Head West

We couldn't take it. Illinois was bringing us down. All five of us in one house, no where to go...it didn't take us long to decide to jump in the car and drive back to Arizona. With Leah's birthday and mother's day coming up we figured it would be nice for us to be able to celebrate together. And of course we love being able to be outdoors...hiking, biking and swimming every day! We’ve done some impressive chalk work at Gigi and Papa’s and we’ve had amazing views for working from home and distance learning. We’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Hattie Potter

We’re just so darn excited over here!!! Back in early September Hattie brought the 1st Harry Potter book home from the library (we own it, but that’s beside the point). Despite getting reading intervention the year before she insisted reading it in 2nd grade because her sisters did. Fast forward 6 months and we’re sheltered in place due to #covid19 She’s got plenty of time!!! So tonight she finished the Sorcerers Stone AND she passed the accelerated reading test!!! Officially all 3 of my girls read Harry Potter with the wonderful Mrs. Hatayama!!! Needless to say, Miss Hattie is out on a Dairy Queen run with her dad right now.

Same old

There really isn’t much to report. It’s hard to find things to write about when you’re sheltered in place and can’t leave your house. The girls are still plugging away at their distance learning plan which is a good thing because the governor has now cancelled school for the rest of the school year, and extended Illinois Shelter in Place until May 30th.  We’re getting used to our new “normal”.

In the mean time we’re getting creative. I made a walking desk with the treadmill in the basement. The girls have gotten creative practicing swim on the kitchen countertop, and we even used Zoom to have piano lessons with Miss Abbey. Hattie has created a wonderful picture for Earth Day. The biggest news is that we’re going back to Arizona for a few weeks. We need a change of scenery and the girls will love having cousins to play with again!

Memes of Covid-19

Remember that time that the entire country shut down...You could only leave your house to go to the store, or work. If you were deemed essential, that is. If you were working from home, it was rough. Because not only were you working, you were helping your kids get through school while your husband was on call, after call, after call...because he too is working from home.

There was no toilet paper to be found anywhere. And the country was obsessed with Tiger King. Did Carole Baskin kill her husband? We may never know. We sat on our couches in our pajamas and streamed our church services, even on Easter Sunday. And for 4 straight weeks we had dinner together every single night. While we miss all our activities, swim, dance, tumbling, piano...the slower pace has given us the opportunity for plenty of family time.

Sometimes though, we (mostly me) spent way too much time exchanging memes with my awesome co-workers and friends. These are a few of my favorites.

Veggie tales was a huge hit when I was in High School and college. Leah and Kiersten have seen several episodes. Not sure about Hattie. So this one definitely made me chuckle. Now excuse me, I need to go listen to "Oh where is my hairbrush!" I was a Sunday School teacher and a preschool teacher during this time and I knew LOTS of Veggietale tunes!

Now this one...oh my! The Burger King logo has been replaced with Tiger King. The Costco logo is playing on the band name "Panic at the Disco" with Panic at the Costco...because seriously American's have lost their minds and are hoarding things like toilet paper and bottled water and more. And the milk carton with the toilet paper roll...Once upon a time, missing kids were shared on milk cartons. Believe it or not I remember those days. So toilet paper...because no one can find any, anywhere! I sent this to our Junior High History teachers, Mr. Kendall and Mr. Bradley!

My girls have seen Willy Wonka or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory numerous times, so this one actually made them giggle. 

How can we not share Mr. Kendall's famous commute to work meme! He's riding on Knox and 

Ollie's Powerwheels, Big Gulp in hand. Too Funny! Thanks for the laugh, neighbor Angie. 

And this one is just beyond fitting, because if you read my last post, you know this is how we celebrated Easter with our family. Thank goodness for Zoom keeping us connected!

Happy Easter, 2020

There just aren't any words. I saw something on Facebook this morning. It said "The Churches are empty, but the good news is, so is the tomb." I don't know the last time I wasn't in church on Easter. So thankful that St. John's was hosting services with Facebook Live. Mitch was able to hook the computer up to the TV so we could stream it at home. As I predicted we were all in our pajamas. But we were there, on our couches, together singing hymns of praise. Hattie was belting out her hymns of praise. It was sweet and made me smile.

Lunch was a group effort. Mitch baked a ham and helped Leah with corn casserole. He and Kiersten made deviled eggs, because is it really even Easter if you don't have those?!?! Hattie made the green bean casserole with my help, and of course Kiersten and I did the birds nest for dessert. It made it all feel a little more normal to have the comfort foods. Tonight we have two different zoom calls to chat and celebrate with family. Here's to hoping we can all be together next year!

Covid-19 Numbers

I keep feeling like I should share something profound. The truth is...I don't know what to say. Yes, the girls and I talked about how they are living a big part of history. And I told them I want to document this for them, but I don't know what to document. We're at home, we're social distancing. No one is going to school, non-essential business are closed. It's strange to them that they are seeing Mitch so much. He's never worked from home like this. It's different because normally when we are home they don't think twice about playing with the neighbor kids, but no one is ringing our doorbell. I've been trying to document the number of cases the last few weeks, keeping an eye on how they change. I'm sure they are hard to see, but here they are:

March 29th: 135,499   

Illinois: 3,491 (47 deaths)

March 31st: 177, 452

Illlinois: 5, 058 (74 deaths)

April 4th: 300,915

Illnois: 9,226 (210 deaths)

April 5th: 331,151

Illinois: 10,360 (245 deaths)

April 6th: 368,079

Illinois: 12,262 (308 deaths)

April 8th: 429,052

Illinois: 15,078 (462 deaths)

April 10th: 501,301

Illinois: 17, 903 (597 deaths)

When this all started I was one of the people who said "it's like the flu" because honestly what do I know. And that's what I was seeing reported in the media...don't get me started on the American Media machine. But the fact is, it's not like the flu. It has a contagion factor 2.5 times influenza. It's spreading fast and while most will recover many will not. I don't want to be someone who spreads Covid-19 to someone who won't recover. Did we do the right thing shutting down an entire country? We may never know. But I think it's right to err on the side of caution to minimize the loss of human life. Right now the news is screaming we bow have more fatalities, we now have more fatalities than Europe...Of course we do. Our land mass and population is much greater. Sigh,, its all so much to process.. That's my two sense...I'm sharing it here so someday my grand kids have my thoughts on Corona Virus Pandemic 2020!

Home Ec

Is the Corona Virus 15 a real thing? Asking for a friend, LOL! We've never shied away from letting our kids get to work in the kitchen. They were scrambling eggs in kindergarten. Kiersten often helps me make Lasagna. They make their own macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches among other things. Right now being stuck at home they want to make sweet treats. I caved and added a few things to my instacart groceries this week. Leah got busy making homemade banana nut muffins last night. Today Kiersten made Birds Nest (Pretzels with melted chocolate and peanut butter) for our Easter celebration tomorrow. They're already asking if they can make cake later this week. I think tomorrow I'll let them handle the Easter cooking. We aren't doing much but surely they can handle corn casserole, deviled eggs and green bean casserole. You have to stick with the comfort foods and traditions now more than ever.