Weekly Wrap Up - Still At Home

This past Friday evening we colored our Easter eggs.  Typically we do a couple of dozen eggs and use them for decorations for a week or so, and then I toss them in the garbage.  This year, with eggs being one of the items that are hard to find (and price gouging is occurring as well), we cut back to 1 dozen, and the next day I turned them into deviled eggs.  They were yummy.

I was fortunate to find a few fun items last week at the discount grocery store.  Because of my grocery score, our Saturday morning breakfast was homemade Belgian waffles with Nutella and chocolate whipped cream.  We spent the day working on a few outdoor projects, walking and reading.  Dinner was chicken/rice/bean burritos, Spanish rice and brownies.  In the evening we had family game night.  Bananagrams and Even Steven's Odd were our games of choice.

Sunday morning we had church at home online with Elevation Church again.  Our church had a drive-in Easter service, which is fine, but sitting in the car to listen to the message on the radio just didn't appeal to us.  My girls are teens, but I still do baskets for them.  This year there was no new dresses (Olivia was thrilled!) for either girl.  The afternoon saw us napping and then I worked on our Easter dinner.  We had ham, mashed potatoes/gravy, stuffing, hot rolls and deviled eggs.  I was able to pull all the items from my freezer/pantry with the exception of the fresh potatoes.

We had severe storms again Sunday night into Monday morning.   Monday brought flooding, high winds and a lot of downed trees in the area.  It still wasn't anything like the devastation in the deep south.  We didn't have either little kid on Monday.   I went to pick up the free kids food that the schools are offering.   I'm liking that they are doing this for all kids regardless of whether they go to public/private or homeschool.  It's definitely helping with my budget!   Olivia finished her consumer math for the year.  Lindsey got her school work done by lunch time and then sat down to make masks in case we are ordered to wear them in public.   I figured I may as well take advantage of the low traffic volume these days, so I took Olivia out for a behind the wheel driving lesson.  Dinner was left overs from Sunday's feast and a few fried plantains as well.

I had a graduation committee meeting via Zoom in the evening.   The only thing worse than trying to get 10 women to agree on plans for an event is trying to do it virtually.  Graduation was set for June 6, our governor then put us under a stay-at-home order  until June 10.  Several of the moms want to reschedule for late June, late July or early August; several of the moms can't do any of the dates in July/August until they know if other events have been rescheduled.  Honestly, Olivia and I are over the whole thing already.

Tuesday was back to child care central.  Jayce arrived around 6:40am and went straight to bed.  Bella's mom still didn't have to work so she wasn't with us.  Lindsey was able to get her Spanish, math and grammar done before Jayce woke up from his nap.  They (including Olivia) spent several hours doing Easter egg hunts in the yard...soaking up that Vitamin D. I've been in purge mode again, and have quite the stash of things to donate when those venues open up.  For dinner I decided to use up the left over ham from Sunday's meal to create "ham pot-pie".    It was delish!

Wednesday was pretty standard.  Bella's dad dropped her off around 9am.   Both girls got their school work done relatively early.  Olivia and I went out to work on her driving skills for a while.  The evening consisted of a long walk and dinner of chicken tenders, salad and pasta.

Thursday morning it was COLD.  We've had several freeze warnings and some spotty snow as well.  Bella came in around 9am again.  I like the days her dad drops her off, we get to sleep a little later.  I headed out around 10:45 to pick up the 2nd batch of school food for the week.  They give you enough for each child to have 2 meals plus snacks for 3 days.  They also gave me a big bag of fresh parsnips to cook.   School went pretty quick.  I worked on laundry and house work.  After school Olivia and I went out to practice her driving and we also went to a locally owned butcher shop and picked up some fresh meat and produce.  I'm trying to make a conscious effort to buy local and fresh as much as possible to support local businesses.  Dinner was fresh hamburgers, salad and baked beans.

Friday was just a little different.  Bella arrived at 9am, Jayce arrived at 11am.  School went pretty smoothly, and Lindsey finished her world geography for the year.  I worked on planting our garden seeds and then cleaned house.  Hopefully those will do well and be ready to transplant to the garden in mid May.   Olivia and I worked on driving in the rain.  Both kids were picked up shortly after 5.   Dinner is scheduled to be spaghetti and meatballs.

Blast From the Past

When the kids were younger I'd started a tradition of ending the week with a relaxing afternoon tea.  We've gotten away from that these days, mostly because the kids (like me) are always drinking tea now.  With the current climate in our country, this might be something to add to bring some calm to the end of your week.  Check out our simple Tea Time with Emily Dickinson post.

Have a great weekend.  Get outside and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine, even if it's just standing on your front stoop for a bit.