Staycation for Spring Break

Friday, we were supposed to be leaving for Salt Lake, for our annual Spring Break at Snowbird.  That was canceled a week ago, when the US started to get clued in of the high risk of exposure to Coronavirus/COVID-19.

So instead, we started our staycation on a very low key note.  Beckham decided some time last week that he wanted to do a "Brother Day".  That meant waking up early and surprising Hayden with breakfast in bed.  The night before, he told Hayden they should sleep late...then he gave me a wink.

So, in order to deliver, I got up at 7:30 am and started to prep breakfast.  Marty came down and made pancakes while I got ready and Beckham wrote a card.

The boys took their Chinese lessons online, we ran an errand for the house, did some reading, some napping and each of the boys got on Messenger Kids with their friends.  We had a late dinner and then off to bed.

This week, we continued our morning devotional, spending time listening to god, praying and learning what He would say to us.

We chatted a little bit with friends, using Messenger for Kids.

We read on our Kindles, borrowing books from the library, which is an awesome option for us with the closures.

We did some home repair.

And practiced drills, with a newly bought kit over Amazon.

On Monday, we supported our local Creativities and bought a craft kit. On Tuesday and Friday, we had fun making and baking several things.

Wednesday, was our first nice day.  A local Madeira photographer decided to take walks around the neighborhood and do an "End of Driveway" series as a donation.  In return, we supported local by getting takeout at A Tavola.

We also went to Ault Park.  We had not been in years!

It is amazing how warm it felt, but it was only 65!  Still, Beckham decided it was warm enough to run through the sprinkler.

 Wednesday night, the boys built a fire and made s'mores.

We cooked and baked throughout the week, from scratch.  I made short ribs and homemade broth and ramen for the first time.  Hayden and I baked banana bread and snickerdoodle cookies.

Friday, Beckham spent all day playing with his snap circuit set.  We took a short walk around McDonald Commons.  Beckham started his karate lessons again, with his intermediate class.

This weekend, we did a lot around the house, organizing.  Saturday night, we played Jumanji and then watched the movie (starring Robin Williams). 

We did more crafts, reviving old crayons. It was a beautiful, yet windy day, so we had a picnic outside for lunch. I made Pad Thai for dinner.

My orchid started blooming a few weeks ago, after being dormant for maybe 12-18 months.  It started with a few blooms around Taz' 14th birthday (coincidentally, my friend Rotha's also started blooming around their dog Gus' birthday. He also passed about a week after Taz.)

It's a reminder that there is still beauty even when it's not always evident.  (Today, Sunday, the last bloom opened)

All in all, despite our canceled ski trip (would have been our 4th year in Snowbird), the sun came out more days than we expected, and we rested.  We abide and trust in His goodness to give us time as a family and pray next week's return to school (remote) and work (from home) goes well.

Day 5: It's Fri-Yay!

We made it to FRIDAY!  It was such a relief by 6pm today when we shut off our work computers.  It has been draining to balance working from home, and planning activities for the boys, and ensuring we are all well stocked and safe.

Our routine helped, and we stuck with it all week.  We spent time listening for God's voice again, this morning.

Beckham heard: He calmed the tornado and river flood last night.  He does not want us to be scared.  Eveyone is safe.

Hayden heard: Even if you make a mistake, I will always love you.  When you are frustrated, stop and look to God for help.  Take deep breaths and make space.

We held our 2nd Art Class, taught by Mr. B.  This time, it was a harmonica.

Before dinner, we took a brief walk around the block.  It was in the 70s today but by 6pm, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up.  As we walked, we left notes for a couple of our neighbors and prayed for them (from my morning time listening to God)

Then tonight, we asked Beckham to pray and he opened up the devotional, right to this. It struck us with the tornado last night and what is going on around us.  Now seeing what he heard this morning, I am amazed at how He speaks to us so clearly and how well the boys hear from him.  Wow, God is good!

Day 4: Rain, Rain, Tornado

Day 4: Rain, Rain, Tornado

It's 10pm and we just came up from the basement, after hearing tornado sirens.  The boys were in bed and now have settled back down.  It's day 4 and it rained on and off today, and then started pouring around 7pm.  Today was a bit of a "blah" day.  Our 4th day cooped up, and 2nd day looking out to cloudy weather.  It was less busy work wise, and the boys seemed to have had a good day.  They have gotten into the worksheets Mary is putting together, they are drawing more, and Beckham is reading with greater enjoyment using my kindle.

I happened to have open, the stats from a few days ago and compared to today.

After the end of the workday, Hayden and I did a mini-work out.  We have to intentionally keep active, especially while staying at home all day.  The good news is there are tons of free videos to choose from.  We believe they will shut down everything soon, and require us to stay in our homes except for groceries and medicine, so we enjoyed take out tonight from Sotto just in case that no longer becomes an option.

Tonight, Hayden saw his friends over Zoom again and they played video games together.  I saw my huddle group for our Thursday night time together.  I'm thankful for them and for technology which allows us to do so much, despite all this.