Weekend Update

Happy Monday!

The weekends really do blur right into the rest of the week now, don't they? 

We have reached that part of the quarantine where certain grooming practices can no longer be ignored. Because I gave myself a slight trim last Wednesday (which backfired, by the way, because my hair took that slightest of trims as a sign to rapidly grow), Skip started requesting a hair cut. Some backstory... Skip thinks that all women have an innate talent for cutting hair, and he has argued that I could "cut hair" over the years, despite having no training nor experience whatsoever. Skip and George were both getting a little shaggy, and I was hopeful that I could just follow their past cuts. Also, and this is clutch, I followed the tutorials demonstrating how to do a man's hair cut and a boy's hair cut posted by Kate from The Small Things Blog. Those tutorials were incredibly helpful.

I did ok with the clippers and pretty good with the top, but I need to work on blending the two areas together. Our stylist is greatly missed, and we cannot wait to see her again soon.  

We had some procurement errands Saturday morning. We had our regular Wal-Mart shop delivered, but we also had our monthly Costco shop delivered. My mom and I last went to Costco on March 6th so we definitely needed a few things now. The combined shops necessitated a little inventory management, but we knocked it out quickly. Costco is still struggling to stock the bigger, in demand items (toilet tissue, Lysol spray, Lysol wipes, etc.), but they still have plenty of food, for which we are thankful.

We took a family bike ride Saturday afternoon to enjoy the gorgeous weather. The temp was 53, sunny, and just a spectacular day. There will be a lot of reports of bike riding here in this season of downtime.  Our family has always been really into bicycles, and we are fortunate to live in a bike-friendly little neighborhood. Our city at large is not so bike friendly, but our neighborhood and the surrounding streets are perfect for biking. Skip, the girls and George love it, while I just try to keep up. Skip and the kids routinely bike anywhere from 7-10 miles per day, and we are really embracing these opportunities as a silver lining to these times. There is scenario in which we would have normally had time for even the briefest of afternoon rides so we are counting ourselves lucky to have that outlet as a way to work in some physical activity.

After a long bike ride, we grabbed some take out for dinner. This is our first restaurant food since March 14th, and we were close to having a mutiny if it continued. We want to support local businesses, but honestly, there just hasn't been any excuse not to cook. I certainly cannot say we've been "too busy" because we clearly have plenty of time to cook each afternoon. We have been spending a lot more time on our deck so we decided to spruce it up a little with some solar lighting along the railings. We have probably spent more time on our deck in the last six weeks than we did all last year so it's nice to have it looking a little more festive. 

Sadly, our state had more severe weather on Sunday. We mostly had rain and thunderstorms, but we were sad for our more southern neighbors, who had to deal with storm damage. Lauren and Grace actually had a couple of projects to work on for school, and they choose to work on them Sunday when the weather was bad. Their science projects involve making a product that will help with COVID19. Lauren is working on a portable hand washing kit, and Grace is developing a "no sew" mask. Those world-changers were busy all afternoon.  

We really are grateful for the continued learning opportunities. Staying busy and keeping our minds engaged is helpful, and those activities also keep the connections with their friends strong during these times. The girls have a classmate who lives a street over, and George does, too, so biking by their houses and getting to wave hello is something to look forward to each day. We also have some good friends from church that we get to visit with frequently (outside and from a distance). We remain thankful for good neighbors.

How was your weekend? Were you able to spend some time outside?