Quarantine Life Recap Part 4: April 13th – 29th 2020.
Our shelter in place orders for Georgia expired on April 30th so this will be my last quarantine life recap post 🙂
Yes, life is far from “normal” but things will only continue to get more and more normal so I’m hoping our lives look a little more like normal and less like abnormal moving forward 😉
Zach had the idea to go fishing out on his parent’s property one morning and we all decided to go.
To be honest, none of us were like WHOO HOO FISHING but we all ended up having such a great time!
The weather was gorgeous and the pond is so well stocked with fish that it made it exciting 😉
Zach picked up some crickets and we went out to the pond for the morning.
Mr Rusty came out to fish with us and a few minutes into it all I was just DONE.
Done trying to keep Spear away from his FAVORITE person. Done worrying about social distancing with family. Just done.
Up until that point our kids had literally not been in contact with ANYONE since their last day of school on March 13th. So over a MONTH.
Mr Rusty and Mrs Charlotte had both been going and doing more than we had been. Zach had also been around Mr Rusty many times with golfing and such.
If he and Mrs Charlotte felt okay about their exposure to our kids, then I felt okay too.
We also did NOT go in their house and stuck to staying outside which made me feel better about it.
Mrs Charlotte was SO excited she cried. It was so sweet and the kids were just overjoyed!
Kye LOVED fishing. As in DID NOT want to leave. Basically begged us to let him stay.
He caught several fish and even baited the hooks himself.
The girls were more into it than I’d expected too. We all truly just had SO MUCH FUN.
Tessie caught a big fish with Daddy and got really upset when he tried to get her to hold it.
Zach also said on the way home that the kids had to HELP clean the fish to eat and the girls BAWLED. Which I don’t blame them for!
I def agree if you keep the fish, you should at least try them when we cook them but I never wanna prepare the dead animal I’m gonna eat…no thanks!
Spear enjoyed riding around the golf cart with Big Papa and had fun running around the pond area too.
I love that he’s more and more able to communicate as the days following our fishing adventure Spear asked several times “Big Papa Fishing?” I know he had a great day too!
And look…Mama even caught a fish 😉 No I didn’t touch it!
Aunt Karen lives out by Big Daddy and Little Mama now so she came out for a bit and it was hilarious because she turned it into a competition.
It cracked us all up – such a Parker family thing to make catching fish a competition!
Big Daddy and Little Mama came out in their golf cart to see us but stayed super far away. Little Mama was so adorable and brought snacks for the kids because they ALWAYS love going to her house with all the special treats.
She also threw Hershey kisses to each of us as “Little Mama’s Kisses” SO sweet.
It hurt my heart not to be able to hug my Big Daddy! I’m glad we got to visit with them a bit even from afar and I know seeing the kids having so much fun brightened their day too 🙂
SUCH a fun filled family morning and one of our favorite memories of this entire pandemic life.
Just like everyone else in quarantine we are trying to clean out things, get more organized and accomplish some house projects.
In cleaning out the garage Zach said it was time to get rid of the Cozy Coupe Car Collection.
I’m not overly sentimental when it comes to holding onto things but MAN I do NOT want to get rid of ANY of our cozy coupe cars.
I just love them so much and have so many memories of each of my babies in their cars and I can’t fathom not having them anymore.
I’d always envisioned getting a picture of all four babies in their cars so the kids humored me and we took a few pics of them all together.
Pretty hilarious that Kye can’t fit!
Of course we’ll be keeping Spear’s car and I’m wanting to keep Kye’s in the garage so Spear has one outside and inside but I don’t think Zach will let that fly. I also think we should still keep Tess’s. And I tried to get Zach to let me take one to the Disney House b/c surely renters would appreciate a Cozy Coupe for their toddler 😉
I visited Katie for a social distance breakfast one morning and as things went on we felt fine with taking the kids to her property to visit for a breakfast too!
They were SO THRILLED. It was a great morning, we had a bit of rain but it didn’t stop us from having fun.
And sweet Aunt Katie made cupcakes and had supplies to decorate them with!
Not only is her yard super pretty but it has a great tree for climbing too which is one of Britt’s personal goals – to learn how to climb a tree!
After we had our breakfast picnic we headed over to Horne Legacy Farms to pick some blueberries.
We wanted to do our part to support Aaron’s family and the blueberries were GORGEOUS and it was such a fun outing and the kids loved getting to pick them!
We bought 6 GALLONS of berries and they literally lasted a solid month and didn’t even go bad at all. We’ve been loving them!
I think Spear probably ate a gallon himself haha
With our rental house being vacant right now Zach and I talked about taking turns going down for a bit. He went first to go golfing with his Dad and to get the house painted, but I waited a bit to take my time.
When it came time for me to go I really didn’t want to. I struggled HARD with leaving and truly had my lowest point in my mental health status during the quarantine on the day I left.
I NEEDED to go and I’m SO thankful I went away when I did. It was such valuable time for myself and my heart and just getting in a good head space.
I struggled with what to do while away and ended up sleeping a lot, spending time journaling and reading the Bible, working out, getting back to chugging water, reading by the pool, watching Big Little Lies on Hulu, and making pins for the blog!
A good balance of everything really 🙂 I truly enjoyed the time and came home SO REFRESHED!
It was also perfect timing at Rachael happened to be near the area at the same time so she drove over and got to see the house and get some dinner together…and drive by our happiest place.
We’ve been saying for YEARS that we want to go to Disney together and it finally happened – when Disney was closed haha.
We literally haven’t seen each other face to face in roughly 2 years and it took a pandemic for it to finally happen.
But man it was EXACTLY what I needed. Rachael is one of those truly treasured people in my life that I just feel at HOME with. I’m so comfortable and just free to be totally ME and I know she feels that same way back. I’m so thankful for our friendship.
We struggled to find dinner and ended up eating Steak and Shake in the car 😉
It was also such a weird experience going to Disney with it SO EMPTY.
Security was guarding the park entrances and we could see all the buses in the parking lots. It made me so sad!
DUH we HAD to get pics. While the whole experience of Disney being closed makes my heart hurt…I’m also all about once in a lifetime experiences and getting a picture in the middle of the road in front of this sign? Def something that can only happen when the world is shut down!
It was such a great time together and a memory we’ll both always have!
I was thankful I had the time away to myself. I really needed it more than I even realized and it allowed me to come home feeling SO much better about everything and the timing was really great because I got news while I was there about the reopening plan for our state and it helped me come home with a really good outlook with some good news!
My time away really showed me just how much of an impact all of this has on our mental health.
It’s a LOT yall on ALL of us including our kids!
I shared these slides on my IG stories and it’s why we decided to go to Mrs Charlotte’s for dinner when she invited us.
It was at the end of April, close to the end of our shelter in place order, and JUST our little family went over and it did ALL OF US so, so much good!
It was precious to see how excited the kids were and how much lighter they seemed afterward. Mrs Charlotte was so sweet using nice china and having a nice dinner for us and baking with the girls and Kye loved playing chess with Big Papa. It was such a wonderful evening!
While I was away at the Disney House Zach and the kids made an epic Putt-Putt course INSIDE the house.
They had mentioned the idea early on in quarantine and I told them to PLEASE wait until I was out of town b/c I knew the mess in the house would stress me out.
Instead I got to enjoy some popcorn and watch every video they sent to me. It was so fun! I was laughing out loud all by myself watching the kids and Zach play through the homemade course. Such a fun Daddy – My kids are so blessed!
You can see the video here:
I checked in often with the kids via FaceTime (once a day) and I def didn’t mind that Daddy had to deal with the tears and drama haha!
On the drive home I picked up Krispy Kreme donuts as a treat for everyone. I stopped to get some ice coffee too and had to pee SO BAD so I went into a gas station and it was interesting to see that they were limiting 4 customers in the gas station at a time. I had to wait to go inside.
It was also the first time I’d seen the plexiglass “screens” in front of the cashiers which was also interesting.
When I got home the kids and Zach had a surprise for ME! Kye and Britt and even Tess learned how to ride bikes! FINALLY 🙂
We live on a super busy corner so bike riding just hasn’t been a priority but what a perfect time to learn 🙂
After Easter the kids had more set school work each day. None of it counts for grades (their final grades were determined the last day of school on March 13th) but is all review.
They’ve had Google Meets to see their classmates and have classwork to complete.
It’s been good for them to still be connected but I also don’t want them to stress about it at ALL because this isn’t a time to be stressing out over school work ya know?
Kye had a moment of being sad about school and it was about his Wax Museum Project for his gifted class.
He’d worked on it for a LONG time and was so disappointed that he wasn’t able to present it to the school as they’d planned. Kid loves public speaking.
I recorded his presentation for him to share with his teacher and I’m so proud of how well he did in sharing knowledge about Walt Disney 🙂
You can watch his presentation here 🙂
Tess doesn’t do a lot of school work on the ipad so instead of worry about it with her I invested in a few school workbooks and she’s working through them and LOVING them!
This is the first one she completed so far.
Spear is loving this book and it’s helped a TON with his speech too!
The Easter Bunny brought a few new games and a great one we’ve been playing as a family is Color Brain – very easy for everyone AND super fun.
Spear gets free books in the mail and The Rabbit Listened arrived at JUST the right time.
Usually, when he gets these books I don’t typically read them right away but this one Britt asked if we could read it and yall it hit the nail on the HEAD with everything going on in the world right now. An excellent book to help kids understand their emotions and to know how to help each other through our feelings. I cannot recommend it enough!
We found out that Georgia Bible Camp is canceled for this summer and it was the first time Kye cried during all of this. It’s his absolute favorite thing and he’s heartbroken over it being canceled, especially that it means Britt doesn’t get to go to camp for her first time this year too.
I had Britt focus on positive plans for the future and share her dream trip about Hawaii with us!
The kids also worked through this free Covid-19 Timecapsule and enjoyed doing it and talking about how it IS super neat that we’re living in historic times!
I had our third cruise cancel and when I called I got a cast member who shot me straight and basically told me I needed to STOP continually rescheduling the next sailing date.
I really appreciated his honesty and decided to go with July 31st sail date in hopes that Disney would be back up and running by the end of summer.
I decided NOT to tell the girls this time and just wait until it was closer and we’d be more confident in it actually sailing.
Britt has really done so well with all the heartbreak of things canceling and I’m so thankful she found a new love for yoga as it’s such a great practice and something she’s truly enjoying!
It’s been great to see her blossom in this new way and I’ve also been so proud to see Tess continue to grow and learn and she just seems to be getting OLDER right in front of me!
She wrote the sweetest card for Aunt Courtney’s birthday and also got a prize for mastering all of her site words!
We are continuing to be super thankful for our gorgeous weather and are loving the time outside.
SO many walks! The kids are loving their bikes and scooters and we’re enjoying nature – going on bug hunts and enjoying our “walk pet” a neighbors cat we’ve named “Walker” since we see him on our daily walks.
We’re also loving the pool! Still too cold for Mommy to swim but the kids are enjoying it and loving getting to take turns reading during rest time by the pool too.
Spear is at a tough age but also a fun age for all of this as he is SO easily excited about things.
We saw some landscapers on a walk and he was just in AWE of them and it was so cute he didn’t want to leave and they debated hiring him 😉
I’m loving this quality time with my babies and making these simple moments of memories together.
We are all still very much loving the turtle pet ownership life and checking in on Mortimer is one of the highlights of our days!
Following Easter the kids were ALL about egg hunts. I let them each put on their own egg hunt for their siblings. Hey it ate up several mornings and kept them happily entertained 😉
Most mornings we went on walks or just stayed in pjs and were lazy around the house. Britt is really into crafts and creating things and everyone is really into dressing up!
Spear has been doing excellent with independent playtime in his room for about an hour a day right now.
We do it after the walk and he plays SO WELL and is getting less destructive too!
He really loves anything that Tess owns and will sneak in her room every chance he gets.
The Easter Bunny brought kinetic sand and the kids have been loving it! I love that it’s something all FOUR of them can enjoy TOGETHER!
Kye and Tess each put together “shops” in their rooms which meant big messes that they had to clean up but they enjoy just organizing and setting stuff up like that so I roll with it!
Our neighborhood has been awesome with hosting different food trucks on different days to help the local economy but also give us something to do and good food to enjoy!
We’ve only taken part a couple times since we’re really focusing on spending LESS since Zach isn’t able to work! But it was a fun treat and the kids wanted to use a bit of their chore earnings to get donuts 🙂
We’ve been enjoying a lot of family meals and branching out a bit. With all our blueberries I made a blueberry crunch for the first time and Zach made DELICIOUS hush puppies from scratch!
Our church has been doing live stream services and Zach went to help lead the Lord’s Supper one Sunday and it was WEIRD to see him in a suit! He said it was very sad being up at the front of the church with no one in the audience. So eager to be back with church family!
Our state started to reopen and Zach was FINALLY able to get a hair cut…now we need the boys to be able to get one too 🙂
My project has been to order blog books and I got through 2017 and it was neat looking through Spear’s birth with him!
WHEW these posts take me ages but so many things we wanna remember 🙂
I’m so so thankful to be blessed with my sweet family and the moments we’re having together during this time. I know Zach and I have a LOT of stress and worry, but the kids don’t. They just have FUN and that’s what matters most to me in all of this. I want them to have HAPPY memories of these times!
A video recap of our fun moments should auto play in this post!
