Mini Spring Break

Wow, all sorts of things broke during "quarantine"!  This was a broken part to the dishwasher. I think the motor went bad.  It was cheaper to buy a motor--as expensive as it was--than to buy a new dishwasher.  Lee got it up and running!

And wow!  Disinfectant wipes at Walmart?!  These are hard to come by right now. Recently there is plenty of hand sanitizer.  But Lysol spray and disinfectant wipes are still in high demand. 

Since our spring break was cancelled we decided to head to Smith Mountain Lake for the day.  We loved it and it was just what we needed! 

We've been going to Smith Mountain Lake for a few years now and we love it!  Now we have way too many boating pictures!  When we go we stay for the whole day.  Our goal is to get on the boat right at 9:00am.  I think we've done it once...

The middle of May I donated blood which didn't turn out to be a good experience.  The lady checked my temperature with a mouth thermometer....without the plastic covering.  Ugh, if anything would give me COVID-19 that would.  Then right before she sterilized my skin the lady asked if I was allergic to chlorhexidine or Chloraprep.  I had this vague memory that I might be but wasn't sure and said no. Later that evening it all came back to me.  Last time I gave blood I did have a reaction to the chlorhexidine and got a bad rash on my arm.  This time it was even worse.  I had no known allergies till now... I wrote it on my Red Cross blood donor card so I wouldn't forget.  How do people forget something like that?  I totally did.  Thankfully I never got COVID as far as I know.  Side story, I gave blood at an elementary school in the gym.  At one point I needed to use the restroom.  It was kind of sad seeing kid's jackets on a hallway coat rack and then the kids' names on the wall in the gym for different achievements.  If it would have been summer those things would have been cleared away and donated.  It was kind of sad and weird too. 

Then my tear duct in my right eye became clogged.  Fun few weeks for me! 

Shanna decided to make the top bunk of her bed into a loft area.  She helped purchase a board to put in as the "ground". Then she did a coat of polyurethane. 

Sometimes my rolls just turn out perfectly...like this time.  Ahh...amazing!

We were finally able to get things from the kids lockers.  Elden also picked up the traditional 5th grade t-shirt that the kids get every year. 

The kids all got their yearbooks.  No clue how they are doing yearbooks for the coming school year.

The Nesquik love continues!

Mother's Day 2020

I hope you ladies had a great Mother's Day!  Before I get to a brief Mother's Day recap, here are some happenings leading up to that day.

We've enjoyed playing games and a fun one is Code Names.

The girls enjoyed more birthday fun with packages from Uncle Daniel and Aunt Amy! They love getting packages from them.

The weather hasn't been super great, but a few nice days have managed to squeeze through!  And getting outside is the perfect remedy for all this staying at home!

On "May the 4th Be With You" a couple of my sisters did some fun food things for dinner that night.  I didn't do anything but loved what my sister Deb did.  I thought this was especially funny...a storm trooper stuck in some jello.  I mean carbonite.

I need to do something like this next year!  So fun!

The kids have been enjoying re-listening to Brandon Mull's different books and series: Candy Shop Wars, The Five Kingdoms, The Beyonders and Fablehaven.  I'm listening to Josi S Kilpack's culinary mysteries series.

Shanna received some pictures in the mail from her little friends.  I thought it was cute she put them up on her mirror.

Our neighbor had something stuck in an underground pipe and her yard and our yard were dug up to find the problem. Sadly there is a bunch of clay for our dirt here.  And it's a mess.  But we're glad her pipes aren't clogged anymore.

For Cinco de Mayo we had tacos and Shanna made a pinata.

I also gave her a hair cut.

Clark made himself a fun lunch.

Shanna broke the pinata herself, which was funny and we divided up the candy.

I love the random things our kids are coming up with during quarantine.  Another one was Haley and Elden seeing how many times they could walk around the couch.  They did this for at least 20 minutes.  It was pretty funny. 

Cal has gotten into the "Magic" card game and has been playing with his friends online showing his cards using the camera and also playing with Shanna, Haley and Elden.

Shanna and I made some caramel one night for a little date.  Of course there was A LOT leftover so I made some homemade "turtles" that don't look like turtles.

I laughed when I was reading this.  Lee and I are reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.  I thought this part was funny about playing games with people.  "Playing games also provides permission for what we can call supercharged socializing--interactions with higher intensity levels than are common in polite society." This made me chuckle out loud.  This is totally my family--especially with Monopoly!!!

Finally---we are finding sanitizer and disinfectant wipes!!! Pretty much anything we find is for Lee's office.  We want to have a good supply there!  And today I went shopping and was able to buy more disinfectant wipes.  They use them all the time at Lee's office.  And even more now when they are constantly cleaning glasses when people are trying on frames.

This is so COVID-19... You know you have a good friend when they buy you hand sanitizer at the store!  Another one to add to Lee's supply for his office-sweet! Thanks Katherine!

Yum.  Homemade pizza. No other words needed!

My sister Deb told me her secret.  Though it's not a secret but I think it's a huge secret to awesome pizza.  Baking it at 500°.

We did a virtual game night with some friends on Friday.  We played code names.  We did this with our siblings and then the next weekend invited our friends to play with us over Zoom.  Lois gave us the idea of the cooling rack.  We put our phone on the rack so they could see the game "board".  And Lee used the cooling rack to cool our treat...chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

Shanna loves flips on the trampoline and doing all sorts of stuff in the house.

I had a nice Mother's Day.  Lee gave me lots of chocolate and a lovely card, as did Clark and Shanna.  Haley made the fun cake with raspberries and Lee had the kids fill out cute notes about what they thought of me being their mom.  The Bishop and his wife brought me the pretty flowers and note and we enjoyed a little porch visit with them. Lee also got me a gift card to McDonald's to get french fires.  I think french fries is basically my favorite food!

Loved how Lee wanted the kids to guess in grams how much I weighed.

My favorite part of the above notes is my job section.  I love that they could write that my job is being their mom.  And racking up the cash apparently according to Cal, haha. Lee made me a fun lunch and also did baked potatoes for dinner.  I just love potatoes!  We also did church at home and had our Come, Follow Me/Family Home Evening. We squeezed a walk in as well.

For dessert Monday night Shanna made a pumpkin roll!  On Monday we try to make it our family game and dessert night for family home evening.

I'm grateful for the mother's in my life!  I'm grateful for Lee's mom and raising such a great guy, and my mom for teaching me the gospel!  What a treasure.  I am blessed by these and many other wonderful women in my life. Choices do matter, and can impact generations!