COVID-19 Quarantine Day 17

Here's the rest of what we did today!  After lunch, the kids, Michael, and I spent the next few hours outside enjoying this beautiful day!  ❤  The kids asked to get the bouncy house out, and I asked Michael to get his hammock out.  Days like today I'm reminded how wonderful it is that our kiddos get along so well.  It's not so bad being quarantined, when our kids are best friends.  They played in the bounce house together for a long time.  I played in the hammock and played on my phone.  Michael pulled up a ton of crabgrass.  I think this quarantine is going to have great effects on our yard!  😉

Also, some of my seeds are starting to sprout!!  The kids and I planted these seeds last Friday (9 days ago).  I've never really had much luck getting seeds I started inside to grow well put in the garden.  But who knows?  🤷🏼‍♀️  Maybe this year will be different?  At least they give me something to do and look forward to while I wait for real Spring to get here and for the time when I can plant things in the garden outside.  Although, Avery's carrots are doing well!!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 17

Alright!  We've finally got to today!  We got up this morning and went downstairs to watch church.  The kids actually stay focused pretty well.  Last week we dressed up to go to the basement and watch church, today we opted for our jammies instead.  Avery got to take communion with us for the first time today.  It was orange juice and a slice of bread, but it worked.  She was very excited and felt very grown up.  The kids did a fabulous job sitting through the sermon that was made for us, while they waited for their sermon.  As they are still in two different areas of the church, after our service was done, we had two more different services to listen to.  They did a really good job!  ❤  So proud of them!

For lunch today we had a delicious Smoked Gouda and Broccoli Soup!  Click the link if you'd like to see the recipe so you can try it yourself!  It was really good!  Since the kids made a fort out of our dining room table, we decided to eat our lunch outside.  This is totally fine with me!  The mess of a fort makes me a little anxious though...  Trying to do as Elsa teaches and 🎵Let it go!🎵

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 17 - Saturday Painting

I'm still not done!  Yesterday the kids did some painting!  I got these kits from Paint the Towne.  The kids have been begging me to paint them since Michael brought them home on the last day he was out and about going to work.  Yesterday we finally got to them.  They turned out really cute!  The kids had a really good time.  It was a fun way to spend a good chunk of our Saturday.  ❤

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 17 - Friday and Saturday Recap

Ok, my last blog didn't get lost, so hopefully these smaller ones are doing the trick.  I failed to mention, on my second attempt at my blog for today, that I didn't realize that the pictures I tried to post yesterday didn't actually post.  So even though I published them today, they were from yesterday morning's post.

We finished our Friday with dinner on the deck!  It was wonderful!  I love Spring and being able to eat on the deck again.  We haven't used the table and chairs as much as I thought we would since we got them, but I'm hoping that changes soon.  So far we've been out there for meals at least a half dozen times in the last couple weeks.  Eating out there and as a family is good for my soul.  😊  After dinner we spent most of the rest of the evening out on the deck listening to music and just being together as a family enjoying the weather and our couches and snuggles.  Michael and I ended up staying up until almost 1am listening to old music from our collections and talking about when and where we remember hearing various songs.  It was a fun evening.  😊

So yesterday we had a nice quiet day.  We made waffles for breakfast, painted, played, and had a really relaxing day.  While I miss not being able to go out, I'm enjoying slowing down and having more focused time together as a family.  This quarantine won't make an introvert out of me, but hopefully it will make me more intentional with what I fill my schedule and calendar with in the future.  We'll see.  😊

I don't think I added any explanations for the pictures from yesterday morning that I posted, so I might include a few of them again and put a sentence or two, explaining them.

Our dinner Friday night was AMAZING!  Avery wanted pasta.  I had a bagged chopped salad in the fridge.  I also made stuffed mushrooms in the air fryer.  They were, quote possibly, the best stuffed mushrooms I've ever had!  If you don't like stuffed mushrooms, this might not sound like a big deal to you, but I love them, so this is a really big deal!  In the event that anyone reading this also likes them, here is the recipe!  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 17 - Thursday and Friday Recap

Ugh, guys I just spent 35 minutes writing a blog, and then the app crashed and it all got lost.  😔  I'll try to recreate it, but might publish a couple small ones instead to keep it from crashing again.  Might not be as good as the original, but I'll be the only one who knows, I guess...  🤷🏼‍♀️

Since my school has, somewhat, figured out what school is going to look like for the rest of the year, I've gotten busier.  I haven't blogged as much, as a result.  So now that I've got some time and drive, I'll try to recap what's been going on the past few days.  😊

On Thursday I went to the school to pack up Mrs. Baker's room and her students' belongings.  Beth was Avery's Kindergarten teacher and I've been working in her room this year with a few students for reading pull-out groups and for her whole class reading time.  Beth and her family went to Costa Rica for Spring Break.  So, when they got home, they had to go into mandatory quarantine.  That meant she couldn't pack up her students' belongings like the other teachers did.  I helped her sort their supplies at the beginning of the year and know her classroom well, so I was the natural choice of person to pack up her room since she couldn't.  I was at school from 8:45 to 1 working on her room and other jobs around the school, preparing for Monday when families will come and get their things.  After I packed her room up, I helped the other paras and aides grab bags from every classroom in the school and take them to the gym.  There, they were alphabetized.  Hopefully Monday goes smoothly.

On Friday I went back to the school to work on the chromebooks.  Our school did a technology survey and asked families who needed a chromebook for home so that their kids could do their schoolwork.  Any family that needs one (or more) is getting them.  We have about 400 kids in out school and a little over 100 chromebooks are going home with families.  We are fortunate to have so many that families are allowed to do this.  Not all school districts are so fortunate.  So Friday was spent alphabetizing them, putting stickers on student bags so we knew who needed chromebooks, and sanitizing each and every chromebook in the school.  Chromebooks are a wonderful resource, but they go through a lot of hands and I can only imagine how gross they are.  Needless to say, despite the coronavirus, they were probably all due for a good cleaning.  Now everything is ready and hopefully that helps things go well tomorrow.

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 16

I'm behind!  Sorry!  Here are pictures! 

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 13

Hey guys!  Wow, it was a little surreal typing Day 13 on my title of this blog.  Can't believe we've been more or less isolated for that long.  It's been a couple days, so let me recap...

On Monday we drove around the neighborhoods that feed into Sunflower with a parade of teachers to wave to our students (and Avery and Connor to their friends).  It was an emotional drive.  We don't entirely know what the next couple months are going to look like, but my heart is still breaking, especially for my 5th grade students who are missing so much here at the end of the year, primarily their musical that they have worked all year to put together.  However, on a positive note, it was wonderful to see everyone and they all seemed to be smiling and in good spirits.  Many of those kiddos are in my thoughts and prayers constantly and I would love it if you would join me in praying for them.  Life won't be quite as easy for several of them the next two months.  The kids loved seeing their friends and cousins while we drove around.  I think many of their friends were surprised to see them.  I think almost all know that I work at the school, but it was still funny to see the slight shock on their faces when Avery and Connor called to them from the window.  Several friends jumped up and down and shouted and waved excitedly.  It was a really good time.  We drove around neighborhoods for a whole hour.

Monday evening, Avery got baptized!  It was a wonderful night!  Lito, Tiffany, Brian, and Melisaa from church were all there.  Mama, Daddy, Sis, Adam, Dayton, and Delaney all came too!  It was wonderful seeing everyone (mostly from a safe distance) and having them all there to share that special moment with us.  Avery has been impatiently waiting to get baptized for what seems like months now, so it shouldn't have been quite as surprising that she had barely gotten into the baptistry, and we hadn't got to go through the speech, before she dunked herself under and came up saying, "I'm baptized!"  🤦🏼‍♀️  Oh, our sweet, silly, impatient little girl!  No idea where she gets that from!  Sis even managed to catch the pre-dunk on camera where she was shooting a Facebook Live video for us.  So we'll always be able to look back at that moment.  We went out for ice cream and grilled burgers at Avery's request afterwards.  It was a perfect end to the day.

Yesterday I did my first Zoom meeting online with my building staff.  We discussed what school would look like and some general ideas to keep in mind going forward.  It was good to see everyone.  There have been so many teachers working tirelessly to pull this all together.  I'm so proud of them and thankful for their dedication to our students and their learning.  It will certainly be a transition, moving forward, but I think we'll get it figured out.  Today I have 5 different Zoom meetings, so I think I'll have the platform under control in no time.  It would also work great for playing board games remotely...  Just saying...  In case anyone else wants to download it!  😉😁  Way better than Skype.

Well, that's about all I've got for the moment.  The stay at home issue is now in place, but both Michael and Ibare considered essential, so no worries there.  We're getting Michael's home office put together this evening, as well as getting my arbor for the garden purchased!  I'm hoping in the next couple weeks we'll get the garden boxes built and filled with dirt and get the rest of my garden built!  ❤  Can't wait!!  

Love you all!  Here are a few pictures from the last few days to show what quarantine life has been like around The Voss Household!  Love you so much!  Be good to one another!  ❤

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 10

Today was a big day!  We started the day by getting dressed and going to the basement to watch church.  Since Avery and Connor are in different areas of children's ministry at church, they each had their own lesson and worship music.  We did Avery's lesson first, then we all watched big church together, then we did Connor's lesson afterwards.  It went very well and was a nice morning.  ❤

After church we went out on an ABC Scavenger Hunt in Connor's teacher's neighborhood in Andover.  We were looking for all 26 letters, plus numbers 1-10.  We ended up finding everything but the letters S and Q and the number 4.  It was very fun!  At the end the kids were getting hungry, so we decided to go out for lunch. 

The kids wanted to go to McDonald's, but we explained to them that places like McDonald's will be just fine if they have to close for a bit.  However, places that are small and unique to Wichita may not be so lucky if we don't support them in times like this.  So we drove down Central and pointed out restaurants.  The kids seemed to understand which ones were chains and which we wouldn't and wouldn't be going to.  We were trying to go to Prost, a German restaurant in Revolutsia, but it was closed today.  We ended up going to Revolutsia still, but went to Taco Locale instead.  Michael and I had eaten their tacos before at the Farmer's Market and they are wonderful!  😋  However, after looking at the menu, I figured, the kids weren't going to eat it, so we ordered Carry Out at Picasso's for the kiddos!  Everyone was happy, well fed, and we supported local businesses!  Huzzah!!

We relaxed and enjoyed our last day of Spring Break playing games and watching tv.  Avery and I planted another row of carrots in the garden, we're up to 3 now.  The first two rows are just starting to sprout!  We're so excited!  We also planted a bunch of different seeds yesterday in little planters!  I'm hopeful that starting a few things inside will mean that the garden will have a head start when we finally get the boxes made and my bigger garden created!!  🤞

The biggest news today is that Avery accepted Christ tonight and she's getting baptized sometime this week!!  We are all soooo excited!!  She's been ready for a while and we all decided it's time!  I'll have someone record it and we'll post a link later this week.  

I go back to school(ish) this week.  Tomorrow we're having a parade through the neighborhoods our school feeds into to see and say hi to our students before the states and counties issue shelters in place orders.  I'll also get into the school to pick up mine and the kids' stuff and grab a chromebook in case I have to help teach online here towards the end of the school year.  No idea what the end of the school year is going to look like, but I know there's a fabulous team of educators putting their heads together to make sure our kiddos keep learning.  ❤

Time for bed now!  More tomorrow!  Night!