Week 5 of being Quarantined

We're ready for this quarantine to be over, yet trying to be positive and in good spirits at the same time. It's a bit challenging at times, as we miss our friends and going outside without the fear of getting COVID-19. We miss being able to go to the beach, yet are thankful that we have a pool and warm weather. 

Trevor made his first trip out in five weeks. I should clarify that I have been doing all of our shopping and all of our errands to spare Trevor from any exposure. Yesterday, he and Kianna donned their bandanas and took their hand sanitizer and clorox wipes to the Chick-fil-a drive through. It made for some comical pictures, but this is our current reality.

Pastor Dan has been preaching about the power of our words and speaking God's promises over our circumstances. Psalms 91:1-12 says, "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!" Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, "The LORD is my refuge", and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." 

I looked up the definition of pestilence, which means a fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague. This has been my theme verse over the past five weeks. I have been praying it over our family and it has given me much peace. I continue to be awed by the relevance of the bible written more than 2,000 years ago. God is good and He promises to protect us! 

We found out yesterday that school is cancelled for the rest of the year. We pray this quarantine ends soon! We're ready to see our friends and family again!!!

Week 4 of Quarantine

Family zooms on Tuesdays

We tackled a couple more projects this week:

Trevor surprised us with a new wooden version of Settlers of Catan. I decided to dye the wood so the pieces would be a bit more distinguishable. They turned out great, although the wood appeared to have bowed a bit in the process requiring some tape to hold it together...

Kianna and I also spray painted her navy blue mirror, gold, so it would match the rest of her bedroom.

Kaylee had fun this week doing a drive by birthday surprise for Lilly Hass. She and her friends coordinated a little birthday parade. They met outside of Lilly's neighborhood and decorated their cars with streamers. Kaylee had made a birthday banner for Lilly and had some gifts to leave with her. Then this weekend, Lilly had a virtual birthday party. They watched a Netflix movie together and played "How well do you know Lilly". Creative girls!

Trace did a drive by birthday greeting for his teammate, Aiden, last weekend. They even arranged a zoom call so the boys could sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

Other than that, Trevor continues to work from home and school continues for the kids. I'm making steady progress on my blog and zoom calls continue. We remain healthy, so life is good.

Bella's First Birthday

Our sweet Bella turned one today. Bella and Rizzo are best buds. They love to chase each other around the yard. They both love going on walks and do our 3 mile loop with us. Bella is a barker, so we recently got her a bark collar, which seems to be helping. Bella loves to play with her toys, especially her chew toys. She still has been known to shred things occasionally.

She is bell trained and fully potty trained now. She loves to cuddle up with us at night, but during the day she doesn't like to sit still other than when she's napping. The girls decided to fill their kong toys with peanut butter and freeze them as a special birthday treat. The dogs were in heaven!

New AirPods

We are very proud of Kianna as she saved up her money to buy herself some new AirPods. This is a really big deal because she hates chores and usually has trouble saving her money. However, Kianna worked really hard and has become a much better worker over the past months. She is now my best vacuumer, sweeper and mopper. She gives killer back rubs. She is now great at handwash, which used to be her worst job. She also does a great job folding and hanging up our laundry. She has worked hard to earn this money! BTW we purchased them via Target's curbside pick up, so we could maintain our social distancing.

Easter

Online Easter Service

Deviled Eggs

Fruit Pizza Egg

My cooks

Superman Pose

Easter Baskets

Easter Egg Hunt

Trevor threw some eggs in the pool

Painting Wooden Eggs

Our Easter celebration began last night when we sat down as a family and watched the movie "Risen". It was about a Roman Centurion who witnessed Christ's death and resurrection and whose life was never the same. The quarantine continues so we did church from our living room. It was a very good sermon about the power of our words. Pastor Dan talked about what we tell ourselves to be true, often becomes true. We must speak truth, even to ourselves. What we tell ourselves really matters!

Kaylee and I decided it would be fun to get dressed up for Easter. We did our hair, put make up on and wore our Sunday best. I decided to have a themed meal, Elegant Easter. We got out for fancy dishes from Grandma Gaskill and had a yummy meal. Kianna made deviled eggs. Kaylee made a yummy pasta salad, cream cheese wrapped pickles, and a beautiful egg shaped fruit pizza. Trace and Kianna made the resurrection rolls. I made cheesy potatoes and pork chops. Trevor was on the clean up crew. 

Following clean up, the kids got their Easter baskets and had their egg hunt. Trevor even threw some in the pool to mix things up a bit. After the egg hunt, we put on our swim suits and played together in the pool. We played PIG and paddle ball. It was an afternoon filled with laughter. We genuinely had a very nice day together!!!

Week 3 of Quarantine

Family Zoom

Synergy Work Zoom

Bacon guacamole grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade sourdough bread

How Kianna cuts onions

Lettuce Wraps

Quarantine continues and so do zoom calls! I had never heard of zoom before the quarantine. Now we have school via zoom. Work meetings via zoom. Family meetings every Tuesday via zoom. Youth group via zoom. Soccer team meetings via zoom. Lunch with friends via zoom. Moms small group on Wednesdays via zoom. Trevor works via zoom. You get the point...

In addition to zoom, I dusted off my sewing machine and have been sewing face masks for the local hospitals. I have made 15 in total.

We have finished another puzzle.

I taught the kids to play Cities and Knights and they are hooked. Dad has even joined us when he wasn't working...

Trace is playing lots of Fortnite and watching lots of YouTube videos. We often catch him on it when he's not supposed to be. We're working on that...

The girls have been watching the Harry Potter movies together. They have also been doing lots of cooking and baking. Kaylee made a yeast starter that took 10 days of preparation. Once finished, she made us sourdough bread from scratch. It took five hours to make and was amazing! She sliced the bread and made us bacon and guacamole grilled cheese sandwiches. She also made us amish cinnamon bread with they yeast starter. Rumor is we still have homemade dinner rolls coming, along with Kianna's homemade cinnamon honey butter. Kianna also made us lettuce wraps for dinner a couple nights ago. Yummy! We have been eating well!

We have gone for lots of bike rides and walks around our neighborhood.

We are healthy, so life is good!

April Fools

Trevor and I have two very different ideas of tricking the kids. My version was the smoking toilet, which got a few laughs. Trevor's version included hiding in Kianna's closet late at night, right after we had finished letting her watch "The Sixth Sense" for the first time. Both of us got laughs, but his produced belly laughs and was pure genius or evil, you choose?