COVID-19 Quarantine Day 131

I've thought, since getting back from vacation, about changing the subject lines of my blogs to stop having COVID-19 Quarantine in them.  I mean, businesses have reopened, people are going out again, and this may just be the new normal, and no longer be considered quarantine or the height of what we're facing.  But then I take a look at what I'm doing, how my life has changed, how the world has changed, and I feel like we're still right in the thick of it.  When we came back from vacation, we quarantined for almost 2 weeks to make sure we weren't sick before seeing friends and family again.  Quarantine.  We're still wearing masks if we have to go out and about, but we're limiting our outings as much as possible, trying to stay away from stores and unnecessary trips in public.  Quarantine.  Governor Kelly shut down schools before the last quarter of the year last year had even started.  Now, with a month still left in the summer vacation, she's asking the State BOE to push school start dates back statewide another 3 weeks until after Labor Day.  This allows us to see if we can flatten the curve before the fall semester starts, before kids get back into schools, if they get back into schools.  Quarantine.  Kansas is up over 23k cases state-wide.  Do you know what that makes me want to do?  Quarantine.  Do you know why?  Because I don't feel like I can trust the people in this state.  So many people think this is a hoax that will go away in November.  Many people think it's just the flu, and even if you do get it, you'll be fine.  I used to be one of those people.  But new information has come to light.  I've read accounts of people personally affected by COVID, who describe it as hell.  Some who say they wish they would have just died.  Because when you test negative again, it doesn't mean everything is over.  The long-term health effects can be felt months later.  And we don't know how long those effects will last because this virus has only been around for 8 months and while we know a few things, I still feel like it's only the tip of the iceberg.  So yeah, I think we're still in quarantine.  At least my family is.  Or maybe we're just being cautious and careful.  Maybe this is just what our lives will look like for the foreseeable future.  We're certainly living through a historic moment in the world.  And even if it means quarantining, and keeping our heads down when other, louder heads are up and shouting that I'm overreacting, I intend to be here when this is all over.  Maybe I'll say I was silly for keeping us home so much, for not going into businesses or restaurants, for restricting playdates and quarantining afterwards.  But the vulnerable people in my life are not worth the risk.

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 126

I did it!  I got all of the blogs finished from vacation!  Woohoo!!  Like I said, we had a great vacation!  I thought that we balanced rest and activities well.  We saw lots of new National Parks, Forests, and Battlegrounds.  We got a date night and we took the kids out to dinner where we all splurged and had dessert.  We saw family we hadn't seen in a few years and enjoyed our first AirBnB at a real life dairy farm where we got to pet baby cows and snuggle kittens on the front porch swing while we watched the rain come down.  We couldn't have asked for a better trip!  We were also able to stay safe and mostly away from other people.  Today marks Day 11 since we've been home.  Michael had to go back to work, but he's staying hunkered down in his cubicle with his mask on and avoiding people like the (literal) plague.  The kids and I have been home until yesterday.

One of Connor's friends' mom texted me while we were on vacation asking if Connor could come over for a play date.  We've been pretty careful about seeing others since March, and the kids have only seen their friends a handful of times.  I explained to her that we were on vacation, and that we intended to quarantine afterwards to make sure we didn't get sick over vacation.  She understood.  Well, since we were heading into double digit days without having been anywhere or shown any symptoms, I decided it was safe and sent her a text.  I explained that we'd been home for 10 days and none of us were showing symptoms.  She said they were all healthy as well and would let me know if anything changed (I think this was Tuesday morning that we were talking).  We settled on Wednesday afternoon at their house.  So we went over yesterday and the kids played and the moms talked.  Gavin is Connor's age, and their middle child, Kaylee, is going into 4th grade this year.  She and Avery had a great time playing together as well.  Turns out that Gavin's mom is sisters with the mom of one of Avery's good friends, Jeanette.  So Avery was playing with Jeanette's cousin.  Which she enjoyed.  Lisa and I are both extroverts who have been very cautious in this season.  She said the only family theirs had had contact with for months was her sister's family.  I explained that our situation was very similar and that mostly we were only seeing Sis & Adam's family, as well as Mama & Daddy.  Her sister has 6 kids though!  O_o  So when they get together, there are a total of 9 kids to play together.  So the kids have greatly appreciated having their cousins during this time.  I know our kids have as well.

What else has been going on during our quarantine?  Not much.  We did go to Wal-Mart to pick up a click-list because we basically used up all of our essentials before we left.  We haven't been eating out, obviously, so I've just been going through the recipe book and looking for some good, healthy stuff to have here at home.  

Kids helped me bake muffins.  There were ok only 4 left by the time Michael got home from work that day...  😳

Super tasty salad!!

Grilled asparagus!  Always a winner!!  Can't wait to be harvesting my own!!

Grilled some corn this week too!  Soaked them in water in the husks and then "boiled" them on the grill in the husks.  The outside caught fire a little, but the inside was perfect, and I don't even really care for corn on the cob!!

Today I made Shepherds Pie!  Everyone loved it!  It should also feed Michael next week while the kids and I are gone.

Homemade salsa from Grandpa Heorman's and my gardens!!  😍😍😍

Also, homemade guac!  I know you already saw this pic.  😉

One pan meal, chicken, pineapple, red, yellow, and green bell pepper, gypsy peppers, and red and white onions!  Served it over rice!  Amazing!

Homemade pizza!!  I did a BBQ sauce base, grilled chicken, caramelized onion, red onion, tomato, cheese, and ranch!  😋😋😋

I mentioned that Michael took Monday off after we got home from vacation to just rest.  That was fun.  We all just did a whole lot of nothing.  We played a few games and generally vegged the entire day away.  It was really nice.  

I thought when I got home that my garden wasn't getting watered enough, but it turns out, I got vine-borers again.  :'(  They had destroyed all of my squash plants.  If I would have been home, I would have noticed the day they started wilting and got them sprayed with insecticide and could have gotten ahead of the problem.  But by the time we got through, they were pretty much done for.  I pulled all of the plants out.  Which really sucks.  Because I had just picked my first yellow squash right before we left.  Then, 10 days later, every one of those big, beautiful plants was ruined.  It really was very sad.  My tomatoes and peppers look really good.  The kids have been helping my pick cherry tomatoes every few days and my big fat tomatoes are just starting to ripen.  We had storms roll through a couple days and my tomatoes were so heavy and the soil was so soft, that my tomato cages started going down, pushing down my pepper plants with them.  When I worked to try to get to cages standing again, I accidentally knocked one of my big tomatoes off.  

So I ended up making fried green tomatoes a few nights ago.  They were...  okay.  Michael really liked them.  I also made air fried green beans.  They were ok too, seemed kind of dry.  I still haven't figured out the perfect formula for fried green beans, but one day I will!  

The other morning I was sitting in my chair here in the breakfast nook and and noticed something moving out the corner of my eye towards the yard.  I turned, and there was a coyote running along the tree line, right in the morning.  I'm so glad we have a fence around our yard.

So yesterday Governor Kelly issued an executive order that schools weren't going to start until after Labor Day.  I don't know what this means for me or for my job, so I'm still waiting.  I think, if I'm not mistaken, that teachers will go ahead and start at their regular time, and that they'll work in schools without kids for 3 weeks to develop a way to best navigate what this school year will be like.  I could be wrong on that though.  I haven't read the 100 page document that the state BOE released about their recommendations for going forward, but I believe they have laid out a few different options for school districts to choose from.  One option is all kids in school together, with some additional safety protocols.  I feel this would work well for smaller, more rural schools.  Personally, I feel that Andover is too large to make that option work effectively.  The next option is an in-person/digital learning hybrid, where class sizes are smaller with people having the option for entirely digital or staggered days in person.  Again, my own personal opinion, is that this is what Andover should do.  I've talked with many families who are fearful of sending their kids back to school, and there's no right or easy answer.  But I think an option for entirely digital, for the families that are able and want that, and an option for staggered days of in class instruction, would be good.  Are we going to be able to prevent everything?  No.  But we have to make the best of what we have, and I like this option the best.  The final option is to return to what we did in March, where everything is online.   I just don't think this is a reasonable ask for families who don't have an at-home full time parent.  There are too many parents who just won't be able to make this work.  Please don't get me wrong, school is not daycare, and teachers are not responsible for putting themselves in harms way for the sake of the economy and "opening everything up", but having at least a couple days a week when students can be in the classroom seems like the best option to me.  Andover also has the eAcademy option, which I think is mostly independent learning, and while I thought it was only available to middle and high schoolers, I've not learned it's available to all grades.  That is an option Andover has that other districts may not at this time.  However, word on the street is that it is completely booked solid and they are no longer enrolling or accepting new students there.  So I guess if you looked into it early, you could do that, but if you waited, you can't.  It's not an option I would use, since my kids are so young.  Sis asked me the other day what team I was on, send them back to school or all digital.  I think I've landed on the hybrid system.  I really do want my kids back in the school building.  But the idea of them being there with an entire class of 25 kids and the school full of 400 students plus teachers and staff, worries me.  Smaller classes, spreading out more, and increased safety protocols seems the best option to me.  Kids are resilient.  They learned how to hide in their classrooms in case an intruder comes in who wants to kill them.  If they can learn to do that, they can learn to have personal space, be extra diligent in cleaning and washing, and to wear masks.  Just my two cents.  Not in the mood for an argument or debate.  The school year weighs heavy on my heart and I don't envy those in charge and the decisions they have to make.  I do, however, appreciate that Governor Kelly is erring on the side of caution for the sake of the health of teachers, staff, students, and families.  It can be an easy job, being in leadership right now.  But I appreciate her calm under pressure and her effort to keep the state of Kansas safe.

Alright, enough about that.  I'm very much looking forward to this weekend!!  Tomorrow night we're going to Sis and Adam's house to watch an outdoor movie, Goonies!  As fun as the movie will be, I'm more looking forward to seeing Sis, and I know the kids are looking forward to seeing Dayton and Laney.  Then, on Saturday, we're going out to the farm!!  I can't wait!  And for once, it looks like it's not going to be raining all weekend!  I'm sure the kids are looking forward to another ride on the boat.  I highly doubt it's the right time of year anymore, but I'm hoping everyone catches some fish, so I have a little more to stick in the freezer.  I made Fish Piccata this week and it was super tasty!  

I don't know how long Mama, the kids, and I will end up staying out there, but we're at least staying for an extra day or two.  I've missed seeing the family so much!  We're going to soak it in this weekend!!

So this blog is Quarantine Day 126, essentially 4 months in.  I know the Spanish Flu lasted for a couple of years.  I wonder how long this is all going to last.  One thing is for sure, life as we knew it will never be the same.  When I was talking to Gavin's mom, Lisa, yesterday I said that hindsight is 20/20.  We're doing the best we can, but we'll never know what steps were right and which were wrong until it's all over.  People pride themselves on thinking they know what's best for everyone and the world, but I think that's exactly it, pride.  Unless you're an epidemiologist in the trenches, studying and battling COVID in the hospitals and effectively leading the population in action steps that will keep everyone healthy, I think there's a lot of speculation and internet "doctors".  I'm guilty of it myself.  I don't think we'll know how well or poorly we did until COVID is behind us.  And, as Nate mentioned in March, when all of this was beginning, I'd rather look back and say, we overreacted and could have loosened up on regulations as opposed to under-reacting and allowing hundreds of thousands or millions of people die because we were more concerned about things other than people's lives.

Sorry, I know I said I wasn't going to keep harping on that.  I think that pretty much catches you up on what's been going on in our lives the last few weeks.  :-)  Hope you all are well, and I look forward to seeing you very soon!!  <3

Snuggles with Bubba this morning!  ❤

My Rose of Sharon and Hibiscus are doing amazing!  They're so beautiful!  My hibiscus is also dropping seeds into the grass....  😳😳😳  Michael is just mowing them down, for now....

Have you ever heard us say Gabby likes to be underfoot??  🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

Got new pictures up on the map!!  Slowly but surely, filling it in!  I love this map soooooooo much!!!  ❤❤❤

Okay, last picture for this blog.  This is so gross.  We have bagworms that Michael has been removing from our Japanese Maple by hand.  Yuck.  He also found out that if you pour them into the trashcan, they'll crawl out.  🤢🤢  But I think he's got all of them now, but it took about 3 different times working at it, trying to get them all.  Michael also weeded the front flower bed for me tonight!  ❤  I love him!

Voss Vaca 2020 - Day 10 - Gateway Arch National Park

Our last day!  Shockingly, when we woke up that morning, we weren't ready to forget the Arch and come straight home.  We took our time waking up and getting around before leaving the hotel.  We also tore our room apart looking for Avery's unicorn mask.  Somewhere between getting into the hotel the night before, running to the lobby and pool a couple times, and leaving the next morning, we lost her mask.  I'm especially sad about this because Kelly made that mask special for her.  It's a little heartbreaking.  Maybe it will end up turning up at some point, but I felt like we tore the room, car, and luggage all apart and never found it.  My best guess is that she put it down or dropped it somewhere when we were back and forth around in the hotel.  We asked the front desk, but they hadn't seen it.  I should try calling them and see if it turned up after we left.  Anyway, we were pretty late getting around, and I think we finally left our hotel around 11am.

We made it to the Arch around 11:30am.  I didn't realize there was a whole museum under the arch, underground!  But there was!  We spent the next 3 hours going through the museum, learning about the arch, the time it was built, and the history that led to it being built.  The kids worked on their Junior Ranger booklets and ended up earning another badge!  <3  :-D  

We also visited the giftshop, where the kids opted for Taffy instead of anything to commemorate the trip, lol.  I got a tomato cookbook because I assumed my tomatoes would be ripening by the time I got home (spoiler alert: I was wrong).  I also got a magnet with the Arch on it, because magnets seem to be a good way to remember parts of our trips without spending too much money or taking up too much space, lol!

New badges!!!  ❤❤❤

Almost home!!!

The drive home was supposed to be about 6.5 hours.  However, we didn't leave the hotel until 11am, and then we went to The Arch instead of straight home.  We got to The Arch at 11:30am and spent the next 3 hours there.  Also, we failed to eat lunch, and were kind of itching to get on the road and out of St. Louis by 2:30pm when we left town.  We ended up driving through a nice red cell again because, of course we did.  Can't be vacation without driving through scary weather.  Fortunately, this one was much more short lived.

But we drove right through the eye of it before we were smooth sailing.  By now, Michael's a pro at this driving.  😂  We were all very hungry and snacks in the car weren't doing it anymore, so we stopped in Columbia for dinner.  We were there for about an hour.  Michael and I had delicious bread pudding for dessert because #Vacation.

I guess technically this would be before those KC pics, but oh well!  We left our hotel at 11am, only 6.5 hours of driving until we got home.  We made it home by 10:30pm.  🤦🏼‍♀️  It was a long drive and day, but we were glad we got to stop at The Arch, which I'd never seen before.  Plus, the kids were able to get their second new badge of the trip.  (Two more pending)  It was a great vacation, but we were soooooo tired by the time we got home.  Also, Michael's office decided that despite having traveling 2000 over 10 days in 5 states, that he could come back to work.  😡  So he ended up taking Monday off too, just to relax.  And that concludes the saga of #VossVaca2020!  We had an amazing time, added 3 new states to the map, 4 new badges for the kids, and don't think we caught COVID, so all good things!  😂😁❤  Thanks for reading and for being patient since it took me so long to get these uploaded!!  ❤❤  Have a good one!!