Happy Birthday to Me!

I had my birthday while sheltering at home.  To some, this may be the worst thing ever.  For me, it was just right.  I like going out to eat, but I don’t need to.  I just don’t want to be the one in charge of my meal.  And I wasn’t … mostly. 

Things that made this day special…

A scavenger hunt brought over from Steph M; the girls got to hide the clues and watch me find them

Flowers from Jeremy.  He always gets me tulips for my birthday.  This year, he printed them on paper… I didn’t have to watch them die that way :)

Cards from both my girls with nice things inside. Plus gifts – painted rocks and a clay owl from Ellie and a ticket to a Dance Off from Madison.

Jeremy grilled hamburgers for supper – main dish taken care of!

I spruced up the burgers with homemade pretzel buns.  They were well worth the time.  They weren’t hard, just took time like any yeast bread recipe does.  The girls helped me with this one and enjoyed the step where we boiled it in water with baking soda! (Notice ALL my helpers in the second photo… always underfoot)

    

Roasted vegetables.  I could eat these for every single meal.  Here is the final meal shot.

A Dance Off.  It was quite the challenge.  I didn't win – just a “because it’s your birthday trophy” but it was fun. 

Angel food cake from Larry M. and Spoon Dip from Mom – surprise!  We ate the dessert via FaceTime with my mom and dad. 

A day that didn’t require me rushing home from school to make supper, cram cake down my throat, and get the girls to soccer.  It was just good to go slow and enjoy it. 

So,

It was a good one.

Shelter at Home Week 5 and 6

If you wonder what we see all day every day, here is the view from out our front door.  (Thanks, Madison, for the fun panorama!) 

Here is also the view as you walk down the hall and see directly into the playroom.  Don’t judge.  They have been playing and getting along and having fun.  It is somewhat organized. 

Here is our dog… doing his dog thing.

                  

Girls’ play ideas… American Girl dolls (now they want to buy the real deal… #sadface #toomuchmoney), Calico Critters, baking, biking, and tiny forts (kinda like the tiny house trend, but with a fort…)

We took the girls to “Brickerville” to hike around Jeremy’s family’s land.  They were slightly reluctant when leaving home, but they had a blast climbing over downed trees, around rocks, up hills, scouting out animal tracks, spotting birds, watching Sandhill Cranes take off and land, and checking on and counting eggs in 20 bluebird houses!

      

I try to walk or do some exercise most days of the week.  I am pretty tired of the 1 mile radius around my house.  I say 1 mile because when I say I exercise most days it is roughly 20-30 minutes.  I am not a girl who sweats for hours at a time if I can help it.  I did broaden my zone the other day and went on a 3.75 mile square from my home.  Anyway, I am tired of the same area, the same road, the same sights.  So, sometimes to mix it up, I do something different.  I convince the girls to come and go less distance, but it gives us time to talk.  Or I take them to Evergreen Park to do the trail in the woods.  It may be a little under a mile loop?  I have no idea.  I walk it once with them, and then I convince them they would have more fun playing in the creek than walking – because they do – and we split up for 10 minute segments.  They “tried” to stay dry, but ended up wet.  They had fun, and I like their spirt of adventure as they jump from rock to rock.  Another perk with the woods is it wears Pepper out quicker with all the new sights and smells.

    

Adventures with food: I made Chicken Tikka Masala with homemade Naan the other night.  I love the masala – it is incredibly flavorful and easy (can you say, crockpot?).  I also LOVE the naan.  I could eat this as my dessert and my meal.  I had tried naan before and the dough was hard to work with.  This dough from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook for Grilled Yogurt Flatbread is simple and easy to work with.  I doubled the recipe and had some for leftovers!  The girls they decided they would eat it with their hands, like Grandpa says to!

My mandatory mom moments have included things like

• Breakout.edu online; this is like an escape room but it is done digitally and you have to solve puzzles to unlock each lock and breakout.  The girls were a little frustrated sometimes, but I liked that it challenged them and we worked together.
• starting the 4-H scrapbooking project by exploring tools and scrapbooks
• animal workout with Alexa (Echo Dot).  In this workout, the game told us which animal to be and how to be it.  It was actually exhausting which is why I enjoyed the cat so much – lay and sleep – and the giraffe – stick out your tongue!
• making naan
• making pretzel buns (more on that in the birthday post!)
• learning a dice game
• watching Mandie and the Secret Tunnel together as a surprise one night
• cotton ball experiment.  I had high hopes for this one.  It was kinda a dud, but they had some fun anyway.

I decided it would help me to have a “theme” for each day, so I have

• Make it Monday (crafts, art, food)
• Teach it Tuesday (card, board, dice games, 4-H, new skills)
• Wear you out / Watch it Wednesday (exercising or TV/movie)
• Think about it Thursday (brain games, experiments, sudoku, crosswords, etc)
• Fun / Free Friday (anything goes!)

Alright, I think that about covers it.  I didn’t do my birthday which happened in week 5, but I’ll cover that in the next post! 

Easter

Well, it was a little different this year.  But Easter didn’t disappear.  It wasn’t cancelled. 

Easter came on Sunday.  We praised the Lord for the resurrection of His Son, Jesus.  He thanked Him for the forgiveness of sins.  And we were assured that death does not hold a grip on us.  We are saved. 

Our morning started out just as any Easter morning – a little harried in our rush to get ready and to church on time.  I know, church was in our basement; how hard would it be to be on time?  Well, sometimes you just don’t move as fast you think you will.  Plus, a majority of us in this household haven’t really been getting ready any day of the week – picking clothes, doing hair, etc.  Looking nice (not just presentable) takes time! 

Also, our kids still like to find an Easter basket at some point.  The bunny had left clues for them to follow to locate their basket.  They were off and running before we even had breakfast.

    

    

Then, we had to have breakfast – Madison’s delicious monkey bread and scrambled eggs.  We did make it to church.  We listened to the pipe organ playing.  We enjoyed the visual on the altar that was provided.  And then we continued worship throughout the morning. 

We took the traditional Easter pictures… with a tripod.

               

The girls and I finished with Sunday school – Easter! 

    

My mom had fixed us some ham balls and zwiebach, staples of our Easter dinner.  I had ham balls heating in the oven along with cheesy potatoes.  Then I fixed some green beans and carrots, and lunch was on the table. 

We went around 2pm to pick up plastic eggs from Gloria.  We had not ever purchased any because egg hunts usually happen elsewhere.  Gloria hid a few for the girls to find around her house before we got there, so she could be a part of the hunt, too.  Unfortunately, it started raining a little and the hunt was quick and wet.  Still exciting for the girls I think.

    

We took a picture with Grandma, too.  We have started wearing masks because it is supposed to help keep our germs to ourselves.  So, even around Gloria we have been trying to do this; who knows what we have encountered that she hasn’t.

    

We came home to a Zoom Ediger Scavenger Hunt.  The grandkids raced around trying to find items that fit the descriptions.  We used this Resurrection scavenger hunt I found online. It was fun to watch the kids run back and forth to the computer with their items.  Mom and Dad tried to keep up recording who came in first, second, third, etc just for fun. 

Jeremy and I worked on filling the eggs before hiding them.  We really didn’t have much candy, so I filled them with coupons instead – “Get a dessert after supper even when we already said no” “Extra chapter read aloud at night.” “Mom or dad will do your chore this week.” “Your movie choice on family movie night.”  and a few more.  Then, we hid them around the yard.  The girls had a lot of fun looking for them – and overlooking them sometimes!

         

These were some good ones they just kept missing!  They did find them all, but it was fun to watch them hunt.

    

We ended the night with grilled cheese sandwiches and talking around the table.  It was declared a “good Easter” by all.