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.  

Grandparents and Easter

 Reese's parents came to visit the week of Easter.  It was a short but fun visit.  The kids just love to talk their ears off and show them everything they own (uh em Estelle).  We got some sun so we drove up Pillar Mt and got a nice view of the city.  Ingrid really warmed up to them, especially Poopa.

 Later on the day we drove out to Pyramid and looked around a bit.  Mop, me and the kids hiked out just a little ways to a site where there was plane crash.  We have always driven by it and seen the crosses, so we decided to walk out to them this time.  The view is beautiful.

 Since they were leaving Easter morning, we had an egg hunt the day before.  We had always gone to Reese's work Easter parties here for an egg hunt, so this was the first time we'd done one in our back yard.  It was awesome!

 Showing off their loot.

 The adults watching from the top.

My 3 kiddos all dressed up for Easter.  Our Easter service was really nice and they did an egg hunt for the kids afterward.

The Past Month and a Half

 Haven't been much of a blogger the last couple months.  So I'll start after Easter.  Copper joined our family when Reese's parents came up for a visit and brought him up for us.  He's pretty a cute, a big pain in the butt though.  Says the 71/2 months pregnant, stay at home mom who gets to deal with him all day.

 We had fun with Reese's parents being here.  A little hiking and site seeing etc.

 Mop and Poopa (Grandma and Grandpa) got to go on Estelle's very first field trip! It was to the Coast guard base and we got to check out C130's and the helicopters the rescue swimmers use.

 Pretty much Estelle's expression all day...

 Lots and lots of baseball! Lane is having lots of fun with his team and his coach is great.  And to top it all off we've had WONDERFUL weather for him to be playing and us to be watching in!

A fun Spouse Appreciation Event at a local salon, complete with deep conditioning, blow out and style, manicures, and 15 min massages, with these fun ladies!

 Lot's of time spent with Emmy and the rest of her family before they moved :(  Estelle and Emmy = BFF's!

 Lane sold Krispy Kreme's at Crab Fest, such a cutie!

 The girls on their last day of preschool.

 Lane and his buddy Kyle at their end of the year field trip to Mill Bay.

 Daddy and Estelle at the Crab Fest parade.

Lane IN the Crab Fest parade with his team.

We've had a busy couple months and it's about to get busier!  I am hunkering down getting everything ready for baby!  I am coordinating the Mothers of Preschooler's group here next year.  I am trying to get a bunch of things done for the year before I leave to have the baby at the end of June, so I don't have to do it all when I get back with a newborn!  So lots of projects for me, kids to take care of and a dog to kick around look after.

Easter 2014

 We had a Easter party with everyone from Reese's command yesterday.  We had a big egg hunt, games, and food.  Estelle did really good egg hunting this year!  It was cold and a little windy as you can see in the picture but thankfully the downpour held off til after the hunt!

 Lane was quite focused.

 There was an egg throw competition.  Lane is intense and has a good arm :)

 Estelle and her very best friend Emmy.  This picture really shows off these two's personalities.  Oh my.

My two sweeties.  Next year we will have another!  Can't believe she'll be here soon!

21 Weeks and Spring Break

That 20 week picture I was planning on turned into 21 weeks.  Such is my life.  I'm feeling good, this is the point in pregnancy that's good.  No more nausea and I haven't been quite as sore as I was.  I'll enjoy it while it lasts!  And the debate continues in our family over a name for this baby girl.  Reese has no suggestions, I have lots of suggestions, Lane doesn't care, and Estelle things we should name her Hazel or Abigail (two of her cousins names).  We usually don't know for sure about a name until near the end anyway so why even bother :)

 It's Lane's spring break this week.  We had two really nice days, sunny and in the 40's.  So yesterday we went on a little hike on the Near Island trail.  The kids had fun and it was a perfect distance for Estelle to walk.  She always come dressed for the occasion, notice the beautiful dress and pink rubber boots.

 My little man Lane, flannel shirt and travel mug of hot chocolate in hand.  He cracks me up.