Finishing out 2020

295th Day of Quarantine.

The high today was 34F.  I woke up this morning to a very quiet street.  When I looked outside, I was greeted with white everything.

By the time I got on my layers and made it outside with my shovel, several of my neighbors were also out clearing away the snow.

Against our snow gauge:

The consistency of the snow was strange.  It was fluffy and frozen on top, but mushy and wet on the ground.  So, I wasn't slipping around as I cleared aw the snow, and the road seemed to be pretty clear as well.  Once I finished clearing the snow, I decided to make the slow trip to Sam's club to get salt for the water softener.  My first stop was the car wash though, because Billy's side and back windows were pretty dirty, and I needed all my line of sights as clear as possible.

At the carwash I found that my mom was willing to make the trip out with me, so I went to Sarah's to pick her up.  All the roads were plowed, and some were only wet, not even slushy, until I got to her neighborhood.

The trip up was uneventful, and Sam's was not as busy as usual, for a Saturday anyhow, I'm sure.  Our next stop was the new urban Meijer in downtown Lansing.  There was plenty of parking, and it was a very nice store.  I'd heard lots of good reviews of their sandwich shop online, so we split "the Lugnut" sub.  It was very good!

When I arrived home, Billy and I had to make several trips to unload all the salt that I bought.  Billy had put together the camping stove in my absence, so once the groceries were tucked away, we loaded it up with wood and even cooked up some eggs!

The stove puts out lots of heat, and I can see how it would make a tent (or any enclosed area) warm enough to be hospitable. 

For dinner we had leftovers and sandwiches.  Everyone snacked so much on the fruits and other goodies that I brought home from Sam's that I didn't make the cornbread casserole that Juliet and I assembled yesterday.

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294th day of Quarantine.

The expected high today was 32F,  which gave us a snowy rainy mix, and made the roads and sidewalks slushy and nasty.  Then tonight, they will freeze over. = (

For a late breakfast I turned the leftover bread from yesterday into French Toast!  It was quite good! 

For the afternoon and evening, I put out a charcuterie spread.  I also made some cornbread muffins, but they weren't nearly as good as the last round.  I must have used the other mix last time.

Emily was not a fan of my cornbread muffins.

Today felt like a good day to do a pantry clean out!  I threw out half a dozen expired things, and placed a few things that I hadn't even open in the pile to see if my mom or sister could use.  Once I finished that, it felt so good, I cleaned out the bathroom closet next!  I threw out bags of expired creams and medication, and managed a small box of things to send to the thrift store.

My resolution this year is to learn how to do something new every week.  This week was how to make a plastic bag rope, without using any tools.  It was a really easy start, and hopefully by the end of the year, I will know 52 new useful skills!

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293rd day of Quarantine.

32F was the expected high.  We got a little snow, but it must have been on the 'frozen' side of 32F because it didn't melt on the ground and just stayed powdery.

I finished my "winter break" to do list today!  The final item was to run copies of the the math pages for WGJ, and I did it!  Grace even helped me hole punch them and get them into binders this time. = )  

We broke out the hats early, so that we could celebrate the entire day, since I had no intention of staying up until midnight.

I made up an egg and ham casserole to finish off the rest of our Christmas ham.  I'm pleased to say that we threw out very little this year (and it had all be made into other things, but we just ran out of time to eat it!)

I also baked a loaf of homemade bread today! (I had to mix it up yesterday though so that I could sit for 24 hours.)  This is something that was super popular to do in 2020, but I didn't have a big enough, oven safe pot.  Since Billy got me a dutch oven for Christmas, I have now checked a box off the popular to do in 2020 list!

For dinner we had leftovers.

New year at 9:30, but we didn't get to watch the Netflix ball drop, because I could not find it. The kids didn't complain, since they got to make lots of loud noise and drink sparkling grape juice. = )

And, now I've updated my blog every single day, for an entire year!!! #resolutioncomplete

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292nd Day of Quarantine.

38F is the expected high.

Sandwiches made to order for dinner.

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291st Day of Quarantine.

The expected high was 30F.

Today I went to the thrift store with Emily, and we met up with Avia. It was the final Tuesday of the month, which is their 50% off of everything day.  Had we not been meeting my mom, we would not have even gone in.  We were after some puzzles, since we knocked out the one yesterday in one evening!  Sadly, they only had one 300 piece puzzle, and it was the type with a single interlocking shape (versus the lovely assortment we had in yesterday's puzzle.)  We waited in line a long time to check out, and they had all three registers going.

We did come home with 3 new puzzles, which Emily, Grace and Juliet put together all in one evening!

My mom sent us home with a pot of New England boiled Dinner that she made with the ham bone from Christmas dinner.  Everyone enjoyed it, once they got over the cabbage smell. I even had a second helping, since it's been years since I've had it. 

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290th Day of Quarantine.

The expected high today was 32F.

Emily, Grace and I went to two different thrift shops today. We made a donation at our first stop, then bought some books, a puzzle, and a few toys at the second.  Our final stop of the day was menards to get some cedar blocks.

Juliet was very excited to work on the puzzle, so we spent some time working on in, before our "watch party" with Aunt Wanda.  She sent us a very cool Nutcracker popcorn tin that was a music box!  Then, at 7, we logged into Amazon and watched the Nutcracker ballet, while we chatted with her off to the side!

William wasn't terribly interested in the ballet, but did come over to enjoy the popcorn.

After the show, we finished the puzzle!  It turns out that it was one piece short. = (  So, we marked it on the box so that the next person will know.

Coming home so close to our watch time, all I managed to do was throw together some leftover ham and other cold cuts for dinner with some sliced up fruits and veggies.

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289th Day of Quarantine.

The high today was a dry 38F.

After online church, I ran the recycling over to Sarah's, but was noisy enough that it upset Seven and I woke her up anyhow. My next stop was getting gas and groceries.

Avia came over after her church service ended (and I wouldn't have run by the recycling if I'd known that!)  She played a long round of Uno with Emily, Grace and Juliet.

I knocked out my sewing project that was on my to do list.  Sarah requested a new (larger) Aggie dog collar for Seven.  It didn't take me long once I sat down and worked on it.

We had oven heated pizza for dinner,

I watched a couple of Christmas movies, despite Christmas having passed: Noelle and Godmothered.  Both were really cute.

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later days

April 6th, Properly Socially Distanced, Day 24, 4th Day of Spring Break

The expected high today was 60F.  It was sunny and pleasant all day.

Since we are on break, but Daddy has to work, the kids are still responsible for reading for 20 minutes each morning before they get on their electronics.

William had a 10am Zoom with his class, and Emily made a card to send to one of Avia's church ladies.

My Kroger appointment wasn't until noon, so I had a later start to the day than I prefer.  I dropped of the recycling at Sarah's, got gas, and then picked up my order.  The parking lot seemed to be slightly less congested, but 5/6 of the pick up slots were filled.

I dropped some mail in the slot at the Holt post office, then went by to drop off a food bank donation.  Sadly, the sign indicated that they were no longer able to accept food donations from the public!?! = (  I'll have to read up on this and see if they have an alternate way to donate.

At home, after putting away the groceries, I brought the kids out during Billy's meeting and we got everything ready for summer.  All of our winter tubs are stored in the shed, with the shovels and snow blower and salt. Once everyone else went in, Juliet helped me trim back the unruly part of our yard.  Sadly, we are under a burn ban right now, so all of our clippings had to go in the trash bin, instead of our usual lovely fire. = (

After a dinner of breakfast casserole and pineapple rings, Billy tried his hand at making a hot air balloon.  He constructed a thin wire frame with a tissue paper cover.  I didn't get a picture of the finished product. = (

Since we don't have a tea light, he used a charcoal brick instead.  The demise of attempt #1.

Undeterred, he repurposed the wire frame, and tried again with a duct tape cover instead.

Well, the second attempt allowed for more learning at least.

I've been feeling upbeat all day with the temperatures rising, and even an 80 degree day in the forecast!!!  Storing away all of the winter gear always puts me in a good mood too.  Tomorrow maybe I'll tackle the boots.

later days

How we spend the Winter

Aside from the snow, cold, crafting, and daily routines, here's how we've been spending our winter months.

The snow forced us to reschedule dinner with the Eatons, so we ended up eating Emily's creations alone, but enjoyed their company the following weekend.  Sadly, I didn't take a picture of her new edible artwork or of them during our enjoyable evening.  It was fun times though. = )

William is finally on the mend, but after his ER trip, we had a long haul of stinky medicine (and ice cream to help it go down) for 10 days and 3 times each day.  For probably the first time ever, he didn't miss a single dose!

On the single day they went to school last week, I had a short grocery list (since it was the end of the week) and I had time to work on my chair covers.  They are gross, so I was going to recover them.  I bought some test fabric before 'investing' in the covers I want. However, I don't think I could emotionally handle the first thing that spilled on my freshly covered chairs, so I  will be attempting to put the old cover back on (now that I've washed it.)  I'll wait until my children are grown and have finesse and common sense to recover them.

But I may attempt to wash them each, if I can find a staple remover (I used a screwdriver and pliers and one chair took forever!)

The twins like to 'dress like twins.'

Grace wanted to eat her m&ms in rainbow color order. <3

My mops group had a swap, and I offered to take the leftovers to the thrift shop afterwards.  On a particularly warm day (above freezing) I cleaned out the car seats and emptied the car for the cast offs.

Of course, I promptly reloaded it with the things that I brought to the swap. = )

Juliet had some impressive static!

Not to repeat my no picture mistake, when we hosted the Mitterlings, I remembered to snap a picture before they walked out the door!  I forgot to take one of Emily's pretty appetizers (again), and was concentrating too much on learning how to play Dominions, so that was another missed opportunity. It was another fun evening, documented here:

The final picture is of Emily attending Allison's birthday party.  There were other kids in attendance, but they were out skating.

Spending the winter indoors isn't too bad when you have friends and activities to spend it with!  I do miss my mild Texas winters though.

later days

The First Snow

Today was our first snow of the winter. They've been calling for it all week, so last night we tried on snow boots, to make our morning as smooth as possible.

It wasn't thick on the ground when we woke up, but by the time the kids finished their morning routine it was sticking pretty well.

Juliet was the first one ready and so excited to play!

Emily was next, and started on her snowman.

It didn't take long before everyone was out helping build the snowman.

Team Lift!

The head kind of fell apart when they placed it.

We have some accessories, but we were out of time, so a naked snowman had to do for today.

The big piles of snow survived the day, but the rest of the snow melted (the best kind of snow...)

This snow came almost an entire month before our first snow last year, here's hoping winter will end a little earlier next year.

later days