COVID-19 Quarantine, Week 10

Elias had his FIRST EVER dairy ice cream cone! 

He said it was so delicious. 

Grandma a Susan gave the boys chocolate bunnies. I realized that Levi can have those so it was a new treat!

Why are the dangerous things the most fun?

What do you imagine when you’ve found the perfect stick? You imagine you have a chainsaw on a stick like JimBash. (And you have to say his name as one word)

Levi noticed these pictures of St. Joseph that Logan just ordered while cruising by and suddenly became very conversational about them...in baby babble. He has become so conversational with his tones and facial expressions. He’s also added some words to his vocabulary- bird and nice. He blows kisses now as well. 

Elias trimmed the Chapman’s neighbor’s tree while I dug up hostas...

Hostas to put along the front of the house and around our new Mary statue! Isn’t she lovely?

The big entertainment this week was watching the next door neighbors power wash their house. 

All the water runoff was fun. The boys made a game with wooden blocks and a remote control monster truck. 

We are working on mantle decor for Pentecost. Struggling a bit beyond this. 

More sleep training. Don’t ask. 

The boys set up an amazing school game! They played all day, got along swimmingly, took turns, made some cool art, and kept it tidy! 

This was teacher Lewis’ science lesson for Elias. He literally called it “cup of dirt”. Look up Brian Regan Stupid in School on YouTube and you’ll get why it’s so funny. 

Levi had to stay out of the play room ALL DAY due to school being in session, so he caught up on his correspondence, a favorite toy of all my boys. It will be kept for grandchildren. We also listened to “The Mail Must Go Through” from the Disney Children’s Favorite Songs Volume 1. YouTube that too and relive your 1980s childhood with me. 

I have this same photo of Lewis answering the yellow ring when he was 11 months or so. I love comparison photos but I do not love finding the photos. 

I set out to make runzas and then remembered that requires cabbage. I don’t keep cabbage. So they were seasoned beef and cheese. I made myself ground turkey and fake cheese runzas. They’re DELICIOUS. 

I spent an evening with my sisters (wooooot!) this week and the cousins made my boys this awesome box car! They loved it so much that they converted the school into a car repair shop and made more box cars (we happened to have two IKEA boxes we had quarantined for 3 days and were ready to be used!). 

Logan and the big boys have begun watching Star Wars together. I watched the first 5 minutes and was like NOPE. So Levi and I took a walk. He napped and I visited with a bunch of neighbors in the ‘hood. An hour and a half later we headed home for water play and dinner. 

Kokomo

Our good friend Dr. P gifted us a horse that her grandchildren no longer play with. My boys have always wanted a horse like this and they’ve been playing like crazy! Elias named him Kokomo because the end of the name says “mow”, which is his favorite thing to do and constantly talk about. 

Even Levi loves to ride!



“When I ride it like this, it’s my jet ski.”

“Now it’s my rescue horse and I can talk to dispatch on my hearphones.”

This is the dispatch office. 
The horse broke down, but never fear, Elias can fix that too. 

Levi is not left out these days. He’s always in the action. 

I lost track of what the game morphed into once they took Kokomo outside, but they were out there all evening. Thanks Dr. P!

11 Years

Logan and I celebrated 11 years of marriage this month. His mom sent this lovely edible arrangement and my parents stopped by with wine. Cheers to year 12!

COVID-19 Quarantine, Week 9

Leisurely Sunday morning of reading. 

Levi has to get out of the house and go camping. He’s sick of quarantine, like the rest of us. 

Jackie brought us a chest of drawers they didn’t need anymore so I could organize stuff. I pay in homemade cinnamon rolls. 

Said organizing. Now we need new doors on the closet. 

We LOVE the raw tortillas from Costco. I finally figured out that they cook best on the skillet.

Look at that lunch!

I couldn’t bring myself to mount a baby gate in our 90 year old plaster walls, or put any sort of pressure on our 90 year old banister. It’s all in such good shape and I don’t want to ruin it! So I had a friend of ours make a carpeted box to block the steps. We had these at a daycare I worked at in college. Ours turned out HUGE, but it’s perfect for a boy house. Everyone jumps over it all day long and it can totally take all the activity. When we don’t need the steps blocked anymore it’ll be cozy under a window with some pillows. 

He found out that our 7 year old play mower is supposed to blow bubbles. It won’t. It’s too old. He decided he had some money saved that he’d like to spend on a new bubble-blowing mower. We said, why not? If there’s ever a time for some new stuff to do at home, it’s now. 

Some friends left us a few treats on our front porch!

Levi got this sounds book for his birthday and he LOVES the dog page. He barks at the book when he comes across it and then finds this page. 

We have officially started sleep training Levi and a oy, it’s always hard. I kept myself busy in between helping him by stringing these bags for our sewing group.

He REFUSES to lay down. He stays sitting up like this and sleeps. His record is 51 minutes of sleeping sitting up. Then he either wakes up or finally lays down, but usually he wakes up. 

All the boys got a whim to paint the other day. Lewis made this really cool painting for the art teacher at school. 

Levi likes to build with magnatiles. Who knew? He can stack them up all by himself. 

He has taken four steps in a row! He’s almost there!

We spend a lot of time outside every chance we get. Just this week Levi realized he can crawl off the blanket. It was nice while it lasted. Elias is always mowing or talking about mowing these days. The big boys ride their bikes or annoy Elias. 

We made a giant fort in the backyard. The boys didn’t get super into it, but they did play with it for a while. 



Logan brought home Velcro ball catch! I loved it when I was a kid, and could still play it all day. We’ve had a lot of fun!

Look! Look! Elias made the ‘a’ and the ‘s’!!!

We had to replace a water table. Just in time for summer!



He’s really good at making coffee and smoothies. 

Mother’s Day 2020

I had a nice Mother’s Day this year! The boys helped Logan have my breakfast ready after letting me sleep in a bit. 

Then we had Mass and adoration. We stopped at G&G’s, Kathleen’s, and the Bashes with cards and flowers and gifts. 

Then we had some backyard fun and a giant walk with Levi’s Godmomma and her family. 

Levi’s Godmomma made me dairy free cookies!

And Jillian made me macaroons!

And one of the missionaries on Logan’s team (Vic) made me cinnamon roll lasagna!

Drive Thru May Crowning

Mary is way back at the back of the parking lot. See her with all the pretty flowers at her feet? We took columbine from my mom’s garden so we wouldn’t have to go into a store for some flowers. (Thanks Mom!) 

Pray for us oh holy Mother of God, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ. Pray for us as we walk through this valley of tears (that seem a bit heavier than before). Lead us to your Son. 

The boys can’t stand staying buckled for all these drive thru events because one of our window’s doesn’t open. I let them all sit up front. 

Teachers were there to wave hello. I’m starting to struggle to find the fun in this stuff now that we just wrapped up week 8. I’m tired of life at a distance. I’m tired of my kids missing their teachers and friends and cousins and grandparents. I’m tired of fun ideas my boys come up with being preceded with “when coronavirus is over can we {fun idea}?!”

We are created for community and touch and collaboration. Isolation/quarantine/distancing goes against it all and it just makes me sad. I’m grateful that we have each other, but we also need our grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncle, cousins, friends, teachers, neighbors.