Our Week - The One with Quarantine, Week 7 (a Day in the Life and the Strawberry Patch)

I’m officially way behind on weekly recaps since this is the post from two weeks ago rather than last week.  These posts are long and time-consuming, but I know they’ll be worth it to have to look back on one day.  I have a feeling 10, and 20 years from now, we’re all going to look back on these days and be like, “DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN?!”  It’ll all just feel like a weird dream.  Here’s how we spent week seven of quarantine…

Monday, April 27 (Day 45 of Quarantine)

Monday morning was another morning of distance learning.  We’ve really reached our stride with it now, and most mornings are going very smoothly.  We were done by lunch, and afterward, the kids took the scooter and the plasma car outside to ride around in the driveway. 

I hate to sound like a broken record, but the weather was gorgeous yet again… I feel like God is rewarding us for these hard times of sheltering in place by providing us with the best weather ever.  Normally by late April, temps and humidity are on the rise here in Georgia, but this year has been so different.  We have been sitting on sunny, low-seventies, and super low humidity for weeks now, aside from a few days of severe weather here and there.  I feel like we’ve actually had a spring for the first time ever.  Normally, it seems we go from cold weather to burning hot in a matter of a week or two and it sucks.  This lovely weather has been one of the biggest blessings these last seven weeks.

The kids and I spent a good long while outside, and then I came in to tackle a couple of quick house projects.  My mother-in-law gave me the most adorable sign, so I hung it in our guest bathroom, and B painted the last tiny corner of the laundry room that I had missed because I couldn’t reach.  Once the paintbrush was clean, I set the kids up with their snacks and afternoon movie and I went upstairs to work and prep for teacher appreciation week.

BEFORE

AFTER

After dinner, we went for yet another family walk, and this time the kids decided to bring the scooter along.  They’ve had the scooter for a couple of years now and haven’t really given it much attention, but they’re loving it during this quarantine.  We only have one, though, so they took turns riding as we walked.  We stopped by the dirt pile (of course), and then when we got home, the kids rode the scooter and plasma car in the driveway some more while B finished pressure washing!!  Woop woop!  Our house is looking so fresh and so clean, clean!

Tuesday, April 28 (Day 46 of Quarantine)

Tuesday was distance learning and lunch, and both kids worked on their art assignments for the week - creating with different mediums.  Jacob used dirt in a pot and a stick to draw, and Olivia chose sprinkles on a plate and a q-tip to draw.

Afterward, Jacob got all dressed up in his baseball uniform.  His coach’s son (who is also on the team) has a birthday coming up, so they asked each child to take a picture in their uniforms holding up a certain word, and then they made a collage of all of the kids and the words, to form a whole sentence.  So sweet!

I did a yoga YouTube video after that, and I have to say, I’m starting to love it!  I’ve done yoga several times over the years (never in a real class, though), and it has always been so painful on my neck and back.  Sure enough, the back and neck pain kicked in again when I started a few weeks ago, but I’ve been sticking with it and I’ve found the pain seems to be lessening.  I’ve been doing Yoga with Adriene (thanks for the rec, Missy!!) and I love her!! 

While I did yoga, Jacob worked on making an elaborate paper sword from watching a YouTube video, and Olivia watched him.  Movie time and work ensued after that, and then I cooked dinner.  After dinner, the four of us played soccer in the back yard, and then B and I spent some time laying more pine straw in the back yard.  We ordered way too many bales since we weren’t sure how many we needed, so we decided to take the extra bales and create a natural area around the two trees at the back of our yard.  B has a hard time getting around them with the mower anyway, so that’ll make his job a little easier. 

IN PROGRESS

AFTER

The kids got showered and we got them in the bed, and then B and I headed downstairs to watch Outer Banks.  OMG, y’all, if you haven’t watched it yet, DO IT!  Soooo good.  It’s only 10 episodes and B and I binged the whole season in just a few days.  Every single episode ends on a cliffhanger so it’s impossible to stop!  We completely abandoned all other shows while we watched this one. 

Wednesday, April 29 (Day 47 of Quarantine)

Wednesday morning Olivia made a Venn Diagram to compare dragons and dinosaurs, and we had to snap a picture because… who makes Venn Diagrams in kindergarten?!  Haha.  My, how things have changed since I was in kindergarten!

After lunch, the kids and I squeezed in a quick walk around the neighborhood, but we had to cut it short because the rain rolled in.  After our walk was over, Olivia had a 1 PM Zoom class and then it was movie time and work time for one and all.

After dinner, I spent some more time taking pictures for my oils account on Instagram, and then we all sat down in the living room to watch our church’s friar bedtime stories and friarside chat.  Our church may not be open for worship right now, but they sure have been rocking and rolling behind the scenes!  Our outreach program has given over 100,000 meals to needy families, our mask ministry has made nearly 3,000 masks for our community, and they have been working on many small projects at the church.  I just love how they’re keeping us all connected and involved even when we can’t physically be there.  The friar bedtime story/friarside chat has become one of my favorite hours of the whole week!

Thursday, April 30 (Day 48 of Quarantine)

Thursday, I did a “Day in the Life” on my Instagram stories, so instead of writing a summary of the day, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.  And in case you missed it, you can rewatch the whole day by clicking the “Quarantine Day” story highlight in my Instagram bio.  There are lots of videos there that won’t be in this blog post.

Friday, May 1 (Day 49 of Quarantine)

Friday marked the day that our shelter-in-place order was lifted here in the state of Georgia.  I, personally, think it’s too soon considering the rate at which people are being diagnosed with Covid-19 in Georgia (including our county) is still increasing.  Many nonessential businesses have been allowed to reopen such as nail and hair salons, gyms, bowling alleys (?!), and dining rooms at restaurants.  There are rules in place to help people do these things “safely,” but I’m not convinced these rules do ensure total safety of the patrons who choose to visit. 

For example, restaurants are only allowed to be at 25% capacity to ensure social distancing standards, but if someone sneezes or coughs from 6 feet away from you and they don’t cover it, their germs could still reach you very easily.  Needless to say, for the time being our family has no plans whatsoever to change anything that we’re doing.  We will continue staying at home, only going out for groceries or other necessities, and only going out for leisure in places where we can guarantee plenty of space from other people.  We will continue getting take-out from our favorite local restaurants to support them, but we have no plans to dine-in anytime soon, as sad as that makes me.  We still aren’t even seeing any family, as much as it’s killing us.  I’m in the “higher-risk” category since I have asthma, so we have to be as careful as we possibly can.

Anyhoo, Friday was fun time during the kids’ live Zooms.  Jacob’s class played “Would You Rather” with one of their teachers and then his other teacher finished reading a book to the class that they’d started weeks ago.  While Jacob had his meeting, Olivia read books and took four AR tests (overachiever!  Haha) and then she had her live Zoom meeting Friday afternoon, where they had another scavenger hunt.

B got off of work a little early Friday, so we decided to get out and run some errands.  Our first stop was my parents’ house to drop off my uncle’s pressure washer and some oils for my momma.  We ended up hanging out in the yard with them for nearly an hour and it was so good catching up in person!  I miss our Sunday dinners SO MUCH, y’all.  And hugs.  I haven’t hugged my momma or daddy in over 50 days and it’s just killing me.

After we left their house, we headed to a local bottle shop to grab some gift cards for teacher appreciation week.  The owners have kids at our school, so we were able to support local business and one of our school families.  The kids and I, of course, stayed in the car and B, of course, wore his mask when he went in alone, so we’re still doing our part to keep ourselves and everyone else safe.

We went to a local nursery next to grab some ferns and flowers to plant, and this time it was my turn to put on a mask and get out.  Fortunately, there weren’t many people there (although there were a ton of cars in the parking lot??) and I was able to keep my distance from everyone except for the cashier, of course.  A couple of guys who work there did insist on helping me carry all of my items to the trunk, though, since I had so much stuff, so I was thankful for masks!!!! 

All of our favorite local pizza places have closed for the quarantine, so we decided to try a new-ish local place that we hadn’t tried.  They market themselves as “authentic Italian food” as the owners were born and raised in Italy, and everyone has raved about the place on Facebook, but I have to say, I wasn’t that impressed with the pizza.  I mean, it was good, but there are two other places in town that I’d choose over them any day of the week!  I’m counting down the days until they reopen…

The wait for the pizza was going to be hella long, so B drove all of us back home and I worked on getting my new ferns set up while he went back out to grab the pizza.  We cracked open some beers when he got home and then after dinner, we had a Friday family movie night.  The kids had never seen Up, so we watched that, much to my dismay.  It’s such a fantastic movie, but the opening sequence in that movie makes me cry like a baby and I just can’t even watch it.  It’s soooo sad, y’all.  So sad.  After Up, the kids went to bed and B and I watched a couple more episodes of Outer Banks.

Saturday, May 2 (Day 50 of Quarantine)

Saturday morning, we had homemade waffles and then I went for a run.  My stamina and overall tolerance for running has increased exponentially, but unfortunately, so has my knee pain.  I’m pretty sure my knee pain is stemming from my weak hip due to my childbirth injuries way back, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to continue.  I’ve been doing my hip exercises again and I’m going to try new shoes, but I’m not sure that’s going to help.  Boooo.  We’ll see, though!

After my run, I worked on getting some things tidied up, and I also worked on some house odds and ends, and then Olivia and I sat down to do manicures.  She’s been begging to have her nails painted so we finally made the time to do it.

After lunch, I spent an hour or so laying out in the sun reading, and then I headed inside to do a little bit of work.  I had a 5 PM Zoom with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mom’s side of the family, and it was nice to chat with all of them since we hadn’t seen them in so long.  We are a very close-knit family so it’s been hard being away from everyone… especially during my grandmother’s birthday and Easter.

After our Zoom meeting ended, my brother Zach called me, my parents, and my littlest brother on Facetime and the five of us ended up chatting for another hour or so.  Meanwhile, B went to pick up Mexican for dinner, and when he got home, we had our Saturday night Mexican like we always do.  B found some premade margarita mix at Publix during his last shopping trip, and we decided to give it a whirl.  We didn’t have high hopes for it at all, but it turned out to be soooo yummy!  And it’s the easiest thing ever – you literally just pour it over ice and it’s ready, alcohol included!! 

After dinner, we watched some more of The Imagineers on Disney + and then after the kids went to bed, B and I finished Outer Banks season one.  Seriously soooo good, y’all!!!!  There’s only one season so far, so we’ll likely have to wait a couple of years for season two, but boy, am I already counting it down!

Sunday, May 3 (Day 51 of Quarantine)

Sunday we actually had real life plans, y’all!  For the first time in forever, we were able to go on an adventure… to the strawberry patch!  Of course, we were able to keep our social distance and be 100% safe, otherwise we wouldn’t have gone.  The drive is a bit of a haul, so the trip ended up taking up the whole morning.  We got up and headed out early to beat the heat (Sunday was one of our hottest days so far this year even though the high was only 83ish), and we arrived at the orchard mid-morning. 

We were instructed to go straight to wash our hands first, and then we were able to grab clean buckets to pick.  There were a fair amount of people there that day, but the orchard is huge, so we were able to completely avoid everyone and pick in our very own little areas.  We were told that the berries had been overpicked and that there weren’t very many left, but we were able to fill an entire basket (nearly 4 lbs.) with the delicious berries.  Most of the ones that were left were on the smaller side, but they sure are delicious!! 

After we finished picking, B went and paid for the berries, and we all got some of their homemade strawberry soft-serve ice cream… my favorite part of the whole trip!  Oh man, it is so flipping delicious! 

We headed home and cut up some of the berries to have with lunch, and then afterward, B and the kids worked on our NYC puzzle while I went outside to plant my new flowers and watch church. 

B and the kids played video games for several hours Sunday afternoon so I had lots of time to work.  They’ve been playing a new-to-them Zelda game so they all turned into zombies for the afternoon to get super far in the game. 

I headed downstairs around 5 to start cooking dinner, and I also whipped up a new cocktail (that I made up) that I’ll hopefully be sharing on the blog soon.  I had wanted to share it today, but again, little time to blog has left me in a constant state of content shuffling. 

We had dinner on the back porch under the twinkle lights Sunday evening and then B and I lingered on the porch after dinner clean-up while the kids played in the yard.  While the kids got showered and ready for bed, I went for a walk around the neighborhood solo… always a treat these days because it’s the only time I truly get to be alone. 

B and I finished the evening watching American Idol (so crazy how they’re doing the season from everyone’s homes this year… just bonkers) and I did some light weight-lifting while we watched.  I’ve gotten to the point where I’m doing two workouts pretty much every single day, and I feel the strongest and healthiest that I have in ages.  One of the perks of this quarantine… so much time to be active!

Happy Monday, y’all!

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