Our Week - The One with Quarantine, Week 15 & Summer, Week 5 (Olivia’s Dance Recital & Din with My Fam)

This week was a surprisingly busy week considering we’re still quarantining, but I’ll take it!  It definitely beats being cooped up at home for days on end!

Monday, June 22 (Day 101 of Quarantine)

Monday was one of the few days we didn’t have anything on the agenda, so we spent most of the morning and afternoon outside.  I read while the kids played on the porch and Olivia played in the pool.  Jacob’s reached the point where the blow-up pool doesn’t really interest him as much, so he tends to want to do other things while Olivia plays in it.

The late afternoon was spent working while the kids played video games, and it was nice and cozy since a big thunderstorm blew through.  We hadn’t had a good rainy day in quite sometime and I’d been in the mood for one, so it hit the spot. 

That evening after dinner, we all went for a walk around the neighborhood since it had cooled off after the storm.  After the kids went to bed, B and I started a new show on Amazon, Sneaky Pete.  So far, B is loving it, but I’ve found that it hasn’t really held my attention much.

Tuesday, June 23 (Day 102 of Quarantine)

Tuesday morning, Olivia had a one-on-one Zoom reading session with her teacher, and then she and I spent the rest of the morning diving into dance lessons.  Her recital was just a few days away at that point and she needed a lot of work since they hadn’t had any in-person lessons since March.  Her dance school had posted videos with the steps and the music, so I ended up learning her whole ballet and tap routines so I could help her learn it, too.  We worked really hard that morning for over an hour practicing both routines, and she really got the hang of the ballet portion and most of the tap portion. 

After lunch, the kids and I walked to the culdesac at the end of our street so they could practice wheeling around on their bikes.  We removed the training wheels months ago, so they both practiced balancing and getting a feel for turning.  Jacob is still not remotely interested in learning to ride, but Olivia is begging to, so we’ll have to try to get out there again when B isn’t working so he can help her.  I struggle to hold their bikes up when they’re on them so I’m not much help. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent inside, and then we had leftovers for dinner.  The kids put on a magic show after dinner, and then we had some more outdoor time together before settling in to watch America’s Got Talent.  Jacob has had his magic set for a few years and he recently rekindled his love for it.  And Olivia really enjoys being his lovely assistant and also doing a few tricks of her own. 

Wednesday, June 24 (Day 103 of Quarantine)

Wednesday morning after our typical morning routine (wake, shower, meditate, breakfast, devotional, cartoons for the kids, blog reading for me), Olivia and I worked for another hour on her ballet and tap routines. She had much more confidence that day and it seemed like things had really stuck with her from the previous day. 

After dance, the kids dug into their summer homework.  We let it go for weeks but now we’re on a roll.  Jacob has to log at least eight hours in Khan Academy for math, and he spent nearly an hour doing that while Olivia and I read together.  She has a handful of long chapter books, so we’ve been reading those together to catch up on her reading deficit.  We’re big readers in our house, so it’s unusual for us to be behind on it. 

After lunch, I had yet another dentist appointment to fix my tooth that had chipped again.  The chip was so minute that he was able to just buff it out this time, and I’m hoping that’s the last time I’ll have to deal with it.

Wednesday evening, we went to my parents’ house for dinner for the first time since March 15!  Woo hoooo!!  Prior to going to the beach, we had already started to expand our quarantine circle, seeing my in-laws for Sunday lunches again.  My parents weren’t quite ready at that point, but they decided that they would be ready once we were back from the beach and had quarantined ourselves for a couple of weeks.

We were ultimately aiming for Sunday since that’s when we usually do our dinners, but something came up for the following Sunday, so my mom just decided to cook on Wednesday instead.  I had tears in my eyes when I walked into my parents’ house because it had been so long since we were last there… the smell was just so familiar and cozy, and I have missed it all these months.  That’s the longest I’ve ever gone without being in their house.

My mom had cooked a new-to-us recipe and we ate and talked and just enjoyed each other’s company.  After only seeing them a handful of times in the yard since March, it was SO WONDERFUL to sit around the table and share food with them.  We were also finally able to celebrate my birthday with them (from April 5 – ha!), Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day!

I’m praying we’re all able to continue getting together like this from now on… it was so freaking good for my soul. 

Thursday, June 25 (Day 104 of Quarantine)

Thursday was another rainy-ish day.  We spent the whole day indoors playing and working.  I worked on and off for most of the day (instead of just sticking to my usual afternoon time block while the kids watch their movie) because I’m just so behind.  It’s laughable at this point.  I was finally able to do some behind-the-scenes housekeeping here for the blog, and although I’m nowhere near caught up, it felt good to start. 

Olivia had another live Zoom dance class and this time they were asked to wear their recital costumes as a mini rehearsal.

We made breakfast for dinner and were hoping to squeeze in an evening walk, but the bottom fell out just as we sat down, and it continued to rain for the rest of the evening.  We all caught up on America’s Got Talent, and then after the kids went to bed, B and I started watching All American by recommendation of my cousin.  Oh man, I am loving it so far!  I had seen it described as Friday Night Lights meets The OC, and I would say that is pretty accurate so far.  I never watched The OC, but I know enough about it to say I think that’s true.  Regardless, it has Taye Diggs in it and that’s enough to sell me right there.  Oh my goodness, I love him.  I’ve loved him since I saw The Wood and The Best Man back in the 90s… two of my favorite movies ever.  

Friday, June 26 (Day 105 of Quarantine)

Friday morning, I had to make a Publix run and I was very pleased to see that the majority of people were wearing masks inside the store.  I only counted five people who weren’t which is so much better than the last time I was there when the majority of people were NOT.  #WearYourMask

The rest of the day was spent doing the usual things – outdoor time, summer homework time, lunch, work and a movie.  We also checked on our eggs to see how they were doing, and we discovered that we have babies!!  They aren't lifting their heads yet and they are just a tiny pile of feathers as of now, but my goodness are they sweet.

When I went downstairs after the kids’ afternoon movie, I saw that a brand new (full-size) bag of Sun Chips had been opened and eaten almost down to the crumbs.  I was soooo puzzled because the kids don’t ever eat chips for their afternoon snack, but after doing some investigating (AKA questioning the kids) I found out that Olivia had opened the brand new bag and eaten almost the entire thing… all by herself.  Face palm. 

Y’all, that girl is such a piece of work!  I don’t know how she had room in her tiny tummy for all those chips, but apparently, she was really hungry.  Lol.  I was on pins and needles for the rest of the afternoon and evening waiting for her to get a tummy ache, but she never did.  She was, however, not hungry for the Mexican that B picked up for dinner later that evening.  Chips and cheese dip are her favorite thing in the entire universe (aside from peanut butter and jelly, of course), so I knew she really wasn’t hungry when she wouldn't touch that cheese dip.  We wrapped up her food and stuck it in the fridge, and she ended up being hungry for it later in the night during our family movie.  That girl, that girl…

We watched the live action Jungle Book for movie night, and it was okay.  I’ve never been a Jungle Book fan, so I’m not the right person to ask for an opinion, I suppose.  It seemed well done, but I’m just not a fan.

Saturday, June 27 (Day 106 of Quarantine)

Saturday morning, we were up a little earlier than usual because we had to be at the theater at 11 for Olivia’s dance recital.  

Her dance recital was originally to have been back in May, prior to the end of school.  However, due to everything going on, they decided to delay it to the end of June.  I was very skeptical that it would happen at all, but they managed to make it work.  Olivia had not, however, been to an in-person class since March, so the fact that they managed to pull it off was a miracle!  Haha.

Everything was obviously completely different this year.  Instead of doing a rehearsal and two performances – one on Saturday evening and one as a Sunday matinee – they had no rehearsal and they just did one long performance that had to be spread out over two whole days to ensure proper social distancing.  Their dance school packs the house every year for those performances, so they couldn’t do the entire performance all at once for obvious reasons.

Instead, they gave each class a time slot.  Only 2-3 classes were permitted in the building at one time, and each dancer was only allowed to have one guest… which, sadly, meant that Brian and Jacob and the grandparents couldn’t be there.  :o(  Olivia had to arrive in full costume, makeup, and hair, and parents weren’t allowed back stage to help the kids change into their second costumes.  The teacher did that instead.

When we arrived, we had to go in through the stage door at the back of the building.  Upon entering everyone was REQUIRED to wear a mask and use hand sanitizer.  We were immediately escorted to our assigned seats in the theater (which were crazily far away from anyone else in there – YES!), and then Olivia waited there with me until they called her class over the loud speaker. 

Once her class was called, I walked her to the stage door steps where her teacher was waiting, and I went immediately back to my assigned seat.  A few short minutes after Olivia was called back, they announced that her class was coming out for her ballet rehearsal and performance.  Her class and teachers all came out on stage and rehearsed their ballet dance once first.  Then they left the stage and came back out immediately to do the real ballet performance. 

After her real ballet performance, she went back stage and immediately changed into her tap costume while another class did their rehearsal and performance, and then Olivia’s tap class was called back out to the stage where they did one rehearsal of their tap number, went back off stage, and then came immediately back out to do their actual performance. 

The whole thing was livestreamed so everyone back home could watch, and they also had a professional camera team there recording the whole thing… they will go back and edit the recording to take out all of the rehearsals and put all of the individual real performances together so it’ll all come together like one big performance.  We’ll get a DVD later this summer and then we’ll be able to watch the whole thing in its entirety so we can see the storyline in order and see everything that we had to miss.

The dance school and the theater did a phenomenal job of keeping everyone safe while allowing those sweet girls to dance on that stage, and everything was just perfectly executed.  I was very impressed.  We were only in the building for 30-45 minutes total and the entire time we were there, there were probably no more than 50-ish people in that entire massive theater.  And every single person was wearing a mask other than the dancers.  Now we just have to pray that Olivia wasn’t somehow exposed by one of the other little dancers, but I’m honestly not too worried about that.

Olivia did a fantastic job with both performances!  I was so proud at how confident she was… she just got up there on that big ol’ stage and did her thang!  No in-person class for months, and she did a great job with both routines!  She did fumble a couple of times during the tap routine but that tap routine was tough and it goes fast, so it was hard!

After their second performance was done, all of us parents had to leave the theater immediately and meet the girls by a specific door, and then we had to leave the building.  We did stop for two minutes in the lobby to snap a few pictures of the girls, though!  They had missed each other so much!  Cutest “Little Mirrors” and “Chipmunks!”  (The performance was Snow White so she was a “Little Mirror” because of the magic mirror and a chipmunk since Snow White was friends with all of the woodland creatures.)  Olivia was pumped when I met up with her… she was so proud of herself! 

I should also add that Brian was the real MVP throughout this whole ordeal, because my stupid self left Olivia’s tap costume sitting right on the kitchen counter when we left.  FACE PALM.  We got all the way down to the theater before I realized it was missing, so I had to call Brian and he had to stop mowing the lawn, grab Jacob, and fly downtown to get it to us in time.  He ended up missing her ballet performance via livestream because of that, but fortunately, I recorded it, so he was able to see it when we got home.  Thank goodness he had answered the phone, though, otherwise she would have missed her tap performance and I would have felt like the worst mom ever.  It’s so unlike me to forget something so important like that… I swear, I’m going to be no good after all this quarantining.  I think my mind is going because of it.  Haha.  #YouHadOneJob

When we got home, we showered our little dancer with flowers and she promptly made herself a PB&J for lunch because she was starving.  

We spent the rest of the day being lazy and then Saturday afternoon, my father-in-law came over to have a belated back yard Father’s Day celebration.  B grilled burgers and we made Moscow Mules and we played too many rounds of Cornhole.  Those simple nights on the back porch under the twinkle lights are always some of my favorites. 

Sunday, June 28 (Day 107 of Quarantine)

Sunday morning, we slept in and then had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  We started Sunday cinnamon rolls earlier this year and I’m not sure we’ll ever go back to eating regular breakfast food on Sundays.  It’s always such a nice treat!

After breakfast, I went and did my daily meditation and then a nice, long yoga workout because I had to get my mind right for an interview that I had to do later in the day.  The kids’ school asked me to do an interview for a video they are putting together regarding our school’s distance learning program.  They wanted someone to chat about it from a parent perspective, and I gladly agreed since I had been so impressed with the way the school handled everything. 

However, I get maaaajor anxiety over any kind of public speaking or being in the limelight, so I woke up Sunday morning STRESSING.  I had prepped fully for the interview, but I always get in my head in situations like that, so I was stressing.  My meditation and yoga did calm me down a good bit and keep me from going full-on panic attack, but I was so, so anxious all morning. 

We were done with our two-week after-beach quarantine on Saturday, so we were able to go back to my MIL and step-FIL’s for lunch, and that took my mind off of the interview for a while.  We are still eating at separate tables at their house and then just hanging outside afterward, but we’re just so thankful to be back visiting with them again after going months without our beloved Sunday lunches. 

I headed to the kids’ school after lunch to do my interview, and I was even more intimidated when I walked in and saw the whole set complete with professional lighting, mics, and a professional cameraman from our local news.  EEKS.  I was, however, thrilled to be able to hang out with our school president, principal, and communications director while I was waiting.  I love all three of those ladies so much and it was soooo nice to have adult interaction with someone outside of our immediate family.  I’ve missed human connection tremendously, y’all.  Tremendously. 

I didn’t have to wait long until it was my turn to interview and the whole process took less than 10 minutes.  I felt like I did pretty well, but there was one time where I got in my head a little too much and lost my train of thought and therefore, just started blabbing.  Haha.  Fortunately, the communications director told me that they don’t need the interview to be perfect all the way through… they’re just going to be pulling a few quotes from it to use in their video.  Whew. 

I headed home after that where B and the kids were playing video games, and a few minutes later, I received a sweet text from the communications director who put my mind at ease, telling me that I shouldn’t have been nervous because I’m a natural on camera.  I definitely wouldn’t go that far to say I’m a natural, but I’m hoping that meant they got the footage they needed.  And this is why you never see my face on Instagram stories… hahahaha.  I feel SO AWKWARD doing stuff on camera.  So awkward, y’all.  And I hate hearing the sound of my own voice.  I’d never make it as a reality TV star.  Or even a YouTuber for that matter.  Haha.

I was feeling footloose and fancy free once the interview was out of the way, and we spent the rest of the evening hanging out at home.  I made a charcuterie board for dinner since we were all still full from lunch, and then we were all lazy the rest of the evening.  Maui was having some tummy troubles, so I spent most of the evening snuggling with her and trying to get her to eat something.  She was pitiful.  B and I ended the evening with another episode of All American, and that was a wrap on our week!