The Orchardmama Blog

Quarantine Days 5 & 6

Two days in one because yesterday evening I was just too dang tired to touch a computer at the end of the day! As it turns out, my husband runs a tight ship around here and we will not be sitting idly by during the quarantine, when there is a whole orchard full of brush to be raked! I went to bed with a sore back and a few extra gray hairs yesterday. Let's just say it was a day FULL of homeschooling, orchard work, and full contact parenting. Today was much the same, although we ended tonight with a fire and marshmallows, rather than the somber family meeting that we had last night.

I did have to tap out for a minute around 11 am today because Leah talks ALL.DAY.LONG. Kevin used to think I was exaggerating, but he got to have her in the cab of the excavator today for 2 hours and I think his nerves were shot when he came in for dinner!

Notice the tiny fingers invading the sacred space of my bedroom in the picture of the door. I was a big liar and told her I was on an important phone call, while really I was drinking some orange juice, eating a protein bar and scrolling twitter...it could have been worse! That could have been wine and chocolate. But it wasn't even lunch time yet so I was trying not to de-rail the day, ha! It actually turned out to be a good day, we got a lot of work done, lots of time outside and finished the day with some good family time.

Our cats run this place.

Nick and Milo are both proficient at Zoom calls now

Leah loves school more than both her brothers

I made homemade bread and butter pickles thanks to Jen Hatmaker's instagram. Everyone hates them except me, so I'd say that's a win.

Leah is creative and plays all day

She loves writing on the fridge with dry erase markers. Today she wrote "Leah is nice" because Milo called her a chump, so she had to correct him in writing

Nick found a bunch of old media stuff and speakers in our picker's cabin and now has a fully wired surround sound system in his bedroom. He told me he had just enough speaker wire. Not even sure where he found speaker wire.

We are obviously running a real tight ship around here. The kids might be feral by the time the quarantine is over.

Quarantine Day 4

Today was good. I didn't really change out of my pajamas until around 3 pm, but I think that's pretty standard procedure for Quarantine Sundays.

Nick finished ripping out our old footbridge today. Kevin and Milo went and got new wood for it and the 3 of them installed the new beams and bridge deck.

We did church at home

I sent in our Census info

The slipperiest Lincoln Logs ever caused a 76 minute showdown between Leah and I.

After we got that sorted out, we took a walk and talked about "perseverance" and how Leah had worked that muscle today for both herself and for me!

Honeybees, Cherry Blossoms, and hikes with our dog Dixie.

Dixie took off and pulled her leash right out of Leah's hand. We couldn't get her to come back so we had to go home and get a 4 wheeler to go back and look for her. She was on a hill up above our cherries. Leah spotted her and I called her but she appeared to be hung up on something because her leash had caught. I hiked up the hill and found her in the most idiotic of situations that only she could get herself into. She had a dead rock chuck next to her, but in the process of digging after it and catching it, she had accidentally buried her own leash, and then was unable to pull it out from the weight of the dirt. Talk about digging your own grave, Dixie! Fortunately Leah spotted her!

We did a zoom happy hour with the Hendrickson family, and it was so fun to see everyone!

The boys finished the bridge and then Leah decided to be a superhero for the rest of the night.

We ended the night watching the first episode of The Chosen

Quarantine: Day 3

I had wanted to start a daily quarantine log earlier in this adventure, but life has been unusual to say the least.

I'm going to keep it brief every day and try to include a lot of photos. I got out my "big" camera today because my phone went dead and stayed dead and I can scarcely go a day without taking a picture. 

So far this is shaping up to be a time that our family has needed like water in a desert. I'll share more at a later date as to why this time has been so crucial for where we are at as a family.

For now, here are a few photos from today.

Leah is a cat lady. She has a huge imagination. Nick wanted a haircut. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today. That word STILL, it's significance continues to snowball this year. I bribed Nick with a movie night to get him to read for 30 minutes. We had meatloaf cupcakes for dinner. Our dinner table is a steady mix of bad manners, laughing, yelling, arguing, praying, and occasional civilized conversation.