The Most Unusual April

What an unusual April we've experienced.  School has officially moved to online learning for the rest of the school year.  IRS and states moved the filing deadline back to July 15th, so I'm working from home but loving it.  I only work about 35 hours a week, and am spending so much time with my family.  It's fantastic!  Ryan and the girls have been sheltering at home since March 13th, and I joined in on April 3rd.  I run to the office once a week to switch out files, and I go to the chiropractor every other week.  Ryan occasionally goes to the grocery store, CVS, or to pick up take out for us.  We're pretty much just hanging out at home though which reminds me how grateful I am for our home.  Here are a few pictures of the things we've been doing.

School work is still continuing though it's all virtual now.  Mrs. Rodriguez assigned an art project that was simply to create something.  That's it.  Talk about being creative!  Lily made this beautiful sidewalk chalk drawing of the Stonehaven crest.

 Mia made a Great Pyramid of Stuffed Animals in her room!  She measured it too to let Mrs. Rodriguez know it is 4 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and 2 feet deep.  This took some effort to corral all of her animals!

 Mia also had an egg drop science project.  She made a bubble wrap suit for the egg, and it successfully withstood being dropped at 6, 12, 18 and 24 inches.  It didn't make it from the 60 inch mark though.

 I think our unending presence has finally worn out Decker.

 The girls have still been getting creative!

 And we've still been cooking up a (delicious) storm.

Ryan made homemade farfalle that we paired with blackened chicken.

 I've been meaning to try this Strawberry Biscuit with Prosciutto and Pecorino Romano cheese for about a year.  Finally made it and OH MY GOODNESS it was so good.

 Decker's attempt at puppy dog eyes so I'd share the fabulous ribs Ryan made.  Not a chance.

 The weather has been amazing this whole month.  We've gone on so many walks and been outside more than I ever remember.  We put up the big screen and watched A League of Their Own one evening.  Now the girls know why "there's no crying in baseball!"

 Kona Ice did a fundraiser one day to raise money to support the family of fallen Smyrna police officer.  Not only do we love Kona Ice, but we wanted to support this family as well.  The plan was for the truck to drive the whole neighborhood.  We played outside for over 3 hours and had a blast, but the truck never came.  He ended up changing plans and parking outside his house, so we walked over there instead.  It was a fantastic treat, and we got to donate to help a local family.

 We all went for a drive one afternoon and stopped by where they've recently broken ground on the new school property.  It's supposed to be finished before school starts back in August; we hope so!  We spent a little time praying over this property and for much good for God's kingdom to come from it.  This is so exciting for Stonehaven!

 We've all four been playing catch in the front yard the last few days.  It's been a lot of fun.

 Even Decker gets in on some of the fun!

 Of course, sometimes we just have fun laying around too.

My little family is made up of my favorite people.  I sure do love them.  I know these are such weird days for everyone, and I know not everyone has a loving, wonderful family to be home with.  I am so incredibly thankful for these blessings in my life.

Easter Weekend

Well this definitely a different Easter weekend than what we normally have.  With the shelter at home order still in place, we're just at home most of the time.  Ryan and the girls decided to sticky note our front windows for people passing by.  I thought they turned out so cute!

 We had a fun surprise on Saturday afternoon when the Pennington family came over and hid candy-filled eggs in our front yard for the girls to find.  What a great treat!

 The thrill of the hunt is fun, but seeing all the candy inside is the best!

This was an unusual Easter Sunday as well.  We slept in a little and then surprised the girls with their basket of goodies.  Both received a nice gift card to Alter'd State which is a clothing store we love.  They also received two books, a t-shirt, two candies, and an art supply (scented colored pencils for Mia, favorite highlighters for Lily).  Mia received a little Lego set while Lily received a cute facial mask.  They seemed excited to receive all of these items which always makes me happy.

We then headed downstairs to watch a worship service online.  We've done this for a few weeks now, and I'm so grateful we can, but it just feels weird.  We went to log in to watch First Baptist Smyrna, but they were having some technical difficulties.  We decided instead to watch the McClean Bible Church sermon from David Platt.  It was a powerful sermon, and we were so glad we got to listen in.  What a time to be reminded of the joy we can have in Christ and the eternal salvation we have because of His sacrifice.  This was a different Easter weekend than normal, but Christ's love for us has not changed at all.

What a Crazy March

March has been...interesting.  Everything started out great.

I love this girl.  I just wanted a picture with her.

And just a cute picture of Decker.

 Stonehaven had their annual Boosterthon fun run which the girls participated in.

We went to First Baptist Smyrna one Sunday morning.  Mia ran into a girl she knows from acting named Arabella, so we had lunch with her family after the service, and then she came over to play for a bit.  These two are like peas in a pod and had a blast climbing trees and playing games together.

 Pictures of my favorite girls.  Man I love them.

  My birthday came around again.  David and Jan sent these beautiful flowers to me.

 My family made me the delicious meal I asked for.  Ryan made his famous cacio e pepe homemade pasta (with a little heart noodle in the middle!), and Lily made her fabulous cheesy breadsticks.

 Mia made me a blue ombre cake for dessert.  I felt so loved!

 All the while, the coronavirus was beginning to move.  It had already shut down a lot of China, and it had moved to Europe where many countries were seeing serious effects.  It had just started to move to the US, so schools decided to start virtual teaching.  So, after Boosterthon, the girls came home for what we hoped would be a couple of weeks.  At the beginning of the next week, FBC of Smyrna organized a food drive with MUST Ministries to help meet the physical needs of those in the community who rely on school lunches.  I was at work, but Ryan and the girls went up to help with this effort.  I'm so thankful they did.

 Soon after that, everyone in the US began to realize just how serious this virus is; a global pandemic has been declared.  Most were being asked to stay at home as much as possible and "socially distance" by staying 6 feet apart from others.  There should be gatherings of no more than 10.  Grocery stores had runs on them which led to many shortages (especially toilet paper and paper towels).  Thankfully, Ryan and I thought this might happen, so he had already bought a few extras for us so we wouldn't be caught off guard.  At the time, my firm was still deemed to be an "essential" business because we keep money flowing through the economy, so we remained open.  We took a lot of precautions though to keep all employees and clients safe.  It has just been a very odd experience.  

So, the girls started virtual learning.  I can't even explain how thankful I am for the teachers at Stonehaven and how quickly they adapted to this.  They tweaked it along the way, but they figured out a great system for posting assignments online and communicating with the students.  Both girls have a Zoom conference call once, maybe twice, a day to see their teacher (and friends) and hear the lesson.  Middle school has a little bit more hands off approach where the teachers post the assignments and due dates and leave it to the kids to take care of them.  Lily is very responsible, so she gets them done efficiently and is finished.  5th grade has been a little more of like an actual school day where Mr. Scheidt has a full day planned.  Mia is handling it like a champ and taking it bit by bit to get her work completed each day.  We're very thankful one of the other moms in the class has hosted Zoom calls a couple of times during the week, so Mia and the other girls can just have some down time to hang out with one another.

 Other ways we are staying occupied...

Lots of music.

Lots of creative time.  Lily used sidewalk chalk over our whole back pad.  How cool is this design she made?

 Of course, we have video game time with the switch inside...

 or outside!  We've had some beautiful weather, so this was a ton of fun to set up and play.

We have a couple of old school arcade games too which are getting lots of use.  So fun!

  Decker is getting lots more neighborhood and trail walks these days.  It's just so nice to get outside.

 Rollerblading and skateboarding are fun too (except it start raining approximately 5 minutes after we started on this occasion).

 So much cooking...

Great days for hammock time. 

 And just generally being together.

We've read a lot of books and watched a ton of movies too.  Lily has especially gotten in to Broadway musicals which is super fun, so we've watched the stage production of Newsies and Phantom of the Opera several times, and the soundtracks seem to always be playing.

Finally, on April 3rd, Gov. Kemp asked all to shelter in place so I closed my business to clients, and we started working remotely.  It's been so bizarre to not have my normal tax season.  I am incredibly grateful for this time though.  I often want extra time with my family, and I got it.  Even though I'm still working during the day, I don't start until about 10, I have lunch with them, I can take breaks during the day, and I'm here for dinner every night.  I don't like the circumstances, but I am so thankful for this result.  We have said many times how thankful we are that we are blessed to be with family we love and adore, in a comfortable and safe home, with all the material things we could need.  We have enough food, and we have plenty of ways to entertain ourselves.  This has been a time we'll never forget, but I am thankful for the memories we're making during it.