Our First Student Athlete

One of our biggest bummers in the wake of COVID-19 has been the loss of the remainder of Anna Kate's tennis season. She was brave enough to try out (so much braver than I was at 12!), and we're incredibly proud of her for making the team. She had to miss some practices due to the spring play, but she loved each and every match she made it to. We were so excited because the play had just wrapped up and she was going to get to participate in every single match for the rest of the season when COVID-19 hit. She won the first match she played - a doubles match. She absolutely loved being a part of a team and would get mad at me if she had to miss a match due to a conflict. So we were super bummed when she barely had time to get warmed up in the season. But I cannot tell you how proud I am of her. LCS is known for having very competitive sports teams, and I never would have thought a kid of mine with my genes would make a team. I'm hoping this won't kill her zeal for tennis, and that she'll be back on the team next year. But either way, we're so proud of you, AK!

Matthew, Lucy, Anna Kate, Quinn and Kase

For awhile the kids could hit tennis balls in the construction zone when the workers had plywood covering the openings where windows would later be installed. It was like having our own indoor court. This prompted Tate to go around the house handing out invitations to his tennis competition.

Quarantine Week 2 (cruel spring break)

So here we are, merely a week & change into quarantine, and the kids have already resorted to drinking games:

Aside from finding videos of the girls making their brother drink lemon juice concentrate, we've attempted to fill the time by adding some additional decor to the concrete foundation of our addition. Carigan actually did a really good job of making her outline look just like her. Peace sign pajamas and all. 

Sign of the times... We had to walk downtown to get away from people. Too many refuge-seekers on the lake!  The marquee of the Polk Theater reads "COVID-19 & The Social Distancer." 3-22-20

It's getting harder and harder to find ways for the kids to burn energy. We moved the elliptical from the cottage to the front play room because we needed a more accessible hamster wheel. Also, three out of six of us never change out of our pajamas. I'll let you take a guess from the photo below and the fact I say "we."

Going to the grocery store is now our one and only adventure. I let AK come with me to Sam's Club (by week 3 we weren't allowed to bring anyone with us at all), and she loved the plantain chips.  As hard as quarantine has been, it's been fun to see the neighborhood band together to raise morale. Someone initiated a "Chalk the Walk" challenge and also a neighborhood bear hunt. Can you spot our teddy bear??

We headed out a little late waiting for foot traffic to be light, so it got a little dark for taking photos, but Tate had a big time on our neighborhood bear hunt. He kept careful track on his paper.  3-23-20

Coronavirus hasn't kept nesting season from coming on Lake Morton! Tate caught a swan mama off her nest just across from the house:

We may officially be on "spring break" but Mrs. Burton set up a Zoom meeting with Tate's whole class on 3-24-20 so they could see each other for the first time since all this craziness began. Tate hasn't seen any of his classmates since he turned 7! 

I've been telling the kids that this is a historic event, and that they should write about it. Carigan typed the following into her iPad on 3-24-20:

My Life Stuck inside my House for a LONG TIME

The Coronavirus has broken out ALL OVER THE WORLD now, and so we've been stuck inside the house for a LONG TIME! All around the world, people have been staying home, washing their hands and sanitizing, and some people can't even go out of their homes to get groceries and stuff like that. Not long ago, Tate had his 7th birthday, and he was gonna have his party at a trampoline park, but that closed, and Mom said that she would take him there once this craziness is over, and then he will have his party there next year. I think Anna Kate was more upset than Tate about that. We also went strawberry picking at one of Tate's Friend's strawberry farm. :) Mom wanted me to write about this big Coronavirus thing, and that one day it'll be History. Our school gave us packets to do the first week we had no school, and now we do it online. But what really stinks, is that now it is Spring Break, and we were gonna go to Sanibel Island, and have some fun at Disney before our passes expire, but now that's all canceled. I also feel bad for people who had big trips planned. To make things fun, our city had a calk and bear day. Where you put a bear in your window, and you can go on a bear hunt finding bears in people's windows, and where you color with chalk, on sidewalks to make things colorful. So last night we went on a walking did all of that. Basically my day today was just Minecraft, games, and coloring with chalk again. So there is your update of what has been going on, and I'm hoping that this will end soon.

Our neighbor Michael Maguire took the picture below of the Atlas V rocket over the church next door on 3/26/20. I still miss the shuttle program, but at least we get a clear view of rocket launches from our new house. 

Well, we may be under a stay at home order, but apparently it hasn't quit raining in Nashville for months, and Erin just couldn't take it anymore. She really wanted to come stay with Mom or with us, and I felt bad saying no, but we are making an earnest attempt to quarantine. I managed to find this super cute Airbnb at 2007 S. Lake Cannon Drive NW in Winter Haven, and she brought Abby and the littles. They've had a great time this week. They have their own private pool and a gorgeous view of the lake. I'm so glad they've had the pick-me-up they needed. Mom went a couple days this week and visited outside from a distance, and we went on Thursday (3/26/20).

Thankful for a day to swim, soak up sunshine and not be inside! We grabbed fast food from the drive-in (three drive-ins to be exact, because my kids never agree on anything. Taco Bell for Wes, Arby's for AK and McDonald's for C & T) and ate it poolside.

Friday was a particularly disturbing day when I noticed Wes seemed really tall and measured him and discovered he's grown more than two inches in just a few months. Which means he's that much taller than me now. Depressing. Erin & crew drove into Lakeland to walk around Lake Mirror and get ice cream at The Joinery (their favorite from their visit a couple weeks ago). We hoped to do dinner together, but we couldn't find anyplace with shaded outdoor seating (all dining rooms are closed) and it was HOT. So they just tracked us down at Hobby Lobby to say goodbye. We've been shopping for the girls' new bedrooms, and just in the nick of time before everything closed.  Meanwhile, Michael is keeping me happy with omelettes. It's my love language.

The addition was supposed to be finished in time for AK to start middle school in her own room, but unavoidable delays (seeking approval from Historic Preservation Board, changing contractors, a maze of old plumbing hidden out in the courtyard from previous structures, weather, and now... Caronavirus) keep pushing it back. It's coming along, but I realized my only sense of true urgency is getting the girls separated into their own rooms. So we've been using our quarantine to paint, design, clean out, swap over and do TONS of shopping online. Carigan picked out new fabric to recover my old desk chair and I recovered it with my trusty staple gun. I got to uncover the original red fabric that Santa installed for me in 1987 (I recovered it with zebra print to match Wesley's jungle prints back in 2007). I even managed to pull back enough to find the original fabric beneath Santa's fabric, which I'd never seen.I removed the furry zebra fabric, but the red fabric and the original fabric are still under there.

Meanwhile, Anna Kate and I have been busy painting the old nursery pieces (that we purchased unfinished when I was pregnant with Wesley and Michael painted black) for her new bedroom. I took her to Scout 'n Tag right before it closed and we walked around and looked at all the different pieces in different Annie Sloan colors. She chose Paris Grey for the armoire and the dresser, and Aubusson Blue for the desk and side table. We bought new hardware at Hobby Lobby yesterday. She had me take a video of her doing her best Bob Ross impression:

So initially we thought we'd all go back to school after spring break. But the meme above says it all. Quarantine is here to stay.

Tate Turns 7 & The Plague Arrives

I came to help with literacy centers on Thursday the 12th, having no idea it would be the kids' very last day of school. I mean, it never even crossed any of our minds. We thought there might be like a 25% chance they'd cancel school for the one week leading up to spring break. Things escalated so quickly over the weekend. I didn't even think to take a selfie when I had lunch with Tate and Robbie. But I did take a photo of Tate's Me Board. Each student gets a turn the week of his/her birthday. I'm thankful Mrs. Burton happened to put Tate's up a few days early and that he got to share, because we never returned to school to celebrate Tate's birthday. He had also brought in his tee ball trophy and some things from the cruise to show his class.

Anna Kate wanted to make a big breakfast for Tate's birthday, but she was at her youth group sleepover.  Wesley said, "Don't worry, I'll make him a special breakfast." And he did.

I stayed up late wrapping presents and decorating, so at least Tate had that surprise when he woke up on his birthday. 

Anna Kate spent the night at Miss Alicia's with the girls. They all got Starbucks on the way to church, which makes them way cooler than us. Miss Alicia, Alex, Emma, Anna Kate, Parker, Lydia, Kailey & Miss Sarah.^  Turns out this was the last time we got to go to church for months. Mimi, Grandpa & Grandma had already put themselves into isolation due to the virus, so we were on our own at lunch. Tate picked Chili's.

We came home and had a family party with him, and I took lots of pictures of Tate opening his presents. Sadly, I lost my Google Pixel the next day at some point when we were running around town picking up work from LCS, getting some items at Target, and eating lunch at Moe's. I was so hopeful it would turn up, but I've already had to buy a new Google Pixel. Michael is training me not to get super upset about losing a few hundred dollars like that, but the worst part is that I lost the photos I took Sunday afternoon at our family celebration before I could download them. So Monday we pulled up at school and they had the teachers outside handing out sanitized bags of work. We could only come inside to go to the library and check out books to read over quarantine, but Mrs. O'Byrne stood outside the library and made sure no more than 10 people were in there at a time.  I'm so used to all of the social distancing and restrictions now (writing this a couple weeks later), but at the time it was super weird. It literally felt like one day life was normal and the next the whole world just suddenly changed.  AK took this selfie at Moe's (below) on our first day of the world turning upside down.

Initially I let the kids do playdates... AK went to Quinn's house (her mom texted me the pool pic), and I let both girls bring a friend to go strawberry picking.  But by the end of the week it was clear that even playdates were now off the table. 

My friend Melissa Grimes is so sweet. Last year she invited Tate's whole class to come pick strawberries. I texted her to see if there was an already-picked field we could just come play in since we were going crazy. She replied that there were still TONS of strawberries that would go to waste, and to come anytime. I took the kids on Wednesday the 18th. Even Grandma couldn't resist the offer and met us there. AK and Wynn were rocking the matching sun bonnets:

Selah & Carigan were more interested in eating strawberries than picking strawberries.

Melissa brought Clayton out to see Tate. He drove up in the driver's seat! Tate was so impressed. I let Clayton take them all for a ride (with Melissa sitting shotgun of course). Farm boy skillz.  We stopped at Circle K for Icees on the drive home - I bought gas for under $2 a gallon for the first time in years. And of course we had to go buy an angel food cake  at Publix so we could have strawberry shortcake for dessert:

Tate was supposed to have a big birthday party at the trampoline park with all of his friends on Thursday. They began to drop out one by one, and two days before the party, the trampoline park closed suddenly. So instead we celebrated at home with his best friend Jax. Turns out your best friend is all you need. Tate has been incredibly sweet and understanding and has not so much as frowned at us as we've continued to deliver bad news. I'm so proud of him. Happy 7th year of life in this crazy world, Tate! We love you!!