To Remember This Time: Days 19 & 20

I have let so much time slip away since my last post, much more than I intended.  I'm discovering that, while this time of shutdown means a much slower pace for some people, it hasn't meant that I have a lot more extra free time since my "job" of being a stay-at-home homeschooling mom (and wife, and friend, and ministry leader, etc.) has continued without abating!  So writing gets pushed to the back burner more than I would like.

In my last post, I again forgot a detail I should have added.  On that Sunday evening, March 29, it was Josiah's turn to choose a family activity, so he asked for a Zorro movie (when he and David were quite young, Jeff used to occasionally show them old black-and-white Zorro movies, leading to one of the most outrageous, funniest incidents of young David's life--the kind of incident he'll never live down!).  On Sunday, we ended up watching one that was made in 1975, I believe; and it was great fun.  Occasionally, the sliding-upward opening to the theme song can still be heard around here as someone belts it out.  It's such a grand, but yet cheesy song!  ;-)

On Monday, March 30 (Day 19), I woke up ready to tackle the new week and make it productive.  The night before, I had made plans for how to help it be a better week than the sluggish one before it; and I ended up with 20 items on my to-do list for that Monday.  Just 20.  ;-)

As it turned out, by the end of the day, I had accomplished six of them.  Just 6!!  Hahaha!  And if I remember right, at least one of those was a reminder for me to ask Jeff about a task I needed him to do...which he did...which I then crossed off my list and counted as one of my achievements for the day!  :)

Regardless, it was a good, energetic day, despite my inability to get done everything I thought I should be able to do.  (And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of my life, my autobiography in a nutshell: My Inability to Get Done Everything that I Think I Should Be Able to Do!)  We ended up spending a significant amount of time doing school things, so that compensated, I guess, for all the other things I didn't get to!  ;-)

On this day, I spotted Moriah reading my favorite Mother Goose book, and that made my heart happy.  :)

As I was thinking through the week, I suggested to the family that on my birthday (Wednesday), we take some time in the afternoon to go for a drive out in the countryside, maybe all the way to Skyline Drive.  We wouldn't need to interact with anyone, so it would be safe, but I just wanted to get out and enjoy the beauty of the springtime.

But then on Monday afternoon, the governor of Virginia issued an executive order, cracking down even further in the interest of public safety; and honestly, I understood why he did it because I knew that many people were still not taking seriously enough the need to isolate in order to get ahead of this virus.  So I wasn't upset, just a little disappointed that my birthday outing wouldn't be able to happen.  Late afternoon on Monday, we took one more family drive to "celebrate" before the lock-down got tighter (although really, not much has changed, but the governor's announcement that it will continue until June 10, unless modified, was sobering).  We took some supplies to Uloma, a good friend from church (it was strange to not hug her for one thing, but even more, to set the stuff we were giving her on the sidewalk, then step away as she approached; regardless, it was good to actually see her with my own eyes!).  Then we stopped at Home Depot for Jeff to get some plants; the kids and I stayed in the car as he shopped (it was strange to watch him pull out a rubber glove, that we already had at home, by the way, to put on his hand that pushed the cart).  Lots of things are strange these days.

For dinner that evening, I made spaghetti casserole, using leftover spaghetti from the day before and mozzarella cheese, and also served peas, one of my favorite vegetables.

It was David's turn to choose a family activity, so he picked watching The Emperor's New Groove again, which he had also selected during our first official family activity night of this quarantine, back on March 19.  Why did he choose it again so soon?  So Jeff could watch it (because he had never seen it, and we wanted him to be caught up with us so we could all watch the sequel together).  :)  Until I saw it again on the 19th, I had completely forgotten what a funny and good movie it is!  It's really fantastic, so I didn't mind a bit to watch it again.

Tuesday, March 31 (Day 20) held some unusual activity.  At this point in the confinement, Jeff had been doing virtually all the shopping; but I wanted to go to Walmart primarily so I could look for some gifts for our upcoming April birthdays--Moriah's on the 9th, and David's on the 17th.  Jeff and I decided to go together to Walmart on this day, and it felt a little strange and a little exciting--imagine that!  :)

We were gone for several hours and really did a comprehensive sweep through the store, starting with the plant section outside (since Home Depot the day before hadn't had all the plants Jeff was interested in) and ending with...well...with the register, I guess.  ;-)  We didn't miss many aisles in between, because, since we were there anyway, we decided to basically stock up on anything we might need in the coming weeks.

We also had a special assignment: Jeff had told the kids he wanted to bring home a little gift for each of them (trying to keep this quarantine fun, you know).  Josiah asked for a black notebook and smooth-writing black pens for writing sermons--he's working on a powerful one right now--and they were easy to find.  David asked for Milky Way candy bars--also easy to find, the only difficulty being resisting the temptation to eat them on the way home since they are my favorite candy bar, too.  ;-)  Tobin asked for sour gummy worms--and prismacolor colored pencils, if we could find them, which we did in the art section.  That was over the price limit we had set for each child, but Tobin had been wanting them for a very long time, and we wanted to give him a little extra gift to support his art, so we gladly got them anyway, and he was so excited.  Shav asked for a set of red Bicycle playing cards to do magic tricks, and we got those.  Moriah asked for either a stuffed cat or Sweet Tarts (we could not find a stuffed cat...Jeff pulled a rainbow-colored something out a bin of stuffed animals and told me he thought it was a cat...but I think it looked like a llama!), so we ended up with Sweet Tarts for her.  Benjamin asked for either a LEGO set with ALL of the ninjas from Ninjago (haha, yeah, right! he has no concept of how much such a thing would cost!)  :)...or Sour Patch Kids.  He got the latter.  :)

Early on in our romantic stroll through Walmart (it actually did feel like we were on a date!) ;-), we had passed the empty toilet paper aisle; but later on, when I was spending some time in the greeting card aisle, I saw a lady pass by with a pack of Charmin Ultra toilet paper on the bottom of her cart!  Whaaaatttt???  I was briefly tempted to tackle her and grab it--hahaha!--but then I decided it would be wiser to just go to the toilet paper aisle again and see what we could see.  When we got there, we discovered an employee at each end of the aisle, blocking people from actually going down that aisle; but when we asked the one closest to us for a pack of toilet paper, he handed us one.  The Charmin Ultra had run out by that point (we should have sprinted there) ;-), but we got regular ol' Charmin, and that was still pretty great.  :)

Spoiler alert: something happened later that week that reduced the intensity in our search for toilet paper--basically, somebody gave us a bunch :D -- but at this point, we had no idea that was coming, so we were still moderately concerned about our future supply of one of life's little "essentials."  ;-)

As we drove home, we sort of marveled at how, over the past two and a half weeks, we have stocked up so much (and spent a considerable amount of money to do so).  Was it too much?  But realistically, it won't go to waste!  Even if the quarantine is lifted sooner than expected, we will be able to use this stuff anyway because most of it is not perishable.  And to be clear, we never stocked up to the point of grabbing half a dozen packs of toilet paper or bottled water or anything that was in such low supply that by us taking it, someone in need would be deprived.  In fact, in situations like that, I took care to not take extra--or any.  The fact remains though, it is reassuring to have plenty of supplies on hand; the future is so uncertain, and knowing that our necessities are already here brings some comfort.

This day was specially blessed by a completely unexpected gift of $150 from an out-of-state friend; it is humbling and uplifting to be encouraged by such generosity during this time of Jeff not being able to work.  It's a good thing we're spending most of our time barefoot, because gifts like these would blow our socks right off, if we were wearing any!  ;-)

Dinner late that evening was Clean-out-the-Frig night. :)  We're trying to keep leftovers eaten up and the refrigerator cleaned out because we need to have room to store milk and other groceries.  Sometimes I really miss the extra frig and freezer space at our old house.  ;-)

We had no family activity because of an online teen Bibletalk that Josiah and David were involved in, an online women's Bible study I watched, a late dinner, a big LEGO clean-up in the living room, and a story I read to the younger four kids.

It had been a wonderful couple of days.  And the next day...

...was my birthday!!  :)

To Remember This Time: Days 17 & 18

There's a danger in waiting a week or more to record the events of a particular day: I forget things!  In my account of Day 15, for example, I should have included a virtual Bible study with my good friend Greta Ann on Thursday afternoon, and virtual d-time with good friends Ben and Melanie on Thursday night.  Those were some positive things in a stretch of days that leaned a little on the gloomy side.

Jumping back to the correct chronology...

The big event of Saturday, March 28 (Day 17) was a project that Jeff and I did, along with David's help.  LuJack, who leads our congregation, had asked us to make a video of Jeff and I speaking for a few minutes so that we could use it as a welcome for our church's online service the following day.  Sounds simple, right?

We chose what we thought was the best spot in the house for an attractive background, we dressed up (at least from the waist up since no one would see what we wore on the bottom) ;-), we gathered our thoughts about what we should say...and then the camera started rolling.

If you've never tried to make a video, you might think this was an easy task; but let me assure you, it was not!  We worked for maybe an hour that morning, trying to get a decent finished product--and then after LuJack had a chance to watch it and pointed out some things that we could do better, we tried for another hour (hour and a half? two hours? I'm not sure) that evening to try to improve it.

It alternated between intensely frustrating and uproariously hilarious, with the pendulum swinging for me more often to the hilarious side.  I had to really be stern with myself to keep from bursting out in laughter while Jeff was speaking as I recalled some of the bloopers we had made!  :D

We weren't reading from a prepared script, since the speaking style of both Jeff and I tends to be extemporaneous rather than prepared and polished.  In a live setting, I think it comes off well.  What we discovered was that in a look-at-a-camera-and-make-a-fabulous-perfect-video situation, it doesn't fly the greatest.

I'll tell you what though: my understanding of and sympathy for people who speak in a public setting (particularly an unrehearsed setting, like a news conference) and then are scrutinized on every single detail of their speech shot through the roof.  It is HARD--no, IMPOSSIBLE--to avoid making mistakes of some sort in such a situation, and to know that half the country is ready to jump down your throat if you misspeak puts incredible pressure on the speaker.  At least, our pressure wasn't that high!  ;-)

My respect for actors also increased.  Even though they get to rehearse exactly what to say and do, it's tough to stay in character as needed--and, in my case, not give in to laughter.  ;-)

David has been busy with a number of video projects people have asked him to do; but when he gets a chance, perhaps he'll put together a bloopers video of Jeff and I from that day so we can be humbled by how terribly we did...but laugh about it in the end.  ;-)  For now, here is a screenshot of us in action.  ;-)

Besides that big activity on Saturday, Jeff also took a trip to Walmart--not the usual one I go to around here, but a newer-to-us one that's probably about the same distance away.  He needed (or maybe just wanted) to go that day so we could have a special dinner requested by David: homemade hamburgers.  :)  He got hamburger buns, baked beans, potato salad, as well as other essential supplies that he stocks up on every time he ventures out (like milk).  :)

The dinner was delicious, and then we had an online d-time with our friends, Steve and Grace.  It still feels strange to be talking with them through Facebook Messenger and not face-to-face across the dinner table like we always used to do on Saturday nights!

Sunday morning, March 29 (Day 18) brought us together in our living room to tune in to our church's service that day.  If you're curious, you can check it out here!  :)  At 12:12, a video that David made begins, and immediately after that, at 15:58, you can see the fateful welcome Jeff and I recorded for this service.  :D

After that, we each sort of grabbed whatever food we wanted for lunch, and then met online again with the Bibletalk leaders from our congregation for a leaders meeting.

And then, it being Sunday afternoon, I took a nap.  :)

Usually on Sundays, our biggest meal of the day is the midday meal, followed by a light snacky supper in the evening, usually of popcorn and other munchies or leftovers.  But on this day, we saved our big meal for the evening and had spaghetti and our favorite Italian bread, a delightful find Jeff scored the day before at Walmart.

That night, I stayed up late bringing some order to the house and planning my thoughts for the coming week.  I was ready to put the malaise of the preceding week behind me and get the new week off to a fresh start.

I already believed it was going to be a better week for one simple reason: my birthday week was beginning!!  :)

44

We interrupt the regularly scheduled broadcast of coverage of the Fisher family's activities during the COVID-19 pandemic to bring you a pleasant change of topic...

I had a birthday!!!  :)

I will write in more detail about the birthday when I get to Day 21 (April 1, my actual birthday) of my quarantine journal; but for tonight, let me share some pictures of the cake...

...the cake which got made a day late...

...but who cares because for once, we're not in a hurry to go anywhere!  So if we have cake on April 2nd instead of the 1st, nobody is bothered in the least.  :)

My earliest and most unchanging favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip; and if that ice cream could be a cake, it would be this one.  :)  We call it Shank cake (the reason is told here), and it's loved by everyone in our family--unlike some of my other favorite cakes, like coconut cake or German chocolate cake.  How someone could NOT like homemade German chocolate cake is beyond my comprehension, but there are actually some people sleeping under my roof tonight who claim that it is true!!  ;-)  Goodness!  Just because it has coconut in it!  ;-)

Well, since we're all sort of stuck with each other now, I wanted to have my birthday cake this year be something that all the family would enjoy, so Thursday late afternoon, Moriah and I got to work, mixing up the batter for this bit of deliciousness.  Later that night, after Jeff and I finished our online d-time with our good friends Ben and Melanie, I whipped up the icing and assembled the cake; and when the younger kids finished watching their episode of Redwall, we all gathered in the dining room for one last part of my official birthday celebration.

When Benjamin saw the cake, he exclaimed, "IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!!"  :)  He's good for my ego.  :)

Moriah asked if she could put the candles in place; and because we only have one numeral 4, she had to use four individual candles for the second digit of my age.  Tobin and Shav got the honor of lighting them.

I think here, Jeff was pointing out that the wax from the red candle was dripping down onto the icing because it was taking so long for them to sing "Happy Birthday" to me.  :)

Oh well, it's not really birthday cake unless it has a little wax on the icing, right?  ;-)

Benjamin was pretty excited.

Pretty adorable, too.  ;-)

If I had a way to do so, I would share a piece of Shank cake with each of you who is reading, so imagine that you're eating a slice of cake while you read on to find out...

Eight Random Facts about Me!  :)

1. I love the sight of a house sitting catty corner on a lot.  Since 99% of houses are built squarely on their piece of land, the rare ones that sit diagonally always catch my eye--and my admiration.

2. I'm not doing any of this nowadays; but when life is normal and I am able to prepare a meal to take to someone (that has, for example, had a new baby, or is sick), I have discovered that it is certifiably impossible for me to make the meal, get out the door on time to deliver it to them, and keep a clean kitchen.  One of the last two items has to go!  It seems in such situations, I am ALWAYS in a rush, and I end up leaving the kitchen looking like a whirlwind has swept through it.  At least the people receiving the meal don't know (or care!) what the appearance of my kitchen is at that moment!  (But if I ever bring you a meal at some point in the future, you already know the secret: that when I appear at your door, my kitchen is A MESS!).  ;-)

3. During the past 12 months, I finally made peace with my nose.  ;-)  That has always been the physical feature of myself that I liked the least, but this past year as I looked at other people's noses, I realized that I would actually rather have my nose than some of theirs.  Shocking, I know.  ;-)  I do consider it a sign that I am advancing in wisdom and maturity that I have, by the grand old age of 44, reached this stage of actually being grateful for my own nose!  ;-)

4. And speaking of appearances...  It was no surprise when I started to go gray; with the genetics that I have, there was no way around it!  I remember my mother with brown hair...but that was because she had it colored...until one day she stopped doing that, and we were happy.  I loved her gray hair--still do.  Going back another generation or two, I only ever remember my grandmother and my great-grandmother having beautiful gray/white hair, although of course in their younger years, they had brown hair (I guess it was brown; I'm honestly not sure!).  So I completely expected to turn gray myself, but what I DIDN'T expect was to like it so much!  I really like my hair--and not just because of the haircut Jeff gave me recently (although I like that quite a bit, too!), but because of the color, this mixture of diminishing-brown and increasing-gray.  My one hesitation about gray hair was that I didn't want to be completely gray while I was still bearing children; but since Benjamin is four years old now, I guess I don't mind if it all goes gray at this point!  But meanwhile, I'm liking the highlights of color that my head naturally produces (and to think that some women pay a lot of money in a salon to get highlights--hahaha!!).  ;-)

5. Speaking of getting older...  :)  In general, life is getting a whole lot easier (current pandemic notwithstanding).  Why?  Because having kids who are old enough (and mature enough) to babysit is a GAME-CHANGER!!  My vivid memories of being a mother of young children who had to take them all everywhere I went are an ever-present reminder of just how tough it is to be a mother of young children--whether you have one or two or half-a-dozen.  Now that Josiah and David are old enough to watch their younger siblings, it's A WHOLE NEW WORLD, folks.  I can go have lunch with a friend, go to a Bible study, go to Aldi for groceries, go to the dentist for a root canal, and other assorted fun(?) activities ALL BY MYSELF.  (Of course, not at the current time with our self-quarantine, but when life is normal.)  I am so grateful for my old-enough, mature-enough, competent-enough, loving-enough big kids!!  Jeff and I never want them to feel taken for granted as built-in babysitters; but at the same time, it IS a way they can help the family.  Our plan at this point to try to strike the right balance is to pay $2 an hour for babysitting of younger siblings.  If Josiah is away, for example, and David is in charge by himself, he gets $2 an hour.  If both Josiah and David are here and are involved, they each get $1 per hour.  It's not a lot of money, but it gives them some pocket change (or gas money, if you're a teen driver who is learning firsthand how quickly gas tanks get empty in cars!).  And it is a HUGE help for me.  Seriously life-changing.

6. I do not understand the allure of Disney World.  I like amusement parks as much as anyone, but Disney, with its exorbitant prices??  I just don't get it.  Besides the outrageous cost, the thought of standing in a long line for somebody dressed up like a character from a Disney movie to sign my kid's autograph book makes me break out in hives.  YOU'RE NOT REALLY CINDERELLA, YOU KNOW.  There are about a thousand other places I'd rather be.  But I know there are plenty of other wise, wonderful people who absolutely love Disney, so it must be that I'm just missing something about how great it is.  ;-)

7. When it comes to how much sleep I get, I have three voices in my head.  One tells me that I should stay up late and talk to my kids who are night owls because teens especially tend to stay awake later and be available for conversation at that point in the day (partially because earlier in the day, younger siblings are prone to interrupt or be so noisy we can't even hear ourselves think!).  Another voice says you need to go to bed early so you can wake up early to have your quiet time with God.  And the third voice incessantly reminds me that for my health--especially my brain health, because insufficient sleep can raise the risk of Alzheimer's, which is a concern anyway because of my family history--I need to make getting enough sleep a priority!  Which one do I listen to?

8. I started this list of random things with a comment about houses, so I'll circle back around and end with the same theme.  Undoubtedly, my absolute, all-time favorite feature of a house is a front porch--a nice wide one with enough room for a couple of rocking chairs, a swing hanging from the ceiling, and a stand to hold a pitcher of lemonade and a mancala board in the summertime.  Oh, and flower boxes of geraniums along the front of the porch.  :)  The ironic thing is that I have actually never lived in a house with a front porch--visited, yes; lived, no.  Ridiculous, isn't it?  ;-)  My deep abiding admiration for front porches must come entirely from my maternal grandparents' old farmhouse with a--you guessed it--wonderful wide front porch.  Some of the sweetest memories of my childhood come from that farm and that house and that porch.  My love of front porches is so strong that I honestly don't understand why builders build any houses without a front porch--haha!  But all kidding aside, it is so strong that I literally have to guard my heart against front porch envy.  In fact, every time I confess sin, front porch envy could be on the list!  I have high hopes that when I get to heaven, the home Jesus is preparing for me will have a front porch.  It would be fine if it's small (I really love the idea of tiny houses), but I sure do hope it has a front porch.  :)

And maybe a pitcher of lemonade.  :)

And maybe a Shank cake.  :)

To Remember This Time: Days 14 & 15 & 16

In the last installment of this record of what is probably the most unexpected thing to ever occur in my lifetime, I described a couple of mostly cheerful, energetic days.

Things went a little downhill after that.  Nothing terrible, to be sure, but I settled into a malaise of low energy and lack of accomplishment...and, if I'm honest, a suppressed-but-strong undercurrent of grief. 

The worst part of all of this is not being able to visit my parents (and I'm keenly aware that having THIS as the worst thing means I am very, very fortunate).  Have I mentioned this before?  Why, yes!  Yes, I have!  I guess I don't need to state it all again, but not only am I sad that I can't go see my mom, I'm also very sad that my dad can't see her either!  Even though they live in the same retirement community, her unit is completely closed to visitors, which I know is a very wise thing to do, but it breaks my heart even still.  For once, I have a good reason to be thankful that her progression into Alzheimer's Disease is as far along as it is.  If she were more aware, it would hurt even more to know that her loved ones weren't able to be with her.  As it is, I'm not sure she has any awareness of that.  I hope she doesn't.  I hope she's not missing us.

Well, let me wipe the tears from my eyes, and move on from this topic...

So, where were we?  Oh yes, we were on Wednesday, March 25 (Day 14).

That morning, instead of what we "should" have been doing--which is hosting the evangelist and women's leader of our DC congregation, LuJack and Cathi Martinez, for breakfast here--we connected online with them for our d-time (discipling time).  We are all getting a little stretched in our use of technology, but oh, how different this time would be without it!

As far as the rest of Wednesday, I had proposed that we have a joke battle--I believe my original intention was to have it between Josiah and David--and video it, using David's filming and editing skills, to then post on YouTube.  At some point, we decided to change it and have the whole family (minus Benjamin) involved; we would each take turns telling a joke and try to make each other laugh, all while keeping a straight face.  Those who laughed would be eliminated from the contest. 

Well, I knew right away that I would be eliminated first; I could barely tell my first joke without laughing!  I have the dreadful habit of feeling a terrible urge to laugh at moments when I should certainly NOT laugh, so I knew there was no hope for me.  But I gathered a couple of jokes to use, just in case I got past the first round, and I got a huge kick out of seeing the other members of the family round up the jokes they wanted to use in the contest.  It was an afternoon of excitement and hilarity (better than how the actual event turned out, in fact). 

Jeff made me absolutely crack up that afternoon when he told me this joke he had found:
Q: If you're American when you go in the bathroom, and American when you come out, what are you while you're in the bathroom?
A: European
(Say it aloud if you don't get it at first.)  Oh my word, I nearly died laughing!!!  :D

For dinner, I made chicken salad (my mom's recipe which made me even more nostalgic), roasted sweet potatoes (the sweet potatoes were a gift from our friend Brandie) with butter and brown sugar, and fresh orange slices.

That evening was our normal night for the women of our congregation to gather for midweek, so we gathered online.  ;-)  Cathi used YouTube to present her first lesson in a wonderful series about "Famous but Nameless" women of the Bible, so I tuned into that and enjoyed the way she tied the example of love we see in Don Quixote to the love of Jesus in John 4 as He interacts with the Samaritan woman. 

And then we had the joke battle.  :) 

We decided we would use Jeff's phone to put it on Facebook live and David's phone to record it for future use after he edited it, so we got those set up as we gathered around the kitchen table with our jokes in hand.  I managed to tell my joke (I insisted on going first so that I would have a chance to do something before I was eliminated!), then survive through a few other people telling theirs, until David got me out with his.  Goodness!

Oh well, at least then I could freely laugh as the jokes continued, and I didn't even have to try to hold it in!  :)

So...honest assessment...it was fun, but not a smashing hit.  The phone we were using to record was far enough away from all of us that it really wasn't picking up the voices well, and the hilarity that had been so high in the afternoon had diminished by evening as people had more time with their jokes.  We ended up deleting the recording of it because it just wasn't worth keeping.

I think it would have been more effective if we had only featured two people (Josiah v. David, or David v. Jeff, or Josiah v. Jeff) so they could have gone head to head, and if they had not prepared their own jokes but had been given slips of paper with jokes on that they had never seen before so the newness of them would have tickled their funny bone, too.  Perhaps if this quarantine continues for long enough, we'll get around to trying again!

When the next day began, Thursday, March 26 (Day 15), I still felt the uneasy sense of not being energetic or focused enough to be productive, along with the frustration of feeling like I was wasting this time!  Here I had intended to do so much during this enforced time at home, but I wasn't managing to actually accomplish it!  What was wrong with me?  If I couldn't get it (it=any number of household projects I should be doing) done at this point in time, when could I?  After all the kids leave home in another decade and a half?? So, I was discouraged.  However, let me tell you about the good parts of this day!

One thing I was enjoying quite a bit was the relaxed time in the mornings to wake up usually without an alarm and then spend an extended period of time reading the Bible, reviewing notes from sermons and spiritual lessons, reading other spiritual books, or whatever else I decided to do during my quiet times.  It was wonderful to be relaxed, not rushed, during that time in the morning.

Also, I noticed what good buddies Moriah and Benjamin are for each other.  Sure, they have their moments of conflict, but on this day (and most days) there were many, many moments of peace and fun--whether coloring pictures together, playing with the new horse barn playset, or jumping on the trampoline.  I am always grateful when I see my children playing happily together.

Another completely unexpected and heartwarming aspect of this day was that one of our dear brothers in the church here surprised us by sending us $50 through Cash App for our dinner that evening; we were astonished and uplifted by his kind generosity!  Rather than getting takeout for the family, Jeff decided to use that to buy some groceries, including salmon, a huge treat for us.  Jeff went to Aldi and got it, then prepared it for us with his amazing secret sauce recipe, and we gobbled it up for dinner, along with a yummy quinoa salad that I first tasted at my friend (and college roommate) Jackie's house a couple years ago.  It was a delicious dinner, made even more scrumptious by the sweet gift behind it!

The next day, Friday, March 27 (Day 16), I fought to find moments of joy and peace and gratitude in the midst of my foggy soul.  To give just one example, I discovered that the mint that grows profusely in the side flowerbed was tall enough to harvest some for tea.  Mint tea is another sentimental part of my childhood, just like my mother's chicken salad, and I relished the cool refreshment of homemade mint tea--a small but important blessing on this day.

Certainly another blessing on this day, and nearly every day unless bad weather is prohibitive, is the trampoline--the gift I asked for last year for my birthday.  :)  If you could add up the HOURS of enjoyment that my kids (as well as visiting friends) have received from it, it would be worth millions.  On this particular day, I captured some pictures of the kids having a blast on it, especially because the Bigs (Josiah and David) joined the Middles (Tobin and Shav) and the Littles (Moriah and Benjamin) to all jump together.  So very exciting!  You should have heard Moriah shriek when she heard that even Josiah was going to jump!  :) 

Dinner that evening was Santa Fe Chicken Soup, a simple-to-prepare, tasty-to-eat soup that always reminds me of my friend Julie who gave me the recipe quite a few years ago.  :)  We rushed through dinner a little because of Bibletalk, our virtual meeting of friends that has grown from a circle that would fit in our living room to one that stretches all the way to California and Hawaii!  The best part of it was having our brother-in-law Mike tune in from San Diego as he walked on his treadmill, and we also got to see glimpses of some of the rest of the rest of our beloved family there and even chatted a minute with Jeff's mom (and speaking of dear, sweet, wonderful Grandma Fisher, we had planned for her to fly here in mid-April and stay with us for about 6 weeks, a visit we were looking forward to with much anticipation...but of course, COVID-19 has affected that, as it has everything else).  :( 

After Bibletalk, we stayed up late to do my choice of family activity; and after deliberating, I chose for us to play Phase 10.  I think it may have been a mistake - haha!  :)  It got late, we were tired, the game went on and on, and the silliness came forth.  Well, of such moments, memories are made!  :)  We ended it after 6 phases, and I happened to be winning then.  :)  It was nearly midnight after all.

I was exhausted, but as it turned out, I stayed up a couple more hours to write a blog post--go figure!  I knew I could sleep in the next morning; and I'm really, REALLY appreciating having this written record of these historic days, so it seemed worthwhile to lose a little sleep for it.

If this quarantine goes on for 70 more days, however, I might get tired of doing this!