COVID-19 Quarantine Day 95 - Weekend Pictures

We went to Glenn and Linda's this weekend, and while we're stayed at their house almost the entire time, here are a few pictures from the last few days to catch you up on what we've been up to.  😊

After long wait, Connor finally has his new, big boy bike!!!  We intended to get him a new bike in May for his birthday.  Glenn and Linda sent him money to get one.  But there was a shortage on bikes because of the coronavirus, and everything was sold out!  We finally ordered this one a week ago, and by the end of the day when I went to show Michael the picture of the bike we got, it was sold out again.  😳  Glad we got it when we did!  I'm 98% sure the kids will be out riding bikes at some point today.  😊  Shanna, Michael's aunt who we're going to visit in 2 weeks, asked if we had space to bring the kids' bikes with us when we came down to Tennessee.  She said they have  great paved bike track near them.  I don't know if my car has a hitch to be able to haul bikes though.  This might be something we look into in the next couple weeks before our trip.  😊

Couldn't go to Topeka for a weekend without taking a walk down the street to the winery!  Glenn and Linda are always willing to watch the kids for a bit so we can go over there.  It was great to go wine tasting again!  We haven't been since we went to San Diego in November!  Glacier's Edge is always coming out with new wines, so we like to start with the tasting tray before we decide on bottles to bring home.  I told TJ we were going and offered to pick him up a bottle too.  He found two he thought he'd like, so we came home with 4 bottles of wine.  😂  Just stimulating the local economy.  😉  Gotta keep the winery within walking distance of my in-laws afloat!!  😁

Before we left Friday I blow dried my hair and put on a little makeup.  I just love my pink hair!!  😍💗🤩

I guess those are all the pictures I took this weekend.  Wow.  Sorry about that!  I meant to take pictures of Linda's giant hosta garden under their deck!  It's beautiful!  (Also, my phone tried to autocorrect hosta to hostage...  😳😳)  Glenn and Linda set up a slip and slide, a sprinkler, and a little plastic pool for the kids to play in.  They had a really good time!  I couldn't find Connor's swim shirt before we left, so he didn't wear a shirt to swim.  This sounds like a perfectly normal thing for a 6 year old boy, but Connor has NEVER swam without a swim shirt.  Not because we won't let him, but because he refuses!  So it was a pretty big deal for him to do that this weekend.  He's got the same farmer's tan his dad has.  😂  Then, when we got home from Glenn and Linda's last night, we went to the pool in our neighborhood and he went without a shirt again!  This time because he decided not to wear one!  Crazy!  It's only taken 2 years to get him to be comfortable with that.  🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

That's about all that's happened lately.  We'll be mostly home the next couple weeks before we leave for vacation, cleaning house, doing laundry, and packing.  If everyone is up for it, I was hoping maybe the whole family could go have dinner together on the patio at Norton's on the Thursday before we leave (in a week and a half).  That was we could see everyone and have a meal together since Michael, the kids, and I won't be able to join everyone for the 4the of July this year.  Speaking of which, just one more thing, then I'm out...

We figured out our plans for the end of our trip.  We're going to leave the morning of Saturday, July 4th from Murfreesboro and head to St. Louis.  We'll drive right through Shawnee National Forest in Kentucky on our way out, so there's a chance we could call an audible (like we did with Badlands) and stop there for a few hours before continuing on to St. Louis.  I got us a high room in St. Louis for the night, so if there are fireworks going off, hopefully we can see them well, if nothing else, maybe we can se the Arch!  Most of what I'm reading online says that fireworks shows in major cities have been cancelled or postponed.  We'll just have to wait and see.  Then, Sunday, July 5th, we'll head back to Wichita.  We'll try to get over and see the Arch while we're in St. Louis sometime.  It's about 6 or 6.5 hours from St. Louis to home, so it won't be too bad of a drive that last day.  Then, since Michael is still working from home, and Karen wouldn't dream of letting him come back after being out at several different states, he can take it easy the next day and even week without having to ask for more time off.  And, bonus!  Since the 4th of July is over a weekend, the 3rd is a floating holiday at Michael's office, so he'll only have to take off 4 days of work for our 10 day vacation!  😁  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!  We are greatly looking forward to this trip!  Chuck and Shanna were two of the best hosts we've ever had on our vacations and we've got so many fun activities planned!  I just can't wait!

Have a wonderful Monday!  I love you very much!  Talk to you again soon, probably with some poolside pics!  😉💗🕶🎉

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 95 - Happy Birthday, Sis!

Another Quarantine Birthday!  Although, to be honest, things are getting back to normal and today will be much like Sis' birthday would have been without a global pandemic.  A few years ago for her birthday we went out to the pool, spent the whole day, and got terribly sunburned.  With the exception of the sunburn pain, we had a great time!  Today we're intend to reapply sunscreen more frequently and have another great day!  We're even going to have UberEats or MyTownToGo or GrubHub deliver food to us poolside!  It's going to be so much fun!  So if you can't get ahold of us today, we're at the pool!  😉😎☀️💧🍹🎉🏊🏻‍♀️🤿👙🕶🏝

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 90 - A New Chandelier!!

I'm up to 6 chandeliers in the garden as of today!!  We have some friends from church who gave us one that they were replacing in their home.  They gave it to us the day of Connor's birthday party, but we haven't been to the store much to get the supplies.  I finally got all I needed and now we're set!  I glued the lights in and we got the 6th one hung today!  ❤  We had to move one because we needed a bigger branch for the new one, but it all looks great!  I also ordered some crystals on Amazon and threw some of those on there.  I think they made it even more beautiful!  I love it!  Enjoy these pictures, and I hope you'll be over sometime soon to see them in person, maybe even see them lit up at night!  They're perfectly wonderful!  ❤❤❤

The chandelier from Jon and Katy!  Had to rearrange it so the globes pointed up instead of down so the solar lights could still charge.  Got the lights glued in, ready for sparkle!

How beautiful are these crystals???

I started taking them all apart because I wanted the strands longer.  😂  I'm going to get the hang of this real fast!

Is anyone aware that my hubby HATES heights?  But he loves me, so here he is again...

Love it!!!  It turned out so pretty!!  I have a string of the octagon crystals coming tomorrow, so I might have to have him bring this one back down so I can add some more...  Or I might have to wait until it's time to add another chandelier before he's willing to get back up on the ladder...

Ta Da!!!!  So pretty!!  I just love it!!!  I wonder what my next chandelier will look like???  😁😁😁

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 90 - Garden!!!

It's been a little bit, so here's your semi-regular update on the garden!  😁😁😁

Fetilized today.  Finished the bottle off.  I got it at the beginning of last summer.  Last summer I was only using 2-4 tablespoons every 3-4 week.  Now I'm using 10-12 tablespoons every 3 weeks.  But my plants love it!  So I'll keep feeding them!  I'm going to fertilize again right before vacation.  I can't wait to see how much they've grown once we get home!

My borage is sooooo pretty!!!  I am seriously in love with these gorgeous blue flowers!  Might need to plant this one in the back or in a pot next time because it's ENORMOUS!  But I love it none-the-less!!  ❤

I went out with my phone and got all excited about the various blooms in the garden, so that's mostly what this whole post is.  😉

The strawberry blooms have seen better days, but that just means that the berries are on the way!  This, Berries Galore, bush has BEAUTIFUL blossoms!  I'm definitely getting more next year! 

Starting to get Marigold buds!  This is the first one I've seen so far!  🤞  Hopefully we'll have lots of color soon!!  🌼🏵💮

These are from a few days ago, can't remember if I've posted them or not.  Squash have big gorgeous blooms!  I remember seeing the big yellow blooms from the house last year when I looked down into the garden!  ❤  I took a few more pictures of the squash and their blooms today, but none compare the the pictures above!

Baby squash!!!  Can't wait for them to be big enough to start eating!  I imagine that will be about the time we leave for vacay...  🤦🏼‍♀️  Maybe Mama or Sis would like to eat them??  🤷🏼‍♀️

Pea blossom ❤  It looks like some sort of flower, but I can't put my finger on it...  Orchid, maybe?  The peas are doing really nicely on the back trellis.  Next year I'm considering an A frame trellis and lettuce underneath to be shaded.  We'll see...

Bell pepper blooms!  The gypsy peppers have started putting on peppers, I assume the bells and jalepenos will follow suit shortly.  🤞

Tomato blossoms!  My cherry tomato plant loves getting tall!  I hope I did the right thing in trimming it to size to stay in it's cage.  It was sure tough for me to cut off beautiful, healthy, tall growth!  😥  But we have tomatoes starting to set on 3/6 plants so far, so all seems to be going well.  ❤

I harvested all of the lettuce that began as plants today.  The seeded lettuce is still in the garden growing until it shows signs of distress, which it hasn't yet.  Our whole family had big salads for lunch!  Michael went back for seconds, and Avery and Connor both went back for thirds.  I told Michael, I made my first bowl count.  😉  Yum!!  We have enough for another meal like this (after I wash the remaining leaves).  It feels good to eat things we've grown ourselves!  We've certainly been enjoying plenty of green onions for at least a month so far!  In fact, Connor and Avery went out and cut green onions for our salads this afternoon as well!  I love that the kids are gardening with me!  ❤  And Connor is eating green onions now!  I think growing them himself made him more adventurous to try them!  I'm hoping the annual garden ends up spanning several seasons and that the children develop even more of a love for fresh produce as the years go on!  😊

Last pictures for this post.  I'm sure you're surprised I managed to catch these pictures, as I am irrationally afraid of insects (really should have chosen an indoor hobby 🤦🏼‍♀️).  I can't remember if I posted pics of the Assassin Bugs when Michael and I first noticed them in the garden a week or two ago.  But they've grown and changed color a bit.  I even took a video of this one walking around on my squash leaf.  The one who came in on my lettuce this morning did not fair so well.  Michael had to come upstairs and take care of it because I was not having it.  At least they don't fly or buzz.  🤷🏼‍♀️  I'm trying to get better.  It is not easy though...

Alright, I hope you've enjoyed some new garden pictures.  Maybe tomorrow I'll take pictures of the beautiful lilies I got from Mama that are blooming in the front!  ❤  Have a good evening, everyone!  Love you so much!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 90 - 3 Months

Three months.  That's how long COVID-19 has been effecting the lives of myself and my family.  At the beginning it was only little things like, maybe Mama shouldn't be going to Wichita or into stores for a while, more deliberate hand washing, rumblings and rumors about the virus around work, online, and on tv.  Then, less than 2 weeks later, in-person school was canceled for the rest of the school year and school only continued remotely and digitally.  People made mad rushes on toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and soap.  I also couldn't get flour for several weeks on my click list.  Any time Michael or I would go out, we'd throw all of our clothes in the washer and shower as soon as we got home.  Then we'd take Clorox wipes (also became impossible to find at the store) and wipe down phones, wallets, door handles, car interior, light switches, everything we possibly touched while out or coming into the house.  We stayed home for weeks at a time without leaving our home or seeing anyone outside of our immediate family.  Now, 3 months in, things are relaxing a bit.  We go out more.  We don't throw everything in the wash the moment we get home or sanitize quite as much (we've learned it's more commonly transmitted through the air and breathing than on surfaces).  We, in our immediate family, at least, wear masks out in public.  Our volunteer quarantine times between going out and seeing friends and family is getting shorter, although we will do another hard 14 day quarantine when we come home from our vacation.  Slowly, life is returning to normal.  But I know life will never be the same.  Just like 9-11, some of the policies that start during this time will be around the rest of my life, I suspect.  I don't know what things will stick, but I'm sure something will.  I remember life before 9-11 when you could walk your family member right to the gate before they boarded their flight and watch the plane take off through the big, floor to ceiling windows.  I remember before you had to take your shoes off and have your hands swabbed for explosive residue.  I wonder what I'll remember from before COVID-19?  Time will tell.  It's surreal that this virus has been effecting our lives for 3 months now.  We've been fortunate, though.  We've only been inconvenienced.  And if that's the cost for more public safety, and for the safety or my loved ones, I'm fine with that.  Some may say that COVID-19 wasn't as bad as everyone thought it was going to be, and that we needlessly closed down states and our nation.  Some people may say that COVID-19 was the liberals way of effecting the 2020 election and that we carelessly risked the national and global economy.  There are many conspiracy theories out there.  But I believe the quick and sound action of our governor spared us from the horrors that were very real in New York, New Orleans, Italy, and Spain.  Just because we didn't see, first-hand, the devastation that is an overrun health care system, does not mean that it couldn't have happened if people had been careless.  I commend my fellow Kansans for, generally, listening to good advice and doing what they needed to to protect one another.  We may not be out of the woods yet.  We may never feel like we're completely out after an event like this.  But we have been lucky.  We have been fortunate.  We have been safe and healthy.  And though we've had family members who have gotten sick, they recovered.  We haven't lost anyone.  It's easy to be caulous to the numbers and say, look, it wasn't as big of deal.  The US only lost a little over 2 million!  With a population of 331 million, that's only 0.06%.  What a low number!  But if it had been your grandma, your uncle, your dad, your sister, who died, alone, on a respirator, and then you couldn't even be with them or the rest of your family for a funeral, I'm sure you'd have a much different idea of the effects of this virus.  If you personally knew a doctor or a nurse who got sick and died because they didn't have enough PPE and they were out, doing their jobs, protecting people every day, and it cost them their lives, you'd have a different opinion on the severity of this virus.  COVID-19 has changed our nation and our world forever.  It's been 3 months now.  I've been lucky.  Many others haven't.  We are living history.  (In more ways than one, I believe.)  COVID-19 will be in history books.  It's all so very surreal.  A new normal will set in eventually, things will be different, we'll remember how things used to be different.  I pray the human race moves forward in a way that makes life better from here, not just healthier, but that we all become better people for having gone through this.  ❤

Just a few things I've been thinking about as we hit the 3 month mark today.

Be good to one another.  ❤

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 88 - Thursday Pictures

Michael made the most amazing dinner the other night!  Ribeyes, cooked to perfect medium and medium rare, seasoned with flaky sea salt, fresh ground pepper, fresh ground rosemary, and fresh minced garlic!  Amazing!  Asparagus from Grandma and Grandpa Heorman's garden, seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper!  Delicious!  And loaded baked potatoes with fresh chives and green onions straight out of my garden!  Yum yum yum!!!  It was amazing!  Quite possibly the best steak I've ever eaten!  He got the temperature PERFECT!  It was so so good!  I got these steaks right before beef prices skyrocketed.  We've got a little hamburger in the fridge still, but not much.  Guess we'll need a lot more chicken and fish to get us through the summer.  😉

We went to Braums on Thursday and Connor got to have some ice cream and see a couple of his friends from school.  These guys weren't able to make it to his birthday party in May, so getting to see them was an extra special treat!  ❤

Remember that big, beautiful yellow squash bloom from one of my earlier posts?  This was it (and the squash) on Thursday!  This baby is growing so fast!!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 88 - Saturday Pictures

Sunday morning snuggles after watching church! 

Saturday pool fun! 

I caught the big, beautiful bloom on Avery and Connor's yellow squash plant!  It will be the first squash we pick when it gets big enough!