Two weeks ago, our county moved to the yellow phase, which in our state still means we’re to take precautions but we’re not as limited to our homes, workplaces and essential errands. The transition hasn’t meant big changes for our family, and I’ve still been logging some of our activities just to remind myself how we spent these days.
Here’s a recap for you about what we’ve been up to.
Summer
Even though the official start of summer is a few days away, we’re in full summer mode here. As in, the kids don’t have any more school and we had to create a new routine to get us through these days so our brains didn’t melt from all the YouTube. I created a weekly checklist for the kids to complete. They each have a copy, and at the end of two weeks, they’ll get a reward of their choice. It’s going better than it was without the checklist but not always as great as I’d hoped. But they did help me clean the bathroom and weed the garden. We had our end-of-the-school-year dinner from Chipotle. We booked a cabin at a state park for later in July to take a short vacation because all of our previous vacation plans for the summer are not doable.
Garden
Things are growing! Including weeds! I have been out to weed the garden two or three times. We have speed mulch that we got free from someone’s yard that was mostly leaves and sticks and mulch that our neighbor who owns the business behind our house had his lawn company dump on our concrete slab. Phil built a trellis for our snap peas. I still worry that we put things in too late to have any chance at a good harvest this year. I transplanted two volunteer tomato plants. Two potato plants have popped above ground. It is consuming my time and attention and I’m not sorry.
Hiking
Weekly, we’re trying to get out of the house and take a hike. Without going too far from home because of bathrooms and such. One week, we went to Lancaster County Central Park and did a loop path that took us past a creek, under a covered bridge and into the woods.
Another week, we walked a paved path next to the Conestoga River.
Both took us nearly an hour and sometimes the kids complain about it, and it’s always a monumental effort to get out of the house. Always worth it, though.
Virtual adventures
During normal summers, we like to take day trip adventures because summer is when we have more family time as the four of us. This year, we decided to still try to have virtual adventures. So, we listed a bunch of places we wanted to “see,” wrote them on slips of paper and pulled one out of a hat. Our first adventure was to The White House. We wanted to explore online and make some kind of food related to the adventure, so our daughter created a White House themed menu based on some of the favorite foods of presidents. We had garlic butter steak bites (inspired by William Howard Taft’s love of steak), leather britches (green beans with bacon inspired by Andrew Jackson, with a side of commentary about the pitfalls of his presidency) and the Kennedy family brownies. We watched Inside The White House on Amazon Prime. Our next adventure is Sydney, Australia.
Books
Our son is back devouring the next Harry Potter book because he wants to earn the Lego Harry Potter video game. We placed a pickup order for the library.
Errands
We went to the school to pick up the kids’ things. They both saw their teachers. I also went to my school to pick up my personal things. And I cried the whole way home. My driver’s license expired during quarantine, and I was able to renew it online, but I still needed to get a new photo ID. All the PennDOT offices were closed until early June, and while I really wasn’t looking forward to venturing out, I did it and it wasn’t too bad. We also dropped off the library books we’d had for months. And Phil took our daughter to buy running shoes. He also returned our son’s lacrosse equipment.
Miscellaneous
I cut Phil’s hair one Sunday because it was getting too long for him to feel comfortable while working. I only do one style, though, so he’s rocking a new look that nobody hates.
The kids needed new clothes for summer, so we shopped online. When it came, everything but one pair of shorts fit and that was only because the store had sent us the wrong size. I may never shop with the kids in a store again. And a friend came over for a (no, really!) socially distanced visit on my porch. We attended a socially distant prayer meeting for racial justice with people from church. And for one stretch of 24 hours, both Phil and I were puking because of something we ate, we think. It was not a fun time for us. We’ve been taking almost nightly walks through the neighborhood. And a house in a nearby development caught on fire one night and we watched the smoke billow from our porch. It was close enough that the air around our house was thick with smoke.
What we’ve watched
Some of these as a family, sometimes just as adults. Lego Batman. Just Mercy. Anne With An E. Poldark. Good Omens. Good Mythical Morning. Ultimate Tag. The Titan Games. The Big Flower Fight. The Office.
Noticing beauty
I was sitting on the porch one night reading and there’s a bunny that hangs around our yard. It hopped around the yard and paused on the side porch. I got up to go in for a drink or something and saw that something was underneath the bunny. Then 3 baby bunnies hopped out from under our porch and a total of 4 babies were feeding from their mama. I ran inside and said, “Come quickly but quietly.” The kids were not interested but Phil and I stood in the kitchen and watched this happen for a while. Then the mama got spooked and the babies hung out in the yard and I wanted to know where they were staying, but eventually we decided to leave them alone and stop watching. It was marvelous.
Running
And exercising. There’s been a lot of both. I’m working on a 90-mile challenge in 90 days, and I’m already a quarter of the way there. This is what that looks like.
So, what have you been up to?
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