A Little More Normal

We spent an afternoon at G&G’s doing yard work and playing. Some of us went inside the house to work on the computer, use the bathroom, or ask for a million things we “needed” to play our games. We haven’t really been in their house for 9 weeks. 

Lewis gently held a baby firefly for a long time before putting it in the garden. 

Levi needed a nap, so Grandpa took him on an hour walk. 

The 3 O’Clock Cafe was open for business! It’s officially summer. 



We got all the pots planted, the yard mowed, and a few more plants in the garden out front. 

Thanks for having us! We’ve missed our normal together  time with family SO much!

COVID-19 Quarantine, Week 11

Everyone else in the family wants to watch Star Wars from beginning to end. I lasted 5 minutes. 

Levi and I went for a nap walk for an hour and a half, stopped at various neighbor’s front porches for some good convos, and made it home in time to start dinner. 

We finally got a Mary statue! Despite following the directions exactly, something went wrong. We await her replacement and in the meantime try to keep her from falling face-first in the mud. 

Borrowed a super cool book, but God forbid we admit it’s super cool. 
Elias will admit it super cool. 

I’ve been forgetting to eat, which is unlike me. Then I nurse all day and by dinner I’m extremely hungry. Then before bed I’m extremely hungry again. Who doesn’t eat a double turkey burger with the works as a bedtime snack?

Sometimes you fill the never ending time at home with staring at your LEGO creations. They are a beautiful sight. 

It’s also an option to bust boredom by finding GIANT worms around the yard. 

You could do some karaoke, I guess. If you have verbal skills. 

Or go bowling at home. 

Our daily walk was put on pause when the neighbor was mowing his tiny yard with a giant riding lawn mower. Really? Plus he was all Willy-nilly about it missing patches all over, and not making any sort of pattern. It was hard to watch. 

I’ve never seen a one year old play with train tracks without busting them 1000x, but Levi actually drove the trains ON the track!

I made beer bread because it sounded good. 

Elias has a huge treat helping the neighbor blow off his sidewalk after mowing. That thing is so heavy!

Kokomo needed to brush after eating celery, apparently. 
Can we talk about the irony of an onion powder spice bottle being the toothpaste bottle in this situation? Ha!

Levi is loving baby Sam. He feeds Sam a bottle, gives him hugs, and rocks him. 

We stumbled upon a main pipeline project and watched for a solid 1/2 hour. 

My mom trimmed Levi’s hair. 



Augustine is giving these Playstix a try again. They are really hard to build with. 

New Idea!

Some friends of ours needed a break from their toy airplane and offered us an extended turn with it. 

We said heck yeah! 

So much imagination. 







It’s daily fun!

Levi, One Year

Yeah, he wasn’t in a cooperative mood. At all. 

Nice Fake Bake, Elias!

This is just my bread and butter. I love it when kids play like this, and I love that my boys’ childhood is full of the opportunity to play like this. Yes, I keep a lot of stuff to play with. Yes, I spend a lot of energy keeping it all organized, rotating it, storing it. Yes, my house and backyard are messy. 

But because of all of that, my kids do some seriously amazing playing. 

Here we have the mini kitchen that Lewis built up in the fort. Elias is making cinnamon rolls out of dirt. 

The truck is his baking mixer (so clever), and he is telling me all the ingredients he’s using, how long they prove, how long they bake (23 million years), and that he will dust them with powder sugar. 

Here he is dusting each one with powder sugar all over his counter. 

And here he is arranging them on a silver platter to serve to me.

They were delicious. Awesome fake bake!

Nice Bake, Augustine!

Augustine helped me make my Grandma Irene’s cinnamon twists. The shape of them always annoys me because they dry out fast and they’re not very pretty, so we did and extra twist and they were so pretty!

B Stud

I love the bible study I attend. LOVE IT. There are probably over 25 women on the official list, but each week we have about 15-20 women, and the combination varies. It ranges in age from late 20s to I believe 80s. Multigenerational is.the.secret. to a successful women’s bible study, in my opinion. 

A few weeks into quarantine one of the members got everyone coordinated to meet via Zoom! I was so glad to have the chance to sit and listen to these women talk about their lives and share their wisdom again. 

Another member of the study created a Facebook group for us, but we weren’t sure what it would be used for. It was suggested that we each write up a biography of our life and post it on the group.

People. This. Was. Amazing. 

We are all like kids in a candy store waiting for the next woman to share her story! It’s been beautiful and probably jot something we would’ve done if it weren’t for quarantine. 

Kim and I had coffee with Becky...distanced on the porch. It was so so so so good to be in real with friends!

It went way too fast, but we talk fast so we made the most of it. :)

Kim and I had the idea to make flower crowns for Mary statues and crown the Bible study ladies Mary statues this month. Kind of like a May Day basket but with more meaning. I’ve got 10 crowns made with 9 to go. 

It will be so fun to deliver them together and surprise the b stud ladies!