Keeping Busy in Quarantine

It's week 3 and 4 of social distancing.  I decided if I plan to paint the house, now is the time to do it.  I at least wanted to have the supplies in case we are more shut down and cannot get them later and then have nothing to do.  But as usual, I started right in the day I got everything.  The color I went with is Sherwin Williams Showcase Latitude.  I got around 30 gray samples and brought them home.  I checked 7 I liked and gave them to Sahara, she starred 5 she liked and this color had both marks.  The color I originally wanted was called Early Evening and was a greige.  I probably should have went with that but here we are.  The living room and entry was first.  All the red. It covered really well but still needed 2 coats. I'm not going to rehang things for at least a week. 

Then I moved onto the dining area and kitchen.  I forgot to take a before picture of the dining area so this one was from Christmas 2018.

 Then the hall by my bedroom, laundry room, and garage.

That was 3 days and 2 coats on everything.  Adding more later!  

The color is growing on me.

Decided to see what a mask was going to look like.  The elastic ear straps on the bandanna hurt my ears. I'm pretty sure Canyon won't wear it. I ordered something online to use as masks but they will not be here for 2 weeks.  The dust masks I had from many years ago when I had a bad spring allergy season and my eyes would swell shut when mowing.  It was only bad like that for 1 year so I have 10 or so masks left over. Currently only about 30% of people around here are wearing them, but the announcement to do so just came yesterday.

A photographer we know was doing front porch (social distance) photos so I signed us up.  Unfortunately, as soon as she got here, she slipped and knocked her head pretty good.  I had warned her in a text that the walkway down by the mailbox gets slick.  Her camera bounced off her head and  split her eyebrow open and she needed help getting up.  I ran in the house and got her a towel to dry her water/mud/grass soaked clothes and wet paper towel for her head.  So much for social distancing!  I felt so bad but after we cleaned her up as best as we could, she did our pictures anyway.  I told her she did good work considering she had a concussion! :)  

Here's the area.  The part that is brown is super slick algae.  The black part isn't as slick but it's still slippy.

The UPS, FedEx and mail lady all deliver packages walking right up this walkway and this has happened to me and to Jared too.  It's pretty dangerous.

My temporary fix is pool salt and a sign to use the driveway.

Then I got edging and am hoping it directs the water to continue in the grass to the road and not cross over the sidewalk.  Better yet, IT COULD JUST STOP RAINING!!

So far it looks like it's working but it also hasn't rained again yet.

Here are a few of my quarantine dinners.  Canyon is getting tired of my cooking and I'm getting tired of all the dirty dishes.

grilled chicken caesar

potstickers and roasted veggies

chicken parmesan pasta

loaded sweet potato

More painting is the hall by Canyon's bedroom and my bathroom. 

 

If I ever get the bright idea to paint a master bathroom again, STOP ME.  That was a huge ordeal and that 1 room took 3 days.  But it looks so nice now.  The poop brown is a gross memory.  I ended up painting the ceiling too because the poop brown was not edged well.

Next week I will start hanging up all the wall stuff in all the rooms I painted.  MAY paint the other bathroom later but not anytime soon.  I need a break.

These wide headbands I ordered online to use as masks came earlier than I thought.  I think they will work out good and it's more like 60% of the peeps out there are wearing them now.

I also got a magnetic wrap for my mailbox that the paint was peeling off of.  I didn't even realize that the birds would match when I picked it!

Spring Break in Strange Times

Spring Break came and went with the world social distancing, isolating, sheltering in place, and quarantining.  

We had a couple tornado warnings and took cover in my closet.

We celebrated World Down Syndrome day with our crazy socks.

Had a picnic at the lake.

And decorated Easter egg cookies.

Canyon had his yearly check up for his thyroid and all still looks good.

Canyon worked on puzzles.

The Pottsville teachers did a parade through the neighborhoods.  We saw Mrs. Barton, Mrs. Milligan, Mrs. Ferguson, Mrs. Sutterfield, and Officer Blake among many others.

We hit the walking trails at Tanyard Springs on a really nice day.

And that pretty much wrapped up Spring Break.

Crazy Times

Well, the Coronavirus has arrived in the US.  Things got weird pretty quickly.  My district would not participate in AMI (alternative means of instruction) due to the district higher ups thinking the 1 or 2 days we might miss for ice or snow can just be made up at the end of the school year.  Because of the turn of events, our district was forced to do AMI.  The Friday before the governor cancelled school the week before Spring Break to give us more time to recover from the spread of the virus, we at school were on a mad dash to get packets made for the kids.  Special Ed did not need to come up with as much work as the regular ed students needed to do, however each packet had to be individualized for all core subjects.  It took ALL day with 2 of us to make packets for 10 days worth of work for 14 kids.  We did 10 days JUST IN CASE this closure would last past Spring Break.

After work on Friday, I got Canyon and headed to Walmart.  Sahara had called and said there was a run on dog food and Jupiter can only eat 1 certain kind.  They had a couple bags so we will be good for a couple weeks.  While there, I decided we might grab a few other things just in case we can't come back again for awhile.  Everyone was calm, very quiet, with deer in the headlight eyes.  Like when they walked in the store they entered the Twilight Zone. No toilet paper, no canned goods, no bottled water, no medicine, no hand sanitizer, no alcohol, no bleach, and no lysol.

I'm very lucky that at this time, my district is only excepting volunteers for things that still need to be done at school.  Answering phones, packing to-take breakfasts and lunches (they are feeding any kid who wants food on the bus routes which is really cool), assisting with parents and students who have AMI work questions... I will find out at a later time what my role may be as the governor just announced closure of schools through April 17th now which is another 10 days of AMI work that needs to be prepared.  Canyon's day center is still open but I am keeping him with me.  If I had to be at work, that's one thing, but if I'm home anyway, I don't see the point in exposing him there by sending him.

Canyon helped to accept a big donation for the Field of Angles, however we just got notice the games will be postponed until Fall.  I'm pretty sure Special Olympics in it's entirety will be cancelled.

So, for the last week, Canyon and I have been pretty much homebodies.  The garage got reorganized, a load went to donation, the flower beds out front got weeded, the car got detailed, we go on walks with the dogs when there is a break in the rain.  The rain!  So much rain! 

We have enough food, toilet paper and dog food to last a month.  Hoping April looks better. March is a wash any way you look at it.

Getting Nugget Ready

Sahara signed up for admittance into Rhea Lana.  It's a huge consignment warehouse of baby and kids stuff.  You have to register to go because only so many are allowed in at a time. The line to get in wrapped around the parking lot.

Even though I'm sure she will get plenty at a shower later, it helps to know some of the things are ready and we aren't scrambling later. And the prices were 75% off what we would be paying new.

baby carrier

changing table (I'm going to repaint this and a dresser to match when I find one I like for cheap)

diaper genie

bouncer and walker

door jumper

Travel high chair which might stay at my house. Also a pack n play not pictured that will stay at my house and a nursing pillow

little kids rocker which I will also repaint and personalize

big turtle pillow (just because)

Canyon even got all new bedding to replace his that was old and faded.

 

These clothes are left overs Sahara and Canyon had as babies.

Sahara and Canyon's baby bassinet. (more bibs)

And these we got at a different consignment store earlier.

😁😁😁😁

Nugget is a *BOY*

Gender party with the theme

Taco bout A Baby

We wore special shirts.

Sahara and Jared learned some parenting skills from Jared's older siblings.  HaHa

 Sahara ordered some neat bakery cookies.

We also had tacos, nachos, cake, butterfinger dump cake, and fruit.

It's a tricky tricky boy according to the wives tales.

15 WEEKS!

Now we can plan for a registry and baby shower.  

😃😃😃