Spring 2020: Counting Every Blessing

Spring 2020 was a doozy. These days just the mention of 2020 comes with sighs and eye-rolls. Covid-19 has brought hardships, stress, and loss to many. Our family has dealt with the heaviness as well in a number of ways, but the Lord has also showered blessing upon blessing on us. I love the song “Counting Every Blessing” by Rend Collective and have had that song in my head since The Rona hit. So today I’m counting every blessing of Spring 2020! And because there were so many, this is an incredibly long post, but mostly photos.

Blessing 1: The Great Outdoors

Not a single day passed during all of isolation where the sun did not rise! And with each sunrise came new mercies and enough manna for our daily needs. God is faithful!

We took many walks, both individually and together, and enjoyed seeing more of our neighbors out. Ironically, God turned a time of isolation into a time to get to know the people living right around us.

There was new life all around the pond (and noises too–ribbit!)

So much encouraging chalk art around our neighborhood. Love the spirit of “we can do this together”!

We got in a couple of hikes at our favorite nearby trail before the ticks, mosquitoes, and snakes got the warm weather memo.

The strawberries came in and so my daughter and I enjoyed an early morning of picking.

This was the first batch. I went back the following week for more!

Blessing 2: Projects Completed

My kids might not call this one a blessing, ha! They worked so hard with us!

Last fall we took out all of the flower/garden beds in our backyard which left a lot of bare areas without grass. It kind of crushed me to take out the flowers, shrubs, and herbs that had filled the perimeter of our backyard that I’d enjoyed so much, but we had to for two reasons: My bad back and my bad dog! My hands and heart LOVE working in the dirt, my back hates it. And Barney just can’t leave anything alone. So I decided to switch to some smaller flower beds in the front that would be more manageable for my back and where our crazy dog couldn’t touch them. So in early spring, Joel re-sodded the back yard. (The window with blue tape got hit by a rock from the weed eater and shattered. It’s always something, right?)

I took out my herb garden which had gotten very large, and scaled back to herb pots that could be moved around should the dog take a liking to them. This photo was taken when they were first planted. They have grown SO much since then and are huge now, but are still easy to maintain in their pots.

Our old patio chairs were taken to the dump but the table was still in okay shape, so I made it into something I’ve always wanted: a potting table!

We needed new patio furniture but it had to be something cheap and durable until the dog is completely out of his puppy stage. For Mother’s Day I asked for a basic wooden picnic table which my guys brought home and put together for me.

And as for the seating area by the fireplace, we went with cheap plastic Adirondack chairs from Lowe’s. In a couple of years when the dog settles down and we can get nicer furniture, we’ll use these down by the creek. As plain and basic as this furniture is, I’m so happy with it all! It is nothing Insta-worthy, but it’s practical, functional, and comfortable, and I’m loving it!

My daughter and I cleaned out the gravel around the fire pit and put more Adirondack chairs around it. We are using these spaces so much more now!

Around to the front yard, we took out the old pine straw, pulled weeds, trimmed bushes, and put in fresh pine straw. We took several truck loads of limbs and trimmings to the dumb. My big boy had the job of jumping on the pile to pack it in.

And then it was time to bring home flowers! Yay!

All of these flowers have grown so much since I took these photos, but I sure enjoyed them from the day I planted! And see that doormat above? I purchased that for my spring front entrance just before The Rona hit. It reads, “All are welcome here”. My girls said we needed to add, “unless you have a fever!” Haha!

Below is my smaller, more manageable flower bed. It’s right by the front door and I love it! (so does my bad back!)

Inside the house, I tackled a lot of cleaning out and organizing closets, cabinets, and drawers. I also dusted off the sewing machine to make some face masks.

The guys worked on a special project of their own. More on that in just a minute!

Blessing 3: The Food

It was wonderful to finally have time to do some canning. Early on in isolation, I made strawberry jam and fig preserves. For my strawberry jam, I try a new recipe every year but this year’s Strawberry Jam recipe was so good that I will probably never make another recipe again.

Joel’s grandmother taught me how to make fig preserves many years ago. This brings back sweet memories of picking figs in their backyard.

In the first weeks of isolation, we cooked comfort foods and baked goodies like everyone else and it was so yummy! But when we started to see that the stay-at-home order was going to last much longer than we had anticipated, we knew we couldn’t keep eating like that. So we switched to a much healthier diet of fruits, veggies, lean meats, and whole grains.

Below was our healthy version of Cinco de Mayo!

It became less tempting to bake goodies when all-purpose flour started to be hard to come by in stores. So I pulled out my wheat mill and ordered a new supply of wheat grain. I’ve had my wheat mill since my 15-year old was a toddler and it’s still going strong! It’s been fun to get back to baking wheat bread, rolls, and tortillas. We’re not eating a lot of breads right now, but when we do, this is a pretty healthy option. My older daughter has also been experimenting with almond flour.

With the pleasant spring evenings and the fire pit back in working order, some nights we just roasted a hot dog, put it in a bun, and called it dinner!

That hot dog looks like he’s smiling. A happy meal for a happy husband!

For our first carryout meal after two months of only eating at home: PIZZA! And it was soooo good!

Blessing 4: Keeping in Touch

Window visits with Nonie and yard visits with the rest of the grandparents turned out to be such fun! We enjoyed dropping off little treats too. At first, it was toilet paper since that was scarce.

We also delivered the face masks I made, packaged with a tube of hand lotion, to the the grandmothers and other ladies we wanted to reach out to.

We watched this movie, The Long, Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, one night on Prime and it quickly became a family favorite. We ordered a copy for ourselves, for our moms, and for a family friend. We knew they all enjoy the “I Love Lucy” show and thought this would give them something cute to watch while in isolation.

My girls got back into letter-writing! I was pleased to see them bringing back this dying art even though they could text or call their friends. My son wanted to reach out to his friends and little cousins too, so I printed backyard scavenger hunt sheets off the internet (one for older kids, and one for younger) for him to mail with a simple handwritten note. One friend was having a drive-by birthday, so he had the idea to fold the scavenger hunt sheet into an airplane and fly it out the van window! I loved this about isolation: it helped us and our kids think out of the box in how we could keep in touch with others!!

And we all became well-accustomed with Zoom, FaceTime, and Marco Polo!

Blessing 5: Play and Entertainment

We played soooooo many board games and card games through spring! And two of my kids made up “Water Soccer” where you turn on the sprinklers for a silly, slippery game of soccer.

The telescope got some good use as spring brought new star alignments.

And our favorite new thing to watch became the Rescue Dog Agility Races! My girls have always enjoyed the fancy froufrou dog shows, but this is just rescue dogs, not champion dogs that have special training or royal blood lines, ha. These puppers are everyday, rascally doggies who run in the wrong direction, have terrible form, and win the crowd over with their adorableness! The commentators are hilarious as well. Our favorite dog is Ollie! Find him on You Tube! Really, you must. It will turn your Covid blues into big belly laughs, and laughter is so healthy for us!

Remember that project the guys were building? Here is the final product: a water balloon catapult!! My kids have such an awesome dad!

Blessing 6: Work, School, and Church

Joel’s office team all went to working at home for about 2 1/2 months. We made the dining room table into his office desk, but he also worked on the patio when the weather was nice, and often worked on the cars while on conference calls. When our schedules allowed, the two of us stopped at 3:00 for afternoon coffee together.

School continued as usual for us since we were already homeschooling. The only change was that we couldn’t see our homeschool friends and do our sports and other group stuff. But since we couldn’t do those activities, we were able to plug along in our work and even finished some subjects early.

The word “Corona” popped up in my son’s Latin program one week! My girls already knew this from their Latin in earlier years, but it was just so funny that it came up in his lessons during the Corona pandemic.

For Sunday morning worship, we joined our congregation by internet for singing, communion, and the sermon. Hearing the weekly announcements and seeing the faces of our church leaders helped in staying connected to our church family. I did miss seeing, hugging, and talking with everyone in person, especially my friend Lisa who sits in the pew in front on me. So I texted her this photo one Sunday morning to send her a text hug from my “pew” at home.

We joined our small group on Zoom each week and continued our family Bible study in Matthew on weeknight evenings after dinner. One evening it was raining after finishing our meal at the picnic table, so we just grabbed our Bibles and had our devotions outside with the rain. Lovely.

Blessing 7: Our Animal Pals

Poor Barney broke his leg while jumping up to catch bubbles! Yep, bubbles! We told him he needed a more heroic story than that, like a saving a baby from danger or something. He broke his fibula and tibia bones, and had to have surgery to put in some pins and screws, and then had to be kept in the crate for 6 weeks except for bathroom breaks and meals. He was so sad.

It took several trips back to the vet before everything was completely healed and he could be released to resume his normal doggy activities. He felt so liberated on that ride home–free as a bird! Now he’s back to living the good life (and breaking things).

My daughter got back to the barn for horseback riding. Lionel and Midnight were happy to see that girl! We love being at the barn.

Buttercup was grumpy through spring, but Buttercup is always grumpy. As you can see, she shedded a lot in spring. She had the fluffiest winter coat this year!

Blessing 8: The Celebrations

I’m ending this post on a very happy note with celebrations! About a week after isolation started, I turned 46 and enjoyed a quiet birthday meal at home with my husband and kids. If it hadn’t been for isolation, we might not have had an evening all together, ha. My girls made me a delicious strawberry cake, and fortunately I’d stocked up on ice cream before the pandemic hit.

Mother’s Day was the first gathering with my husband’s side of the family. It was so good to be together! We hosted brunch at our house since we were within the number requirement for gatherings at that time. I decorated the tables with green and blue dishes, and trimmings from our yard.

Everyone brought breakfast dishes to contribute and we had a wonderful meal: shrimp and grits, sausage, bacon, apple cake, fruit, muffins, and biscuits and gravy!

Joel’s mom made these cute chocolate bouquets for the women! What a fun idea!

And his grandmother turned 93 in late May! We threw her a birthday party on the lawn at her assisted living facility since we weren’t allowed inside. She had to stay on the porch at a distance from us, but it was still a lot of fun and she seemed so happy over the attention.

My mom’s birthday was the first week in June. My parents have been practicing extra caution with their health (which we are thankful for), so instead of a big party with the entire extended family in one place, each family unit celebrated individually with her. At our house, we had my parents over for a grilled meal on the patio.

My mom has always loved summer, so the timing of her early June birthday is ideal for her since it’s at the onset of the summer season. So we set our patio picnic table with a very summery theme!

We served Rosemary Pork Chops with Cherry Vinaigrette, roasted potatoes, wild rice, green beans, and fruity iced tea.

I’d planned to make a Lemon Curd Cake that my mom likes, but, due to the pandemic, I couldn’t get white flour on my grocery order that week. I then switched the plan to lemon tartlets, but couldn’t get certain ingredients for that either. So I ended up ordering lemon cookies and had my daughter make some lemony icing to spread on with sprinkles. We found some happy candles and made a birthday cookie plate! Another lesson we’ve learned from the pandemic is how to be flexible and resourceful! When life gives you lemons, make lemon cookies and add sprinkles!!

Well, friends, we made it through spring 2020 and we’re now in summer! As with our spring, this summer won’t look exactly like our usual summers, but even amidst hardships, God will continue to provide and bless.

Here’s to a SWEET SUMMER!

And thanks for hanging in there with this long post! Now that I’m finally caught up, I promise the future posts will be much shorter.