A Sheltering in Place Kind of Spring Break

Spring Break 2020!!!  Whoo Hooo! However, it's a little different than what we had planned.  If plans had panned out we'd be here....

but we're not and that's ok.  We're together and healthy and just plugging along. Grateful for where we are and who we're with.  (Ask the other family members and you may get a different answer!) Ha!


Well, since I last checked in, we (as in residents of Georgia and the majority of other states) have been told to "shelter in place" until the end of April.  That means unless you are on the road for an "essential" errand - food, medicine, home supplies, etc., then you need to be at home. It's so odd to stand in our yard and not hear a plane flying over or very rarely see a car drive by.  But the quietness has been wonderful!

Last week brought the celebration of me traveling around the sun one more time... hard to believe I'm 35....plus some. It was a "quiet" (ha) celebration with my favorite peeps! We picked up dinner from a local restaurant and the family got me a huge slice of coconut cake from a local bakery! My favorite handmade cards finished the evening with my gift being a new chicken coop for my future chickens!  Yes, I have an order placed and will be expecting a delivery of some unique looking,  pretty ladies in July!!

And this was first!  My friend Kari, left an awesome corona-inspired birthday gift at our gate!

To get the kids out of the house, John put up our badminton/volleyball net and we've burned some calories after dinner a few nights.  So fun!!! But it turns out, I'm not really good at badminton...the kids are pretty good a volleyball, though!

I did a little more work on potted plants and filled up my vintage cooler on the screened in porch.

The kids decided to do a bake-off one night. I offered up my boxed cake mixes and tubs of frosting out of the pantry, but they were having none of that. Sam made an "essential" trip to Kroger and they turned into mad scientists in the kitchen.  The results?!?!  Sam made an awesome creme brûlée, complete with caramelized sugar (with torch involved) on top and Lily made a perfect chocolate cheesecake, not one crack in it!  We were blown away!  And the kids got mad at me for not being able to pick a favorite. But they were both incredible!!

Our church's youth directors organized a family trivia night that we all played together through the "Lifesize" app.  It was so fun to have about 20 families tune in and compete to answer a variety of questions!

Weird news...I broke down and started wearing a mask when I shop.  The government is now urging people to wear masks to help stop the spread, in case you are asymptomatic.  So when a local nail salon put their surgical masks up for grabs on Facebook, I was able to get a pack of four for our family.  Never in my life have I imagined myself walking around in public wearing one of these.

That's my update for now.  I'll check back in a few days with more exciting  -cough-  stuff.

Sheltering~
Laurie


P.S. Hey look...another puzzle completed ! This was awesome!