Lodge Life: Quarantine Week 10

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

Our weekend was extra special since it was Mother’s Day.

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.

I sure love that because I get some much needed one-on-one time with my Hannah girl.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The days are sure blending together, though some stand out quite a bit. This last week and weekend was a standout one.

Lodge Life: Quarantine Week 9

We’ve been out here at The Lodge now for more than eight weeks. This last week was a big one out here. We ventured out for our first family hike, filled up our raised vegetable garden beds with soil and did art out on the deck.

I had the soil for our raised garden beds delivered last week and promptly spread it out with Ben’s willing assistance.

It is so fulfilling to get things done in the yard. We’ve been weeding, weeding, weeding out here and my goodness it makes such a difference. I just love being able to stand back and see the hard work we’ve just finished.

My garden plans are completed and I’m awaiting one more thing for my beds before getting started planting the first round of my crop.

I read through “Raised Bed Gardening for Beginners” and learned a ton, mostly about planning my crops.

In other food news, we’re at the end of our two-week food supply and this week we had to get a bit creative. I’m pleased to say we still have plenty of fresh fruit {mandarin oranges, apples and brown bananas – perfect for smoothies}, so I’m delighted my planning paid off to allow for that 14 days in. We did run out of fresh veggies a few days ago, though we have a few frozen options.

A major highlight was baking focaccia bread. It was honestly some of the best bread Alex or I had ever had before. The kids LOVED poking holes in the bread and being a part of it. I just love that stuff too – now they know what focaccia is and how it was made. They gobbled it right up.

I’ve been refining my food and meal planning rhythm and may do a separate post about that. I took a few hours this week to come up with a meal planning template and a grocery shopping template. Our pantry and freezer supplies are dwindling and it’s helpful to have a checklist of some foods to keep on hand.

We’ve been all about baking around here. I tried to make pumpkin bread with Hannah; however, we did not get very far. Hannah grabbed the bowl and everything flew ALL OVER the kitchen. All I could do was laugh.

This last weekend was wonderful. The kids went in the car for the first time in seven weeks when we ventured out on a short drive to a nearby hike.

Our hike was the first family one of the season – I had taken the kids on a couple hikes before everything closed up shop. Hannah rode in the backpack and Ben was on foot for the first time on a family hike.

Another highlight this week was bringing the kids’ easel out to the deck for “art on the deck” day. The kids, Hannah in particular, were really into it. It’s amazing how big of an impact a scene change can make.

We did get our stay at home orders extended through May 31st; however, we’re on phase one of four phases towards re-opening the state. It’s hard to have any idea what that means or when we’ll go back to our life in Seattle. At this point we’re expecting we’ll be here through the summer.

Here’s to another week at home!

Lodge Life: Quarantine Week 8

We re-stocked our fridge and pantry last week and I feel like we’re eating like kings! It’s revolutionary how my feelings and ideals surrounding food have shifted amidst the pandemic.

I feel so grateful to see a fruit bowl that has anything in it, as well as the option of asparagus or green beans {or more!} to choose from for dinner. We got a Costco size bag of chips, a weakness of mine, and my favorite bread this week. And a bag of avocados that were divine and about as perfect as avocados can get.

We enjoyed some baking projects with our new food haul. Our grocery shopper opted to get six half gallons of milk that expired in a mere three days. When life gives you about-to-expire milk, make ice cream! And pudding!

Another highlight from the week has been watching Ben ride his two-wheeler. He’s really getting the hang of it and is on the cusp of being able to get himself started without a little support. We took him into the street for the first time over the weekend and man, he is fast!

Of course Hannah wants to do all the things Ben is doing. While Ben cruised around on the street on his pedal bike I pushed Hannah on the balance bike.

These two are having all the fun playing in the dirt together. It’s basically a giant sandbox out by the garden beds and swing set so they can dig in the dirt for hours, it feels like.

I believe we’re nearly at the one-year mark for the kids’ swing set! My dad and brother came out last spring to build it for the kids and little Hannah wasn’t even crawling yet. It’s hard to believe a year later and she’s climbing up the ladder and wanting to swing across the monkey bars. Both kids LOVE the swing set. I get quite an arm workout from pushing them both in the swings.

It’s been so amazing for all of us to have Alex working from home and able to squeeze in a quick lunch or pop up for a coffee refill. The kids have been in such a “dada” mood lately and it’s been very sweet to see.

A fun little highlight for us was our homemade personal pizza night on Friday. The kids got to “decorate” their own mini pizza and just devoured them. I’ll definitely try that one again!

This week was filled with a lot of small moments of joy and gratitude. I have so much appreciation for our surroundings and while I’m starting to get a bit itchy to get out and about I’m so grateful to be able to stay home and safe right now.

Lodge Life: Quarantine Reflections

We’re thoroughly settled into our new normal here, seven weeks into quarantine. Our minds are wandering in different directions, wondering what’s to come, curious if Ben will begin his new school on time in the fall, wondering when we go back to Seattle if Hannah will be in a crib still, hopeful for some permanent life changes and optimism towards prioritizing family even more so as a result of quarantine. I’m also curious if we’ll view life as “before COVID” and “after COVID.” I imagine this will shape our generation.

This last week in particular I’ve been taking pleasure in a lot of the small things, like getting my favorite buttermilk bread from a local Seattle bakery and some really good jam from our most recent grocery haul. I’m realizing how much I’ve taken for granted, especially the privilege of having fresh food available on a whim.

Lately I’ve been thinking I should probably drum up some goals for how I’d like to best utilize my time {not that I have any extra time!} while under quarantine.

A few goals I came up with include:

  1. Grow. I’m in the planning process of planting vegetables, herbs and some flowers in my new raised beds. I am so looking forward to educating myself about gardening basics and enjoying the fruits {err mostly vegetables} of my labor. It’s been lovely to have a personal project to focus on.
  2. Read. I don’t have any metrics here but I just want to take more time to sit and read on my own. I loaded up my Kindle with three new books this week, now I just have to decide which one to start first!
  3. Run. I’d like to hit my 13.1 mile marker, hopefully on May 23rd {rescheduling my own personal half marathon}, and throughout this and into the future I’d like to run a minimum of 3 days per week.
  4. Bake bread. Again, no real metrics here. I’d like to try my hand at ciabatta bread as well as focaccia bread. Several years ago I tried the “artisan bread in five minutes a day” bread approach and I plan to revisit that very shortly. Send me any of your favorite bread recipes!
  5. Reflect. I’ve been doing a lot of reflection these past seven weeks and hope to only continue that. I’d like to get into daily intention and goal setting and further my gratitude practice.

I certainly can include many more things, like focus on family or be more present, but I feel like that’s something that I’ve emphasized from the outset. It feels like we’re going back in time to the 1950s, but with modern technology, and having to re-focus and slow the heck down and make some major priority shifts.

It’s been such a blessing to be able to FaceTime or talk with our parents and our siblings more regularly and catch up on FaceTime or Zoom with other friends. Ben does a weekly Zoom chat with his classmates and another FaceTime call with his teacher(s). What an absolute saving grace technology is.

I’ve already become enormously more resourceful than I was two months ago. It’s been quite a fun challenge to make groceries last at least two weeks, to use what we have on hand and to plan out how we use our fresh foods based on their lifespan. I just calculated I’ve cooked 147 consecutive meals {breakfast, lunch and dinner} over the last seven weeks {not counting snacks, which would nearly double that}.

One thing I’ve openly struggled with during the pandemic has been pertaining to the concept of homeschooling. Ben is very reluctant to sit down and watch the videos from his teachers or do the worksheets they send every day and I’m very hesitant to “make” him do that. We’re all happier when we’re just playing, reading and having fun together, though some days I’m able to sprinkle in a bit of literacy. My children are learning oodles right now – it just looks a little different than it would if they were in school.

More recently I’ve been lamenting over some things I’m longing for. We absolutely love our life in Seattle and I’m missing our neighborhood, our friends and Seattle family, Ben’s school and community. I’m really missing spring in Seattle. Our city and neighborhood are exquisite and truly shine in the springtime with the daffodils and tulips in bloom. The city’s cherry and apple blossoms are spectacular. Of course we’re surrounded by an abundance of natural beauty out here in the mountains and my goodness gracious it is amazing and I’m tremendously grateful for it.

One thing in particular I have been missing is my regular trips to my favorite cafe in Seattle, Madison Kitchen. Hannah and I would make at least one pilgrimage there a week. Usually I’d run the 1.6 miles there with her in the stroller {plus an extra loop if she fell asleep!}, then we’d get our latte, steamed milk and scone to share. Once she got restless we’d venture across the street to the Madison Park playground and eventually run home, usually with a pit stop at the grocery store or the pharmacy added in there too. For now, my nap time Nespresso lattes will do just fine!

Even out here in the mountains I’m itching to hit the hiking trails and visit our favorite Leavenworth restaurants and just feel safe going out in public again. It’s been more than three weeks since I’ve been in a car!

Gratitude was one of the first emotions I was flooded with as reality of the pandemic set in. Every morning when I take the kids for a walk I share different things I’m feeling particularly grateful for that day. The biggest ones always include our family and our mountain home where we can weather this storm safely together. We’re not “stuck” at home, we’re safe at home and we’re doing just fine. We hope you are too!

In any case, we are making the most of this time together and thoroughly enjoying all the time we are spending in the mountains. While it hasn’t been without its challenges, we plan to look back on this time fondly.

Hannah is 21 Months!

Sweet Happy Hannah is 21-months old! She is SO much fun. Alex and I absolutely adore her bright personality. She has become so independent and is really starting to round the corner to acting like a two-year old. This last month with Hannah has definitely been a favorite.

Hannah’s 21-Month Stats:

  • Weight: 26 pounds, 6 oz {88th percentile – as of 1/22}
  • Length: 32 inches {60th percentile – as of 1/22}
  • Clothing size: 2T
  • Shoe size: toddler size 5 – new sunny sandals this month!
  • Number of teeth: thirteen – proud new owner of her first canine
  • Favorite foods: smoothies, pasta, cheese, any fruit – new love of pear
  • Least favorite foods: beef, chicken
  • Favorite things/activities: playing anything with Ben, building with blocks, digging in the sand, climbing, swinging, hanging from the rings on the playground, watering, visiting the animals on our street {chickens, turkeys and horses} and taking baths.
  • Least favorite things/activities: waiting, not getting what she wants, getting her diaper changed

This has been such a big month of development for Hannah! The most dramatic growth has been with her language. Starting about two or three weeks ago it just exploded! She is saying 5-10 new words a day and has begun speaking in complete sentences. It’s incredible, especially since at her 18-month checkup I was telling the doctor I was concerned about her speech and vocabulary. Hannah has officially become part of the conversation in our family and it is a game changer.

One of the biggest new words Hannah has begun saying {this goes to the top of the list for “most commonly used words”} is “stop.” This is both helpful for us and Hannah to know that she wants to stop and see the horse across the street for a little longer, or for her to tell us when she wants you to stop doing something. She hasn’t quite put the “st” sound together so it’s “bop! bop!” And often it’s with tremendous attitude.

For a while I’ve been asking Hannah to say “thank you” in appropriate scenarios, like if I’m getting something for her. One day, without a prompt, she begun saying it all by herself. I can’t get over how lovely it is when she says “thanks mama!”

Out of nowhere it seemed Hannah started speaking in complete sentences. Granted, she’s still pretty hard to understand out of context, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she has been trying to string together multiple words for a while.

One afternoon Hannah came up to me and said, “mama, I want my baby” and I was completely taken aback. Sure, she’s said things like “hi mama” and “not that” before, but a real, legitimate complete sentence threw me for a loop.

At the beginning of quarantine I sort of joked that I was going to potty train Hannah this spring “with all the extra time I had.” Well, the joke played out a little and I am two weeks into a very loose beginning of potty training. It turns out it’s extremely difficult to focus on a very young potty trainer while also watching her mischievous 3-year old brother across 3 acres, all by myself. So, my expectations have been drastically adjusted and I’m going to see if Hannah takes the lead.

Hannah is SO ready to potty train, I just can’t focus enough of my attention just on her to make it happen. She is extremely aware of what’s going on in her own body, as well as others – she’ll even point out when our dog is going to the bathroom.

Diapers seem to be largely a thing of the past for Hannah. She is over them and has demanded to only be dressed in pull-ups.

Play has been extra fun this last month. Since we’ve been up in the mountains our routine has changed and the activities we do on a daily basis are a bit different than they would be if we were still in Seattle. Hannah and Ben have been playing together so much more lately. They are absolutely adorable together and it brings me tremendous joy watching them sit in the dirt together or jumping on Ben’s bed together.

For as long as I can remember Hannah has been a terrific sharer, in particular with her brother. If Ben asks calmly for Hannah to give something back to him or to share something 100% of the time she will give it to him. They are developing the sweetest bond and they adore each other so much.

Multiple times a day Hannah will go through the list of our family members and ask where everyone is. She’s started saying “Ben” {though it sounds more like “Den”} all the time and I can’t get over how sweet it is hearing her call for “Den! Den!” or “Puppy!” {Jackson has been renamed “Puppy” by Hannah.} She has such a big heart and is so friendly.

Hannah has gotten really into playing with blocks. Most mornings she’ll sit down on the floor and build a small tower or a little road for her small cars to drive on. I love watching her get into new things.

A big favorite of Hannah’s right now is digging in the dirt. Out by our new raised garden beds is a massive unintentional sandbox that the kids are practically living in. They drive the wheelbarrow and their big tractor or dump truck and then scoop up little shovelfuls of dirt into their pails and then wheel them all over the place. It’s like being at the beach, right?

Hannah is also very much into water and watering things. She waters all the things, except for the ones that need water. Her favorite is to water the deck or the empty planters awaiting their herbs.

This girl is ever the helper. She always wants to be involved in whatever is going on, whether it’s baking, cooking, emptying the dishwasher or cleaning. One moment I want to remember forever is the day last week when Hannie finished her snack, carried her plate into the kitchen, deposited the remaining unwanted snack in the trash, then she opened up the dishwasher, pulled out the little drawer and stuck her plate in. I didn’t so much as prompt her to do any of this. She is extremely observant and watches what everyone else is doing as a way to figure it out for herself.

It has been so fun to bake with Hannah while quarantining. She absolutely loves it and wants to do everything all by herself, of course. It’s almost a guarantee that she’ll briskly whisk whatever is in the bowl so that more of it ends up on the counter and more often than not she’ll reach her little hand into said bowl for a fistful of dough. She’s also been known to pick the M&Ms off the top of the cookie dough, awaiting the oven.

This girl is so bright and spirited and loud and sweet and friendly and absolutely delightful. She brings us tremendous joy and an abundance of love. We’re so enjoying these last few months of Hannie’s second year.

Ben is 21 months old

Lodge Life: Quarantine Week 7

We’ve been out at The Lodge for just over 6 weeks. By now we’ve certainly settled into our new normal and have a pretty good routine going. We’ve been away from our regular lives for so long that I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on our quarantine time lately.

For me in particular, this family time is precious and I am soaking it up. I can’t help getting a little emotional listening to my kids laughing their heads off with their dad when he comes up to play with them at 4 or 5 in the evening.

Spending time in the mountains has been an absolute dream for us. I have to say we are thriving with our loose routine and the kids are loving living outside.

Right now, we’re eating 100% of our meals together. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Before quarantine, we’d be lucky to eat dinner together during the week.

Cooking and eating looks a bit different for us and surely the rest of the world right now. Since 100% of our meals are home cooked I’m spending a lot of time in the kitchen. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m really enjoying the challenge of extending our groceries and cooking with what we have. That said, I’m definitely getting a little fatigued with the planning and preparation associated.

Currently we’re on day 18 of groceries {gasp!}, though we’ll have a fresh haul when Alex returns from Seattle tonight. I really can’t believe we made it that long; however, one of our neighbors gave us some eggs from her chickens and picked up a bunch of bananas for me, which was really helpful.

A few of my favorite meals we’ve been enjoying lately have been:

  • Tuna noodle casserole/tuna salad {this was a HUGE hit!}
  • Banana bread {tried Smitten Kitchen’s new recipe}
  • Slow cooker pulled pork
  • Sheet pan nachos {with leftover pulled pork}
  • Quesadillas {with more leftover pulled pork}

My biggest cooking strategy to make our food last and still eat well has been to save the fresh produce with the longest life for later. I stocked up on things like apples, carrots, mandarin oranges, sweet potatoes and oodles of bananas. In a non-quarantine time of year we could eat five bananas in our house per day – one for smoothies and one for every family member. Now we’re rationing to smoothies only.

In non-food related items, we had a really nice week. A big highlight {and also a very big low!} was that Ben has started getting dressed! It’s been so nice to see him in real clothes again, though day one he made it as far as his swimming suit…

It’s not that we cared that he was in his jammies 24/7, but we cared when he wore a hole through the knees of four pairs of jammies and a massive meltdown ensued for that, as well as any time he got his PJs dirty from playing in the dirt, which meant he couldn’t wear them to bed. Enough was enough and we decided that Ben needed to get dressed in his play clothes from now on when he plays outside.

Everyone’s hair is starting to get a liiiiittle long. No haircuts have taken place yet, and Alex is growing a quarantine beard, so we’ll see how long that all lasts. I’ve seen some tutorials on Instagram about giving men and little boys haircuts so I think I’m a trained pro at this point…. All I can say is my hair is going to be very long by the end of this and I am SO glad I had just opted to chop a few inches off of my own hair before quarantine began.

This week I started integrating a little “homeschool” time for Ben while Hannah is napping. He is actually really close to mastering the sounds each letter of the alphabet makes, along with identifying the letter and writing it. Maybe we’ll come out of this with an early emergent reader?!

Alex has been hard at work on projects around the yard. He has been clearing out our forest over the last several weeks. It was covered in fallen trees, logs, branches and years upon years of pine needles.

Now that he’s made a significant dent in the forest project he’s ready to move onto a few other smaller projects. The forest will probably take a few more weeks to get to a state where we’re happy with it, so it’s nice to re-focus. Last week Alex built me a couple of raised garden beds so I can grow vegetables! I can hardly wait to get planting.

This last weekend Alex took on a few smaller projects, including cutting down the barbed wire that extends the length of our property. The wire was down on the ground, making it hard to see, so it was quite dangerous for both kids and our dog. It turned out to be quite a job, with tree roots getting tangled in the wires.

One teeny tiny project we enjoyed was getting some bird feeders. We had previously hung our hummingbird feeder and loved watching the littlest birds come to feast on the nectar. Now, we have swarms of birds flocking to the feeders. We are all getting such joy from sitting and watching the birds. We primarily have chickadees and robins and are working to identify other species.

Before quarantine began I was training for a half marathon to take place May 2nd. I have been continuing to train and run; however, got quite derailed by my Achilles. Thankfully I’m happy to report I’m back to running. In an effort to ease back into things I’ll push back my “race day” a few weeks, I think.

Certainly there are things we long for and we absolutely miss the life we left behind when this all started, but we’re striving not just to survive quarantine, but to thrive.

Lodge Life: Quarantine Week 6

We’ve officially been living out at The Lodge for over a month now as we’re at the beginning of our sixth week here. We are all healthy and doing well and feeling so very fortunate to be riding this out in the mountains.

This last week was filled with sunshine, frustration with our threenager, potty training, time with Alex during the day, enjoyment in having fresh produce again, and a quick trip for Alex to head back to Seattle and mow the lawn.

We spent a lot of time thinking and dreaming about our prospective garden and garage that we’re planning on building. It’ll come in phases and I am so excited to get started on the first phase of the garden. More on that to come…

The kids loved getting to plant their very own seeds in a little garden kit. It’s adorable and perfect for toddlers. We’re hoping to see some sprouting happen any day now…

It has been fun to check on the soil and make sure it’s staying moist. Honestly, though, we should have brought the pots in due to freezing temperatures at night, so I’m not sure these seeds are going to work.

Sort of on a whim on Monday morning I decided to start potty training Hannah. I went in with zero plan, limited motivation but a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

Within the first couple of hours, Hannah peed in the potty! I thought for sure this was going to be a walk in the park since we were out of the gate with so much success.

As the week went on, she peed in the potty a total of one other time. I quickly lost steam for truly trying to potty train her, as, good lord, it’s extremely difficult to manage while also managing another toddler.

My new approach is to keep her in pull-ups {per her demand!} and sit her on the potty two or three times a day to get used to the idea and then go from there. I found this article and liked the loose approach as compared to our previous strategy with Ben that promises he’ll be potty trained in three days.

It turns out that potty training a younger sibling can also cause tremendous jealousy in the older sibling and result in a massive potty training regression. That also caused me to back off from my focus on getting Hannah potty trained. I think we’ll take it slow and see what happens.

One fun highlight from last week is that wildflowers popped up in our forest and are everywhere. Ben is now obsessed.

We went on a “flower adventure” one afternoon and picked handful after handful of flowers. We have a local wildflower book that we used to identify just which flowers they were. These beautiful yellow flowers are called glacier lilies.

Our baking project of the week was making M&M cookies. On Easter we made carrot cake cupcakes, too. This coming week we’re going to need to join the rest of the country and bake some more banana bread to use up our overripe nanners.

The kids LOVE baking and I am really enjoying getting into it with them. I’ve seen a lot of growth and maturation with them just in these last five weeks. Both of them are becoming a lot more gentle when stirring, they know that we always wash our hands before we bake or cook, they know the difference between a hand mixer and a stand mixer and they know that sugar cookie baking is a painfully long process from start to finish.

We spent SO much time outside last week. The kids both have tan lines {thank goodness I was on top of things with sunscreen and hats at the beginning of the week!} and Ben’s feet are permanently black from dirt.

Hannah is getting so much stronger and confident and she is quite the little climber. It’s been especially fun to watch her independence and curiosity while playing outside.

Ben absolutely loves soccer. I ordered some soccer nets to give him something to shoot the ball into and we’ve been getting a lot of enjoyment out of them.

We’ve been learning as much as we can about nature and our surroundings. I thought it would be worthwhile to buy some bird feeders to hang up in our yard so we can all watch and enjoy the birds. We made nectar for the hummingbird feeder and hung that; however, the seeds for the other bird feeders won’t arrive for some time.

Surprisingly, it took less than 24 hours for a hummingbird to find the food! We have gotten so much enjoyment from sitting in the window seat watching for the hummingbird to arrive. I’m really looking forward to hanging the remaining feeders so we can enjoy more bird watching.

Here’s to another week of staying home!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our little quarantined crew!

Ben was SO excited about Easter this year, in particular, the concept of the Easter Bunny. He asked a bajillion questions and wanted to know every little thing about the famous rabbit. I just love seeing his enthusiasm and his curiosity. We enjoyed watching a video of someone reading the book The Story of the Easter Bunny.

Before bed Ben insisted on setting out some water, carrots and strawberries {!??} for the Easter Bunny, along with a blanket and some stuffies in case he was tired and wanted to take a rest. The stuffies were vital so he’d have something to cuddle with. This sweet boy’s heart is enormous.

Our little eager beaver awoke at 3 in the morning and couldn’t contain his excitement. He shook me awake telling me “MAMA! I found a blue Easter egg hiding on the stairs! It had one, two Cheddar Bunnies inside!” Dear goodness Benjamin. Go back to sleep!

{Hannie was less than thrilled to be awake and doing stuff right away!}

I love doing Easter baskets for the kids. I think it’s a fun way to get a few new activities for spring. Generally I like to do books, a stuffie, and a couple of outdoor toys. I’m pretty conservative when it comes to Easter candy. This year, though, most of my gifts were delayed in their arrival so the baskets were basically just books.

Ben and I ended up spending close to an hour sitting on the couch reading his new books. It was really special. I love children’s books and now that he’s getting older it has been fun to find books with more of a story line.

Here are some of the books we read and loved on Easter morning:

We had a lovely day spent enjoying each other’s company. We didn’t really have a big or special Easter meal this year, though for breakfast I did make incredible cream biscuits for ham, egg and biscuit sandwiches. For dinner we had creamy ham tortellini.

I’ve been doing a lot of baking with the kids and today we made carrot cake cupcakes {note: I detest coconut, so I swapped the coconut for more carrots, and added some chopped pecans}.

These were an absolute hit. I mean, anything underneath cream cheese frosting is bound to be a winner. The kids got sprinkles in their Easter baskets {thanks for the idea, Sarah!} and couldn’t wait to decorate their special cupcake.

While Easter this year was very unusual for many people, for us, it honestly wasn’t that different than it was last year, or otherwise would have been. We did what we love most – spent the holiday with our family, enjoying nature. Happy Easter and happy spring!

Lodge Life: Quarantine Week 5

It is hard to believe we’ve been in solitude for more than four weeks now. In some ways it really feels like forever, but it has flown by. Time is moving in a really strange way right now.

Ben has started referring to the mountain house as “home” and saying things like “when we used to live in Seattle” or “our small house.”

While there are so many emotions going on in all of us, I imagine, one thing I’m dreading is telling Ben about all the things that won’t be happening in the coming months. I don’t expect he’ll return to school this spring {how could he?} and gosh, I’m wondering if the pools and beaches might not open this summer. A friend of mine was given the advice by a physician to write off the rest of the year.

This week we celebrated my 34th birthday. Alex and the kids made the day very special for me, despite having limited options. The kids and I baked really delicious cupcakes that only use one stick of butter and minimal ingredients.

Throughout the duration of our time here at The Lodge I’ve been focusing on gratitude, being the light for others and being in the moment as often as possible. I have been absolutely loving the time with my children and husband. Additionally, I have been feeling really proud of how resourceful I’ve been with food.

We made it 15 days without replenishing our food supply. That was my goal, and honestly, we could have made it a little farther, but I didn’t want to go to the store on the weekend and I was starting to get stressed out about running out of flour completely.

We’ve been baking a ton. The kids have both been very into it and they’re actually helpful, sometimes more than others. Sure, it takes twice, or three times, as long but what else are we doing right now?

I stocked up on long-lasting produce, like apples, sweet potatoes, clementines, carrots, etc. and every one of the 15 days we had some type of fresh produce. The last few days we pulled out some frozen or canned fruit and on night 14 we had frozen vegetables, though we still did have a sweet potato in the pantry.

I did venture out to the store on Friday morning at 6 a.m. and was successful in finding flour {!!}. Surprisingly, they also had disinfecting wipes in stock. They even had some store-brand toilet paper, though we’ve got plenty so I left that for others.

I felt that the other shoppers were very respectful of the 6 foot parameters, but I was outraged to see almost no store employees wearing gloves or masks. It ended up being a four hour affair for me, from the time I left to the time the last item was put away. This includes 50 minutes of driving, getting gas, taking a shower immediately upon my return and wiping down and putting away all of the items. I did wash all the produce before putting it away.

I’m feeling so grateful and have so much admiration for the people who are showing up in public to continue to do their jobs and provide services and goods for the rest of us. That’s true bravery.

Anyway enough about the pandemic – back to Lodge Life 🙂 The kids are great. We had a really, really good week. Ben was in a terrific mood all week and made some stellar choices. He has been loving this reusable sticker pad and we’ve had a blast playing soccer outside.

Ben and Hannah are starting to play together quite a lot and it’s just the absolute sweetest. Hannah is such a good listener and if Ben asks her calmly she’ll share just about anything with him.

We’re about to start potty training Hannie. I said this as sort of a joke at the beginning of our time here but now I guess we’re going forward with it. I need to wrap my brain around my approach because it’s going to be different than it was with Ben…. Maybe we’ll start this week? I’m not sure!

This week one of the highlights for me was talking with the kids about starting a vegetable garden. We made a {very long} list of fruits and veggies they want to grow, which I’ve scaled back on quite a bit. There’s a local farm that is doing online ordering and curbside, contact-less pickup right now that we’ll get some garden starts from.

Thanks to my farmer friend, Kelsey, and the adorable books We Are the Gardeners and Eating the Alphabet we’ve come up with a loose plan and I ordered a raised bed for some of the veggies. I’ll do some herbs in a pot that I already have. I’m still not sure about strawberries but I want to make that happen for Ben since he was so excited about the prospect. We’re going to have a blast with this and I love the life experience and educational value it provides.

One very small project we’ve had going on has been to make Ben’s “mountain room” a little more personal for him. When we designed the house we really weren’t sure how the sleeping arrangements would look for the kids, nor did we expect we’d actually be up here as often as we are. Certainly we didn’t expect to move up here for a couple/few months. Ben has been sleeping in the room that is normally reserved for Alex’s parents when they’re here.

We decided to get a few extra sets of sheets to make the room feel a little more special for Ben. When we asked what he wanted on his sheets his response was: rainbows, mountains, trees and houses. I have no idea how but I managed to find some sheets that met his criteria and his little mountain room has become so cozy.

We enjoyed sticking close to home this weekend with some work on the yard. Alex has been working to clear out the brush and downed trees in the forest on our property. It’s really coming along!

Here’s to another week in quarantine… our current “stay home” orders are through May 4th, so it looks like we’ll be here for quite some time. Sending our love to wherever you’re reading this. We hope this finds you well, and I hope you find this Instagram post as beautiful as I did:

Lodge Life: Quarantine Week 4

We’re at the start of our fourth week out here at The Lodge. We are doing well and hoping for the same of anyone reading this.

We have been making the most of the constantly changing weather and we have been practically living outside. This is what “homeschool” looks like in our house:

{The kids were making “berry pies” out of dirt.}

My main goals with the kids for this time is for them to just play and be kids. I want them to run and jump and climb and get dirty and explore and simply enjoy nature.

Both kids have been having a blast on their bikes. We have Ben’s pedal bike and balance bike here. Over the weekend we took off Ben’s training wheels, so he’s officially riding a two-wheeler now!

Hannah just wants to do everything Ben does, so she’s been eager to ride the balance bike. It’s been fun to see her get closer to being able to push off and ride it on her own.

We had a few organized activities last week. My favorite was making our rainbows. Perhaps you’ve heard that kids in northern Italy painted rainbows and hung them in their windows and wrote “andra tutto bene” which means “everything will be okay.” Our rainbows are hanging in our kitchen window and they certainly brighten my day.

Hannah inspired our water pouring station one afternoon. She had been pouring Jackson’s water from one bowl to the next so I figured I’d give both of them a chance to practice pouring. Plus, they’d do anything to play with water.

I grabbed a big plastic container, some measuring cups, a couple mugs and some disposable travel coffee cups and added warm water and bubbles and voila!

One of the themes of our week last week was MESS. Dear goodness there was some type of explosion of food in the house every day. It’s hard to say if the worst was the chili powder that Hannah dumped all over the rug or the cup of party mix Ben threw across the floor.

One element I have been enjoying while being holed up is the challenge to be more resourceful. At the time of writing this it’s been 11 days since I’ve been grocery shopping. Sure, we’re out of all of our fresh fruits and bread, but we’re making do with what we have and I’m really trying to make it to 14 days.

We’ve been baking a lot and I have been able to make more creative dinners using the ingredients we have on hand. It’s been a fun challenge to make sure we minimize our waste. I didn’t want to waste our brown butter rice krispy bars so I took one for the team and ate at least 90% of them myself in a matter of about 30 hours.

There has been an abundance of family time and I am loving the privilege of spending these days with both of my children. It’s extra special having Alex home during the day. The kids love when he pops up for lunch or can take a 20-minute break and play with them.

The passage of time feels so strange right now. Each day goes by really fast and things that happened just a week ago feel like it was months ago. So much has changed, yet so much remains the same for us in our already isolated life up here. We remain tremendously grateful for all that we do have right now.