Don't even think about trying to buy chicken right now. Don't worry about us though. We are blessed by several things.
A. Ben is able to do a lot of things with the big chunks of red meat that others aren't buying. This week, we're smoking a pork butt and using another one for carnitas (there's a limit of 2 meat products, so Ben bought 2 giant pork butts that will last us at least 4 meals, if not more). If it really comes down to it, he can also grind our own meat.
B. We know how to bake. There's no bread in the stores, so we can just make our own. We already had all the ingredients too! Only problem is I threw out 2 of our bread pans in the move and didn't replace them. Having only 1 bread pan makes it a little tricky, but nothing we can't handle.
C. The few things that we can do, are already part of our normal life, so life doesn't seem all that crazy.
I do want to use this time to document more...I know I've said that before, but my goal is to use this time to do things that I've put off doing because I've been "too busy".
Life gave us a quarantine, and we're going to make great memories with it!
So what does our life look like now?
Lots of school. We've been able to focus more diligently on school now that all of our distractions and busyness have been taken away. My goal is to keep working hard so we can finish the year early and maybe get ahead for next school year. Ben worked from home a couple of days this past week and we were still able to get all our work done. That is historic because in all the times in the past that Ben is home, we haven't been able to work. Daddy being home puts a vibe in the house that it's vacation or the weekend and can make it difficult to focus.
We also have been going on long walks each day. We can't play at the park, but there's nothing stopping us from taking Maya on walks. The boys will usually ride their bikes and we tour the neighborhood.
The smell of fresh baked bread is a little slice of heaven. While I was waiting for the second loaf to bake, Alison took Maya for her walk:
Little boys in their jammies is still one of my favorite sights. Colin was enjoying some of daddy's special snacks:
Social distancing. It's all the talk right now. The government is telling everyone to stay 6 feet apart from each other and not to be in groups of more than 10 people. Good thing we were already runners, because we can still do that and not be around anyone else. Although, the trail has certainly been busier than ever. I love seeing families out together and rediscovering an active life.
P.S. All gyms have closed down. Again, Ben was a genius and saw this coming and was quick to add some things to our home gym so we could continue on our normal workout routines. Home gym tour coming soon :)
Colin begged us to come on our long run. We couldn't say no to our 7 year old asking to come with us, so we agreed he could ride his bike next to us. I wanted to snap a picture before we left:
And Colin wanted to show how strong his legs are:
He did so great! Not only did he make it the whole 7 miles, but was consistent in telling us how slow we were going. Ben suggested I start taking him with me when I work on speed...he's a tough coach, but he will make you run fast.
We probably have it the easiest in the whole thing. Ben's job is secure, we were already homeschooling and fortunately already had some essentials stocked (who knew the world would lose it's mind over toilet paper?!?!). There's still an air of stress around. My heart aches for those who are struggling right now; those who are sick, those who are lonely, those who's business had to close and those who were living pay check to pay check and their pay check just stopped. There certainly is a lot to be praying for and guess what, we have a lot of time to do just that.
2020 will most likely go down in history for the coronavirus pandemic. I can't give the whole history of it, but only document what it has looked like for our family.
The last week of February, talk of the virus started floating around. Ben came home from work one day and said that he saw one of the buildings on base getting set up to be a place of quarantine for people coming back into the states from overseas. That same week, while on the women's retreat, there was a great debate among the women if it was actually necessary to start stocking up on food. I shared that Ben believed schools would eventually be closed down, to which everyone was shocked. Only one other woman there thought any precaution were necessary. Within a week, the virus talk started to increase and people started stocking up on food.
(The beginning of March ) I went to Trader Joe's, which was completely normal at the time, and the cashier told me that other Trader Joe's in the area were starting to have their shelves cleaned off. I ordered groceries that same day from Costco and the lady dropping them off told me that the lady before me nearly lost her mind because she couldn't get her requested 2 packages of Clorox wipes (that's 8 giant packages!). She said Costco was insane and people were going crazy over water, toilet paper, clorox wipes and hand sanitizer. When she mentioned what was in high demand, I was immediately SO VERY THANKFUL. By providence, not knowing what was coming, I was already well stocked in all those things. It also helps that Alison is currently in love with Bath and Body Works and has over 50 hand sanitizers in her collection.
I spent the following week doubling up every meal that I cooked so that I could freeze one; ensuring we had meals for later on if a crisis occurred. That was our last "normal" week...Alison had Language and Spanish class, I took a meal to Miss Erin and got to meet baby Kailey, went to a class at the Y and I went to the dentist.
We had planned to go up to San Luis Obispo for Ben's birthday (the 14th), but decided to postpone because of the rainy weather. Again, we were so very thankful that God sent the rain to keep us home. His birthday was simple, but we were able to go out to dinner. I made a last minute run to Walmart Marketplace for groceries since we hadn't planned on being home for the weekend. It had such a weird vibe inside. I had to scour the parking lot for a cart. People were in a frenzy and filling their carts with pasta and canned goods. Looking back, I wish I would have bought more on that trip, but I got everything that I needed and was pleased to come out with my sanity.
The day after Ben's birthday, everything started closing down. The restaurant we just ate at, closed. Alison's classes, homeschool group and basketball, all closed. The public school system closed for an unknown amount of time.
Within a short week, our state was in complete lockdown. Church is closed. The Y is closed. The dentist and vet called and said that we can't come in for our appointments. We can't go to the park and play at the playground. We can't even go for a hike if it's in a national park.
As a homeschooler, this is a very unique time in history. Right now, the entire world is homeschooled. For a brief time, the entire world is getting a taste of my world. For a little bit, I am not the odd man out, but the rare person who has already been doing what the world has been thrown into the this week.
Grocery shopping isn't easy anymore. Ben was home 2 days this week and we made up a plan for our food. I went to Sprouts right when they opened one morning; they had zero bread, eggs, milk, canned goods, frozen produce or poultry. There was a worker stocking some roasts while I was there, so I grabbed a couple. He was so friendly and assured me that things would calm down soon and there would be plenty of food for everyone. Now stores are limiting how much you can buy, which is reasonable considering we're in this shortage from everyone stocking up on food, but I'm feeding a family of 5. The cashier told me that they got a shipment of milk in the day before and there was practically a stampede for it. It was so bad that they almost had to call the police! I ran across the street to Grocery Outlet and was able to find milk and picked up some lunch meat just in case. Ben went to the Commissary. They were also out of bread, but he was able to get milk, eggs, 2 pork butts, and everything else we needed plus a lot of fun snacks for the kids. It was nice to have some treats when everything else felt restricted.
A few of the things Ben came home with:
I tried my very hardest this last week to keep our days as normal as possible. We continued to follow our school schedule and I think it helped our days feel like they had purpose and going along quicker. I told the kids that I would like to use this time wisely. The world has stopped, but our school can still keep going. In fact, we have been given the gift of time. Our days are wide open now and if we continue to work hard, we can finish our school year early and take a break when we can actually go somewhere. I suggested we plan a fantastic trip to celebrate the end of the pandemic. Planning trips is therapeutic for me and I asked the kids where they would go if they could go anywhere. Alison said Scotland. Eli and Colin said Joshua Tree. I think we should go to Hawaii!
I also told them that this is the time to do all the things that we've said we were going to do and haven't because we're "too busy". Busyness was taken away. What we have is eachother. The only thing they could think of was I said we would go to the beach and do school, but it's too chilly for that right now, so I don't feel so bad about that. I do know a big one for me; I always say I want to write more. What better time to write. I looked back on our blog one night, trying to find how we survived Yuma summers. That was basically quarantine. And we did it 3 times! Surely I wrote about what we did and what helped me get through. Nope. You know what I wrote about? What we did to escape; trips to San Diego and Flagstaff were mostly what filled the feed. I was so bummed. Even for school. I don't want to forget the little things of our days. They seems silly now, but they sure won't in a few years. So, here's hoping for more quarantine writing!
Unfortunately for us, it's also been pretty cold and raining. I shouldn't complain, as the rest of the world is staring at snow right now. When you live in California and you get slightly chilly, you bundle up and turn on the fire. We.are.spoiled.
Grammar by the fire with Eli:
I know there will be blessings that come from the hardship. I see glimpses of God working everyday. Our open schedule has given us time to fully do each thing. Real reading time has come back. Up until now, I would work with Colin for a little bit, but he has yet to really sit and read on his own. Until now. It just melted my heart hearing him reading in his bed.
One afternoon, I pulled a full Charlotte Mason and turned on some classical music, lit a candle, pulled out some classic artwork and we drew with oil pastels. I'm not a Charlotte Mason person, but the kids all said this was their favorite.
Everything in the world has been cancelled, including our St. Patrick's Day party. Added with that, shopping right now is difficult, making it hard to put together a proper last minute party. We couldn't even invite over some friends!
We all put on some green and made green deviled eggs for a snack.
We did school as usual and then made green pancakes, smoothies and bacon for lunch.
It's been too long since we've done an art project so we pulled up a fun rainbow craft on Pinterest and all painted together.
We also watched a little video about the history of St. Patrick's Day. It wasn't the most exciting day, but we made the best of it.
Poor Ben. He has a history of having not exciting things happen on his birthday (like unpacking a house), so we made plans to make this year extra special. We made big plans to go up to San Luis Obispo for the weekend and it was going to be amazing. Then the rains came and we saw that rain was forecasted to continue for the next week and would ruin all the fun things we had planned for the weekend, so we decided fairly last minute to postpone the trip. Praise the Lord we did, because then the world stopped. I survived grocery shopping to get stuff for a breakfast and dessert. I made him bacon, eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast and then we went for a run. It stopped raining just long enough for us to run 7 miles for his 37th birthday.
Ben and Alison played basketball in the afternoon and then he taught be how to skateboard. We had a lot of fun! We only bought a few little things for Ben since we were supposed to be out of town, but he was so gracious with what little he got.
Colin wrote Ben a birthday card...can you believe how long he is now?!?!
We went to Lure Fish house for dinner, which was delicious as always.
We were surprised to find the restaurant felt normal, especially because we could see Walmart Marketplace from the window that was anything but normal. I'm so glad we were able to go, because just 2 days later, they closed down all dine-in restaurants. Maybe next year we'll get in a big bash for Ben.
Last weekend, I went on the women's retreat for our church. We stayed just north of Santa Barbara, at a little campground that had all kinds of different glamping options. The church rented 5 of these tiny homes to stay in. They were so cute!
In our free time, we went into Solvang to walk around. Some ladies did some shopping, but I just wanted to explore and eat one of their famous danishes.
Big news in our little world: Miss Erin had her baby! She hired Alison to come babysit a couple times, so she could sit and rest and not have to chase Lindsey around the house.
First babysitting job:
I know Alison would have done it for free because she loves Lindsey so much, but it was a fun first babysitting gig.
We curled Alison's hair one day! It looked amazing...and lasted all of 10 minutes. Unfortunately she got my uncurlable hair.
It was a beautiful week here. So beautiful that we couldn't pass up a morning at the park. The boys love riding down this hill for some reason.
Eli joined the club of being outside every second that he can and I love it that this is their life. In between subjects, this is what you will find the boys doing:
The boys met a new neighbor this week. He lives just down the street
and just started homeschooling this year. He saw them riding bikes and
asked if he could play and they have been pretty much inseparable since.
