Monthly Archives: April 2020

A busy Saturday for us. Our new dishwasher was delivered at 8am, so we were up and rolling early. After the delivery guys left, I washed the floors and cleaned the bathroom and did some laundry. Nate kept the boys busy outside while I was cleaning.

After that, I went grocery shopping, and Nate and the boys played inside. After lunch, they took my van to get a carwash and fill up with gas while I cleaned and got ready for our movie afternoon.

The boys and I made soft pretzels. They’re easy to make and super delicious. I highly recommend these!

For our movie afternoon, I covered the window with a big white sheet and used the projector from my office to create a movie theater set up. I rotated the couch and popped popcorn and we all snuggled in with our pretzels and cheese, popcorn and drinks.

I love the first Trolls movie and it was the first movie Xander watched over and over when he was about 2. I was very excited for the new movie and it did not disappoint. I have the movie and music taste of a 2nd grade girl, so all the bright colors, singing, peppy music, and dancing was fabulous. I loved it.

Augustus and Nate fell asleep towards the end, but Xander and I enjoyed the whole movie!

We don’t often order dinner, but tonight we ordered burgers from JR Macs, which our neighbors own. The food was SUPER good, and I didn’t have to cook, so it was my favorite dinner in a long time!

Then we took advantage of the nice weather and played outside after dinner.

this is Xander being a rock star

We eased into today with some building.

Eventually we brushed our teeth and got dressed and headed outside. It’s still a little chilly, but it’s getting nicer every day. We placed our rocks that we painted yesterday. I hope that people walking by spot them and they are a little bright surprise in their day.

Then we went to the back yard to ride bikes down the alley hill.

We came inside and I had some rainbow theme science projects for the boys. The first experiment was putting food coloring in milk and then a drop of dish soap that makes the color swirl. I’ve done this project with kids before and I remember it being really cool. Lots of “oohs” and “ahhs” and I was impressed. Xander raised his eyebrows skeptically and said, “you have 3 experiments? What are the next ones?”

So we moved on to the skittles in water project. We arranged the skittles and dumped in the water to see the color whoosh out.

**Silence**

Xander- “And?”

Not impressed. Augustus was excited to eat the wet skittles.

The third project was putting vinegar in a bottle and baking soda in a balloon and then they dumped the baking soda in the bottle to inflate the balloon.

We did it. And Xander said, “now what?”

At that point, I said, “ok, I’ll clean up, you get some toys. Science over.

We had an early lunch. And then I had a zoom call and the boys had some rest time.

My mom came over and she and then boys played outside for a while. They ran all over, drove the jeep, played with sand and were very busy.

She left around 3pm and that’s where we lost our schedule. We follow a pretty religious “sit down to dinner at 5:30pm” every night schedule. But at 3pm, Augustus was melting down (he hadn’t eaten much lunch) and Xander was starving and I knew we wouldn’t make it to 5:30. So we had cheese, salami, crackers, yogurt and fruit. I decided I would save salmon, wild rice and veggies for another night. The boys had snacks and ipads. Sometimes you can’t follow the schedule perfectly, you just have to roll with what they need.

After they rested, we took early baths and then the boys played for a while. I made eggs and toast and fruit at 6:45 and then they played for a while longer. I had a board call at 7, so they hung out until Nate put them to bed.

It was a good day, even though we weren’t totally on schedule.

he only ate the edges, so I don’t feel bad about giving him a GIANT donut

This week is teacher appreciation week at daycare, and even though they aren’t currently attending, I said I’d bring treats for the teachers today. While Nate was showering, I made a quick run to the bakery and then daycare to drop donuts. I’m not sure the boys even realized I was gone. They were very excited for donuts.

Even though it is still chilly weather, we bundled up and went outside right away. We found some good sticks and collected a few rocks for a project later in the day.

We weren’t out for long, but it feels good to be outside first thing, even if it’s cold. The boys love using scissors, so we had a Trolls cutting project and then we painted the rocks we collected. They did a really good job and painted all of the rocks themselves. Later, I added faces and “hair”. We are going to put them outside or possibly hide them around the neighborhood. We’ll see..

After lunch, the boys had quiet time and I prepared a short scavenger hunt. They enjoyed the last one so much that I found a bunch more on pinterest and printed them out to use over the next few weeks. This one took a few edits to make it Trolls theme and fit with our house, but it was great and they loved it. I’m excited for the next one. 

Trolls dolls were popular for a while when I was a kid and I still have them. So the prize at the end of the scavenger hunt was troll dolls. I wasn’t sure if they would like them, since they aren’t the trolls from the movie. Xander immediately said, “where’s Branch?” but they did enjoy playing with them.

 Later, we headed to the kitchen to make strawberry shortcake. We added a little rainbow swirl to it for fun. After dinner, they were very excited, but both took one bite and Augustus said, “I no wike this” which was cute. Why they didn’t like fresh strawberry sauce, homemade whipped cream and angel food cake, I can’t figure out, but Nate and I liked it!

Nate got home and took the boys outside for a while and then to play in the basement. I was able to finish a mac order for tomorrow.

Nate was on a conference call during bath time tonight. He was still on the call when we finished. I think this picture is a good example of why working from home is not ideal…

We ended our full day with Grandma Renee reading the boys a bedtime story. They always love talking to Grandma and Grandpa.

It has been 6 weeks today since my surgery. When my doctor first said that I would have to recover for 6 weeks, I thought, “no way!” But I worked from home after each baby and figured it would be fine. And some of the information I read online made me think I might be able to go back to the office sooner than 6 weeks. At the time, the pandemic was in the news, but life hadn’t changed yet. The boys came to the hospital to visit me that evening. During the last 6 weeks, I’d already been planning to be at home this whole time- not quarantining, but recovering. I’d marked this date on my calendar as “back to normal”. I’d been home recovering for about 2 weeks when the world started shutting down. I spent 2 weeks recovering and the last 4 quarantining. I can’t believe what a crazy 6 weeks it’s been! It’s the date I’ve been looking towards since I scheduled the surgery months ago. And yet, here we are. 

The snuggliest 2 year old of all time

I am an introvert. That means that I need to recharge my energy by being alone. I love my children so much, but the 5 minutes here and there throughout the day is not enough, so while Wednesdays are not following the social distancing guidelines that say, “don’t interact with anyone outside of those you live with” this is a risk we are taking, for the good of all of our mental health.

The boys are always so excited to go to Grandma Debbie’s house. They have lots of toys there and there are lots of places to explore. They have been getting McDonald’s lunch delivered for the last few weeks, which is only something a grandma would indulge them with! They are always so excited in the morning and worn out when I pick them up in the afternoon. It’s so wonderful.

I was able to work, do laundry, make 2 batches of macs for an order later this week, and sit quietly. It was a very energizing day and I feel really fortunate to be able to re-group and have some time to think straight.

Tonight I had bath paints for them, which they loved. Easy to make and also easy to clean up from the walls when they were done. https://parentingchaos.com/homemade-bath-paints/

Painting some macs for an order- they just so happen to be rainbows that fit with our theme week.

Tomorrow we will back to our regularly scheduled programming…

On Mondays, I have endless energy and I feel like Mary Poppins. Tuesdays… not so much. On Tuesdays, I have an 8am zoom call with other camp directors. I really enjoy this call- both personally- it’s great to connect, and professionally, I get a lot of great ideas and important perspective. The boys entertain themselves very well for the first hour or so, and then it becomes a balancing act.

Even though the call is great and the boys cooperate, when it ends, I feel behind and never quite catch up all day. I can’t figure out how to shake this- we have a completely flexible schedule and don’t have to be anywhere at a specific time. But it just throws me off.

We went outside this morning. I made phone calls while the boys ran around the secret lair. But it was FREEZING, so we came in really quickly.

We had a rainbow themed snack and then we did a few projects. Xander was initially excited for “small group time” but he wasn’t into any of the projects today, and kept asking, “what’s the next one?”

The boys played together really well today and entertained themselves for most of the day. We decorated a window for our rainbow theme. I would keep it like this forever if I could. My interior design style is “inside of a candy store chic”.

Nate got home pretty early today and I have never been more grateful. He and Xander played with legos for a long time while I prepped dinner and made a batch of macarons for an order later this week.

Christine said she’d talked to a few other moms who were struggling today, so I guess I was in good company.

Tomorrow is a new day!

Mondays are always so busy! This week, we are doing a Trolls/Rainbow week of fun activities. On Saturday, we are going to watch the new Trolls movie.

I re-set the books in the cozy corner. I highly recommend if you have a way to display kid books, to change them regularly. Xander gets very excited and we end up reading different books instead of the same few favorites. And even though these are all old books, they were excited like they were brand new.

At school, they take the kids outside twice a day. Bless those teachers hearts- to bundle a bunch of toddlers, then go out in the cold, and then put mittens on over and over again… they are angels. I was trying to channel my inner early childhood development professional and psych myself up to go outside, because I did not want to do that this morning. We were only out for about a half hour, but I was really glad we went out. It was cold, but it was sunny and it felt good to be outside.

Yesterday the boys and my mom collected fresh snow for snow cones. They remembered that the cups of snow were in the freezer and were obsessed with the idea of snow cones. So when we came inside, I found some maraschino cherries and used the syrup to make snow cones.

The boys were in such good moods today. They played nicely all day. Before lunch, they played for almost an hour and let me work and do laundry while they entertained themselves.

After all that, it was only 3pm and so we decided to head back outside. When we were at the secret lair in the morning, I thought that we should probably try sledding since it’s hilly over there and snowy. So that was the plan. It had warmed up a lot by the afternoon and the snow was almost gone! I ended up pulling them down the hill on sleds- the most difficult way anyone could sled, but actually, it was perfect for them, because they didn’t go too fast and they loved it. We went down (and ran back up) the hill about 25 times (not an exaggeration). I was SO tired.


When we finished sledding, Nate was home from work and he made the boys some hot cocoa while I went to Trader Joes. The boys had quiet time while I cooked dinner.

After dinner and bathtime, they played in the basement with Nate for a little while and then it was wrestle with daddy time, read books with mommy time, and then bed!

Somewhere in between all of that, I did 4 loads of laundry, changed the sheets on all of our beds, washed a million dishes (our dishwasher is broken), did some work, cooked 3 meals and made a batch of macarons.

I am EXHAUSTED, but today was wonderful. The boys were so happy all day. Xander loved the activities (at one point, while they were playing, he said, “let’s do more Trolls activities”). And it is nice to start the day slowly- not rushing to get anywhere- just sitting on the couch drinking coffee while the boys play, eventually eating breakfast and getting dressed. It’s nice to do whatever we want. We have a schedule and I have a long to-do list every day, but nothing is mandatory, and I can adjust based on how we are all feeling. I love that.

More Trolls and rainbows ahead tomorrow…

It’s been a great Easter!

We started the day early- Xander was awake by 6:30 and very excited to hunt for some eggs! The boys found all 40 eggs and really enjoyed opening them and finding candy, toys and coins. They went through their baskets and were very happy to find lots of candy, monster trucks, puzzles, books and Power Ranger shirts.

We talked to the Whiteds on zoom and played all morning. My mom arrived after lunch and she was, as always, the best. She played about 25 rounds of hide and seek, played outside in the snow and kept up with 2 crazy boys all afternoon.

We had ham for dinner, and fancy duchess potatoes (inspired by the Nelson family Carona kitchen- she was making them and so I made a last minute switch from mashed to these). For dessert we had a rainbow cake, which I have always wanted to make, and finally did.

We ended the day with a family movie night- we watched “Hop” which is an Easter movie that Xander enjoyed but isn’t the best kid movie I’ve ever seen.

This quarantine is so strange, but today was really wonderful. We were warm and cozy while the snow fell outside. We ate lots of good food, drank wine that our neighbors gave us, had lots of treats, and the boys were so happy all day. Life is not as it usually is, but this isn’t forever and it’s going to be ok.

My macaron business is booming! I delivered 11 dozen cookies this morning! I posted an advertisement in the neighborhood facebook group and I couldn’t believe the response. I don’t think delivery will typically be my thing, but I thought it would be easier than having people show up at my door. I wore a mask and smiled and waved as I dropped cookies at people’s doors. It was a good way to start my day! While I was out and about, the boys and Nate were in the yard, trying out their new bike helmets.

When I got home, we had lunch and then did some Easter themed projects. We had some tracing and matching sheets.

We made handprint bunnies.

We decorated eggs (I decided to try out the plastic kind this year instead of wasting the real ones. I didn’t love them- we will go back to dying real ones next year).

Then we played “bunny hop” (I called out colors and they had to hop to the right one) and then bunny hopscotch, which Xander really enjoyed and played for about 20 minutes straight.

Nate and the boys played downstairs and then outside again. And then they all went for a drive to see the outside of Nate’s old house. I rested, worked, planned activities for next week and made a sweet and sour pork stir fry for dinner that was a hit. The boys were in the tub for 45 minutes and then played a while before getting ready for bed. It was a great day!

Xander, Augustus, my mom and I went to camp yesterday for a short trip so I could scavenger some supplies. After I wrote out my emergency action plan last week, I realized that most of the supplies I wanted but couldn’t get were at camp. So I decided we would make the trip to gather some necessities. I plan to return or replace anything I brought home, once life is back to normal and you can actually buy all the things you want in the stores. 

We went to the camp store, the welcome center, and the camper. It was chilly and VERY windy outside, so once we were done going building to building, we went back to the house and the boys and my mom cleaned out the fireplace, so we could build a fire.

We ate dinner and then roasted marshmallows and made multiple s’mores. We had lots of snacks (it’s not a surprise that the boys love camp).

The staff house is the only building on camp that is heated all winter, so we store a lot of random supplies (archery equipment, lifeguard tubes, first aid supplies, art supplies, etc). There are piles of random stuff everywhere, which was perfect for 2 little boys to climb over and under.

more snacks

We found bleach, gloves, masks, lysol, clorox wipes, toilet paper, paper towels, and bandanas.

Today we woke up to snow on the ground and it was even colder than yesterday! We packed the van full, rode bikes once more, and then headed home. I’m eager to return to camp when it is warmer.

It was a whirlwind trip, but I feel better now that we have all the supplies that we will need in the event that either (or both) of us get sick. And it was good to check up on camp and see that it was in good shape after a long winter.

After the call though, I was just thrown off. I felt totally off schedule (even though we didn’t have anywhere to be)- that feeling you get when you’re running late. We went outside (both in head to toe red running suits). But it was wet and gray and misty. They got on their bikes for 30 seconds. We threw rocks for 10 seconds. They weren’t excited about being outside. So we went back inside. I was feeling frazzled. So I said, “ok, you can have your ipads” which is NOT usually what we do, but I needed 20 minutes to re-group. 

While I was gathering my wits, and the boys were on their ipads, Augustus said, “can we have pancakes?” and even though it was 11am and not on any sort of schedule, I said, “yes!” and made dinosaur footprint pancakes (we are still n dinosaur theme after all).

From there, we painted the wooden dinosaurs from yesterday, painted a canvas, and did a footprint dino craft.

I was still out of sorts. After all that, we went back to ipads, this time with small bags of chips on the couch- I looked over and thought, ok, I’m letting it go, every day can’t be perfectly on theme, on schedule and smooth. Some days you sit at the table staring at your list like it’s a foreign language while your children eat junk food and watch cartoons. This is balance.
Nate was home for a little while after lunch and so I put myself in a 20 minute time out to re-group (again). During that time, the boys packed their suitcases for our trip to camp. I am not sure all of the things that got tossed into the piles of stuff, but we will definitely have some random items with us.

 After that, they played independently for 2 straight hours. They played with toys and entertained themselves and I was really grateful because I was still completely out of sorts. I never found the rhythm of the day and I jumped from trying to work on my computer, to trying to clean the kitchen, to trying to get us back on our schedule. I never got there. Everything just felt hard. I washed and put away winter gear. I cleaned the kitchen. I answered some emails. And the boys were happy and busy all day. But it was just a weird day.

Eventually we got outside and the sun was shining and it was warm and wonderful. I was dragging, but luckily Nate came home and he and the boys went to the secret lair while I took a nap (a very rare occurrence). I woke up feeling much better. I went outside with the boys for a while, baked some Easter macarons, and made dinner.

Dinner, bathtime, and now it’s wrestle with Daddy time, which is their favorite time of day. They jump onto the couch (and onto Nate), tickle, roll around, play fight and go crazy.