Mother's Day Quarantine Style 2020 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas!!  I hope your special day was filled with lots of blessings and joy.

I haven't been feeling well lately; emotionally and physically.  I'm constantly tired and lack energy.  But my kids made sure I had a special Mother's Day and I am grateful and blessed.

I was told I had to stay in bed this morning and even though I was awake and waiting I was enjoying the peace and quiet.  Then I was told breakfast was ready.  I do not like the whole breakfast in bed thing and it was a nice breakfast in the dining room with the family.  My son made eggs, bacon and pancakes.

Then I was gifted with a ton of handmade cards, letters, and artwork, and a new candle (oh, I love smelly stuff), and a flower lollipop, a cute bear statue for the garden and a Disney+ subscription (which benefits the entire family), and lots and lots of love.  We watched the new Aladdin movie and I can't wait to dive into more movies on Disney+.  I told my daughter that when her dad and brother go camping in July we'll have an entire week to watch all the sappy princess movies.  The ones her brother doesn't care for, but he did say Aladdin is the best one.  My dad had taken the kids to see it in the movies but this was the first time I had seen it.  A bit different than the cartoon version but still so, so good.

We sat in the living room, still in pajamas, watching our church service online.  I can't wait to be in church again.

It was nice to be able to Facetime with my mom.  I'm so thankful for technology, which allows me to see her when I can't actually see her.

Even though places are slowly starting to open up my dad wants to keep my mom quarantined until all of this virus stuff is officially over.  That could take a while and I miss my parents so much.

My son made chicken quesadillas for lunch.  My daughter helped make dinner and dessert.  Chicken parmesian.  My family knows the way to my heart is with Italian food.

We went for a walk around the neighborhood and then spent the evening snuggled up together.

I can't thank God enough for allowing me to be the mother of these two precious people.  Sometimes I feel like I'm nailing this whole mom thing and other times I feel like I'm screwing it all up.  But I am forever grateful for being a mother, the greatest gift life has to offer.

I didn't get a picture of us together this year so we'll bring it back to Mother's Day 2014 with this one. 

Sunday Hike

We went on another adventure today after watching our church service at home.  This time we went to Nixon Park, which was a first for my hubby.  The Nature Center was closed but the trails were open and the turtles were in their usual positions on the logs in the lake.  We are a family that loves to hike and their trails are a little tricky and I'm proud the almost 9 year old handled it with very little complaining.

I can't help but feel sad whenever I think of the events and people we are missing, but I am also very thankful for this chance to pause from our busy lives so we can relax as well as reflect on all the things we took for granted.  When life goes back to normal we can get back to it all with fresh eyes.  God is blessing us through this, even if we can't understand it all at this moment.

Hope the upcoming week brings blessings and peace to you all!

It's A Beautiful Day

I'm really so glad we are in the month of May.  Summer is around the corner and I just love, love, love the hotter temperatures.  This is truly my favorite time of the year!  Today we took full advantage of the 70 degree weather and busted out of the house.  This was the first time the kids were able to get away in a long time.  We went to one of my favorite spots in our county, I blogged about it over the summer.

There's a trail that goes up a hill for 1/2 mile, overlooking the Susquehanna River, and at the very top is a bunch of seats made out of rocks and in the direct center is a compass, and also a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson, one of my favorite authors when I was little.  Many know him from Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but as a child I loved his poem The Swing.  I have it in a book of children's poems my mother had given me.

Once we arrived to the top we ate a picnic lunch and enjoyed the view.

There's been a rumor I've heard from several different sources that the owner of the Washington Redskins owns one of these houses that overlook the river.  All of these homes are gorgeous.  My son pointed to all of them and said to my daughter, "Could you imagine living in one of those houses?  How cool would that be?"  You could make it happen, kid!  In the words of his favorite monster truck driver, "Dream it, Wish it, Do it."

These hotter temps are a little too much for our black pug but he enjoyed getting out of the house, too.  My parents live in that county over the river.  There's a song my mom and I used to sing when I was a child going to my grandparents' house but for us to visit my parents we LITERALLY have to go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go.  Do you know that song?  Or maybe your childhood wasn't as cheesy as mine was.  

We stopped for ice cream and ate it at home.  Actually, I finished mine on the way home.  Soooo good!  We spent a lot of time enjoying more of the sunshine in my backyard.

Last summer we started finding rocks that people painted and left along different parks and if you find them you post it on a Facebook group called PROPA.  My daughter loved it and wanted to paint her own.  The girl has had an obsession with rocks since she was a toddler.  She has a huge collection in a box.  So, this is a fun hobby for her.

My hubby set up the baseball equipment for them to practice.

A barbecue for dinner.  Bouncy fun on the trampoline.   Yeah kids, your mom is way cool!

And we relaxed by the fire with some S'Mores and more backyard fun.

Then ended the night with a little television and the kids sleeping under a fort in the living room.   

It was a great day and it makes me so thankful for the family God blessed me with.   It's been great to be able to take some time to stop and smell the ... lilacs.

International Dance Day

Today is International Dance Day and I thought it would be fun to take a walk down Memory Lane.  I only took ballet for five years and these 1980s costumes make me laugh.

And, of course, as soon as my daughter turned three we enrolled her in dance classes.  Her first few years she took a class that taught ballet and tap combined, with only doing ballet in the recitals.  Then she joined ballet and tap separately, doing both in the recitals, and has added praise class to the mix, too.  She's had to learn about quick costume changes and memorizing more than one dance.  It's impressive!  This is her fifth year and has made it as far as I had, but she has plans on continuing for as long as possible.  I hope she does.  Her fifth year isn't ending as she hoped, with classes having to be done online and a recital she's been working on that's been cancelled.  She did have one winter show and a role as a Snowflake in Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker for the second year in a row.  So, so proud of this girl.  Next year she wants to add jazz class to the mix and possibly a spot on the competition team.  HOPEFULLY they continue in the fall.

Year 1

Year 2

Year3

Year 4

Year 5