COVID-19 Quarantine, Week 2

Our family drive brought us to Grandma Kathleen’s for a 6 foot away hello.  

We glued stuff. My boys like that. 

Levi worked on eating table food without choking. He’s pretty good at not choking! He’s also good at breaking out with eczema on his bum because of said food. 

He finished my tea before I noticed, so I just snapped a picture. 

Elias and I played continental breakfast. 

Augustine gets a whim now and then to read to his brothers, although Levi doesn’t like to read books. 

Lewis spent a few days with my parents and cousin Julia. She gave Lewis an award for best cousin. :)

He and Grandpa made doughgoddies...dairy free too!

Everyone wanted to paint so we did giant paper paintings. 


Then Augustine made a fire truck. They are so happy playing firemen. 

We finally got around to chalking the walk. Elias wrote E L & I! That’s the furthest I’ve seen him get! He also drew a self portrait below his name. 

Of course Augustine drew the batman symbol and then immediately erased it with a broom. 

Logan cleaned his office and now each boy has an old laptop to play with. They made an elaborate 911 call station with their new office equipment. 

It was gorgeous one afternoon...in the 70s...so I gated off the deck and opened the French doors!!! It’s like more playroom and a baby playpen all in one! It felt SO good to have fresh air and more space and happy kids. 

Apparently, I stress bake now. Almost every day. Augustine whipped up these donuts with my help. 

Elias enjoyed some time at G&G’s house and, of course, made gingerbread cookies. That’s why we gave Grandma the sign in the bottom right pic for Christmas. :)

Playing a fun game with a few families. It’s like May Day only with selfies. You drive/walk/bike by someone’s house, take a selfie with their house in the background, and then text them the picture with a little message. It’s been more helpful than I realized. It reminds me our friends are out there doing the same thing we are doing. 

My chalk message survived the rain!

Be will do half of his nap in his crib. If I can, I hold him for the other half because I like to but haven’t been able to nearly as much with Levi compared to the other boys. 

May Day!

Red Overalls

My series is finally complete! 

Logan, 2 years

Augustine, 2 years

Lewis, 3 years

Elias, 2 years

Levi, 9 months

COVID-19 Quarantine, Week 1

I’m still amazed how fast life changed last week, and yet how not much of my daily life has changed. Stay home motherhood isn’t much different than quarantine other than absolutely no social engagements and all the boys are home all the time. 

It was already too much work to take four kids on errands, so I never did. I spent most of my day at home giving the little people a consistent routine and lots of play time. We left the house to drop off and pick up big kids from school. We had some play dates and preschool coop, and the occasional coffee with a friend. We had appointments and my weekly bible study. We saw the grandparents regularly. But on the whole, we aren’t an  over scheduled family. I just don’t have the energy. 

Week 1

Mass at home with three concelebrating priests. Lector and choir director, Daddy. Congregation, Mommy and Levi. 

Lots of naps with daddy because he’s Levi’s chosen one. 

We spent a day with cousins and started a family chat thread. The daily updates are hilarious. We’ve also been spending time at my parents, and the boys are in heaven with some overnights. (We’ve cut down to grocery store and G&G’s house and that’s it now.)

We wondered what we would do next. He decided funny faces. 

We do something that I’ll call “learning time” every day, but I do NOT claim to be homeschooling. That would just be an insult to all homeschooling families everywhere. I’m not that put together, and I don’t know what I’m doing. Our school is doing zero distance learning with technology. All we have is a bunch of worksheets, workbooks, and fun art assignments from the art teacher. 

We play a LOT. 

Megan from Wednesday night bible study visited and made us this cool LEGO challenge map. It’s laminated now for lots of use. 

We walked to the park and did a lot of digging, but didn’t touch the play equipment. 

A lot of cuddles and family movie afternoons. 

A lot of baking. Apparently, I cope with stress by baking now. Didn’t see that coming. 

A lot of games...which is so fun!

A lot of daddy doing funny stuff with the baby that I would never think of. It makes for great pictures. 

I teeter back and forth between...

There are so many littles and only one of me all.the.time. 

AND 

I’m so glad I’m not alone. 

I love the freedom of no obligations. 

AND 

We’ve got to get out of this house and do something. 

I love concentrating on my people here at home. 

AND 

My extrovert heart needs to have some good one-on-one convos with my friends. 

BUT...one day at a time. 

The Second Burda Art Show

Another beautiful collection of art! This year while had 102 pieces for sale, and about 24 people stopped by the Burda Gallery to claim their favorites. It’s such a fun gathering!

Lewis helped people claim the pieces of art they wanted to buy, and Augustine helped them check out. 

The rest of us greeted guests and showed them around the gallery. 

Augustine made a for-display-only LEGO scene. It was very well done!

We offered our guests wine, but due to the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak we opted out of sharing finger foods. 





We had a lovely harpist provide beautiful ambiance. Thank you, Lucia!














Megan provides a lovely sketch of St. Terese to the show, and her parents just happened to visit that weekend so they joined us!









Jim agreed to greet people to the art show and pour the wine, all while very stylish in his tuxedo! Thanks, Jim!

Greta provides some lovely prints to the show. 





Thanks to all who joined us! Looking forward to next year!