Quarantine-Day 14

Since our drive home from Colorado on March 16th, the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has escalated at an extremely rapid pace. An order released from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, recommended a quarantine for people that visited certain counties in CO. That was us. So we immediately started a 14 day quarantine. WELCOME BAAAACK!

Out of “an abundance of caution” has been taken to a whole new level. A level we’ve never seen in our lifetime. I went from doing pretty good and proceeding on with our normal St. Patty’s day tradition of green pancakes and Reece creating an adorable “shamrock photo booth”…

to a puddle of sadness when I heard school was cancelled for the rest of the school year!! This means I will never see Jake walk out of Prairie Trail Middle School ever again. And I quite possibly watched Morgan’s last high school soccer game and didn’t even realize it. That is very very sad to me. I feel especially heart-broken for anyone that has a senior. Their senior prom, their graduation, their sports. Oh my gosh, NO SPRING SPORTS! For some of them, it would be their last time ever playing. For someone who shuttles a lot of kids to sports every single day, that hit hard for me.

It has definitely taken numerous days for all of this to sink in and each day I discover more and more things that are impacted. We have made it to day 14 of our family quarantine and it’s been interesting!! We have gone from the most over-scheduled family ever to having nothing on the calendar at all. This is a HUGE adjustment for us! We are used to running around crazy from game to game to practice to youth group to meetings, etc.

We always beg for TIME and now we have it! I just wish it was under more pleasant circumstances. We have used this time to get some things done that always fall to the bottom of the list. It started with a complete clean out and sanitation of my van. That was quite an eye-opening experience for the kids. They were in shock at how many times we had to clean out the bucket of dirty water! On a daily basis, we just get the trash out and the sports bags. The cleaning…welllll, it just doesn’t happen!

We washed and sanitized every single thing that went to Colorado with us and also washed every piece of bedding in our house. This 5 month summer break is not very glamorous so far!

Just before we left, we had a water heater leak in the basement that flooded my craft room.

Getting that room put back and organized was a good 7 hour project. Look at it! It hasn’t looked this tidy and organized in years!

We’ve cleaned out the game cabinet and proceeded to play pretty much every game in there. Generally, there are few family game nights because we’re always gone!Generally, there are few family game nights because we’re always gone! A good game night is always a blast.

Morgan is filling up her Life car with kids…no surprise!

We’ve already had several virtual birthday parties via Zoom conferencing. It’s hard to be in a celebratory mood sometimes but having something to look forward to that’s not a soccer practice or online school, is now our new form of fun!

Stella Robinson’s 10th bday party complete with a mug cake, lunchable, scrapbooking, and makeup!

I even got to attend a birthday party myself! We were supposed to be on a girls trip in Mexico celebrating, but the next best thing in these times, is hopping on Zoom with a beach virtual background and a bottle of wine. New normal.

We are now watching church online and Jake is doing his confirmation classes via Zoom. Our pastor was broadcasting from the sanctuary but now she in her home doing it. We won’t be in church on Easter Sunday? Will we even dress up? I guess not. All of this is uncharted territory.

We’ve cleaned out our storage closets in the basement and Morgan has learned to patch walls and paint.She’s preparing our playroom to be her bedroom when she leaves for college. A place she can come back to to store her things and have a nice place to call her own. A little premature to be doing this since she’s only a junior, but we have the time so I guess we should start! The boys are about at the end of their patience sharing a room, so that will free up a room for them to separate when she goes. So proud of you MoMo!!

About 1 day into the quarantine and Reece was already starting craft projects and using up all the tape. This girl loves tape! Look how incredible this project is!!

I adore this creativity!

Jake has been hard at work perfecting his golf game. No shock there. Hoping for a Division 1 scholarship after all this…

I’ve been doing my grocery shopping via facetime with a friend. So thankful for my friends right now!!

And cleaned out kids drawers and closets – including my own. It was bad – my drawers were to the point of barely opening. Why do my boys have almost 70 hats? This is clearly a problem.

We’ve turned my bedroom into the workout room and I HATE working out at home. But I cannot go without exercise or I will lose my mind! Thankfully I have some cute workout buddies from time to time!

And we are doing family wall sits and a lot of walks every day as well.

Thank goodness because we are eating and drinking like crazy. It’s not the “freshman 15” it’s the “Quarantine 19” We have had a bunch of family meals and sharing in the cooking duties. Kids are researching recipes and learning life skills! Brian is amazed that we are running the dishwasher pretty much every day now. It’s the little things we are amazed with now I guess!

Reece and Jake whipping up some chocolate mug cakes from ingredients we already had in the pantry

Sports practices are now all online and I can assure you that these kids would rather be on the field or in the gym. This will continue for weeks and it’s just not the same!!

#quaranastics

This week would’ve been Morgan’s 1st two JV soccer games and we put on our Ravens spirit wear in honor of the occasion. I’m beyond sad that this season finished before it even started. I had even volunteered to be the JV team mom 😦

a little garage basketball practice (video)

I haven’t watched my baby girl do bubbles in a very long time. Really getting back to the basics of outdoor fun.

Online learning starts tomorrow but it’s optional and doesn’t impact your grades so we will be doing our best but not stressing over any of it. Luckily, the high school students have the opportunity to improve their grades while the younger students will end the year with their 3rd quarter grades as they were. Kids are using Zoom to communicate with teachers and I have sent a few emails out to teachers, as have my kids, just to let them know they are missed and appreciated.

I’m really scraping to the bottom now with my house projects. I replaced all the felt pads on the kitchen furniture and cleaned out my makeup bag and brushes. I mean we aren’t wearing makeup right now, are we!? But this is getting ridiculous…someone save me!! Or let me be your inspiration to change out your furniture felt pads 😉

I finally changed out my pictures in my bedroom to include our youngest child, Reece. She’s about to be 10, if anyone was wondering! I am the WORST at changing out pictures.

So, overall, I’m feeling sad but also feeling productive! Brian has done an excellent job of cleaning out the garage. Our garage is enough to stress anyone out! This family of 6 is rarely in this house at the same time and Brian is rarely in town this long! So it’s been an adjustment and something we will be talking about for years to come. Not to mention, we’ve had 3 trips impacted, including our 20th anniversary Alaskan cruise. Our time has been filled with some laughs and also a lot of frustration and fighting but a realization of how much our friends and family mean to us!