March at-home

Since we homeschool, it's not uncommon in winter for us to only venture out once or twice during the week. We really had been lying low in February since our closest friends all had bouts of the flu. Having a baby in the house makes me nervous about the flu and its high fevers. Once coronavirus cases began in the US, I wasn't too scared because I thought Seattle was still quite far from Indiana. And then as we were going to bed on March 8th, I read about a local school district shutting its doors for two weeks because of a student with the virus. How quickly it had come to our community! Just three days later, Steve's university announced they were indefinitely extending their spring break and moving to online classes. At this point, we began willingly sheltering-in-place before Indiana mandated it on March 25th.

I want to document details of this strange time - what our life is like right now, our thoughts and feelings about it, and hopefully find some good in a time that feels so uncertain.

I find myself often repeating 1 Timothy 1:7,
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Backtracking a bit, this little 🍋 girl turned 10 months-old on March 4th! She has learned how to wave hello and goodbye. She woofs when I ask her what the doggy says, and she can stand without holding on to anything for a couple of seconds before she realizes she's standing, and then she sits down. 😉 If she does something she's not supposed to do, she looks at me with her big blue eyes and waits for me to tell her no. 😅 And she absolutely loves to hear music and "sing" along, especially the Frozen 2 soundtrack. ❤️

Playing CLUE Jr and passing the time together.

The last time all six of us went to church was March 1st, and we went to Culver's with my mom and Don afterwards. I can't believe it's already been over a month since I've seen my church friends.

Junia was sick the second week of March. She had a pretty consistent 99-100 temp for seven days. She was still playing and acting almost normal, with no cough and no snot, so I hesitated to take her into the pediatrician and possibly expose her to other germs. On the fifth day of fevers, I couldn't take it any longer so I brought her in. Our doctor was super reassuring and calm, and she wasn't worried that it was anything but a passing virus. Thankfully, Junia shook the fever on day seven, and she never developed any sign of even a cold!

Trouble! 😉

A rare moment of her waking up happy in her crib! Without fail, she screams every time she is set down and cries when she wakes up, too.

In case you need a reminder. :)

Trader Joe's gave Steve an entire roll of St. Paddy's stickers, which was exciting. He's one of those people who somehow finagles good things.

Checking out "the Ruins" at Holiday Park. The statues up top came from the St. Paul building in NYC, built in 1898.

She is so happy when her brothers pay attention to her!

The only way we're surviving this quarantine is by our afternoon walks! Sometimes we drive somewhere to walk, and other times we just go around our little neighborhood. The fresh air and vitamin D are a must.

She's not so sure about the wind!

This guy loves his scooter! And Nolan and Ephraim ask to ride their bikes every single day, even when it's raining.

The boys dressed up as pirates to go to Awana at the beginning of March. I snapped a quick photo, not knowing that this would be their last Awana of the year. :(  They're trying to move the program online, so hopefully we can still finish out the year that way!

We can't quite perfect the timing of afternoon naps at our house. Junia is always waking up as August is going down. And honestly, most days now, August refuses to nap.

A sweet moment of Junia meeting the baby doll. She was so curious and so gentle!

The boys really loved Mo Willems' Lunch Doodles for three weeks. They learned to draw Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie, and they thought Mo was hilarious and fascinating. We're sad it's over!

All we needed was 

a box of cereal and a bottle of glue

(doled out by me to minimize the mess)

to make our annual 🌈🌈🌈!

The golden girl at the end of the rainbow. ☘️

xo

Rachel

Catching up

I've been going back through photos on my phone, and the practice of doing that makes me feel so grateful for the highlights we've had this past winter. 

Church with babies is never easy. Sometimes she plays hard in the nursery and crashes right as the service is over. Other times, she falls asleep on my lap in the sanctuary, and I can capture sweet moments like this.

This was her 8 month photo! 

At this time, I wrote, "She's such an active girl, always adventuring to find new pieces of furniture to pull up on and new - anything - to put in her mouth. She's sporting two new bottom teeth and wispy dark blonde hair that's finally growing in quite nicely. We haven't gotten far with solid foods yet, and I think she has my body programmed to feed her the most milk in the middle of the night, so we are up many times. She gives a very stoic face to strangers, and saves sweet smiles and giggles for her brothers. It's early for tv, I know, but she's super into those Daniel Tiger jingles right now. :)"

Right before and after Christmas, Steve and all the boys came down with fevers and terrible coughs. Steve was the first to get sick on December 15th, and over a month later, we still had some lingering symptoms in our house. August got it the worst as he developed pneumonia and had to go on the chalky white antibiotic. Thankfully, that knocked it out right away. And also thankfully, the baby and I never got the bug!

Always eating puffs! I love this stage.

Oh, 2020. . . you sure are turning out to be an interesting year!

This is my phone background. I love looking at this smile!

This was back in January when my nieces' great-great-grandmother turned 105, and we got to see her on her birthday!

 She shares a birthday with our niece, who is 8!

One freezing day, we enjoyed a visit to the Children's Museum!

We still haven't seen the Mo Willems exhibit, but hopefully we're able to when the museum opens again!?

First outdoor scootering experience for Auggie! He loved it!

Groundhog Day pancakes!

This was our 100th day of school. We ate 100 tiny snacks!

And built with 100 Lego!

And the boys drew themselves as 100! Note how they're both wearing suspenders. :)

After his third birthday, we potty-trained August, and it went super well! 

We love this new Kenard Pak book! Spring can't come fast enough!

Adorably watching her brothers bike up and down the street.

I found a recipe for making banana bread in a bundt pan. It was delicious! I typed up the recipe here.

Sink bath baby! 

I'll be back with more March photos soon.

xo

Rachel