Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Olivia’s Kindergarten Graduation

Well, I suppose the title of this post is a bit misleading as Olivia obviously wasn’t able to have an actual graduation due to the circumstances.  However, I dedicated an entire post to Jacob for his kindergarten graduation, and I had planned to do the same for Olivia, so by golly, I’m still going to do that!  ;o)

Olivia’s last day of kindergarten was Wednesday, May 20.  She was supposed to have had her graduation ceremony first thing that morning and I was going to take her out for the rest of the day, just the two of us, to do something special.  Instead, we celebrated our girl as best we could at home with decorations and a special dessert Wednesday evening since there wasn’t much else we could do.

While the kids played outside Wednesday evening, I cooked dinner and decorated the mantle.  I was able to pick up the gold balloons at Target earlier in the week, and she was really surprised when she came inside for dinner and saw them hanging there.  After dinner, we had a triple chocolate ganache cake from Fresh Market and it was divine… unfortunately, the baker didn’t ask me what color to write her name in on the cake, and she wrote it in green.  I probably would have gone with red, white, or blue since those are her school colors, but it is what it is!


After dinner and dessert, Olivia opened her graduation card/gift from us, and then we snapped  a few pictures to commemorate the evening.  She, of course had to post all kinds of different ways, and Jacob even wanted to get in on the action!







The next evening, my parents stopped by our house to bring a little gift and card for her, and we got to spend a good long hour hanging out with them on our back porch so they could celebrate her big day, too.  She was able to hug them for the first time in months so I’m sure that was the best graduation gift of all.  <3

And because we likely won’t be able to have a graduation ceremony, our school put together professional picture sessions so we could at the very least see Olivia in her cap and gown.  I am so, so thankful that they did this because I will forever cherish these pictures of her… even if she does look 12!!  Seriously, whyyyy does she look so old?







At the picture session, Olivia was presented with her very own 2020 graduation tassel that she gets to keep, and I think she was more excited about that than anything! 

I cannot believe my littlest baby is officially a kindergarten graduate, and even though the school year didn’t remotely end how we’d envisioned, it was such a privilege to have a front row seat to the last few months of her kindergarten year.  She can now say that her very own Mommy helped her finish her first year of school, and not many people can say that!

Congratulations to our girl!  You made kindergarten look SO EASY and we pray that first grade is even better!  (We also pray that first grade takes place in the actual school building.  Haha.)


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Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Our Week - The One with Quarantine, Week 9 (Last Allergy Shot, Starbucks, and Dentist)

Coming in hot on a Tuesday with a weekly recap and trying to get caught up on these things!  I hate being behind! 

Monday, May 11 (Day 59 of Quarantine)

Monday morning, I did a good scrubbing of toilets and counters and floors in the house while the kids had school.  Their loads lightened significantly since it was the second to last week of school. 

After lunch, I tried a new workout while the kids played outside… this time dance!!  Emily recommended The Fitness Marshal on YouTube and I absolutely loved it.  He has so many dance routines to all the popular songs and you burn a ton of calories doing them!  I have a feeling that is going to end up being a favorite!

The afternoon was spent working while the kids had their screen time and then I made vodka sausage pasta for dinner.  We all took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner, and then I worked on the birthday mail for Jacob’s class.

Tuesday, May 12 (Day 60 of Quarantine)

Tuesday, I finished my big housecleaning while the kids did school, and the whole house was sparkly clean by the time I was done.  There is nothing better than having the entire house clean at once.  Such a great feeling!

I also spent some time Tuesday morning getting my glass containers set up in the laundry room, and I finally emptied the kids’ bookbags, gathered all of the stuff that we’ll need to return to school (library books, etc.), and then I ran the kids’ bookbags and lunchboxes through the washer one more time to ensure all germs were killed.  (I had already washed them once at the start of the pandemic.)

After lunch, I met with my therapist on Zoom while the kids made mud pies out in the back yard.  Lol.  My mom had recently told them about how she used to make mud pies in the back yard when she was little, and they’ve been wanting to try it ever since. 

After dinner, B mowed the lawn and the kids and I did a dance workout together.  The Fitness Marshal has some videos that have animation in them along with his dancing, and the kids were tripping out… they thought it was hysterical.

Wednesday, May 13 (Day 61 of Quarantine)

Wednesday morning, I left the house bright and early for my last allergy shot!!!!  Woop woop!  I was retested a few months ago and many of my allergies have gone away, so my doctor said I should be safe to stop the shots now.  If for some reason I start having lots of issues again, I’ll have to start them again, but I’m praying that doesn’t happen.  The shot room was empty again, aside from one other guy, so I was able to stay far away from all people.  I did wear my mask anyway, though.  :o)


After I left the allergist, I decided to go to the Starbucks drive-thru for the first time in months to redeem my free birthday drink!  Only 6 weeks late.  Haha.  Normally, Starbucks requires you to get your free birthday drink on your birthday, but they extended it for a couple of months due to the circumstances.  For some reason, I was craving a Peppermint Mocha, but they are “seasonal” so you can’t just roll up and ask for one of those in May.  Well, my littlest bro works at Starbucks, and he let me in on a little secret… he said that you can just order a tall misto with 3 pumps of peppermint and 3 pumps of mocha.  It literally tastes the EXACT SAME and they keep the peppermint and the mocha syrup on hand all year round. 


When I got back home, the kids were in the middle of school, so I worked with them on that while finishing up the third grade birthday mailings.  Finally!  Jacob also finished up his religion project for school.  He had to make a poster about the seven sacraments including bible verses and hand-drawn symbols for each, plus how each sacrament is used. 


We did our usual lunch, playtime, movie time, work time after that, and then I made breakfast for dinner.  After dinner, we had a few small errands to run – dump plastic bags at Publix for recycling, put gas in B’s car for only the third time since March 13, and we grabbed some ginger beer from the package store that was right there, too.  The kids stayed in the car the whole time and lots of masks and hand wipes were used during the errands.

When we got home, we all went for a walk on the trail in the woods of our neighborhood for the first time since the storm came through a few weeks ago, and we finally got to see the damage to one of the bridges.  A massive oak tree fell across it during one of the bad storms we had a few weeks ago, and it just smashed it right in half.  We now just walk to that bridge and then turn around and go back home the way that we came.  Hopefully the HOA will get it fixed soon!



After our walk, we ended the day with the friar bedtime stories and the friarside chat that our church does every Wednesday evening now.

Thursday, May 14 (Day 62 of Quarantine)

Thursday morning, I was up bright and early to see my TMJ dentist.  I had a checkup scheduled back on March 16ish, but that was when everything shut down, so my appointment was canceled.  Therefore, I was loooong overdue for my checkup.  When I arrived, I had to call them and wait in my car until someone came out to take my temperature.  The two of us walked in together, and she held the door for me so I didn’t have to touch it.  I had to use hand sanitizer upon entering, and then I was escorted directly to my room, no waiting in the waiting room. 

The chair in my room had been sanitized and wrapped in fresh plastic so there was no risk of me picking up germs from the chair, and my hygienist wore a surgical mask with another cloth mask over it, plus a giant plastic face shield.  Oh, and gloves, of course.  Everything was just super sanitary, and I didn’t see another patient in there the entire time I was there.  My dentist told me that my bite guard is looking good, and it doesn’t look like I’ve been clinching much in my sleep lately, so he extended my check-ups to every nine months now!  Woo hoo! 

Since B had tried and failed to get the lemon glazed Krispy Kreme donuts on Mother’s Day, I thought I’d swing through and try again.  My dentist’s office is literally two minutes from there, so I figured, why not.  There was no line whatsoever and they were fully stocked, so I ended up getting a dozen donuts, lemon glazed and blueberry included!  I rolled up at home, surprising B and the kids with them, and everyone was very excited!  After we stuffed our faces, the three of us went back to schooling and B got back to work.  Jacob did his last art project for the year, and y'all, we pretty much phoned it in with this one.  Lol.  He had to draw something and then use an object around the house to be part of his drawing.  He did this in about 30 seconds.  And you know what?  We were so done at that point, I just let it go!  Hahahaha.


After lunch, I did a yoga workout, and then the kids watched a movie while I worked, and then while I was cooking dinner, Olivia’s teacher stopped by to say hello and give her a book.  It was such a sweet surprise!  We weren’t expecting her so I didn’t have my phone handy to snap any pictures, unfortunately.

B and I made some margs with dinner and then after dinner, we all went to the dirt pile and walked on the trail in the woods again.  We've been watching the progress on this house for several months now, and I'm still trying to figure out what in the world this house is going to look like when it's done!  The back of it is just crazy!  And HUGE!


When we got home, we let the kids watch American Idol that we had recorded from the previous weekend.  The contestants sang Disney songs that week, so we thought the kids might like it.

And speaking of Disney, we found out that our Disney trip was canceled again today.  We knew it was coming since it was scheduled for the second week of June, but it still sucks.  I mean, we wouldn’t have gone anyway at this point, so again, we were relieved that it was canceled by Disney.  I suppose at this point we’re just going to wait and book again for spring break 2021.  I just don’t see us getting there any time in 2020 with the way that things are.  As a matter of fact, I’m honestly worried that spring break 2021 may end up being no good either.  You just never know!

Friday, May 15 (Day 63 of Quarantine)

Friday morning, the kids worked on school work, and I left mid-morning to head to their school to pick up something.  I got to see a couple of the teachers there and it was so exciting and nice to talk to real live people!  Haha.  We all stood far across the parking lot from each other, of course, but it was nice to have real-life conversations with people other than B and the kids.  We’ve all been missing our church and school fam tremendously.

On the way home, I grabbed Panera for lunch, and then B and the kids and I ate when I got home.  After lunch, it was more yoga for me, and then Olivia had her 2 PM Zoom meeting.  We had to turn in several things to her teacher including a math assessment, a timed test, and her spelling test that her teacher called out to her via their Zoom meeting, and I thought I'd post a sample of the work here in this post for her to look back on and see what kinds of work she did in kindergarten!




The kids discovered on Friday that Disney + has all of the old America’s Funniest Home Videos episodes, so they spent the next couple of hours cracking up watching those.  Jacob’s laugh is pretty much the best thing ever, and I find myself laughing constantly when he’s laughing.  I love it.

Our favorite local pizza place reopened for dine-in and carryout earlier in the week, so we picked up pizza for dinner.  Oh, it was just so good after not being able to have it for so long!  I’m so thankful they have survived this dumb recession so far, and I’m praying they continue to do so.  We will most definitely continue supporting them through all of this because we need them to still be there when all this is over!!


We all went for a walk after dinner, and then we all watched Lego Batman afterward.  Olivia and I hadn’t seen it and it was pretty dang funny.  After the kids went to bed, B and I watched the Netflix movie The Wrong Missy, and y’all, that movie was so messed up.  Lol.  That girl was just crazy.  Haha.

Saturday, May 16 (Day 64 of Quarantine)

Saturday was pretty simple and there isn’t much to report – we made homemade waffles for breakfast, I did some yoga and lounged around all morning, we had lunch, we all spent a few hours in the back yard laying out and playing, and then I did some work while B and the kids played video games.  I Zoomed with my extended family at 5 PM, B picked up Mexican from our favorite local place for dinner, we watched Alice in Wonderland per Olivia’s request (she’s been begging for it and none of us wanted to watch it.  Lol.), and then B and I watched Game Over, Man after the kids went to bed.  That movie was horrible so don’t waste your time!



Sunday, May 17 (Day 65 of Quarantine)

Sunday was cinnamon rolls and church in our PJs followed by yoga and lunch.  We all went outside for a while after lunch and played with bubbles (in our PJs) for a long time, and then I went in to do some work while B and the kids played more video games.  It poured down rain for a good part of the afternoon, which was nice, since we hadn’t had rain in a while, and then we had a cheese board for dinner… the kids’ favorite dinner ever! 




The rain had ceased by the time dinner was over, so I went for a walk alone (a luxury these days since I pretty much always have the kids and Maui with me), and then B and I watched the American Idol finale which I wasn’t that invested in anyway.  Haha.

Pretty standard quarantine week, and probably my least exciting one to write about yet!  Probably my shortest recap yet, too!




Monday, May 25, 2020

Memorial Day

No blog post today because we are taking the day off to observe Memorial Day, but I did want to pop in and post the link-up in case some of you are looking for it.

I also wanted to take a minute to thank our fallen heroes and their families today.  It’s because of them that I’m able to enjoy this day soaking up the sun and relaxing with my favorite people.  There are so many who can no longer spend time with their loved ones on this holiday because they died protecting our freedom, and that is not lost on me. 


See y’all back here (hopefully) tomorrow for a weekly recap!


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Friday, May 22, 2020

Five on Friday - Perfect Cutoffs, Faux Tulips, and Rae Dunn Mug Luck

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

SCHOOL IS OUT FOR SUMMMMAAAA, Y’ALL!!!!  And I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved!!  Distance learning/homeschooling/e-learning/whatever-you-want-to-call-it is DONE, and not only did we survive, we thrived!  I’m so incredibly proud of Jacob and Olivia for getting through this so gracefully, and I’m honestly really proud of myself, too.  I truly think we all made the most of a really weird situation and I’m walking away from all of it feeling pretty good about the way we all handled it. 

That said, I’m also praying that we don’t ever have to do it again.  Haha.  I do have to say, though, I am already mentally preparing to do it again in the fall, because honestly, I have a feeling it’s coming.  I know that’s not what anybody wants to hear and I know that I could be totally wrong (and I hope I am!!), but I will not be surprised if we end up starting the new school year at home with the way things still are.  And if we do, we’ll buckle down and do it again… and you know what?  We’ll survive.  It won’t be ideal, but we’ll survive. 

Ready for some favorites from the week?

O N E – Perfect Cutoffs

If you’re searching for the perfect cutoffs, look no further because #TargetDoesItAgain!!  I ordered these online last week and they just arrived and they are absolute perfection.  I have some cutoffs that I bought last year that I also love, but they’re suuuuper short, so I don’t like to wear them to the kids’ school or for certain other occasions.  I wanted to find a pair that was longer, but not “mom shorts” long, and these fit the bill! 

They have a 4-inch inseam, so they’re a little longer without being too long, and they’re soooo soft and stretchy!!  They’re distressed just the right amount, and the wash is perfect.  They claim to be “high-waisted” which I’m not a fan of AT ALL, but these are more like medium-waisted, hitting 1-2 inches below the belly button.  That allows for generous bending and squatting without having to worry about anything peeking out of the back when you do.  They’re true-to-size… I bought a 2 and a 4 since I wasn’t sure which one would fit better, and honestly, I could go either way!  I ended up keeping the 2s, but I would have totally kept the 4s if the 2s weren’t available. 

They are on sale for only $12 right now, too, but it appears that they’re going fast because they’re already sold out of some sizes.  Better buy now if you want to get your hands on some!




T W O – Prettiest Faux Blooms

Amazon has done it again with the faux flowers, y’all!!  I ordered these pale pink tulips to put in a vase next to our kitchen sink, and I cannot believe how beautiful and realistic they are!!  The package comes with 20 stems and they’re made of a soft, rubbery material instead of fabric, so they look amazing.  I was able to split the bunch into two vases to put in two separate spots in our house and I love them so much.  Color me impressed, Amazon. 



T H R E E – Rae Dunn Mugs

One my friends who is on the Home and School Association with me is moving away next month.  :o(  We are going to miss her and her family so much, but we know they’re on to their next journey and they’re going to thrive!  Anyway, she has a massive collection of Rae Dunn mugs that she can’t take with her in the move, so I inherited three of them from her this week!  Eek! 

I’ve searched for the BE KIND mug forever and have never been able to find it, and I also kicked myself last Christmas after spotting the SQUAD mug at TJ Maxx and not getting it.  She happened to have both, along with the adorable #HASHTAG mug, and I’m now the proud owner of all three!  Love me some Rae Dunn mugs!  Now if I could just find the HEY Y’ALL mug my life would be complete.  I need it!



F O U R – Morning Light in My Office

Our house faces north, so during the winter, the sunlight streams in the windows on the back of our house.  During the summer, the sunlight streams in on the front of the house, so now that May is here, I’ve had the most beautiful light in my office each morning.  I’ve been doing all of my meditation and quiet time first thing in the morning, and I love walking in and seeing the warm sunshine beaming right in my chair!  Such a wonderful way to start the morning!



F I V E – Essential Oils Tip of the Week

If you follow along with me on my essential oils Instagram account, you may have already seen this, but I thought it would be fun to start sharing some tips every now and then in my Friday posts since people are constantly asking me how I use my oils… 

Lavender oil has a million and one uses, but the one I’m sharing today is not as well-known.  Did you know that lavender helps promote strong and healthy hair growth?  You can add a few drops to your shampoo for thicker, stronger hair, you can rub a drop on your eyebrows at night before bed to help thicken sparse brows, and you can even add a drop to your mascara to help thicken and lengthen your lashes!  So many uses in one little bottle of goodness!

If you're ever interested in trying them for yourself, you can see my essential oils page here on the blog.



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Happy long weekend to all of you! 

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favoriteand Della Devoted for High Five for Friday.