It’s been another exciting week over here in quarantine. We started planting our vegetable garden, Alex got a lawn tractor, we went to the BEACH {!!!!!} and we had a wonderful weekend celebrating Mother’s Day.
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Early last week we entered into “phase one” of our state’s re-opening. Mostly it opened up some outdoor recreation opportunities with social distancing. Included in this was the re-opening of Lake Wenatchee State Park, a hop, skip and a jump away from our house.
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Our family has years of memories of visiting Lake Wenatchee State Park – well before Ben and Hannah were a part of our lives. It is one of my favorite places and I think the kids feel the same.
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On Thursday afternoon I packed the kids in the car and we went to the beach at Lake Wenatchee State Park. The weather was perfect for a beach trip.
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The kids and I had a really wonderful time. It felt almost normal, amidst the pandemic. Ben is very aware of what’s going on; however, he’s still working on impulse control so he had quite a few reminders to stay away from other people.
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Our outing made me hopeful for more weekday and family outings to local state parks and hiking trails this spring and summer. It also made me realize {again} how much I take things for granted. I never expected our favorite state park to be unavailable for us to visit. I assumed it would always be there for us to enjoy.
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Late in the week we received the special delivery of our new lawn tractor {also known as a riding lawn mower}! The grassy yard on our property is around a half an acre so it’ll be handy to have a riding lawn mower to speed up the job a bit. I’m not sure who was more excited for the tractor – Ben or Alex!
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This week we got stocked up on food again, thanks to a grocery order and Seattle trip for Alex. We’ve been eating all of the veggies this week and what a treat that’s been. I made some really fun salads and found out Ben LOVES farro!
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Late in the week we had a Zoom call with the incoming Pre-K and Kindergarten classes, as well as teachers and some administration, at the school Ben will be attending next year. It’s a new school for him and it was really exciting to get to virtually meet the other families.
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Our weekend was extra special since it was Mother’s Day.
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We’re starting to get our weekends dialed in and realized that one of our first agenda items for weekends is getting Alex some one-on-one time with Ben. It doesn’t seem to matter what they do together but they’ve got to kick of the weekend with some father/son time.
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I sure love that because I get some much needed one-on-one time with my Hannah girl.
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Ben and I get a lot of solo time while Hannah naps and I sure do get a lot of Hannah time, but it’s different when I’m also paying attention to or keeping an eye on Ben at the same time.
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Alex took over cooking on Mother’s Day. I hadn’t realized how much I needed a break but it was such a treat to have someone else prepare all of the food and clean up all of the dishes all day long. I had cooked 189 consecutive meals {aside from snacks} while out here in quarantine.
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We started the day out with homemade cinnamon rolls {our Christmas morning tradition}, had eggs Benedict for brunch and Alex’s burgers for dinner. I’ve always known Alex is quite a capable chef, but he really nailed it. Everything was delicious!
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I got spoiled with cuddles and kisses and homemade flowers, I enjoyed a solo run followed by a shower {!} and planted a bunch of seeds and some of my vegetable starts in my garden.
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We have a mini raised garden bed up on the deck that’s now home to some basil and lettuce starts, in addition to our two pots with other herbs. I carefully planted my green beans, snap peas, some carrots, radishes, green onions and some Nasturtium.
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The weather was absolutely perfect. Really I couldn’t imagine better weather this weekend. The kids had a blast playing with the water table and running through the sprinkler. We’re living outside these days.
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We finished off Mother’s Day with a little campfire and S’mores. The kids were so excited about the fire and S’mores they just could not sit still in their little camp chairs.
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The days are sure blending together, though some stand out quite a bit. This last week and weekend was a standout one.