March 2020 - The Longest Month Ever Known - The Month Quarantine Began - Coronavirus 2020

Friends, I am writing this recap of March 2020 in May 2020. I can't explain why it has taken me 2 months to recap March when I've basically been home for the entire time. But, it is what it is. I hope I can capture some of our feelings and happenings from March, which I think felt like the longest month ever, as it was the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United States and we went into the stay at home order here in MN.

The month started strong, coming off of a busy February with dance! Grandma Deb and Randy came up to visit us the first weekend of March! The Friday of their visit, the news here in MN was reporting the first case of Covid-19 in our state. It was a little jarring to hear, but we were still able to go to the stores and eat out in restaurants! I was worried about our stash of hand sanitizing wipes, so during our trip to Target with Grandma Deb, I went to grab some to find the shelves completely empty. YIKES! This was when it started to hit me that this Coronavirus was going to impact us even here in MN. I was very worried about the wipes and felt like I NEEDED to get some. So, I ran to the CVS Pharmacy near my house and was able to snag the last 3-pack of Clorox Wipes. That felt like a small victory to have those darn wipes. I should have been grabbing hand sanitizer too! That stuff is impossible to find now. We look each time we are at the store and the shelves continue to be bare.
(Note that I have zero pictures from our weekend with Grandma Deb and Randy - oops!)

Also in early March, Ms. Ruby Pearl got a haircut! We went to a new groomer in Lakeville and it was a fabulous experience. She looked so cute and her fur was super soft. Looking sweet and smelling fresh...

 I mean...could this be any sweeter?

(I am terrible at getting a good dog picture)

March 16:
The last time since this started that I commuted to Minneapolis
The last time since this started that Jay commuted to the Best Buy corporate offices
The last day Ms. Ella walked the halls as a student at Meadowview Elementary

Feels like ages ago that I set up my office at the kitchen table, Ella set up the card table in her room and Jay took over the office. We were working from home and Ella was going to soon be learning at a distance. The governor announced that Minnesota would be under a stay at home order for all but essential workers. Restaurants would be closed. Most retail stores would be closed. Most offices went to a work-from-home situation and then the gauntlet came down when the governor announced that schools would be closed and students would do "distance learning". 

Home office (Sara)

 Home Office (Ella)
I mean, she is the cutest. She wanted her home desk to be like her school desk, so she added her name and assigned school number and look at her room door (below) - she took great pride in being a PAW Rep at school this trimester, so she added that to her door. 

I thought I had a picture of Jay's office, but I can't find it. 

His name tag: Jason Abbas, President and CEO
(obviously I just let him *think* that is true) LOL!

Everyone was talking about Coronavirus and how everyone is adapting to life and work and school at home. A radio station talked about a daily schedule to help kids adjust and thought that sounded like a good idea for Ella. Our MN schools had 2 weeks of planning before the actual digital learning was supposed to start and since Jay and I were both working from home, we needed her to be able to keep busy during the 2 weeks. Here is the original schedule I found from which we made Ella's daily schedule during the 2 weeks before digital learning started. 

It really worked well for her, and is still loosely following it today but adjusting it to allow her actual school work into the mix.

I don't think any of us knew that we would still (in mid-May) be working from home, staying home and learning from home. But, we are. And we are doing pretty good! Staying healthy and trying to think of things to keep us busy and from getting too stir crazy!

 Some days it really felt like this!

One of the first weekends of the stay at home order, Hallmark started to play Christmas movie marathons on the weekends. It was so perfect! I watched one of the movies and then remembered that I had been gifted my all time favorite Hallmark Christmas movie  - Christmas Cookies!! So, I took an afternoon and watched that one too. I will say that the cozy Christmas movies really helped to reduce stress and make all the togetherness seem like the holidays! I noticed that social media was blowing up with people getting on the Christmas in March trend - some even baking Christmas cookies!

Social media was also giving me some great mantras to remind myself that this too shall pass

S

Obviously I have been baking! 

I made birthday cake coconut macaroons which were really tasty, but the recipe made a LOT and Ella doesn't like coconut....so, that was sort of a flop because most of them went to waste.

A big hit though were these PB&J bars. 

They were fantastic! I believe almost the entire pan was eaten up by just the 3 of us!

YUM!

Because I don't want to forget, our dance program had to adjust to some virtual lessons while everyone was figuring out how to move forward with a dance season in the midst of a pandemic. JFK started out doing live classes which Ella participated in. These were instructed by the Brainerd team, so it wasn't her regular coaching staff, but it was kind of cool that she got some different perspectives and instructions on dance. It wasn't interactive, but was a great way to keep dancing!

And then, Kenny Rodgers died. 

An author that I follow on Instagram posted this statement below. It rang so true because of how terrible the world seemed at this time, how dire the pandemic numbers were becoming and how isolated we all are! It was moment of comic relief that I needed!

Our schools were closed and Ella was missing her friends and teachers and just "school" in general, but our teachers were missing us too! They organized a big parade that went through all of the neighborhoods near the end of March and I may have been more happy about it than Ella! I tear up thinking about it now! It was something to look forward to, to get outside and see our neighbors (from a safe distance) and just wave and cheer and say HI! One of Ella's BFFs (Julia and her mom Michelle) drove over to our house and joined us to watch the parade from a safe distance. 

It was a really neat event and was so appreciated by us!

We put a big message on the driveway for the teachers to see as they cruised past!

We've been burning through sidewalk chalk here! Scrolling online for things to do, I came across a cool idea of making mosaic chalk art on the sidewalk! So, I designed the first square of our walkway to the front door and Ella designed the second. She worked super hard to chalk it all in and it turned out so COOL! Ella received many compliments from neighbors and others walking the neighborhood!

And that friends, is a recap of the longest month ever. March 2020 will go down in the history books and it's so surreal to know that we are living through this Coronavirus pandemic which will become something that future generations will read about and learn about. I wonder what they will think about how all of us navigated through it all?!

February 2020 Happenings!

Things happen and I forget to update this blog. So, I will be getting caught up in monthly happenings AGAIN!

Ruby Pearl in the snow (random)

This lady did some research for Career Day and created a poster about her chosen career and brought props to school for the presentations that parents could attend! She did great! She remains confident on wanting to be a pediatrician to help kiddos. She'll be great!

To celebrate her amazing presentation for Career Day, we headed to DQ for afternoon ice cream!

Ruby got into the Valentine's spirit!

Ella's classroom valentine's this year!!I think they turned out so cute! I think this might be the last year of classroom exchanges (I'm not crying, you're crying!) SO SAD!

Our letterboard messages are still going strong....

At Ella's insistence, we did the annual Valentine's Scavenger hunt! She didn't have school on Valentine's Day this year (I think it was a staff development day) so we didn't have to have the hunt at 6 a.m. which was nice!

Jay made Ruby's morning extra special!

Ella and I went out for a girls date to Dunkin' Donuts!

And she made me this sweet Valentine. She's so sweet!

It was the MVES Musical this month too! Ella was a French Lady in this year's musical JOUST!

One of her BFFs Julia was also in the musical along with her friend Leah. Not to be left out, her other BFF Emily came to the show so we got them all together after the performance! These girls are so great! Hopefully their friendships continue to remain strong!

First dance competition of the year....First Place in High Kick with the highest score ever received by a Farmington team (whoo hoo!) [Note, that I was so excited I totally forgot to take a picture of Ella with her winning ribbon, but we did get a group shot!]

Her hip hop team also performed, and did great, but they didn't place. A little bit of a bummer, but you can't place every time!!

The very next weekend was the second dance competition in Sauk Rapids!

Her high kick team placed 3rd and hip hop didn't place

We feel lucky to have gotten these dance competitions in before the pandemic hit!

Another end of February event was African Drumming at MVES! 

Ella really enjoyed it and the entire 5th Grade did a performance for parents and it was so cool!

Heading into March twinning!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!

January Happenings!

Happy 2020! Our flip of the calendar to the New Year was pretty quiet. Jay's mom was in the hospital so Jay made a few trips to visit her and otherwise it was quiet! Ella and I tackled her toy room which has been on the list of things to do for a long time now! I bought a cube organizer from Target and we were able to clean up a lot of the miscellaneous toys laying around. How does she accumulate so much stuff?!?! Anyway, it's a work in progress on getting rid of stuff she doesn't play with anymore, but I'm happy to see less clutter!

These two....

The MN Vikings made the playoffs and then disappointingly lost to the 49ers. 

Boo. 

My letterboard sign didn't bring us any luck!

Ella has been losing teeth like crazy!! Another molar was out last weekend so then her retainer didn't fit (again!!) This is our struggle right now. LOL! We made a quick trip back to the orthodontist and they were able to make a few adjustments so she can get that retainer back in her mouth.

Hey look - all the girls on the couch in our Vikings gear!

(As you can see, taking a good selfie is still an issue for me...in this one I even cut off Ruby's head - OOPS!)

After a snow storm last Friday, Ella and I had to venture out on Saturday afternoon for a dance special session (turns, jumps). The roads were terrible and she really didn't want to go, but when you sign up for something you need to show up, right?! So, I pretty much made her go (even though I really didn't want to drive those roads!) Afterwards, I treated her to Culver's for ice cream!!

We are looking forward to some warmer weather this week and decorating for Valentine's Day!

Christmas #3!

Hey hey! Our last Christmas was celebrated between Christmas and New Years with Jay's family. We didn't have to host this year (whew!) so we headed to Shakopee for the afternoon of fun! This year's food theme was soup & sandwich. I made Chicken Wild Rice soup and bread. There was also a Cheesy Ham/Potato chowder, some type of Italian soup and Roast Beef Sandwiches and then meats and cheeses to build your own sandwich. Of course there was loads of goodie trays too! I don't have any food pics to prove the spread was delicious, but it was!

We drew names this year for the gift exchange, but Tara also planned a few games to play!
We played the dice game with the gifts in the center and you choose a gift if you roll doubles. Everyone had a good time and got some fun items! We also played a reindeer ring toss game. There were teams of us and the winning team scored gift cards! Nice! Here are a few pics of the game!

Jay and I were gifted a gift card for a restaurant by Annie & Andrew and they offered to have Ella over while we go out. Super awesome! We all had a great time chatting and relaxing on a chilly winter break day!

I can't believe the holidays are over already! It was a whirlwind for sure. We are back to a normal week this week and getting into the swing of it all again! Ella is in the school musical coming up next month, so her weeks are going to be busy for a while! Looking forward to the weekend already!!