IF YOU WANT TO SEE ALL OUR PHOTOS THIS MONTH CLICK HERE!
April was a continuation of March quarantine for the Covid 19 Pandemic.
This meant that Scott had to be CAREFUL while he spent the weekend up at General Conference in SLC and they all spread out across the newsroom.
He currently only goes in 1 day a week for production and works from home.
Scott has been photo-documenting our experience with this pandemic. Before they started having "Senior Hours" we went to Sams one morning right at 9 and found THIS waiting line for entering. CRAZY!
He snapped this of me shopping.
Pretty early on, I was sent a great pattern for a face mask that I was able to make for myself and a girl in our ward who needed a mask for her work. Pretty comfy and fitted.
We learned that there is an advantage to being OLD for all of this...when you can go to the grocery store early during SENIOR HOUR, you can get the toilet paper that your kids need!
I was able to make more masks for many members of the family with these patterns in all sizes. These are for Austin and Laura's family including a little baby mask with soft elastic lace.
I made them for Austin, Jenna, Breanna, Braden and Jennifer's families. Scott does not want one:)
(He has one of my hospital masks from Pre-K dress-ups.)
The problem now is getting the 1/8 inch elastic you need for ear straps.
Scott did qualify for one of the Covid tests though so we experienced the drive-up test site over at the mall.
This is BEFORE the nasty deep nasal swab.
He tested negative but it was very interesting and I was glad it was not me
OK...much of this month has been spent in helping GROW THINGS!
This was the wheat grass I grew for my local girls...pretty cute!
And I loved seeing our new yard in bloom. The front forsythia came on so pretty while the back one has yet to do anything...we think it froze back in the shade right when it was budding and is still trying to recover.
I am discovering though, that things that look completely dead, may really be alive and not to write them off...most things are now budding but we do believe we have lost 2 little trees and maybe a couple shrubs, we will see!
Then we had 5 yards of compost delivered by Jennifer's landscaper and that kept us busy for a few days topping off all the beds.
Our soil is SO CLAY that we need to add this topper every year and let it seep into our poor soil. It is already making a difference from last year.
One of the bigger projects was completing the beds around the garden boxes...they had not been mulched much so they were dry and rocky. This is a "before" shot.
This is hard to see in the shade, but this is how great it looks with the mulch, so dark and pretty. I really miss IOWA SOIL!!
We had decided we needed a couple more trees to soften up the proximity of the new neighbor's home right in our face so we added this last little dogwood tree back there and just love it!
Another of my projects was to seal the pergola. Got it done last week! We really like our space back there to relax and eat dinner and just to sit and read in the evening when it is nice out.
We have spent A LOT of time walking the parkway trail near our house and some of the lake and river trails in the area.
Here I am tempting the baby cows with some grass...they are so cute.
We saw this great horned owl on one of our morning lakeside walks.
Sometimes Braden and McKenna indulge us and come along. They got to see a big pelican swimming in the lake by us one Saturday.
We have turned into "BIRD NERDS" as Jenna puts it. We now take binoculars with us on our walks and have seen many varieties of birds in the area.
these are glossy ibis and this day there were TONS flocking together.
This one is harder to appreciate, but it is really a HUGE American White Pelican. We are stalking them along the S shores and wetlands down where we live and they are just amazing!
Here you see Scott in action watching a pelican fly. They are so big that it is really crazy seeing them fly!
We see Sandhill Crane all the time and hawks and osprey, vultures, ibis ducks, geese, all kinds of field birds and water birds.
Right by the trail, there is a mommy Kildeer protecting her rock nest. Someone built a protective berm of rock by the side of it.
She has 5 little eggs in her nest. So beautiful!
Speaking of beautiful...here are the Easter pics for the kiddos!
Clara, Brooklyn, Mackenzie and Evan in Duvall
Jenna, Carter, Klay, Bennett, Cassidy and Ty in Marlboro.
And Breanna and Elliot let us come along with them to deliver student packets to her 4th grade class near her school. It was a lot of fun talking and walking and meeting some of her kids and parents.
They love her and will be excited that some get to be in her 5th grade class next year!
We have been having fun playing some online games with many of the kids. Scott went above and beyond in creating custom questions in some of the games like this one to make it family oriented just for us!
He also orchestrated a big online group to surprise Carole with all her grandkids and kids all over the country! So fun!
We have a little friend that roosts up on the top of our porch post every night. We have identified it as a FLYCATCHER or PHOEBE. It is pretty cute little fluffy bird and we see it in action swooping around the neighborhood catching bugs!
It has been hard trying to have any activities remotely with our Church groups. One activity they did was called "VIRTUAL CUPCAKE WARS"
Well, I decided to create HAMBURGER CUPCAKES with SNICKERDOODLE FRIES and it turned out so cute. We then delivered about 10 trays to new members and our Ministering Sisters and Brothers and some to family! YUM!
The latest big project is sewing masks for the PROJECT PROTECT through Just Serve. I split a kit with a neighbor this week and was glad. My machine needs a new pedal and is a little iffy until that is replaced but I got my 50 done and may split a kit again next week.
And this week I had all my students come pick up their kits for May and some brought me work to show my from April. I let the kids sanitize and choose treasures too, and it was just so good to see them all!
I am praying I can start teaching in the fall without too many issues. It will be interesting to see what we come up with to be safe yet somewhat normal.
