Daddy's Girls

We may be quarantined away from other people but that didn’t stop KatieJane from having a wonderful 7th birthday full of surprises. It started this morning with a table full of presents and cards. She had seen the gifts wrapped in the closet but she was very surprised about the 20 cards from friends, teachers, family... some from people she’s never even met! And she loved the video her family had put together for her.  She and Lilli played with new toys most of the morning and we went to the new house to swim after lunch.  There she had another surprise... a birthday parade of 12 cars honking their horns and cheering for her.  Everyone drove by once and then made the block again and each car stopped to grab a treat bag and about half of them left gifts. I think she got as many gifts today as she would have if she’d had a big party. She said everyone she knew came to see her! She loved it so much and I was fighting back tears that so many people came to make her day specia...

So many people are bored out of their minds with this quarantine right now but that was definitely not our experience this week. Now that schools are officially not going back to the classroom this school year, Bossier started having teachers send assignments for grades. Until now it had been mostly review but we are teaching new skills. The amount of work is still very manageable but definitely more than we have been doing. It was also Earth Week since Earth Day was Wednesday. The perfect opportunity to bring the classroom outside.  (Almost every family group on both sides of our family has started a garden in the last few weeks- Matt is loving it!) Lillian has been riding back and forth from the garden to the cabin on her own some. That plus the fact that Matt thinks she’s old enough to go up there with him and stay at the house while he’s working or hunting means it was time for her to have her very own iPhone. Well... Matt got a 2nd iPhone... We’re letting her borrow it. I’ve a...

It was obvious from my last post that quarantine was getting to me the other day. Most days are good. But every once in a while not so much. I think that’s pretty normal and most people can probably say the same. I don’t want this blog to be full of everything is rosey all the time posts. I hope my girls are reading this as adults and know that sometimes life is messy and that’s OK. But it’s times like this I am SUPER GRATEFUL for their Dad who always (well... most of the time 😉) knows the right thing to do. We walked back in to the cabin yesterday afternoon to a house that had been totally cleaned. A Global pandemic is like worst case scenario to a germaphobe. I look at groceries, mail and packages as dangerous objects (which I know is totally crazy) but it won’t always be that way. Everytime I go to Bossier I have to clean for hours getting supplies ready to come inside so walking into a clean house let me have a sigh of relief.  And today I came back to Bossier while the girls ...

Today marks 4 weeks of quarantine. 4 weeks of isolation. 4 weeks since I have had in person contact with anyone I was  allowed to get within 10 feet of except my nuclear family. Humans aren’t meant to have this little contact with others and sometimes it gets tough. Today was especially hard because after a telehealth call with Matt’s heart doc yesterday we decided it was best if I handle this move on my own and he will stay with the kids. That makes me very nervous because he is much more authoritative with people working for him but I’m going to have to get over that. And the thought of doing it all is overwhelming. I started looking around at all that still had to be packed and got stressed at the thought of moving from 2 houses and 2 storage buildings. Plus the zillion calls I still need to make to coordinate workers. It’s a lot and most people right now are sitting around wishing for something to do while I am wishing I had less. Moving when you’re also trying to not to have c...

I’m a day late on my post but we had a very nice Easter yesterday. We had never had one like it and I honestly hope we never do again but only because I hope we’re with family from here on out. Being that we had to be home, it was a good one even if we did have 2 severe thunderstorm warnings during the day.  The day started with baskets and egg hunts at 6:15. Katie was the first one up but I woke Matt and Lilli up after I saw her because the Easter Bunny has hidden eggs around the house and I didn’t want her getting an unfair advantage. 😉 (The first of our severe storms was before daylight and I guess the Easter Bunny knew they were coming and that’s why eggs were inside.) We watched a church service at 8:30 And the rest of the day was honestly spent doing a whole lot of nothing. The kids played outside for a few hours while Matt and I both napped  We woke up and hunted for the dyed eggs that EB had hidden around the yard.  We had a zoom Call with my side of her family a...

This is the first Easter in 4 or 5 years that we haven’t spent in Baton Rouge with that side of the family. Of course everything about this year is different but we’ll always still have some traditions no matter where we are.  The girls and I got back from Bossier and started dyeing eggs. Now that they are older it’s a several hour process. They let them soak, switching them out every 20 minutes or so. We watched a movie while they did that. And then they had to dry so they could be decorated. ❤️ How appropriate is Lilli’s Stuck in the Safety of Home? She wasn’t prompted to do this and it’s what she’s been telling herself. She changed up a little when I read the quote that said “you’re not stuck at home, you’re safe at home.” Definitely a better mindset.  We were wishing we were with the cousins but it was nice to see all of their pictures. There were no Easter Bunny pictures this year so I had to come up with one digitally. A perfect representation of Easter 2020 The 3 of us ...

The last few days have been sunny in both weather and the mood around here. I think it’s normal to have up and down days but I sure am thankful for the up ones. Katie and I went home on Sunday for a night to get groceries and get some work done without having to fight no internet at the cabin.  She misses playing in her tree and being at home. It’s really surprising because we both thought that Lillian would be the one that was wanting her bed since she’s the one that you can always guarantee will be crying at some point even on a beach vacation. Katie is ready to move back but it’s not time for that yet. We thought she would love being here since she’s our kid that is always outside and she gets to share a room with her sister. But she wants home and Lillian says we just live her now. 😉 Sometimes they surprise you. That 24 hours was enough to knock her out of her funk and when we got back she and Lillian discovered the joy of swimming in this pond. We do school work in the mornin...

Quarantine Day 20-  I don’t think we need to live in fear. I’m not scared of this virus because I’ve done a ton of research (and Cha-Cha and Hay Hay always laugh about how much I love medical research) and I know what I need to do keep me and my family safe. And I do think they’ll get it under control eventually. But until then I will avoid going out as much as possible. I truly believe it’s the right thing to do and has to be done to protect us and our medical staff. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly tough. I saw a news story this morning about a man that walks to his son’s house everyday to look at his baby granddaughter through a glass door and I lost it. We are supposed to be leaving Thursday for Easter in Baton Rouge. I have no idea how long it will be until I see my Dad, Grandma, sister, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles... in person instead of a phone screen. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the technology to at least get that, and I FaceTime Nana and Dad everyd...

After 14 days of as close to 100% quarantine as we’re going to get  (we’ve been out of the house but not inside any buildings and anything we touch we have gloves on followed immediately by hand sanitizer or hand washing),  we finally saw cousins! The 4 of us met up with Rachel and the kids (Chad was working) for a “social distanced” visit. We stopped for a bit while Matt checked on some things and the kids had a grass fight before a ride around the property..  They were so excited to see each other they didn’t even argue about us saying they had to stay at least 6ft apart. Then today Rachel and I met up again and let them run around a field. We may have had to say “back up” a few more times than the day before but they were still good. With the rain coming up it’ll probably be a few days before we get to see them again so they’ll be back to wanting to follow the rules exactly so they get to do it. 😉 Tuesday morning the kids and I went for a walk before Katie and I drove...