April is usually a very busy month at our house, with two birthdays and usually Easter worked in to the month as well. This year, our stressors were different. April was still busy, but instead of trying to fit the prep and celebration of three different holidays into our usually full schedule, our schedule was wide open but the prep and planning was a bit stressful. Stores were out of lot of items on our list, and the shipping for online orders were delayed. We wanted our kids to still have a nice holiday, and I never realized before how much of that was dependent on the ingredients we buy from the grocery store and the thoughtful gifts we intentionally buy in the stores and online. Flexibility and setting expectations for our kids went a long way, and I am happy to say that all three holidays this past month went well, despite the above mentioned stressors. I hope I will never take for granted again the ability to buy what I want and need, when I want and need it.
The first holiday we celebrated this past month was Easter. Thankfully, our chickens supplied the eggs for our annual Easter egg dying, and we had food coloring already in our cupboards.
The week before Easter I went grocery shopping for the first time in a month. Lots of substitutions were made for the items on my list including flour, chocolate chips, and cinnamon rolls. We still ate delicious food though, and I'd say the kids were still spoiled too. The interesting thing was we made do with less, but still spent more, thanks to the higher prices on everything.
COVID didn't stop our annual Easter egg hunt, and the kids were excited that this year they didn't have to wait until after church to hunt for their eggs!
It was a little odd to not see family on Easter while being healthy, as that is the only reason we have ever missed celebrating with family in the past. I have to say that it was a very quiet and relaxing day that went at a pace slow enough to savor. I'm not sure how to take this bonus into the future, as we missed our family, however it definitely was nice to have a holiday that allowed time to savor it, especially at the point in our lives right now with young kids.
Two days after Easter was Emma's ninth birthday.
Emma is usually our hardest kid to shop for, and add in COVID onto that, and it was almost impossible to find gifts that we thought she would really love. We did though, and it was so great to see her surprise when she opened her presents. Highlights included a giant Lego set she thought was out of our budget, Craftsman tools, books, a book light, Calico Critters, and straps that help you climb trees - think rock climbing wall on a tree trunk.
We ended up having to go to the Chiropractor on her birthday, due to Emma spraining her ankle the day before. This was our first venture out as a family since Quarantine, and so Emma was excited to be leaving the house, even if it was for a hurting ankle. We also enjoyed a birthday parade of friends, complete with homemade cards, signs, and even a birthday song blaring from our friend's phone, complete with Emma's name in it.
Emma wanted to have a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake roll for her birthday, and although I never made one before, it turned out delicious, if lacking in beauty and style.
It is hard to believe that Emma is nine now, and it has been a privilege and a pleasure to watch her grow into her personality and God-given talents. Emma looks so much like me when I was her age it is almost uncanny. But although she resembles me on the outside, she is all her on the inside, and I love her spunky, sparkly, humorous, sweet and smart personality. It is amazing to see her knack of figuring out how things work and how they are made, and how she can fix or build anything she sets her mind to. She has a flair for writing poetry, especially limericks, and she loves to invent things.
After Emma's ninth birthday was Lucy's eleventh birthday. Lucy, the girl who came bounding into our lives after Will and I experienced such great sadness. Lucy is intuitive and always available to lend a hand and anticipate what family members need. I am at the point now that if I am not here, I know that Lucy will take care of it - just as good, if not better, than I would have. What a blessing her thoughtfulness, caring, and intelligence is to us, not to mention the delight we have when we see her creativity. She has a knack for creating beauty wherever she goes, and I rely on her artistic eye whenever I am creating things.
Some of the highlights of Lucy's gifts include a Lego set, the Frozen 2 soundtrack, film refills for her Polaroid camera, a portable stereo, a book light, a Family tree book of famous people in history as she loves history, and, glory of all glories, a new to her Nikon camera! She was beyond excited to receive this "real" camera, and we are so grateful to our Uncle Fred for making it a reality for us. He is excited to share his love of photography with Lucy, and she cannot wait until quarantine is over to share the hobby with him.
As Will and I were wrapping her presents the night before, it occurred to us that besides the Legos, the rest of her presents were beginning to be very grown up, and we shared a moment of emotion at how fast our girls are growing up. Here Lucy is below picking the rhubarb from our garden for her birthday dessert - strawberry rhubarb cobbler. Lucy tended and cared for the rhubarb for weeks prior to her birthday, to ensure that the plants were ready in time for her birthday. Her extra watering and love paid off, as the rhubarb was perfect.
Eleven years of being parents on earth has been the ride of a lifetime, and God Bless Lucy for being the child for us to learn how to parent on! She has graciously accepted many an apology as Will and I figure out this gig.
It wasn't all parties this past month. We continued to tackle a To Do list, and as I write this blog post, I'm happy to report that our To Do list has never been so checked off. Thanks, COVID Stay at Home orders! The photos below show us starting the seeds in our garden, as well as Will building necklace holders for the girls' closet. The bottom, left hand photos below are of our first patch of violets for the season, and Will trading out our espalier apple trees on the west side of our garage for raspberries transplanted from our garden. We moved the apple trees to the east side of our garage, and hopefully they do better there with more sunlight.
Some days in April were warm, and spring-like while others were as cold as winter. We took full advantage of all warm days. Below the girls are painting in the backyard - they waited all winter to do this!
Lots of bubble blowing, chalk art, flower picking, and even the discovery of an empty robin's egg happened this past month. Who knew chalk would be on backorder until June. As I type this, it should be arriving any day, which is great timing as our normally abundant supply of sidewalk chalk is down to nibs and nubs.
We took walks every single day and really enjoyed watching the subtle changes of spring unfold before our eyes. We saw a string of baby ducks swimming down the river, threw rocks into the water, and even learned that our favorite hiking trail on our street has a coyote den. I'm glad that the city is allowing the coyotes to stay, and that they are instead educating the neighborhood on keeping pets and small children safe. A coyote in the environment is a sign of a healthy and strong ecosystem!
Violet's flip flops have fake diamonds on them, and the way they catch the light intrigues Charlie. It annoys Violet to no end, as Charlie bats at her feet whenever she wears them.
Our bees arrived this past month, earlier than they ever have in the seven years we have been keeping bees. I hope to never have them come this early again if I can help it, as they were super hungry and as a result, were harassing us. Honey bees are not aggressive by nature, but because there wasn't enough plants in bloom yet, they were desperately trying to find nutrients. Lucy had her calico bonnet on, and literally had a bee stuck in her bonnet. We laughed about it afterwards, but it was a freak out show before the bee fortunately flew away with neither girl nor bee being harmed in the process. We put the kids to work on stocking product for the business, and we experienced a great surge in online business for our signs and other products that we sell. We aren't sure if it was a combination of Etsy's latest business tools being rolled out to support it's members, stimulus checks, or the fact that it is spring and people around the world are stuck at home with their yards getting more attention than usual. Either way, it was almost a full time job for Will and I to keep up with the shipping demands! I am grateful for this added income, as all of my shows and classes have had to be canceled for the season due to COVID.
We did lots of homemaking this past month. In the photos from top left in clockwise order below: a stack of the girls leggings with holes in the knees that I cut and hemmed into shorts, a delicious Instant Pot roast with homemade gravy and mashed potatoes - comfort food at it's finest, Violet helping me bake a low-flour dessert - oatmeal bars, another Instant Pot comfort food meal - this time of roast chicken and homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn, and finally, more low-flour baking of a breakfast casserole we call pear pie, and actual apple pie with a crumb topping.
Cooking, sewing, baking, reading, puzzles, Legos... this is how we passed the time this past month on quarantine. If we could have put the stressors of COVID out of our minds, it would have been such a cozy month. The fear of procuring food, medical care, worrying about our loved ones, dealing with the learning curve that is classes on Zoom, and wondering how this will all impact our finances were heavy, and at one point I just had to stop watching the news.
We have insulated the kids from most of the COVID unknowns, and I hope that they remember this unique time in history as one of family togetherness and comfort. Here they are below in clockwise order from top left: I came downstairs one day from putting Opal down for a nap to see the three oldest girls enjoying a self-made indoor picnic, Lucy and Emma entertaining Opal while I helped Violet with school, Emma, Violet and Opal dancing to music in dress up clothes, the girls playing with playdoh, and finally, Violet dressed up as Elsa, cracking me up by pretending that a doily a friend of ours crocheted was ice crystals.
At this point we aren't sure how our annual June dance recital is going to play out because of COVID, but I still made the decorations for Lucy and Emma's dance class. It was a fun project, and my hope now is that we get to use them sooner rather than later.
Lucy discovered a bin of old clothes that I had saved that were too torn or faded to donate, but had too many memories for me to throw out. She proceeded to make clothes for hers and her sisters' American Girl dolls. I really enjoyed watching the creativity unfold, as well as knowing that these worn out clothes were getting a new lease on life.
Will has been a great technical support for the girls while they do their Zoom classes. The girls even did a piano recital on Zoom!
Zoom brought my entire family together for the first time in ages this past month, and we had a lovely family chat. It was so fun to see everyone's faces together at once, and joking and laughing together almost like we do around the dinner table. With siblings out of state and out of the country, it was comforting to connect like this during these uncertain times.
We have enjoyed some social-distanced visits with friends with fences and gates in between. Our kids have done fairly well with these changes, but we do have moments of anger and frustration as to why things can't go back to how they used to be. Here the girls are below, FaceTiming with friends.
Most of our walks have been in the neighborhoods and trails by our house. We decided one day this past month though to walk downtown. It was eerie to see the deserted shops and streets, but also heartwarming to see the notes of love and resilience on the shop doors and windows. I took photos to document this, as someday it will be hard to remember everything that COVID impacted. My favorite was a local coffee shop that had photos of famous people sitting at the empty tables.
I would say that at the close of April, quarantine felt like the new normal for us. We had pulled off three major holidays in our family during this time, and the worry and learning curve of procuring food and working with Zoom seemed to have leveled off to more manageable levels. I am ever so grateful for our health, the health of our friends and family and the health of some of our friends who survived COVID. I am grateful that Will and I have still been able to earn an income during this time. I am also grateful to spend quarantine with my favorite people in the world, and to have a cozy home with plenty of supplies for cooking, crafts, reading and playing. We are learning to make the most of this time, and it is my sincere hope that when COVID is all over, that we will take some new insights and improved ways of living into our lives for a better than ever life and world.
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