Training Wheels

Today was trying. Things were peaceful the last few days, but we paid for it today. There was a lot of fighting. We have certainly been very lax around here with just about everything, including the schedule and the bedtime. I really don't feel like fighting about much, and I have basically decided natural consequences will do for now. I don't know if was the late bedtime last night or what, but it was a struggle today. Good thing that Easter bunny comes tonight and you have to be in bed for him to sneak in to deliver the basket.

We used our last set of dye for eggs today. Let me tell you though, I made a few extra colors with gel food coloring and they came out so pretty. I feel like I may just go with that next year. We spent lots of time in the parking lot of the local high school today too. I use to run there in the winters when I was training for races and thought it would be a good flat spot for Quinn to try out her new bike. We picked this new bike up on the curb last weekend, and it sat on the porch all week waiting to be free of coronavirus (I also cloroxed it) and for the training wheels to come in from Target. She got the hang of it pretty quick, but definitely hard for little legs.

We also took a few walking laps around the parking lot. I ran into one of my former coworkers and got to talk to her for a little bit at a distance! That was fun. We also noticed some really big painted rocks all the way in the back, so we walked over to see what they were. It looks like they are allowing the seniors to take a rock and paint it and then return them to the hillside. I thought it was a really cool idea. I also think we will go back to see how it progresses. Fingers crossed for a happy girl on Easter morning.

The Friday Drive

We took the drive today. Still no traffic in NOVA. It took a global crisis. We went to our friend's house and summoned them outside where we talked for awhile. Us in the car, them in the yard/driveway. Mostly Quinn told stories and sang the Frozen II soundtrack. We also stopped by another friend's house to pick up yeast, aka pandemic gold. She brought out the Easter bunny. Lastly we took a ride past Quinn's school since we were on that side of town, and then we returned home. Nothing else exciting happened today but we got a bunch of things I ordered from Target and we played sight word bingo...mostly Quinn liked the markers.

The yeast in the mailbox and the Easter bunny

Disclaimer: I did mostly 1 target order and it showed up in a million boxes. Some of these boxes had one item in them.

Behind the Scenes

 

Look at the beautiful picture of my child on a picture perfect day. Quinn has become obsessed with this creek. She can entertain herself looking at the rocks, throwing the rocks, singing and talking to the rocks. I can sit and look at the scenery or look at my phone, chill for a second. Works for me. Well she's been talking about going in the creek. I have been saying we have to come prepared, making excuses, trying to avoid this because I knew she would lose her mind if she got wet. If the child drips water on herself, it's full on meltdown and wardrobe change. But I decided today was the day. I prepared. I promised. I took her into the creek. We steadied ourselves on slippery rocks until about halfway through. Then it happened. Her boot filled with water. Sudden panic ensued. Screaming, she kicked the boot off her foot and off it went down stream. Now she's balanced on one foot and the boot is floating downstream. After telling her not to move, I started chasing the boot with little chance of catching it. I did get a catch a break and a stick in the middle of the creek caught the boot long enough for me to catch up and get it back. Thankfully she recovered quickly and I told her we just have to go with it. I brought dry things, but we are just going to be wet until you want to walk home. Surprisingly she went with it.

The rest of the day we rock painted, read, Quinn had a Zoom meeting with her class. It was a good day. We saw a lot of painted rocks along the paths today, so we plan to take the rocks we painted today and place them along the path in the coming days. It was fun looking for them today. I think our nice weather ends for the next couple days, but that's OK. I told Quinn maybe we could take a drive tomorrow.

Supermarket Sweep

It was a much better day on the behavior front today. Hallelujah! Quinn did have more screen time today alone than in the whole month of February, but whatever. I went to Wegmans at 7:00. I think I almost cried three times. I was tired, hungry, no coffee, wearing a mask and gloves that made me hot and my glasses foggy, it was terrible. I do not know how medical professionals wear those masks ever, let alone all day. I saw one of my coworkers and we stood over six feet away talking for a few minutes. It's honestly crazy and it's a little bit like Supermarket Sweep. I had a massive list because I hadn't been to the store in over two weeks and I don't intend to go back for another two, hopefully three. The selection was better during this trip, so that's good. I got almost everything I wanted and everything we need really. The procedure to check out was different. In addition to cart distancing lines on the floor all over the store, they have a line where you have to stand to unload your cart from and you are not allowed to cross it until the checker calls you when he is finished. The checker also stands behind a shield attached to the lane and comes out to sanitize between customers. I was never so glad to get back into my car.

Note: I am not hoarding N95s. This is leftover from our kitchen cabinet redo a few years ago.

We have been cleaning everything as soon as it comes home so it took us forever to unload the car, clean food, sanitize packages, organize, etc. Then wipe down the kitchen, change clothes, etc. I finally quit at 11:00, and still have to deal with bulk chicken breasts before I put them in the freezer. So that's four hours dealing with grocery shopping. I told Matt to never let me complain about grocery shopping in the future. 

After all this I made Quinn do some reading and sight words, then go out for miles with me, and then we came home for lunch. I set Quinn up with her new paints while I did a few things for work. Then we went out on the porch so I could read a chapter of my book and she wanted to do math apps. It sounded fine to me. 

We are finishing out the evening with our bonus pandemic movie night. We are watching Onward...thanks Disney+

Relentless

Today was a typical day in our pandemic household. Fun things mixed with meltdowns (children and parents alike). We survived another day. So I'll call it a win. 

Tonight was fun. I had a Zoom catch up with a few of my work friends. It was fun to have a little bit of normalcy (seeing other people). It was almost like a normal night out except for the fact that I could hear someone screaming through the walls, feeling very victimized, because I didn't personally put her to bed for the like the 3rd time ever in the last 6 months. Relentless. One day it will serve us all well. 

Spring Break

Well here we are...spring break. Not really what I was expecting, but nothing is anymore. Today was pretty lax across the board. I ran a few miles this morning while Matt did the breakfast routine which now includes weather and calendar discussion. Quinn and I worked on a birthday cake Lite Brite for her cousin's birthday today, and I listened to the DC Mayor's briefing while we were putting that together.

I still can't get over how ideal the weather has been for the most part. I actually got sunburn yesterday. Today was the same. We went out for our long walk before lunch. Quinn loves to go down to the creek that runs alongside our neighborhood now. I actually had to beg her to go home today. I'll take it.

Just wanted to throw rocks

This afternoon we had a previously scheduled appointment with Quinn's allergist. We were still able to keep the appointment, but we did a video call instead. Luckily, the appointment was just a follow-up/planning for how to proceed with allergies in the future and nothing major. After we played egg hunt in the yard, taking turns hiding eggs and finding them.

We are scraping together meals the next few days before going out for groceries. I haven't been full grocery shopping in two weeks. I'm planning to hold out another day or two, but want to get there because the news is that we should avoid grocery shopping in the next two weeks. We closed out the evening with a game of Sorry and scrubbing a nearly empty refrigerator. Exciting times continue.

How I entertained myself while Quinn threw rocks and sang songs at the creek

Weekend Four

Something that has really surprised me about these quarantine days is how quickly they go. In theory, you would think the days would drag on, but I feel like before I know it - it's lunch time and then it's bedtime not too much later. It's weird. Mostly because I just want this to be done and go back to normal.

This weekend was pretty laid back. Saturday we got up on the later side and then got busy changing all the beds in the house (exciting stuff). Then the boxes of food I left sitting in my office at school were delivered to my house (YAY!). I unloaded as much as I could our last day of school, but also though we would be going back after a few weeks. It was rescued last week. We took it to a local food shelter along with some milk. We haven't really driven around much, so that was different.

We went for a walk on our neighborhood trails when we got home and then organized/cleaned out our garage. I went for a few running miles by myself and then we had movie night...Mary Poppins, again, because it was Quinn's pick.

Today we had breakfast on the porch, went inside to watch church, and then took our walk. It was another beautiful day here. We have been so lucky with weather. After lunch we spent most of the afternoon outside. Quinn had picked out a rock painting kit the Friday before the lockdown. I pulled it out today and we spent time painting them this afternoon. We hid a few around our neighbor's yards as well.

Quinn has been lucky to get a few porch drop offs this weekend too. A new book and a new Lite Brite! Novelty is key these days. We are lucky to have people coming up with things to drop off. We are also happy to see other people from a distance. I miss other people.