Quarantine Life Recap – Part 1 (March 11 – March 19)
I wasn’t really sure how I was going to handle the break down of all of this crazy phase of life.
But apparently I REALLY want to remember all of this because I had 425 pictures just from the first two weeks alone and decided this chaos time requires weekly posts for now!
We are living in an historic time and I have always had the purpose of blogging for my children to have their memories stored forever and this is for sure a time we will all always remember!
Also. I know we aren’t technically in quarantine. But writing social distancing a million times is annoying and I just keep referring to this time period as quarantine (Thanks to AJ Jenkins Photography for our front porch project pictures…more to come from the session soon!)
Much like the rest of the world we weren’t anticipating what was heading our way!
I actually did a Sam’s run with Kye, Tess and Spear while Britt was at gymnastics.
Little did I know then that I was hitting Sam’s at the perfect time, before the crazy hit.
We also had no idea that it would be the last time Britt attended gymnastics (we’ve now found out her gym is closing doors for good due to covid-19 impact).
So many things we just had no clue were coming.
I’m so thankful we hit up Sam’s when we did and that we were able to celebrate Kye’s birthday with Zach’s family before the big change started!
It was Tess’s and Kye’s first time at Sam’s and they never wanted to leave 😉
I also lucked out and had a hair appointment the day before everything started shutting down and I was also able to get my micro-needling done before businesses closed as well as my final teeth x-ray too!
It was a crazy first few days. The kids had school on March 13th and it ended up being their last day.
I had a hunch they’d shut down so I ran out that morning and stocked up on groceries as well as some fun items to keep things positive for their time at home.
It was hilarious because here we were in a situation where germs were a concern and my two year old was grabbing everything off the shelves and instantly putting it in his mouth.
Little did I know then that’d it be the LAST day the kids had school for the rest of the year or that it’d be the last outing I’d have with any of my kids for a long time (although I’m not sad about not being able to take Spear with me grocery shopping haha!).
So crazy to see all the empty shelves when grocery shopping.
It was such a haze of insanity with news reports after news reports of things closing.
Zach was shocked and devastated about sports and it all really felt real when Disney shut down.
We had booked our Disney Cruise back in Feb 2019 and our cruise was canceled too.
It is always a focus of mine to look for the ways in which God blesses us in all situations. Because He is ALWAYS good in ALL WAYS.
He blessed us with BEAUTIFUL weather for this crazy, chaotic time in our lives.
We’re so thankful we can go outside and that it’s that beautiful time of the year where it’s not yet insanely hot.
The first thing I put into place for our quarantine routine are lots of morning walks.
It’s great for us to get the fresh air and helps wear out my wild man Spear too 🙂
The kids are learning to master their scooter skills too!
At first I planned for Spear to just ride in the stroller, but Robyn mentioned it really be best to let him walk so I busted out the little book bag leash thing he has used at Disney World and it has been perfect to allow him the freedom to walk while also helping to keep him safely near me too.
While my prayer and hope was for the time at home to be short-lived I tried to slow-roll things as much as possible (and continue to do so, even a month into “quarantine life”).
If it’s been a nice day, I’ve tried to have the kids outside as much as possible.
And we’ve been fortunate to have a LOT of nice days!
Britt has said multiple times how thankful she is that we got the trampoline for Christmas and I agree!
This is the trampoline we have and the rectangle shape is perfect for gymnasts!
Kye’s favorite part of quarantine so far has been the backyard campouts.
We tried to let the kids sleep in the backyard in tents over New Year’s but it didn’t work out so we let them try again when quarantine first started and they had THE best time!
They made it all night and loved hanging out in the tents all day too.
Kye has requested for us to do it again soon 🙂
And Spear would literally LIVE outside if we let him.
Our backyard has been such a gift and it makes me so thankful that Zach put so much work into it last year – it’s paid off now!
Britt has struggled the most overall with this situation, and has from the beginning.
She was very sad about not having school. She missed her friends right away. She missed social gatherings right away.
She was very, very sad about the Disney Cruise and even more sad about being unable to attend gymnastics.
We did a little gymnastics practice in the backyard together 🙂
Some people use more time at home to get fit…I knew right off the bat that our family? We’d use the time to EAT TREATS.
I loaded up on the fun snacks and fun meals and we’ve been living it up with dinners and desserts!
At first when everything started happening I felt SUPER overwhelmed and like I needed to be CRAZY productive during this time at home but then…I realized I needed to just chill and focus on what matters most.
US. My little family. ENJOYING each other. Pouring into each other. Making this time meaningful and as joyful as we can.
A big goal for me with that in mind? Enjoy Spear.
He’s at a tough age. I just recently posted that I’ve discovered he’s easier when we GO AND DO.
Well here we are. NO going. NO doing.
And I don’t want to “survive Spear” I want to ENJOY HIM.
For the stage he’s at right now! So we spend a lot of time outside. Do a lot of walks to wear him out and I’m trying to find ways to focus on him.
He helped me bake and cook dinner and LOVED that attention!!! He did so great too!
Zach has perfected the backyard pizza oven and made some awesome pizza and we had a fun night playing a “guess the Disney character” by the fire together.
Our church services were canceled pretty quickly and we have done a combo of worship services.
Sometimes we tune in to the live stream from our church but most often we’ve done family worship time.
Being at home with four kids it’s difficult to all tune in together and keep their attention for a live stream and being able to worship together in a smaller setting with a lesson geared towards us all works so nicely.
Kye has loved being able to help in preparing lessons too and lead in the prayers often as well!
It’s really important to me to look back at this stage in our lives and see it as an opportunity we used for growing closer to the Lord.
We’re praying more. We’re reading His word more. I’m trying to make sure the kids do their Bible studies.
I’m thankful we have lots of devotion books for the kids to use too!
Yall know we love family games and getting into the routine of a nightly game time has been wonderful for us all and something we all look forward to!
We spent several nights playing the Disney Parks Monopoly which really kinda made me sadder than anything. Just knowing the parks are CLOSED breaks my heart!
We also played a super fun, easy and FREE Disney Charades game which I linked here!
We also are all about a fun family movie night and I totally bought Frozen 2 on DVD prior to it being on Disney + 😉
Not surprising to anyone…my family thrives on routine and structure.
I knew right away that coming up with a set routine would be crucial for us all!
You can read more about our schedule here!
I make sure to have time for the kids to read and rest, to do activities both alone and together, and to have fun family moments too!
And yes, lots of screen time is included. Kye’s favorite thing is playing video games and ya know what? I’m okay with him having more video game time than normal.
During this first week of quarantine we had total YOLO time.
The kids stayed up super late. We ate a TON of treats. We had a TON of freedom and screen time and kinda were like – HAVE FUN.
Once school got canceled long term and we knew this was going to be a “new normal” for a larger chunk of time we had to cut back on the YOLO and get back to regular routine life.
We are still having fun but have cut down on screen time, limited treats just to dinner, and gone back to stricter bedtimes too!
Kye used his extended video game time to create a Disney World theme park on his Minecraft game 😉
I’m so thankful my kids have each other in all this as they have enjoyed playing together so much!
Britt has practiced her braiding skills on Tess and the girls have especially LOVED playing Osmo.
You can see our favorite Osmo Kits here!
Craft kits have been Britt’s JAM and I’m super glad I’ve held onto them through the years of random gifts she’s gotten!
You can see our favorite craft and activity kits here!
The marker kit though? Hands down THE BEST. All three big kids loved it and made all the markers during week 1 and begged for another kit to make more!
With all the hand washing Kye developed a rash on his hands and the BEST thing I’ve found that really helps is to: a) have the kids put on lotion after washing and b) put Vaseline on his hands before bed and sleep with socks on his hands to “lock it in”
A bit of a Spear update.
In early March he figured out how to climb out of his crib.
Zach was out of town so I pulled his crib mattress onto the floor and he basically slept on the floor beside and in the night but just totally skipped all of his naps (it was a nightmare).
Zach got home and lowered the crib mattress to the floor but nope that didn’t work either.
FINALLY the crib tent came in!
Since we travel so often I first invested in a pack and play tent to see how it’d work and figured we can use it when we travel!
It worked GREAT and I assumed we’d just pack up the crib and use that from then on but then Zach pointed out how uncomfortable the pack and play probably was for Spear sooooo I went ahead and bought a crib tent and we switched him back to the crib 🙂
He LOVES the “new bed” and it’s worked BEAUTIFULLY for him so far!
Spear has loved having everyone home but especially Daddy as he loves helping Zach with house projects.
He loves being outside, playing in Mommy’s bathtub, reading and doing any activity the older kids are doing…for about 5 minutes before losing interest 😉
Praying that these posts don’t last long and that w’re all back to normal life soon 🙂
A video recap should auto-play in this post, if not here is a link to watch 🙂
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