COVID-19 Quarantine Day 64 - Sunny Garden Make Up Post ‐ Number 1

Hey guys.  I wrote a nice long blog yesterday, but put too many pictures in it and it crashed.  Then I was defeated and never reposted.  The gist of it was that I was happy that the sun came out for a bit, so I went out to the garden and check on things and took some pictures.  I'll have to make it two posts now, obviously.  Here we go...

My boots came in, so I slogged through the yard to go out and check on my garden.  Aren't they pretty??  Between my birthday and Mother's Day I have 4 new pairs of shoes!  😁😁😁

I believe this robin is the reason I have all sorts of holes in my strawberry patch.  I love that he's here eating bugs, but he sure does make a mess.  He's here every day and when I'm in the garden he waits on the fence and watches me.  🤣

I was thinking of possibly getting some dowel rods to prop up some of my corn.  They're leaning, probably a combo of trying to get sun and getting hammered by rain the last week.  Zucchini plants look good!!

My basil looks like it's kind of over the rain.  The peppers, chives, and tomatoes seem to be doing fine though.

Zucchini and cucumbers look good.  I need to plant a few more cucumber seeds in the pile.  But I need to fertilize everything too and haven't gotten around the that either...  Looks like the sun is shining today too, maybe I'll get all this stuff done, finally...

Green onion, broccoli, and cauliflower all look great!  They are probably most protected from weather.  I also learned last year that they prefer cooler weather.  So I think they're really thriving at the moment.

Ok, I'm only halfway done, but I better post.  Because if I lose everything again, these pictures will never make it up...

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 63

Good morning, everyone!  

The kids are down to 7 days of school, they're done with their work for the week, and I don't expect them the be assigned much more.  Should be a pretty quiet next week.  I'll do a little work, but with students finishing up their assignments, there isn't much for me to do either.  I know I said most of this yesterday, but I'm totally looking forward to summer and being done with home school.  

I'm also desperately missing the sun and wishing it would come back out.  

It's been 7 days since Connor's party and since we left the house.  Everyone is healthy and no one has spiked a fever yet.  That makes me feel pretty good that we didn't catch anything when we all got together, but we'll wait another week, just to make sure.

When that week is up, though, I have plans to get out of the house!  Michael and the kids bought me another massage for Mother's Day!!  And I got an email from Beau Monde saying they were opening up again soon, so I sent them an email and said, any day, any time, I want in!  I figured being one of the first people into the spa after they've deep cleaned and reopened limits my exposure, plus, they have a shower in their locker room, so I figured I'd just bring a change of clothes and shower right there, then I won't have to come home and disinfect my car and take my decontamination shower at home.  So yeah, long story short, I have a 60 minute massage followed by a 15 minute steam+scalp massage on Wednesday next week!  Wednesday marks day 14 of our post-birthday quarantine, so I figure I should know by then if I'm sick.  I am really looking forward to this massage!  It's a stress reduction massage and I would say that in light of the way things have gone in the last few months, I need it.  Of course I haven't been nearly as stressed as others, but the massage is going to be a welcomed relief and a nice, temporary trip outside of the home to focus on self care.  I think the last week indoors because of rain has figuratively (and literally) dampened my spirits.  I'm not nearly as positive when it's raining all day, every day.

Good news, though, my rain boots came in!  So I can slosh through the yard to get out to my garden and check on things today!  Yay!!  What's funny is that as soon as Michael got my sprinklers installed in the other 3 beds, the rain came and we ended up turning the sprinklers around all of the yard off.  So we haven't had a chance for the sprinklers to do their work.  Maybe today while I'm out looking at things, I'll snap a few pictures so you can see how the sprinklers look, even if they aren't being utilized at the moment.  Rain is free, so we'll take it.  This reminds me of a woman from Valley Feed and Seed a month or so ago, when I was buying seeds and plants.  She said hopefully we wouldn't get so much rain that everything floods again like it did last year.  I told her I had raised beds, so the flooding didn't hurt my garden nearly as bad, because it just ended up running out the bottom (and sometimes sides).  I'm glad again, for the raised beds.

Yesterday the kids had an assignment at school for art class to recreated famous works of art.  Connor really didn't want to do the assignment and I was getting frustrated because he was saying no to EVERY painting I suggested, so I tapped out and Michael worked with Connor, while I worked with Avery.  They're not perfect, but I think they turned out pretty cute!  😉

Alright, I have a Zoom in an hour.  I better get up and around.  Have a good, rainy day!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 62 - Video Game Shopping

Connor is downstairs with Michael looking at video games online.  He got a lot of gift cards and money from his friends for his birthday.  They are cracking up looking at all of these silly games!  He's having a really good time looking at videos of games to pick what he would like.  I think we'll have to keep that in mind and give him money in his stocking for Christmas so he can choose his own game.  I just love him so much.  He's growing up so fast, spending his money on expensive new video games!  😂❤🎮

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 62

It won't stop raining.  I haven't been out to check on my garden in a few days.  It's soggy out.  The rain boots Michael bought me for Mother's Day haven't come in yet.  This kind of weather doesn't leave me motivated to do much more than lay in bed and watch TV and drink coffee.  All the rain lately reminds me of last Spring when we got so much rain.  Nebraska was really badly flooded when we're drove through on our Memorial Day vacation.   The kids hustled through their school work this week, so they're basically done with school now, a week and a half early.  I think I'll give them a few days of not doing much before I enforce the daily summer checklist.  I know the work hasn't been that bad, but I'm with the kids and ready to be done with online school for a while. 

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 60 - Healthy Meals

Sis and I are trying to eat healthy, so here's what I enjoyed today!

Avocado toast, probably my favorite breakfast!  On the left is toast wish mashed avocado, sprinkled with shredded parmesan, and topped with a fried egg.  On the right is a slice of bread with mayo spread on it, topped with sliced tomato and sliced avocado.  On top of that is a slice of swiss cheese and then the whole thing is broiled until the cheese is melted and the bread is toasted.  I love this meal and have some variation of it every time I have ripe avocados on hand.  ❤🥑

For lunch I tried a new recipe!  These are cauliflower fritters.  I had a green cauliflower in the fridge that I wanted to use up.  I went to pinterest and found the recipe.  It's got minced garlic, chili powder, green onion, and parmesan cheese in it (among other things to hold it all together).  I air fried them instead of frying them in oil.  They turned out really tasty and are super filling!  I saw cauliflower crust pizza recipes and thought about making that, but I've made it before and it takes a terribly long time, so I skipped it this time.  

For dinner, Michael made fajitas!!  Don't they look delicious!?!?!??!  I accidentally bought 2 lbs of key limes on the click list last week, so I'm trying to find ways to use them.  🤦🏼‍♀️🤣  We also got a couple things used up out of the freezer (chicken and peppers).  I got a bag of avocados on the click list too.  If you've ever used avocados, you know their perfectly ripe timing is about 23 minutes.  So I'm using those bad boys in everything the next couple days!!  Michael made an avocado chicken salad yesterday for me for lunch for Mother's Day.  It was amazing!  If I keep posting pics of my food, you'll see lots of avocado recipes for a couple days.  😉

That's all I got.  😉  I took pictures of my food today and just had to share!  😁

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 60 - Mother-Daughter Trip Planning!!

Yesterday I sent a lot of pictures to Mama and Sis of the 3 of us together.  Several of the pictures were from the Mother-Daughter trip we took 3 years ago.  

In our group chat we were talking about how we needed to plan another trip together!  The three of us had so much fun that weekend!!  So here are some ideas of places we could go....

-Vegas

‐OKC

-Branson

-KC (again)

-Austin

-St. Louis

-Chicago

-Denver

-Colorado Springs

-New Orleans

Obviously, we're not going anytime soon, but maybe things will have settled down more by this fall and maybe we could get away for a weekend.  😊  What do you think?  What's the best spot for a girls weekend??

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 60 - Happy Mother's Day!

Another holiday spent in quarantine.  Yesterday was Mother's Day.  Fortunately, our family was able to get out and see family this week before Mother's Day.  We had a nice quiet day as a family.  Michael made me breakfast, the Kia made me gifts, Avery and Connor spent a lot of the day sweeping and mopping floors for me, Michael and I played a lot of games of Dominion, I enjoyed Mimosas from the supplies Sis gave me for my Mother's Day gift, and Michael and I watched a lot of Bones.  It was a very calm and chill day.  😊  Check out my awesome gifts! 

New Under Armour sandals, Rain boots to garden in, Ding Dongs, flowers, a massage, and a hand drawn picture of Buckbeak the Hippogriff, Harry Potter, and Hagrid.  I didn't get a picture yet of the paper cake Avery made me that my gifts from her were in. 

Mama and Daddy were at an estate sale over the weekend and got these for me!!!  They're both signed by Bill Snyder and Willie the Wildcat.  😁  I love them!   Can't wait to hang them up!  💜🖤💜🖤💜

Sis got me supplies for Mom-osas!  She also gave me homemade baked goods, but I don't have a picture of them because I ate them too fast.  😍

Throughout the day I drank the whole bottle of champagne.  🤣  I had lots of fruit here st home that I could add to them, so they're all super pretty!  ❤  Of course, after my fun holiday, I'm back to eating healthy today.  😉

I hope all of my fellow moms had a terrific Mother's Day as well!  I love you all so much! 

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 60

Well, it's been 2 months now.  A virus that began in China eventually made its way to the United States and has caused millions of people to stay in their homes to limit exposure so as to not overwhelm the hospitals all at once with sick people.  The number of cases grew exponentially and we began using the term, flatten the curve, to encourage people to stay home and work together to limit the number of cases at a single time.  While people were still allowed to go out, we began using another term, social distancing, tip reminds people to stay physically away from one another so as to limit the risk of contracting the virus.  We found out people can be infected and asymptomatic for a long time.  We found our the virus can live on surfaces and in the air.  People rushed to buy all of the hand sanitizer, soap, toilet paper, and Clorox wipes.  When states shut down businesses and schools, people went out to protest.  Many ignored social distancing and failed to wear masks while out protesting.  I would love to see a news report indicating how many contacted COVID-19 right there at those protests.  Eventually, states began to open again, that's where we are now.  We believe we've hit our peak, and that things will be easier on hospitals and safer now.  I can only assume a second wave is coming.  Historically, that's house these things have gone.  The second wave tends to be worse and more deadly than the first.  Though, again, historically, people have learned by the 3rd wave and are finally taking things seriously.  We've only gone through one wave so far.  People are getting cabin fever and with spring here and summer approaching, people will be out more and more.  We'll remain extremely cautious in our home.  With summer approaching, we have an opportunity to continue to quarantine for several more months.  While we'll go out occasionally fire groceries, to pick up a meal, or to get a haircut, our summer won't look much different than our spring has.  We still want to go to Kentucky and Tennessee at the end of June, but that's a month and a half away.  Time will tell if that travel is possible or a needless risk.  I still can't believe we've been home, staying away or only very carefully and occasionally seeing people outside of our family, for 2 months now.  This entire pandemic has felt so surreal.  But I know our lives will be forever changed because of it.  However, eventually people will forget, wil relax, wil not remember the fear or what life was like during this time.  It will just become a page on a history book, like the Spanish Flu.  It will be something the world will only look back on when a similar crisis comes up long into the future. Hopefully they learn from us and mobilize faster to save more lives.  Hopefully they trust the epidemiologists and listen when doctors get concerned, because they have the knowledge and can see the way the dominoes will fall, far easier than the average person.  And when they get worried, it's cause for concern.  Maybe one day those protesters will see that government officials were looking out for their health and lives and feel silly for shouting (without masks) in the faces of elected officials.  But I find very few people are willing or able to rationally listen to a point of view outside of their own entrenched worldview.  When presented with alternative reasoning for shutting down states and economies, considering the welfare of their fellow man, I've found many just yell louder, screaming about their freedoms and rights.  What a privileged worldview, that an individual's rights outweigh another's life.  What a legacy that person must be leaving to be more important than the lives of his or her fellow man.  I've also found, that the quiet people during these times have the most poignant things to say.  But I've yet to see someone stop shouting because they genuinely wanted to know what the quiet, thoughtful person in the corner thinks.  A time of uncertainty and anxiety like this reveals so much about people.  I'm not suggesting everyone live in fear, but I do wish people cared more about one another during these times than about being the loudest voice in the room. 

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 57

Good morning, everyone!  Hope you're having a nice Friday!  I have to admit, after the rain yesterday and doing very little work due to Connor's birthday, getting to work today is getting to be a bit of a struggle.  I don't really want to work, lol.  Fortunately, the kids did most of their schoolwork at the beginning of the week, so it will be okay.  We don't have a lot of work to do today anyway.  Actually, right now as I'm typing this, I'm working on a split screen and watching a training on dyslexic readers.  Because technology is just okay sometimes, there are a lot of pauses where they're trying to get people to respond to questions, but they're calling on specific people, so I'm doing a lot of waiting, which is why I'm also blogging.

**Edit**

Ended up getting to the good stuff on the training and never finished here.  So I'm back now!  Hope you all had a nice day.  😊  Kids got their work done for the day and are downstairs playing on the Switch.  Michael can't wait for them to go to bed so he can play.  Sis and I decided today to eat healthier and drink more water, so that's what I've been focused on a lot of the day.  I really hate drinking water.  Not much else to report.  I wish it would warm up.  I went out and checked on the garden.  There was a little damage because of the hail and storm yesterday, but not too bad.  Mostly the plants on the east side that aren't as protected by the trees.  It was too chilly to stay out for long though.  I had Caesar Salad for dinner.  It was a premade bag from Walmart and it was REALLY GOOD!  The dressing was super tasty and it also had course black pepper in a little packet to sprinkle on my salad!  I loved it!  I left it off Michael's because he doesn't like pepper, but he's totally missing out.  Michael and I have been watching the Marvel movies in chronological order of their universe.  We started with Captain America: The First Avenger.  Then we went to Captain Marvel.  Next we watched Iron Man.  Now we're about halfway through Iron Man 2.  I might have to ask Michael is we can watch Big Bang tonight before bed instead.  We've been staying up watching movies the last several nights and I haven't got as much rest.  I typically fall asleep watching TV and Michael keeps watching.  We're usually watching shows we've already seen, so I'm not missing anything.  But I haven't watched all of these Marvel movies and the ones I have seen I haven't seen recently, so I don't want to fall asleep and miss anything.  So it's been passed 11 several nights in a row when I go to sleep and I'm more of a 930 kind of person.  😂👵  Anyway, day 1 of this 14 day quarantine is done now.  I'm hopeful that with us staying home and me staying well covered on the last day of school when I have to go back and close things up, that the family can all go out to the farm together for Memorial Day!  🤞  Assuming everyone is ok with that.  We shall see.  And then, summer will be here!  And the kids and I will be free to spend as much time out there as we'd like.  I just wish Michael could be out there more with us.  Anyway, I'm rambling again.  Have a wonderful night and I'll talk to you more later!  Happy quarantining!  😁💘

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 56 - Happy Birthday, Connor!!

Good morning, everyone!  I hope you're well this morning!  It's almost 9am now, but I have already been up for 4 hours!  😳😳😳  Let me explain...

As I mentioned yesterday, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week, Connor's Birthday, and Mother's Day.  So yesterday I did a lot of running around in the morning, picking up groceries and last minute things for each of those three holidays.  When I got home I took a shower and used the Clorox wipes on everything.  After lunch the kids and I began our journey around Butler County.  We stopped by the homes of three teachers and delivered homemade cards and flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week.  We stopped by three grandparents' homes and delivered hand painted rocks and cards for Mother's Day.  We stopped by two aunt's houses to deliver hand painted rocks and cards as well.  All in all, we were away from home out seeing everyone for 4 hours yesterday.  Then, when we got home, the kids had Bible and Bingo on Zoom.  After that we all got some dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  I ended up falling asleep while Michael and I were watching Iron Man.  I think it was because of that, that I woke up this morning in a panic.

Just after 5am this morning I woke up.  I was worried that Connor's presents weren't going to be wrapped by the time he woke up, so I got up and got to work.  In case you haven't heard yet, Michael and I finally got Connor a Nintendo Switch for his birthday.  We wanted to get him one for Christmas, but with all the other gifts we were buying during the season, we just didn't have enough for an expensive video game system.  However, after Christmas, Michael and I were already talking about possibly getting Connor the Switch for his birthday after our tax return came in.  Then we also got the COVID-19 stimulus check since then, so we knew we could manage it.  Michael had already opened it, set up accounts for him and both of the kids (I told him I didn't think I needed one), and charged it.  But when I woke up this morning, I worried that he hadn't wrapped the presents last night.  I was right.  So I got up and wrapped everything, cleaned the living room a bit, and prepped the pancake batter.  I got everything taken care of before he woke up, so my morning panic worked for good.  😉

Edit: Started this this morning, finishing a recount of our day now.  😊

We started our morning with snuggles.  We all 4 squeezed into Connor's bed and snuggled together, Connor's favorite way to wake up.  After he got up, Connor opened his gifts.  He was very excited about his Nintendo Switch, but showed about as much enthusiasm getting it as Michael does when I get him awesome gifts I'm stoked about.  Cool.  Thanks.  🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️  He got a Mario game from Avery and a Zelda and Lego Jurassic World game from Michael and me.  Michael is probably more excited about this Zelda game than Connor is.  He's totally geeking out.  I guess it's the best Zelda game to date.  I imagine Michael will be getting some after hours play time in after the kids are in bed in the near future.  We also got Connor a case that has Mario and Cappy (from his new Mario game) on it, to hold the Switch and a bunch of games.  He got some new clothes which he was not excited about, but his new shirt has Mario on it, so he liked that.  He also got a Pokemon book that lists ALL the Pokemon and their evolutions and power-ups and such.  He was pretty excited about that one.  😉  He said, It's just like the one Dayton and Dax have!!!  I think he was very pleased with his gifts.  He was a little confused about who got him the Switch though.  When I explained that Michael and I got it for him he said, I thought it was too expensive?  Oh sweet boy.  It was.  I explained that we saved up the money to get it for him.  It was just so sweet.  He hasn't been asking for a Switch because he knows it's expensive, but we knew he wanted one.  It was a good moment to be able to get it and give it to him.

After his presents, I had some work to do.  So it left him with plenty of time to play his new game.  I told him he didn't have to do any schoolwork today, so he just vedged and played games for a couple hours.  It was good!  ❤  

To get Connor to his surprise party, we asked him if he wanted to go hide painted rocks around the neighborhood.  Once again, his reaction to finding his friends and family there, who he hasn't seen in a couple months was, Hi.  🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️  Check out that blog to see how the party went.  Long story short, it was a really good party.  We have to quarantine hard core for the next 2 weeks, but it was worth it.  It was great to see everyone and Connor loved seeing his friends.  It was cold, but it was great!  ❤

After the party we all had to take hot showers to thaw out.  Then Connor played his video games some more.  We kinda skipped lunch, but had Chili, Kippy Burgers, and Hot Dogs for dinner.  Although Connor requested chili to make chili dogs, he didn't actually eat chili on his hotdog.  What he did eat was a bowl of chili, a kippy burger, and a hotdog.  That boy is going to be expensive to feed! 

This evening Connor spent his time before bed doing one of his favorite activities, building with Legos.  TJ gave him 2 Lego sets for his birthday.  One was a Fantastic Beasts HP set, the other was just a set of a couple hundred mixed Legos.  Connor used the mixed Legos to build a castle.  ❤  

I love him so very much!  I think he had a really nice birthday.  😊  Here are a few pictures!  Enjoy!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 56 - Birthday Party

We had a pandemic birthday party!  😳  People didn't stay socially distanced either.  😳  But our little boy had so much fun playing with his friends and seeing friends and family and teachers.  We'll be quarantining hard core for the next 2 weeks because we had a lot of exposures.  But I trust the people who were there, so I feel good about how this will all turn out.  Even so, we will not be going ANYWHERE for the next 2 weeks, just to be safe.  😊  Here are some pictures of Connor's party!  ❤

I didn't get any good pictures of Connor because he was too busy playing.  But he had a great time!  ❤  Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 55 - Hundreds of Weeds and Nematodes

Good morning, all!  I hope you're having a nice day!  I'm going to have quite a busy day today.  With Connor's birthday being tomorrow, Teacher Appreciation Week being all week, and Morher's Day being this weekend, we have a lot to do.  And despite being a teacher and a mother, I don't feel like I can just rest and enjoy my own celebrations, I have work to do to make sure others feel loved and cared for as well.  So I'm out running errands all day today!  😳  Wish me luck!

Now onto the reason for this blog, weeds and nematodes.  I am just about certain there was grass seed, at least some, in the dirt I had delivered.  😠  2 days ago I was out weeding the garden, I didn't start counting right at the beginning, but ended up pulling 420 weeds out that evening.  Yesterday I went out again and pulled another 340 weeds!  😱  Now, given, these are tiny, sometimes single blades of grass, but I go out each day and pull everything I see so they don't get crazy and overrun my garden.  And, obviously, they would be doing that rather quickly if I wasn't out there thinning them out!  I didn't have problems with grass in my soil last year, just seeds from the trees that sit over the garden.  So I'm irritated to have introduced new weeds into my beds.  I'll just keep pulling them though, because I'm trying not to use chemicals on my garden this year.  So if you need me, that's where I'll be, out pulling weeds.

As for the nematodes, I noticed when I was planting my strawberries that there were grubs in my dirt!  😡😡  There's no landscape matting on the bottom of box 1, so they could have come up that way.  There's also native soil in box 1, so I could have introduced them to that box myself.  Either way, I didn't notice them in box 2 when Avery and I were planting carrots, so I can only assume they're only in one box.  I did some research online and found that a non-chemical way to deal with grubs is using beneficial nematodes.  These are microscopic worms that naturally occur in soil and prey on various bad insects.  Anyway, long story short, I bought some and put them in all 5 of my garden boxes.  They keep a lot of pests away.  I just hope the kill all the grubs in box 1 because they are super gross.  We'll see.

That's all I have for now.  I need to get going on my errands.  Have a wonderful day!