Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to this Skip!

VVBS

Vacation Bible School week is one of our favorite weeks of summer, and VBS being canceled is one of the saddest parts of the pandemic. Fortunately, GFBC has moved its VBS online! We registered George right away, and since the girls couldn't volunteer in person, they volunteered at home to make VBS even more fun for George. 

Admittedly, in person is pretty unbeatable, but George was thrilled to be able to attend virtually, and we are so grateful for everyone who made this happen. 

We cannot wait to attend next year - in person! 

Mom Agenda

Raise your hand if you still use a paper planner? 

A paper planner is really critical for me to keep up with everyone's schedules, and I have been using MomAgenda since Skip first picked one up for me in 2006, when the girls were less than three months old. I'm a huge fan, and my favorite mail day of the year is when the new edition arrives just in time for the student calendar months to be used. 

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! How was your three day weekend?

We are still social distancing so we grilled at home, played Bocce ball and just hung out as a family. There were bike rides, and Skip's parents stopped by and visited with us on the deck. We also stopped by my mom's house and visited with her on her front porch. Our motto is to enjoy things outdoors.

Importantly, we are thankful for all of the brave soldiers who have died defending our country to provide the enduring freedoms our country enjoys.

How was your weekend?

Bocce from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Memorial Day 2020

Happy Memorial Day! We give thanks to the many soldiers who gave their lives in defense of our freedom. May we always remember their sacrifice. 

Enumerated Update

1) Quarantine Pets: All of the stories about pets make me so happy. I know Pixie is thriving by having us all at home. She's never been happier, and she makes being home more fun for us, too.

2) What it might look like to safely reopen schools. Without widespread testing, contact tracing and an effective treatment, I cannot imagine school resuming.

3) Formerly recession-proof, COVID19 has dismantled the hair industry. To paraphrase the article, American women spent $3M on their hair in 1936 during the depression, and salons actually saw growth (no pun intended) during the 2008 recession. COVID and its accompanying distancing orders completely closed the industry. I was lucky because I had been to the salon two days before our stay at home order. However, that was weeks ago! We have done the home hair cuts, and I am contemplating applying root color (yikes). I watched videos to learn how to cut my mom's hair. How is your hair doing? Are you toughing it out, or have you resorted to DIY? Our salons have now reopened... have you been?

4) Related: I have also watched videos on how to groom our Bichon Frise. Y'all. She has the most complicated cut in the family. I actually didn't realize grooming services were still available, but the modifications are made it impossible to get her an appointment. She looks so pitiful.

Update: I scheduled an appointment for Pixie with a new groomer, had to wait three weeks, but she finally got groomed this week! The only downside? They gave her a Maltese haircut by mistake, although to be fair, her hair was really long, making it impossible to see what her cut should have been. I shared a pic of her when freshly groomed, but oh well.

5) Reopening: Not to open the whole debate can of worms... but our state has reopened. While I am happy for businesses that were suffering, our state has incurred 4,000 new cases of COVID within the last two weeks (out of a grand total of 12,000 cases since March). This doesn't seem like good news.

6) School: Virtual classes have ended, and George has had his official last day. His teacher even delivered his classroom supplies and said goodbye (she is sooooo awesome; we've been so blessed to have her during this odd time). The girls are awaiting virtual award day and their final day of school on May 28th.

Have a wonderful (and safe) weekend!

George + Pix

These two have a lot of fun. It's true what they say... having a dog in quarantine is helpful. Pixie is having the most fun ever. 

May (so far) in Pictures

Hey friends,

Sorry to have dropped off the blog. We had a death in our family at the end of April (my brother passed away), and we have been processing all of that.

Posting will resume soon, and here is a glimpse of what has been going on with us lately.

Back real soon!

Virtual Dance

Lauren and Grace have wrapped up online dance. They have been troopers about lacing up their pointe shoes and performing on the hardwoods here at home, and they have been thankful that their favorite activity continued - even if only remotely.  

Their tenth year of dance was definitely eventful, and we are ready for a more normal year to begin in the fall. 

Last Day of School

Although the girls have a couple of things to wrap up, today was George's last day of third grade. This has been such a crazy year, and we cannot believe he is now a fourth grader. This was such a weird way to end the year, without getting to say goodbye to friends in person. George will be so glad to see them all again soon.  

Wrapping Up the School Year

George and the girls have really mastered distance learning. George likes to Webex his class while texting his best bud during the class. 

Classes are winding down, and we are awaiting the final activities of the 2019/2020 school year.  

Weekend Update

Happy Monday, friends!

Although our state is beginning to do some limited reopening, we are still adhering to a strict quarantine at our house. Because this weekend included Mother's Day, we did visit my mom and Skip's mom with our newly established porch visits and yard visits, respectively. My mom has the typical southern front porch with a swing and some cozy chairs, and Skip's parents back yard is worthy of being featured in Better Home and Gardens. Both were wonderful visits, and we love visiting with them while maintaining a little distance for everyone's safety. We loved seeing our moms for Mother's Day, regardless of the circumstances. The venue really doesn't matter.

The trio were wrapping up some things for school on Friday, and they took a bike ride Friday afternoon, followed by homemade chicken fingers for dinner. Skip was up early Saturday and by mid-morning he had decided to pick up mulch so that we could re-mulch the playground. While the weather is so nice, I have been trying to talk everyone into using the swings at least. So we knocked the mulch out quickly... really quickly. Skip was trying to hurriedly unload the first truck load so that he had time to pick up a second truck load before they closed at noon, and he made it. George and Skip were on unload detail, while the girls and I raked everything into place. Afterward, we had some lunch (chicken finger sandwiches), and visited with our moms. In keeping with our quarantine status, we cut fresh roses from our bushes and took those with us. Admittedly, we are a little germaphobic, but mostly we feel like we have too many days invested in this quarantine to contact COVID on a simple errand. Now, if the kids were still in school and we were being exposed anyway, we might feel differently. At least, that was my philosophy in the days and weeks leading up to school terminating on March 13th.

After our visits, it was a little late for our regular Saturday dinner of homemade pizza so we picked up McDonald's for a treat. I don't think the trio have had McDonalds for maybe three months, and they definitely enjoyed it.

The trio wrote out cards for me for Sunday morning, and Skip helped them make breakfast. Basically, I had a wonderful day of doing all of my favorite things... reading, relaxing on the deck, and Skip and I watched Jerry Seinfeld's latest standup special. My mom and I both talked about how perfect this "simpler" Mother's Day was, even during quarantine.

How was your weekend? 

Also, speaking of southern porches, I requested rocking chairs for Mother's Day for our front porch and cannot wait for them to arrive!

Weekend Update

Happy Monday! How is your week looking? George is counting down the last two official weeks of school, when distance learning ends. Lauren and Grace are cautiously optimistic. Although their online Webex classes may end on May 15th, they could have additional assignments for the remaining two weeks that were scheduled. They are also wrapping up dance, as this will be the last week of virtual dance class. Their recital, scheduled for May 9th has been canceled since the end of March, but there is no additional discussion about postponing the recital for a date later in summer.

Since my last post, the trio have continued to bike every afternoon and are now averaging 10-12 miles each day. Fortunately, our immediate neighborhood is bike friendly, and more and more neighbors are biking each week. Since biking usually occurs in the afternoons, after Skip's workday ends, I prep for dinner and then sit outside with Pixie, who is very saddened not to get to go on the ride. After their ride Friday, we picked up Chick-fil-A and had dinner on the deck.

We did some work at home Saturday, and then we had a "porch visit" with my mom. Skip loaded the bikes so they could ride at her house so that we could visit, have some activity (and a change of scenery) and maintain the appropriate distance. They were able to log six miles, just riding around the driveway and property, and they were happy to get to see Grammie.

Saturday night has become pizza night, and we have been working on creating a really good, homemade pizza. We are getting closer each week by using Bobby Flay's pizza crust recipe, and grilling chicken for a tasty and substantial barbecue chicken pizza. Our current order/combo is: BBQ chicken + onion, pepperoni, and cheese (sans sauce).

We had a Costco run first thing Sunday morning, and then we had virtual church. We did some yard work, and by "we," I mean Skip, although we helped a little. The crew had another 10-mile ride, and then we hung out on the deck and grilled hamburgers.

How was your weekend? 

Enumerated Update

Helllooooo Friday!

As my niece and all of the cool kids are saying (or were saying... did I miss it?), it's been a hot minute since I did a Friday post. Obviously, no explanation is needed to explain this return to daily blogging. Like the ENTIRE WORLD, we are finding ourselves with a lot of free time on our hands these days (except for those brave "essentials" who have never been busier - God bless and keep them safe). Even with distance learning and Skip working harder due to an expanding workload, we are finding some extra time where all of the extra curricular activities, commuting, and all of the year-end school business used to be.

So... hi there. We are back to the daily posting versus trying to update every month or so.

Here's a few things from this week:

1) The First Modern Pandemic: Bill Gates' thoughts about the pandemic, treatments, vaccines and re-opening.

2) Abridged: Here's an abridged version if you want a quicker read.

3) Explaining the pandemic to your past self: Y'all. This really tickled my funny bone in such a big way. "While we're being proactive, if you could just do a Costco run real quick."

4) Shuttered theaters: Last week's entire box office report is from a single drive in theatre.

5) Quarantine Etiquette questions answered: Earlier during the quarantine, one of George's friends' moms called me to give the boys a chance to talk. She started the call with a polite, "Hey, are you busy?" To which I could only reply, "Most definitely not." Because, after all, what could I possibly have been doing? So "how to end a zoom call" is definitely my favorite etiquette tip. No longer will a simple "gotta run" suffice.

One of our tips for these times is to be overwhelmingly polite. Everyone's a little on edge, learning to do things differently (or frustrated that their work does not have a technological solution), and trying to reconcile this situation. Be kind. Be patient. Be understanding. That's our new motto.

 Have a wonderful weekend. See you back here Monday.

Making Bread

As a family of five, when we have bread or make sandwiches, we easily use half a loaf of bread. During this time of social distancing, lunches became more challenging, although I'm not sure why that is, because all five members of our family have always had "home" lunches every day. Perhaps it was made harder due to spacing out shopping trips more, limited bread availability (at least for pick up/delivery) and limits on how many items can be purchased (e.g., two loaves of bread for a 7-10 day period). At any rate, our simple, basic lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit became a little more complicated because we felt we were always being mindful of bread.

We had picked up a bread machine at the beginning of March and have now officially made a few loaves so far. Although we had some ingredients in our pantry, those items quickly disappeared from the shelves of most stores. Fortunately, Costco came through with both flour and bread flour so that we have plenty for a long time, what with bulk packaging. (Let us know if you need either of those things.) While I applaud everyone making bread by hand, the bread machine is a lifesaver for bread novices (like me), and we love just putting in the ingredients, setting the cycle and letting the machine do the work.

Ease of use aside, we have had to be flexible with ingredients at times. For example, we do not have bread machine yeast, but I read that regular yeast works almost as well. Also, when we were out of bread flour, we used regular flour, and that worked also. When the warm, aromatic bread is removed from the oven, there are no complaints at all.

We have tried the basic white and an Italian bread, and I can definitely see the latter becoming a staple with lasagna night and spaghetti night in the future, even post quarantine. We like the option of making a loaf to accompany dinner to elevate home meals during this time. While no southerner would prioritize the bread machine over their beloved cast iron skillet, the bread machine is helping me keep our active family fed.

These Weird Times

Sunrise at the bus stop 

The trio last attended school on March 13th, meaning it has been 40 days since we have seen a sunrise. 

These are such weird times. We try to focus on the positive, and we keep news light around the house, especially with the family. However, I have the national and state COVID dashboards running on my iPad at all times, and it's just such a weird and stressful time in a lot of ways.  We focus on the positives but are constantly aware that there are so many variables creating a long road back to normalcy.  

We try to focus on the aspects of this situation that we like. We like having everyone home. We actually like distance learning, although I know how much they want to see their friends. We miss people... family, church, friends. They do miss their sports and extracurriculars, but we love having time to ride bikes, play board games, cook, etc. 

Some things we don't miss at all... like getting up at 5:30am.  

Bob Ross

Last week I was sitting out on the deck with Grace and George when Skip came out to say hello during week. He mentioned that he needed to dress up as Bob Ross for a conference call in about two hours. Out of the various wigs we have accumulated over the years, we do do not have anything in the brown, curly variety.  

Lauren's curiosity was peaked when she saw me going through our craft supplies. I was thinking that we could just make the props out of construction paper and hope for the best. Fortunately for me, Lauren was up for the challenge and helped out with all props. We made the hair and taped it to one of Grace's headbands, and we made a pic to prop on a tabletop easel. Basically, we just needed a few sheets of paper, tape and crayons to transform Skip into Bob Ross. 

During the project, Lauren asked, "How long has dad known he needed to do this?" 

They might have been asked that very question a thousand or so times when working on a project for school.

Special thanks to Lauren for heading up props.

Here is Skip in character: 

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?

Procuring Food

We have all had to rethink how we procure food and other supplies so as to keep contact to a minimum during isolation/quarantine. We have always utilized Wal-Mart pick up service, but getting a time slot for pick up became increasingly challenging. We switched over to Wal-Mart delivery. Their policy is to leave items at the door, but we have taken to leaving our wagon out so that they don't have to hike up and down our sidewalk multiple times. 

These are crazy times. 

Jabra Elite Active

Buying presents is always challenging, but Skip is definitely one of those people for whom shopping is hard. He tends to have very precise ideas about what he wants, and he would rather go without than have something that doesn't work exactly right. He has a few things he really enjoys, such as reading, music, tennis, etc. As such, he is always on the search for the perfect pair of headphones, whether wireless or wired. He has attempted several pairs over the years with mixed results. All were disappointing or inferior in some way.

Last fall he looked into the Jabra Elite Active 65t. He liked them, but had some reservations. When Christmas came around, we got them for him. He gave them an honest try, but he felt like the headphones "popped out" of his ears at times. Now, reader, he had to make some exaggerated facial expressions to cause them to pop out, but if he wasn't totally and completely on board it was fine with me if they were returned. For the record, I held firm that they wouldn't come out, unless you engaged in [insert crazy jaw maneuvering].

Unfortunately, the return window was much shorter than I realized, and they did not make it back in the mail in time. After that he tried them a couple of more times, but became disgusted with their performance. Although I did not intend to hijack his gift, he encouraged me to try them out to see if they might work for me. They worked great! I have been enjoying them for weeks, and they do not pop out. Now, I don't play tennis while wearing them like he was planning to do, but they stay in when walking and moving about.

Fast forward to yesterday. The trio were working on school projects, and I was making lunch while listening to an audiobook. I went to get something out of the oven, and one of the ear buds popped out. It bounced on the floor of the oven and rolled to the back, right under a hot coil.

Normally, we try to be a pretty drama-free household. However, there was a good bit of commotion to try to get the ear bud out of the oven. I may have shrieked I couldn't bear to watch it melt onto the floor of the oven. I sent George to get Skip, not realizing that George had no idea what was actually happening. After he ran off, I got the lower rack out, grabbed a pair of tongs and miraculously scooped them up on the first try.  In the meantime, George had no idea all of the commotion was about ear buds, thought I had been burned and was injured, and ran to get Skip who came up assuming someone was hurt. Then George panicked, ran outside and was very upset. He thought there would be a fire, and he knew to run outside. Poor little guy. We got him calmed down quickly by explaining that the sense of urgency was to move quickly before the ear bud melted... not that help was needed because of injury or danger.

George stayed close for the rest of the day and got lots of Minecraft time while snuggling close. I also shared that I have the same feelings when I see him wreck on his bicycle. The good news is that no one was hurt in the least, and George can laugh about it now. Also, the ear bud was saved as well.

Happily, I can continue to enjoy the Jabra Elite Active ear buds and listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and music all while being active.

However, as it turns out, they do pop out.

*Obviously not sponsored by Jabra. For the record, they are fantastic headphones, but maybe it's not advisable to wear them when cooking.