Week 6 & 7 of Quarantine includes

 The days have been flying by!  The kids do their school work in the morning.  The girls are usually done by 11:00 and Lane is a lot busier!  He has online classes all morning and then he works on his assignments.  The afternoons are usually spent doing chores, exercising, gardening and lets be real... a whole lot of screen time if the weather isn't great.

Last week Estelle got a new kitten bringing our animal count to 8! (thankfully these are mostly outdoor animals)  Last summer we got two kittens (one for each girl) and Estelles didn't make it.  We got Licorice from one of Ingrid's little friends from school.  Holly our other cat is ummmm.... adjusting.

 Last week I did a treasure hunt for the kids.  I got some prizes when I went to the grocery store.  I wrote up some fun clues and had Lane help the girls along the way.  I think they had fun but made the comment that Aunt Michele's treasure hunts are better.  There goes Aunt Michele again... settin' the bar high.

 The dandelions are in full bloom.  Our landscaping is finally in the works!  I currently have 2 excavators and a bobcat in my front yard and almost a whole fence around my garden! Maybe next year we won't have so many weeds.

 Water balloon fight on a mostly cloudy day.

 My pantry has a little space that goes under the stairs.  I've used it for storing random kitchen items but yesterday we cleaned it out, I hung a tension rod with a curtain and the girls made a fort.  We've had a lot of fort making going on in the last 7 weeks!

I post pictures about all the fun things but it's not all fun.  It can be stressful with everyone home so much.  We do well at home because we're all homebodies but that doesn't mean it doesn't have it's challenges. I always have so many expectations for my day but I usually don't get to half of the things on my mental checklist.  I'm working on being okay with that...

The Trail

I'm so thankful to have the trail through our woods at a time like this.  It gives so much peace in times of high anxiety or just too much togetherness.  I just go out with our dog Chuck when I need some quiet.  I love the trail in spring time.  Ferns are starting to come up, the bleeding hards are just about ready to bloom, we have a couple patches of daffodils, salmonberry blossoms, and of course the trillium.  These trilliums are fun to try to spot in the woods.  They start our white and after awhile they will be a deep purple.  

This week has been full of anxiety for me.  For lots of different reasons...  I need to get out on that trail more often.  

Spring decorating

Since no one can come over to my house to enjoy my spring decor, I'll just put these here

 The floating shelves in my kitchen are my favorite place to decorate.  I always change it up with the seasons.  Decorating the new house has been fun and a bit overwhelming... always a work in progress around here!

Be Still

We are about 3 weeks into the quarantine.  For 3 weeks I've been asking God what it is he wants me to learn from this, take away from this.  On March 23rd a verse came to mind.

The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.

Exodus 14:14

I've been studying Exodus since last September.  Studying the context of this verse made me love it even more.  In Exodus 14 God had finally delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and they were traveling in the desert.  The Egyptian army was pursuing them and had them cornered against the Red Sea, no where to go. They became afraid and angry at Moses and at God.  "It would have been better to live in Egypt (in slavery) than to die in the desert."  But Moses says to his people "Do not be afraid, stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."  And then God delivers the Israelites again from the Egyptian army, he parts the Red Sea!  Theologians estimate that 2.5 million Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground.  Then the Egyptians come after them, they are thrown into confusion, the waters go back into place, killing the army and the Israelites are safe on the other side.

This verse have been given to me a number of times in my life, through grief, hard diagnoses and times of darkness in my marriage. In the last few weeks it has had another layer added to it.  So many of us are needing to stay home, we are kind of being forced to be still.  My problem is I don't do still very well especially in times of high anxiety and unknown.  I shuffle around my house going from this task to that.  I can't even just sit and watch tv, I need to be folding laundry, exercising or knitting.  I've had more nervous energy so it seems like I can't accomplish much, I just shuffle around and finish my little jobs half way.  But a couple weeks ago I felt God was saying, stop, read, rest, play games with the kids, learn a new song on the piano, WRITE.  That was the biggest one, write.  I started journaling and just listening to the little things God wants to tell me. I threw the schedule for how I wanted the kids day to go in the garbage.  We get our work done but it is done a bit more "organically" now.  And today I decided I might blog for the first time in 3 years.  Why not.

This is a hard time for all of us for a lot of different reasons.  I decided that I want to spend this time as "well" as I can.  I need to remember that we still have the same God that parted the Red Sea fighting for us now.  So I am choosing to be still as I wait for him to deliver us in whatever way he sees fit.  

Thankful in February

*I tried to post this last week Monday but it didn't go through. :)

Yesterday was a day that I was able to reflect on how thankful I am to have these people in my life. A day that made me thankful for the time I have with them.  It was a good day. On Friday I hit up a thrift store and had found a brand new Farming Game for $3.95! Score! It sells for like $40 on amazon.  Reese and Lane started playing yesterday afternoon and didn't stop until Lane needed to head to his basketball game at 12:30.  

Speaking of the game... Lane had an awesome game! It was their first playoff game and they won 26-25. All the parents were pretty on edge toward the end.  We are really proud of the player Lane is. He always tries hard and he is a gracious teammate and opponent. It was really fun to watch.

After the awesome b-ball game Reese and I made a thanksgiving dinner! I had planned on making a turkey before the weather got warm again since we weren't home for Thanksgiving. It was really yummy and we had all of our family faves.

 

It was interesting how the timing played out. I had planned to make our Thanksgiving meal for the past week.  But it could not have happened at a more meaningful time. We found out on Friday night that my uncle Will had died in a motorcycle accident that day. He was a funny, kind man who was a great example to his family and always such a welcoming face at all of our family get togethers.  He and Reese spent many get togethers over the years laughing together. He will be greatly missed.  

I spent the day feeling so thankful for the present. For the time I have with the ones I love so dearly.  We prayed for my aunt and her kids before our meal (in our family's funny way of just naming people off at the end of our prayer).  And I looked at that hubby of mine that I've loved through happiness and many trials and my kids who make me crazy and make me laugh my head off a moment later, and I was thankful. 

A Quick Trip to the Safari Park

Every Wednesday my kids have a minimum day so last week I picked them up, we got In & Out for lunch and we headed up to the Safari Park.  It was probably our last trip there before we move because our passes expire at the end of February.  Estelle has been begging to feet the Lorikeets in this big aviary.  Every time we go they say that they aren't eating because they're too full or last time there was construction around them so they were to afraid to eat.  So this was her time.  Anyone who knows me well, knows I don't care for birds much, but I usually pretend like I'm fine just so I don't pass my fear of birds on to my kids!  So she was feeding one and it was sitting on her arm and she was over it.  So she asked if I could take the little cup of food from her.  Oh my.  They were all over me!  I had a slight terror inside of me that one would try to peck my face off, but I stayed calm.  We also got to watch the cheetah run which we had never seen.  And the highlight of the day was seeing a gorilla eat it's own poop.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I could hardly handle it.  Ingrid was the first the first to notice it and yelled "EWWWWWW."  Estelle didn't realize what was going on until we were in the car driving home!  These kids!

Seriously.... All over me!!  Can you see the one on my back.  I had like 5 or 6 on me at once.  Deep breathing I tell ya!

She was so cute holding that little baby in her arms and then she had to eat her own poop.

Love these three!

Sacred Work

I've been wanting to post on my blog for the past year and 3 months and I just haven't.  Fall of 2015 we were hit with some really hard stuff.  I won't go into detail because it's not really my story to tell. But it was hard, hard on our marriage and hard on each of us individually.  It left us with so many unknowns and once again just when I thought things were moving along pretty nicely... bam, another punch in the stomach.  I stopped posting on my blog during that time.  I didn't really know what to say, I still don't.  I've used my blog, my writing, to get through a lot of tough stuff in the past but I have been at a loss.  It wasn't that this was worse than the other things, I think this time I just lost the part of me that is in tune with my feelings.  And I lost my closeness to God.  These are things that I've been working at getting back this past year.

Quote from Hello Dearest article: The Rhythm of Rest.  Spring 2016

So I've been busy doing some sacred work.  Last summer Reese and I had a babysitter and took the sailboat out on San Diego bay for the afternoon.  He did some work on it and I laid up top and read.  I had brought along my MOPS magazine that had been sitting untouched for months.  I read this article by a woman named Leanna Tankersley (who strangely enough lives in San Diego, also has a child named Lane, and her husband has the same profession as Reese).   The article was called The Rhythm of Rest.  It was mostly about finding those things that rejuvenate you, that fill your soul and how doing those things is real rest.  Real rest isn't "checking out" and reading Facebook or watching your favorite show.   The part of the article that really spoke to me was the quote I wrote out above.  A deep and beautiful part of me went dormant and I needed to do the sacred work of waking that up in me again.  I've been trying, sometimes with success, many times without.  I just went to church on Sunday for the second time in over a year and I absolutely loved it.  I have been sewing and crafting while listening to audio books (how's that for killing two birds with one stone).  I've been trying to be prayerful and do a devotion each day, a routine that I am once again out of!

I have learned a lot about myself and searched to find what is most important to make me an all around healthy person.  Reese and my marriage has grown and we are now looking forward to a change of career for him and yes... another move!  One of the things that hit us hard last fall was the realization that Reese needed to get out of the military.  He has taken some hard hits over the years and has had many concussions (mostly going untreated).  So over several months and many (MANY) doctors appointments,  it was made clear to us that he needed to get out.  This is another transition that we need to go through, and I pray that Reese will be happy in whatever is next.  I have been very nervous about it but God has proven faithful in opening doors for us that I would have never even imagined.

Our kids are doing well.  We live in San Diego now and both Lane and Estelle love their schools.  Lane is now 12 and made the big move up to middle school this year!  He has met some wonderful friends and is very active in sports.  He has also picked up playing the ukulele and plays clarinet in band.  Estelle just turned 6 and is a happy, emotional, and very creative kid.  She is enjoying Kindergarten and is learning to read which is so fun!  Ingrid is 2 1/2 and lets just be honest... she might be the real reason I haven't blogged in almost 15 months!  She has really kept me on my toes.  If she can get into something, she will.  She is talking up a storm, loves singing and dancing, and watching Frozen or "GO" as she calls it.  Shoes and babies are also passions of hers.  She tires me out, but she makes all of us belly laugh every single day.

Over the past year we have done some amazing things.  Reese and I took a couple trips by ourselves. Our family took the sailboat to Catalina Island three times, we took a two trips to WA and one to Illinois.  We have now sold the boat in preparation to move away from San Diego, which has been fine with those of us who are prone to getting sea sick.  I will try to post some pictures of the highlights from the past year as well as share our upcoming adventures!

It is no accident (although it happened somewhat "organically") that I am posting again on the 7 year anniversary of Case's death.  Throughout this journey I have tried to look for the blessings and at times this past year it's been hard!  But I have been seeing how God continues to orchestrate things beautifully.  Case gave me that gift 7 years ago.  His death was life changing and so many things about the past 7 years have been hard but if I have eyes to see the gifts, the blessings, I am able to FEEL blessed.