My 40th Birthday- Covid style

I had a great 40th birthday! Last year I said that I would take responsibility for my own feelings on my birthday and definitely make it a good day by planning it and making it what I wanted. Well, covid happened, so I changed my plans and expectations. I decided to have a nice, relaxed, fun day with the family and I did.

This cute boy woke me up, asked me to shut my eyes, and walked me into the hallway.

I opened and saw these pictures in the frames for the gallery wall! Yay! I love it!

Then, the kids had this surprise for breakfast. I really liked the hologram plates.

It was supposed to be rainy all day, but we took a walk anyway. Rainy walk!

We came home, dried off, and did our own thing for a couple of hours. Then, Danny took a half day and came home with El Jaripeo take out for lunch,

The kids sent us out for a drive while they worked on setting up a party! 

I loved the streamers and balloons.

Their llama poster was so cute too. We played pin the sunglasses on the llama,

musical chairs (mats), and Limbo. Fun classics!

The pulled out some party hats for brownies and ice cream.

I was totally spoiled with tons of presents!

And some of my favorite flowers started blooming! 

It was a great day and I felt loved and thankful for my family, our health, and for our beautiful world.

More time at home

Katherine and Grant started working on a plant project.

I say "started." They gathered and pressed a variety of plants from our yard. They loved the collection part, but really lost interest in searching the books to figure out what they were.

My plan was to make a book of plants in our yard, but it wasn't really worth forcing an idea that wasn't working. I think they still learned a little and saw so much diversity and beauty in our acre.

Danny is making progress on the room he started last week!

He had to cut and put up a lot of drywall to cover the walls, ceiling and ductwork.

And an under the stairs closet too. It is looking good.

We are taking lots of walks around the neighborhood, even in the dark some nights.

I got some nice flowers and a balloon and chocolates the day before my birthday. That was a fun surprise. The delivery person scared V while she was working out in the driveway. We just aren't used to people coming to the door these days!

I try to take pictures strategically to not show too much mess, but there is constantly some mess in the house because 5 of us are home the  majority of the time. This used to be the case when the kids were little, but it has been a little more under control the last few years since Katherine started kindergarten. It is stressful to me. Even though I am naturally messy, I appreciate and strive for order. It is more beautiful to me and makes me feel in control. I am trying to remember that this is an unusual time fore all of us and not the best time to demand perfection that I am not even capable of from my family. So, we are doing our normal chores. We have had to do a little extra somedays when it gets really bad, but most of the time we are living with mess. I am glad that we have messes though because that means that we are doing things. Laundry, shoes, sweatshirts, art supplies, balls, puzzles, piles of school work, scriptures, cups, plates, snacks, dolls, games, science projects, computers, charging cords, etc. are all indicators of a very blessed life. We really are and I am so thankful.

Another April Week of Staying at Home

Another week of life at home. We aren't doing as many creative homeschool things because the teachers are posting to google classrooms and a distance learning hub.

The younger kids are doing a good job with theirs.

The big kids are participating in Seminary over zoom every day and I think they are picking and choosing about their schoolwork. It doesn't count for a grade, so I am not hounding them about it, but they have to do something school/learning related until lunchtime. Victoria is working on an FCCLA leadership competition and studying for her ACT. Christian is most interested in his history class, but has occasional work from other classes too.

Danny is still at work, but not many others are in the building. 

I loved these pretty flowers collected from our yard and walks

Mrs. Korona, the Elementary school art teacher challenged the kids to do some Andy Goldsworthy inspired nature art for Earth Day. This one is by Katherine

I made outdoor art too. The wind rearranged it pretty quickly.

Katherine and Grant and I are reading several of my old childhood books for our read alouds. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing has been cracking them up. Katherine thinks she is so funny with this book selection too.

V and I started a 52 day health challenge.

Here's my "before."

V is super fit and is being nice to join in my efforts. 

Another before and after set. Thankful for a daughter who is good with hair!

Katherine and Grant set up a meditation and yoga session on Saturday

They gathered a few yoga mats, towels

and pillows. They turned off the lights, pulled the curtains and played  relaxing music. It honestly was really nice to walk into!

These guys are trying to look goofy for the picture, but I think we all actually liked it. (Lie. Danny hates sitting still and didn't like it. The rest of us liked it.) Grant led a meditation and was really good! Katherine led us in yoga. She was really good at that. V and C were great sports too.

I finished another puzzle this week. No one else wanted to do it with me. :(

I have been enjoying staying in pjs some days, but I have also decided that I am more productive when I get dressed and ready for the day. It is a balance. Not every day needs to be productive.

Also, Katherine discovered that she can climb our columns. Impressive, but I am not sure that I want her to do this all the time. She and Grant have also learned how to climb up the stairwell without touching the steps. I will have to picture that sometime too. 

These days are so weird.

Corona "Spring Break"

Although this didn't feel like a typical spring break, it was nice that Danny was able to stay home this week. He started on Project Home Gym! We emptied one of the storage rooms and combined it with the rest of the storage.

I should have taken a before shot, but these are from when I thought to document.

First, he treated the floors with bluish gray apoxy.

Then, they got busy framing. The boys and Katherine helped too.

Looking good, Guys!

Next, they added a couple more bucket lights and several electrical outlets.

Next, step drywall! It sure is nice to have a handy and motivated husband and helpful kids.

Danny worked on this room for the first few days of break. It is now almost completely dry-walled, including the ceiling and the closet. 

I didn't happen to take many pictures this week, but  I can tell you about a couple of the things we did.

Victoria and I watched a couple free photography classes online. 

Grant got a new tool for his skateboard and had fun with that. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa.

Katherine ordered a craft kit with her gift card. She made some neat butterfly magnets.

I have spent some time indexing old marriage records from the 1800's from the state of VA.

This cute girl and I have watched  the latest season of ...

When Calls the Heart 

and Bringing Up Bates. We need "feel good" shows right now.

We have also spent time sleeping in, reading, going on walks, playing games, playing video games, and making good food.

On Wednesday night, we decided it would feel more like a break if we went to the river house.

We got there late that night and pretty much just unloaded and went to sleep. 

We had fun on Thursday and Friday though.

See? Doesn't this look like fun? I am not really sure how this game came about, but

everyone got a dollar and whoever could hold theirs against the wall the longest got to keep them all. 

The boys had the idea to entertain themselves with games /a movie on a phone.

Grant won!

That morning Victoria and Christian had seminary, Danny and I played Farkle, and Katherine and Grant played. We had a very chill day. It was kind of cold and somewhat rainy. Christian and I worked on a puzzle for a bit. We played Psychiatrist. Ate lunch. Victoria and I went to the grocery store.Not as many cases here, but we were so surprised that most people were wearing masks. We wore them too. Danny and the other kids had fun riding in the golf cart.

After dinner, I worked on the puzzle again and Danny and I had a nice long walk.

The next day, Friday, was better for outside stuff.

Danny worked on and fixed the boat lift, and de-winterized the boat so we could take it out.

 While he was working on that stuff the kids and I did some yard work. Apparently there must have been a storm with a really high tide because there was a lot of debris at the bottom of the hill. We took care of it, picked up sticks, and mowed the grass.

We made a picnic lunch and enjoyed going out on the boat together.

Osprey nest (this is a better place than where it was starting to build one on the boathouse).

It is fun to ride upfront some times.

Danny was a good driver. 

V and I had a good kayak to the island.

It was a beautiful day and it is awesome to spend time in undisturbed nature. 

There was beautiful natural artwork in the sand layers in the water.

We had a fun time exploring and saw lots of mussels, razor clams, oyster shells, and more. We found some fallen trees with really cool peeling bark. If I had brought Grant and the canoe, I bet we would have brought cool bark "paper" back from the island. Maybe he and I can go to that spot next time.

Katherine wanted to take a trip to the island too. However, the wind was pretty strong, so we headed into the creek instead.

We  found a few neat places to stop and explore.

Katherine loves the little snails. 

She is such a fun little explorer.

So I mentioned the wind. It was rough coming back in. Eek, I was getting a bit stressed out. The wind kept pushing the front of the canoe to the side faster and stronger than my paddling could correct. Katherine was helping too, but several times we went in full circles. We took a few minutes to regather, and texted the big kids and Danny that we may need help soon. They didn't get the texts and didn't respond. Uggh. We said a prayer and I told Katherine that I needed her to help and really paddle the best she could. 20 minutes later, we made it back! 

After dinner, we decided to clean up and go home. 

Katherine was upset that she didn't get to go to the island, so she Danny and I took a quick trip over on the wave runner. Happy girl with her fern.

We felt so lucky to be able to get away. I told Danny that during spring break I have driven/ridden in a truck, van, golf cart, boat, wave runner, canoe, and kayak! That is pretty fun stuff. Feeling so blessed to be able to do such neat things with these special people.