Month: April 2020

The highlight of the week was finding toilet paper at Costco. We were down to the last few rolls so I was super excited to find it. I had to wait in line about 10 minutes to get into the store. Most of the people were wearing face masks and everyone was trying to maintain “social distancing” while in the store. I completely filled up my cart with food and hope that I can make it at least two weeks before having to go back to the store.

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For PE, Falyn has been biking around the neighborhood every afternoon. It is great exercise and she enjoys it a lot. She is required to do 30-60 minutes of physical activity every weekday for school.

On Thursday the kids had a tea party on the front driveway. Kayli and Falyn had a lot of fun planning the party, decorating the driveway, and making the food.

On Saturday Kayli helped me dye my hair purple! I’ve wanted to try out purple hair for a long time and decided that there would never be a better time to experiment with my hair. It is a semi-permanent hair dye and will wash out over time. Here’s a pic of me with the new hair color wearing my face mask. Every time I go shopping now I feel like a bank robber!

On Sunday Dan and I picked up take-out and headed to the park for a picnic. It was nice to get out of the house for a little while.

I made some more scones this weekend. I doubled the recipe and added some chocolate chips to the top of half of them. Everyone enjoyed them.

This week’s COVID-19 cases totals:

• World – 2,994,761
• USA – 987,160
• California – 43,541
• Orange County – 2,074
• Westminster – 36

It was nice to have a break from remote learning this week. Everyone was able to sleep in and didn’t have to worry about zoom classes and homework. We got a nice surprise from Falyn’s school when this sign appeared in our front yard. It definitely brought a smile to her face.

Falyn and the twins used this week to work on Scout activities. Both Jared and Riley have the council go ahead for their Eagle Projects. They will start moving forward with them next week. Falyn finished up her Second Class requirements and had her scoutmaster conference. Her board of review is scheduled for next week. She also continued working on three merit badges: Personal Fitness, Personal Management, and Family Life.

Falyn also had a zoom meeting to continue working on her Ad Altare Dei religious award. One of the requirements for the chapter they were working on was to discuss with an Eagle Scout how they see their role in helping younger Scouts see the values promoted by Scouting. Aidan, and two of his friends (who also happen to be big brothers of Scouts in the class) jumped into the zoom and lead a great discussion with the younger Scouts.

We have been enjoying the musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber has been making available for free each week. This week’s show was The Phantom of the Opera. He drops a new musical each week on Friday at 11 am PT. It is there for you to watch for 48 hours on the The Shows Must Go On! YouTube channel.

I wasn’t able to try out any new recipes this week because we were missing ingredients for every recipe I was interested in making. I’m trying to stay away from the store for as long as possible, but may have to venture out later this week as we run out of food for dinners.

This week’s COVID-19 cases totals:

• World – 2,464,870
• USA – 781,561
• California – 31,430
• Orange County – 1,676
• Westminster – 23

We have now been home on “safe distancing” for four weeks. We have all settled into a routine but it is hard staying home all the time. This week was Holy Week and it felt very weird to celebrate Easter at home without going to church and to the Grandparent’s house to celebrate with our extended family. We did watch Easter Mass in the newly renovated church and connect with our extended family over zoom.

We were able to dye Easter Eggs, which is a favorite Easter tradition in our house.

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Falyn’s school official cancelled in-person classes for the rest of the school year this week. They have “postponed” the 8th grade graduation to a to be determined later date. That means she will finish the school year learning from home.

I was running low on food, so I had to venture out this week to restock. The CDC is recommending face masks now for when you go anywhere, so I created myself one out of my Zion National Park buff and two ponytail holders before leaving the house.

I was surprised to find that the stores still had empty shelves. This one was for cake mixes and frosting. The only frosting left was the coconut pecan frosting. Most of the other empty shelves in the store had to do with baking. Spices, flour, and yeast were all in short supply. We should be good on food for at least two weeks now.

I continued to try out new recipes this week and made scones. They were quite good and I plan to make them again.

This week’s COVID-19 cases totals:

• World – 1,852,257
• USA – 560,300
• California – 23,177
• Orange County – 1,277
• Westminster – 20

All interactions with anyone outside of our house is done via zoom. In addition to my M-F morning workouts, I’ve been zooming into the weekend yoga classes. I haven’t really done yoga in the past, but I’m finding that I really like the classes. I plan to continue to attend them once the pandemic is over and we can go back to classes at the gym. The highlight of my day is seeing all my friends from the gym everyday during our zoom workouts.

This weekend we were able to get all of Dan’s siblings, his parents, and a bunch of the grandkids together for a family reunion via zoom. Dan’s dad recently had open heart surgery and this is the only way for anyone to visit with him. There were attendees from 3 countries, 3 states in the US, and 6 cities in California. It was so nice to “see” everyone and be able to chat, even though we couldn’t do it in person. We are hoping that a planned family reunion for this summer will still be able to happen.

This week saw the official cancellation of in person school for the twins’ high school. They will be starting remote learning in full force next week. Falyn’s school set their return date for May 2, but given the fact that the governor of the state has requested schools close for the rest of the school year, it is only a matter of time until they cancel her in person school too. They did officially cancel Falyn’s 8th grade DC trip. I’m really sad that she won’t get to experience this trip that all her older siblings have gone on. The picture below was taken the last day the 8th graders were at school. At this point, I believe it will be the last picture of the SBS Class of 2020 all together. It was taken in the newly renovated, but not quite finished yet church. We were suppose to be able to celebrate Easter Mass in the church next Sunday. It has been around 20 months since Mass has been celebrated in the church. We look forward to being able to attend Mass in the remodeled church when this is all over.

The kids have been keeping themselves busy at home with video games, board games, Netflix, and the fuzzball table.

In an effort to try something new, I made sushi this week. For a first effort, it turned out really good. I used an avocado from the tree in the backyard. We had the rice and I ordered the other sushi making items off amazon. I can’t remember the last time I went to the store. We are starting to run out of stuff and I will have to venture out sometime next week to restock.

This week’s COVID-19 cases totals:

• World – 1,272,737
• USA – 336,550
• California – 15, 037
• Orange County – 834
• Westminster – 10