COVID 19 - Week 7

DAY 43
Monday (4/27)   Mondays are just that Mondays.  There's school and lots and lots of laundry and today I got super distracted in the twins room pulling out their next size of clothes.  I have so much stuff between my clothes from the older girls and the clothes I got from Courtney that it's always quite a process switching out sizes.  I also spent a good deal of time researching patio furniture.  It is so beautiful out and I'm so ready to start planting flowers and cleaning up outside.  I think it was thinking about Aubrey and Maddie's birthday that got me started.  They're our first and only summer birthday, if you call May 10 summer, but either way in Oregon they're the only ones that really have a chance of celebrating outside and I'm really excited about that.

Still hard at work homeschooling with Grammy.

DAY 44
Tuesday (4/28)  The kids were kind of at each other today.  It's funny or rather not so funny how some days they just wake up and you can tell it's going to be one of those wonderful days where literally no one can figure themselves out.  I'm sure they're all feeling what we're feeling, stuck and irritable.  I cannot even believe how many days we've spent "sheltered in place."  Enough to be running out of things to do, that's for sure.  Anyway nothing much new.  Uncle Robert ran to Costco for us tonight and then stopped by with ice cream and groceries after dinner which was nice of him.  The kids are always excited to see him and Wyatt was really excited to show him the biography report he has been working on about Tom Brady.  Robert complimented his spelling and how neatly he wrote saying he'd even learned something new and Wyatt was beaming.  When he left he took D'artagnan, the male goat we borrowed, with him and informed us that we will have goats and puppies due within a few days of each other.  Pretty sure we bring the craziness upon ourselves.

The thieving continues.

Goodbye D'artagnan!  We hope some of the babies look like you.

DAY 45
Wednesday (4/29)  The weather was beautiful again today so we spent a lot of time outside.  I'm working on planning Madison and Aubrey's 1st birthday.  Not exactly sure what it will look like as social distancing may or may not be lifted by then but I'm trying to make a plan for either.  Brandon went and picked up our new patio furniture this afternoon.  I'm sooo excited to use our deck this summer!!!!  Well actually I'm excited to use it tomorrow!!  The kids enjoyed root beer floats after dinner before Sadie's Zoom meeting, we participated in another chapel with ALL the stuffed animals since it was bring your pet to chapel day and mommy vetoed the real pets, and the babies are soooo close to walking.  Seriously I think Maddie will be walking any day.  Aubrey has beat her on a lot of the milestones but I guess this is where her nick name bonk is paying off.  She's done enough crashing and falling to earn being the first to walk.

DAY 46
Thursday (4/30)  Well our new furniture was as nice as I imagined as was the day.  The kids did school outside which was a nice change.  The babies bounced and the little girls played with sand and we all enjoyed the morning sunshine.  Cooper had 2 Zoom meetings today and Wyatt had one which was a lot but they still seem to really enjoy them.  Technology really is pretty amazing.  Over the course of a month the kids have learned to use Google Classroom, Google Docs., Zoom and Flip Grid, all of which were new to us.  They've used Zoom for class meetings, reading groups, and one on one meetings.  They've used flip grid for teacher appreciation, to send birthday wishes to classmates, and my favorite was Wyatt's biography presentation that he just did.  He recorded it and now people can send him video responses.  Pretty fun!  Anyway, it was a good day other than some frustration over mistakes on my pillow order and a lost Amazon order.  Who has time for such things right?  We ended the day out mowing the pasture with the kids rolling in the fresh cut grass.  WHY?!!  Can is just say Hazel's hair!!!  NOOOO!!!!!

DAY 47
Friday (5/1)  Not much new today.  We enjoyed doing school outside again which was nice but as the afternoon rolled around it got kinda rainy so we had to move back inside.  Brandon needed to run to Coastal to get feed for the goats and chickens so he picked up Panera for us which was a nice treat and then he got off work a few minutes early today and ran out to grab a load of gravel to put around the fire pit.  It is going to be so nice to eliminate all the mud around here.

DAY 48
Saturday (5/2)  Today was a big work on the house day.  Brandon ran up to Home Depot at 6 a.m. to avoid as many people as possible.  He had a bunch of stuff to buy for our bathroom.  He spent most of the day working on the bathroom and then at 4:30 we ran back to Home Depot to pick up one thing he'd forgotten but there was such a long line to even get into the store so we said forget that.  We ran over to Lowes and he was able to grab what he needed and then we came home and ate pizza and watched a movie.  Maddie and Aubrey were miserable today!  They've waited to get teeth until just now which is awesome but now the poor things are cutting 3-4 each all at the same time.

DAY 49

Sunday (5/3)  Can't believe we are on week 7 of church at home!  There are so many parts of this quarantine that we are over but this is definitely towards the top of our list.

COVID 19 - Week 6

DAY 36
Monday (4/20)  How?!?!?!  are we already going into week 6.  It's kinda all starting to blend together.  Uncle Robert came by and picked Zoey up one more time and left us with a puppy to play with.  Roxy's puppies are headed to their new homes this weekend and we haven't really gotten to see them so it was fun to play with him for a little while.  Oh and it was eat out night.  We did Hawaiian Time and Arby's this week.  I think that's about it.

Who is this grown up child?

I know this one...It's Farley!!!

DAY 37
Tuesday (4/21)  Today felt overwhelming!  I keep saying this but the babies are hard right now.  They are into everything, they're constantly crashing, and they want to keep up with the other kids.  So basically every time a door is closed to keep them out of something they cry.  This, plus school, plus laundry, plus dishes, plus arguments, equals a tired mommy today.  Some days it feels like I'm managing pretty well and other days I honestly don't know how I'm going to survive.  The key is not looking too far ahead and then looking WAY ahead at the same time.  If I think ahead to Brandon heading back to work or even summer plans this season of life has me completely overwhelmed.  Today I let that happen and literally felt like I couldn't handle anything more than breathing.  So I need to stay grounded in today and breathe and manage what today brings and just tell myself over and over again that tomorrow I will worry about tomorrow.  And then I need to look WAY down the road and realize that I will miss these days so much all to soon.

Aubrey's pretty funny.  She loves Zoey's bed and literally every time Zoey moves she quickly snags it.  Poor dog!

DAY 38
Wednesday (4/22)  Today was a bit of a reality check.  It is easy to start thinking that this is all a bit ridiculous.  I mean we've literally been at home for 5 weeks.  We leave once a week to pick up dinner and once a week to pick up groceries and that is it.  Brandon has made one trip into Home Depot over the past 5 weeks but otherwise we really haven't gone anywhere, and we have only seen Grammy and Robert a couple of times when they stop by for something and even that has been brief, we've just talked for a few minutes outside.  So we're doing all of this but the numbers here in Oregon are low.  As of today there have been 2,002 confirmed cases and 78 deaths and I'm not trying to be callous because a life is a life but you start getting impatient and thinking about the long term effects that this will likely have on mental health and the economy just to name a few.  It's hard not to wonder if this is all a big over reaction or worse a conspiracy.  I don't know what to believe anymore!   I just want things to get back to normal but then I find out our good friends the Wallaces and the Scullys lost their Grandma suddenly to COVID-19 yesterday.  Their Uncle Craig who we know is currently also very sick and it's so sad to think that people couldn't be there in person to say goodbye and that they probably won't be able to celebrate her life or even grieve the way that would be most comforting and healing for them.  And so very quickly we're brought back to the reality that regardless of what is true people are really suffering right now and just like that we take our eyes back off of our own situation and look up to see those around us who are truly suffering and so we wait with more patience and more gratitude than we did yesterday.

Just waiting for an opportunity to steal the coveted spot.

Aubrey (L) and Maddie (R)

DAY 39
Thursday (4/23)  Today we made slime and it was the "Best Day Ever" according to the kids!  Oh to be a kid again.  Grammy passed a bunch of glitter glue to us and the kids have been asking to make slime since last summer so this was perfect.  They pumped out all of their school work in the morning and then as soon as Hazel was done practicing letters with Grammy we made slime and they played for the rest of the afternoon.  Crazy how much they love that stuff.

Sadie had a Zoom check in with one of her teachers.

Cooper finished his puzzle.

These two stayed busy using up all the leftover homeschooling supplies.

SLIME!!!

DAY 40
Friday (4/24)  Hooray for Fridays!!!  It's been a long week!  The kids did well again with school today.  They are becoming more and more independent which is so nice.  The past two days they've gotten started right after breakfast and gotten most of their work done before lunch.  They're starting to understand how long different things take and are really learning to be responsible for their time and getting their assignments done.

We still haven't heard much as to when things will get back to normal.  It's weird, at the beginning things changed so fast.  It felt like hour by hour things were changing and I was constantly updating my news app to see what was happening.  Now things are soooooo slow.  Every day I hope to hear that something has changed but really nothing has.  It feels like we're stuck in slow motion.  The latest news near us is that a frozen food plant in Albany just found 10 new cases and that the governor is lifting orders to delay non-urgent medical procedures.  Hard to know if that's a good thing or a bad thing but man are we ready for life to resume and it's getting kind of scary realizing how many people are out of work and now they're talking about food shortages because the economy has been shut down for so long.  You can't put a price on human life but man this is a loose lose in so many ways.

The Nerds exploded!

I heard this today and thought it was pretty cool.
Johnnyswim WAIT

DAY 41
Saturday (4/25) Today it was a little rainy and it had been a long week so we took the day pretty slow.  We slept in just a little, had breakfast, and then assembled an outdoor storage container on the porch while the babies played in the stroller and the bigger kids rode their bikes in the rain.  Well after not more than 10 minutes Hazel was muddy from having wiped out and they'd worn a mud trail around the house, but they were having fun so we kinda ignored the mess until Hazel rode up having apparently accidentally crashed again covered in even more mud.  I headed inside after awhile to feed the twins and that's when things escalated to sliding down the dirt mountain while Daddy, yes Daddy, used the hose to make it even more slippery.  I hope they remember fondly these very messy adventures they had as kids.  Brandon tried to run up to Home Depot this afternoon but he said the parking lot was full and there was a long line.  Not sure what to think of that.  Possibly people are tired of being home and are giving up on the shelter in place orders or possibly Home Depot is just implementing social distancing protocol and limiting the number of people allowed in the stores.  While some people definitely seem to be easing up, generally I'm observing more masks and regulations rather than less.

DAY 42
Sunday (4/26)  It'll be a good day when we are able to go back to church.  It's kind of a mad house here while we try to sit and watch our service online.  The big kids struggle to sit still.  The little girls are in and out after they finish watching their lesson and the twins are just the twins... climbing, falling, fussing, ALL THE TIME!  They're almost walking.  They're to the point where they cruise all around the house and the kitchen just barely hanging on to chairs and cabinets and they'll even let go of one thing stand and then take a step to grab something else.  I can't believe that they're almost at this next milestone.  Feels like a major one!  Sadie's bike finally came today!  She's been patiently waiting as her brothers' came over a week ago.

The battle continues

Some things seem to never change.  The circus is just a little crazier than it was 7 years ago!

Enjoying our fire pit again tonight.