Slight Changes Before Total Chaos

We are closing the end of our second week on social distancing cues, but thankfully so far for us, there is little disruption to our usual routine. J is still working, with the exception of no overtime starting today, and K has been out of class for two weeks now. Wednesday morning we started packets of school work for K, which has been nice since we don’t have an actual computer for her to be able to do online work on. Currently, we only have to do a bit of reading, writing, and math daily while logging the minutes of how much she reads, but her PE teacher also posts challenges to twitter for exercise ideas to do at home with the kids. 

Aside from adding K to the mix of the kids I have all day and starting homeschooling, my day is still fairly normal. Wake up, get J’s lunch and coffee together for him and talk to him a bit before he leaves, unload the dishwasher, and blog, journal, or work in my bullet journal. Wait for H and C to get here, and then the day begins. An endless whirlwind of snacks, cleaning the same surfaces over and over, and lots of butt changes. 

So far, the biggest change for us has been the shopping change. We are used to going shopping once a week, which hasn’t changed all that much, except now instead of going on Friday evenings as a whole family, Justin stays home with our three littles, and my sister and I make our run to town for supplies and groceries for her house, mine, and our grandparents. 

I’m trying to work on coming up with new ideas and things to do with the kids inside to keep them all entertained until the weather warms up some more, so wish me luck. 

I know this post isn’t long, or productive even, but I wanted to get it written down, not only for you but for myself and my sanity to get through this.

What are some new habits that you’re taking on in place of old habits you cannot do with self distancing?

Life As We Know It..

SOCIAL DISTANCING DAY ONE

NATIONAL EMERGENCY DAY FOUR

STATE EMERGENCY DAY FOUR

Justin still got to go to work this morning, which meant my morning started out fairly normal. Woke up at 6, made a pot of coffee, filled Justin’s thermos, made his lunch, helped him make sure he had everything he needed for work, sent him out the door and sat down to start my morning Pinning. Aerilynn woke up around 7:30 commencing mommy/Aerilynn bonding time. Then Justin texted me around 8 asking if I saw his wallet anywhere, since we both knew he’d asked for it this morning before work and I’d given it to him. I looked all over and finally found it in his coat pocket. He put it in his black coat, and then when going out the door put his tan coat on instead. I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down to enter our finances into my finance tracker when I looked at Justin’s account and found a purchase for some store in New York, NY for $331, and some utility company in Washington for $63. So I called our bank, and explained the situation and they said to have Justin come in after work to fill out a debit disclosure.

Once I got off the phone with Justin and the bank, my Uncle Russ called me from the Sams Club, asking if I had any Clorox wipes. I told him I’d bought a four-pack right before all of this started here, and I would be okay for awhile. He said he’d grabbed two packs, and that he would call my mom and sister to be sure they didn’t need any, and that they had put out the pallet about an hour earlier and it was now empty.

Clorox cleaners wiped out.
Photo courtesy of Russ. 

All of the Clorox Wipes wiped out within an hour.
Photo courtesy of Russ. 

Within two hours, two entire pallets of rice were emptied.
Photo courtesy of Russ. 

Please, be cautious and aware. Take one, maybe one extra. Others need cleaners, or the quarantine is for nothing. Others need food. Others need you to think of them, too. 

Thankfully, we went shopping right before stores ran out of everything so I only needed some Sprite, which Sams was NOT out of at the time. Other than that, the day was pretty typical. The kids played their hearts out, Kiannah and Hunter got to play some Minecraft while the littles had nap time, and we all got a slice of triple chocolate cake in celebration of Hunter’s fifth birthday today. 

I told myself I wouldn’t make my whole page about this, but I figured maybe a check in here or there wouldn’t hurt just for myself to look back on. 

I’m Sensing Ample Panic, But Only Meager Disco.

I’ve been trying really hard to not voice myself about the COVID-19 pandemic, but at this point everyone is affected and that makes it pretty hard to avoid talking about.

I’m hoping that this goes to my advantage, having Kiannah home to help me throughout the day with the littles, but I also am aware she’s 8 and is a tad ornery herself. So far, it’s looking like I will have my three girls throughout the day along with my nephews because my sister is allowed to work from home and her husband’s workplace hasn’t shut down or imposed restrictions yet. 

My sister and I went shopping yesterday to see what all we could get our hands on before the mass panic (which thankfully we did because all of the surrounding schools shut down effective today and I doubt there is much, if anything, left). 

We ended up starting out with Super Saver, which was mostly stocked pretty normal, with the exception of the key items: toilet paper, Clorox wipes, sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, and masks. Bottled water had a minimum, and only purified water. Also, only the refill packs for baby wipes. 

Next, we went to Menards. We once again could not find any of the above items, with the exception of some more water choices. 

We tried Walgreens, where they had plenty of diapers and wipes, but only in smaller packages as they don’t carry bulk anyways, but were out of all of the main five items, and had no water bottles in packs bigger than 6. 

We ended our run with Hyvee, and thankfully when I walked down the aisle, they were putting Clorox wipes on the shelf so I was able to grab some for myself and my sister. But once again, they were completely out of toilet paper, rubbing alcohol, masks, sanitizer, and about 30 seconds after I walked out of the aisle, Clorox wipes too. 

Shopping is scary, now. I’m always a pretty cautious person, but now I am genuinely afraid that if I get ahold of a basic grocery someone will either try to take it, or hurt me to get it. The Walmarts in the next town over were having the police department monitor the toilet paper aisles to be sure the workers were not attacked or assaulted while they were trying to stock. The panic of everything is going to drive everyone apart. It already has. 

So far my plan hasn’t really changed much. Being a work at home mom has its advantage on this one. I’m hoping if I hear of people in the community with littles that will need someone to watch them without school in session, I will be able to recruit one or two more people to help keep an eye out for the kids. 

At this point, I can only be thankful that we have a decent supply of everything that we need, and will hopefully not have to do without much while we wait this thing out. Honestly, I’m more scared of going out and there being stuff on the shelves that people are fighting over than there being nothing at this point. 

Slowly Coming Together

Everything seems to have suddenly halted with the house this last week with me starting taking daycare kids, but I have a few minor updates. We decided to spruce up the house a bit with a few new things such as chair covers for the velvet chairs in the sitting room, an upgraded toaster, and a new coffee pot with a thermos.

This weekend, we worked really hard scraping the dirt that’s washed over the sidewalks and allowing them to be overtaken by grass. We even planted some flowers that will hopefully come up in the fall, if not next spring.

Monday started off this week slow. I should’ve cleaned up, been updating pictures and getting more posted here, but instead I took a day off for my birthday. Therefore, today I will be cleaning up the house and putting away all the laundry and extra boxes in the upstairs, and hopefully the master and getting some updated pictures up. Kiannah’s room (the purple room) is still pretty boxed up, but we haven’t found a desk that we like very much, so as soon as we find one we like I will unbox in there and update.

Meanwhile, Justin redid the countertop and sink in the bathroom SOOOOO here we go!


Let’s start with walking into the bathroom.

Walking in. 

This gorgeous piece here, Kyla made for us for our wedding. We contemplated putting it in the sitting room, but ultimately decided to put it in the bathroom opposite the medicine cabinet so you can use it to see your hair in the back, and also hang towels on it instead of super heavy coats.

THANK YOU, KYLA!

Peeking out from the shower, here’s the view of the toilet area. 

The linen closet and vanity were a three piece set, with a bigger linen closet on the left side (for reference this one is 12 inches wide and the other is 18”.) With the bathroom set up the way it is, we decided to cut the 18” linen closet and we will eventually use that in the basement. 

Our countertop, faucet, medicine cabinet, light fixtures, toilet, flooring, trim, window curtain, shower caddy, shower caddy extender, and over the door towel rack are all available at Menards. The  shower curtains and the blue rugs on the floor are from Walmart. 

Eventually.. (yes again) we will have a double outlet in the wall here, we have the wire ran down into the basement but have to hook it to a breaker in the box and install the outlets themselves.

There is still so much work to be done, and I will be sure to keep you all updated, but as for now, this is goodbye. 

Do you like the blue accents?

What color would you have accented with if not the blue?