A weird time to be alive.
This is not what I had in mind for March, April and now May! We had plans to hike, camp, celebrate Birthdays/Easter with friends/family, take our annual trip to Skagit Valley to the Tulip fields and a solo trip for me back to MN to help my sister and brother-in-law with the adjustment of being new parents! We are everything but homebodies so this has not been the easiest transition for us. The kids and I keep a relatively busy schedule during the week while Sam works. This consists of their nature immersion program 2 or 3 days a week, swimming lessons, and lots of outdoor time with friends. The first 2 weeks weren’t so bad as we were still able to hike, visit parks and beaches. Overcrowding and not keeping social distance caused the state to shut down all parks. This hit us hard as we are frequently at the State Parks and city parks. Our outdoor time has been limited to our yard, neighborhood and any open outdoor spaces we can walk to. Being able to be outside at all is such a blessing though. It has definitely been our happy place in all this. Sam and I are both still able to work and we are so grateful for that! Not a lot feels different for Sam. He has been putting in a lot more hours at work through all this. We are definitely missing him. The days can feel pretty lonely. It has definitely hit myself and the kids a lot harder. So much of our week is spent doing things outside the home with others. I miss our old routine and am not so patiently waiting to get back to it! There have been many stressful, and sad times along with days that I want to hide in the the closet and cry throughout this. I have gone through so many different emotions and some days are harder to process than others. Sometimes I find myself quick to get frustrated with the kids but then I realize they are processing many different emotions just like I am! They are missing friends, school, and adventure away from home too. I have tried to keep positive and focus on the many good days we have had and the fun things we have been able to do! But I am really looking forward to this all being over. I want to share some things that we have done to help motivate other parents that there are still a lot of good things you can do with this time.
While still on a social distancing order we took a trip to the National Forest to do some shooting. We found a great spot and spent the afternoon enjoying some time together in the mountains. This was Odin and Aspen’s first time shooting a .22. Odin even hit his first clay pigeon!! Freya keeps proving herself to be the best dog ever. She had a blast with us too.
I also took the kids to the beach before they closed the State Park. We had the beach to ourselves. There were a few other people walking on the dock but very easy to keep social distance. We enjoyed a picnic on the beach and building sand castles!
Celebrating my birthday through all this was odd. We had to change our plans but it worked out! The kids went for a hike with me and we gathered lots of supplies to make some bird nests! It was fun and we only saw a few others on the trail!
Odin and Aspen LOVE playing soccer! Sam was able to find an open soccer field to go have fun!
We had to get creative once the parks closed and we went into a “stay at home” order. We’re not big on TV and technology in our house but the kids have gotten to watch a little more than normal! Disney + has been fun watching all the classics as well as many new ones! Sam and Odin have also enjoyed playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch! I have had a lot more time to bake so the kids have really enjoyed helping me with that. Odin and Aspen even made their own play dough. We have been doing lots of different crafts, coloring and painting! I wasn’t about to go to the store to buy washable paint so we ended up making our own! It worked well as window paint and on paper! We started sending out snail mail to friends and family too! Our list got rather big so every few days we work on some new cards and letters to send out! It has been fun and the kids have been getting cards back! We started working on puzzles as a family around Christmas. We have completed several puzzles ranging from 300-2,000 pieces! Yoga has been a great thing for myself and the kids! Odin was excited to get some new games! A few new favorites lately have been Battleship, Uno, Old Maid, Connect Four and Don’t Spill the Beans! I never pass up an opportunity to add books to the kid’s library so we of course have been enjoying new books. I have started reading the Magic Tree House series to the kids! We have all enjoyed it. Legos continue to be a favorite here as well! Thankful for technology during a time like this. We have been keeping in touch with friends and family easily. Odin even beat his Aunt and Uncle in Battleship over video! Side walk chalk has been a blast! Our fence has beautiful designs on it as well as our driveway and sidewalk! Hopscotch and Jax have become some outdoor favorites. Some old games I haven’t played since I was a kid! We have daily paper airplane races and lots of time for water play as the weather has been so warm! Even on the few rainy days, getting outside is still a huge priority and where we spend most of the day. Odin and Aspen have insisted on picnic lunches most days! It really has been fun! Freya’s favorite thing is when the kids blow bubbles for her. Haha it is pretty entertaining watching the 3 of them! Freya has been loving us being home all the time! She has definitely helped make this staying home stuff a lot more enjoyable!
This extra time at home has allowed us to complete some house projects! We transplanted our rhubarb, took care of trimming the trees, weeding, touch up painting, and fixing the dishwasher. I also finished painting the trim in the kitchen and painted the kitchen door! It is painted with chalkboard paint so the kids can have some fun too!
Odin had this great idea to build a shelter for our gnomes. He had a design in mind and then with the help of Sam they built a little shelter that he named the “Camouflage Cabin”. We found a nice spot for in in the backyard.
I am so grateful for our outdoor community here! We have been able to keep in contact with Barnacles and Bees (the nature program the kids are in). They have been doing an awesome job at still providing us with lots of ideas and staying connected as a community! Every Monday we get an email with lots of good ideas and the topics the kids would be learning about that week if we were still meeting in person. It has been a huge help for sure! We miss our time spent at B&B so very much!! We cannot wait for the day when we can all be together again in the forest. Some of the activities we have done are making dandelion syrup (delicious on ice cream!), hammering nature prints (we made new banners with our nature names), flower pressing, wildflower designs and bouquets, nature bracelets, garden snail observation, making bird nests, bird watching, nature journals, and we just got our caterpillars which we are excited to watch transform into butterflies!!
Neighborhood walks have been so helpful! It is not much but at least it is getting out of the house! We have also been exploring outside of our neighborhood and finding some spots in nature that we can really enjoy without others around. We were even able to get Freya in a nice swim! The kids have been finding lots of cool nature treasure.s Thankfully Freya and the kids love the rain so we can still take some rainy walks too!
Odin first got his balance bike right after he turned 2 and he has been riding it hard ever since. He has now upgraded to a pedal bike! He skipped training wheels and went straight to pedaling. It was amazing how fast he picked it up! Family bikes rides have been something we look forward to when Sam is off work! Aspen is still riding her balance bike like a champ. Maybe for her birthday this fall we will see how she feels about trying pedals!
Backyard camping has probably been one of our favorite things so far! Odin and Aspen helped me set up the tent and then we camped out all weekend! It was so much fun!! They also got their first set of walkie talkies so they were having a blast with those in the tent!
I started learning to play the Ukulele at the beginning of March before this all started! It has been nice having lots of extra time to learn and practice! Odin and Aspen have both enjoyed strumming around on it! Maybe they will show an interest in actually learning to play! Who knows, but for now I enjoy the songs Aspen has been making up and singing to me while she is strumming! It has been so fun!
I have never been so grateful for our outdoor space than being at home during all this. It is great to have outdoor space and watch all our plants and flowers come to life during Spring! Every morning the kids are outside checking on everything and noticing how it has all been changing! Aspen has enjoyed picking wild flowers to make table arrangements. We have been watching our various flowers and plants sprout and then now a lot of them bloom! The highlight has definitely been watching our Tulips bloom! We are still so sad that a trip to the tulip fields did not happen this year. But it has been awesome to have our own Tulips from Skagit Valley blooming in our yard! It has brought us so much joy. I believe we planted around 40 bulbs last fall! It has been so worth it!
Easter was still celebrated at home even though it was a lot different than most years! We were together and we had a wonderful day!
So thankful for our health, jobs, and a home to be in safe in. There is still so much unknown about how it goes from here but we are keeping positive about it all!
On to the next adventure…
So fun to see ALL you do. Thank You for sharing .
Glad you enjoy it!
I love all your pictures! The whole post is so beautiful 🙂 Aspen’s hair in so many pictures is just FIRE red, so so pretty!
Thank you!! That girl is blessed with the most beautiful hair!