November 2020 Happenings

In November, the school district put a halt on in-person learning beginning after Thanksgiving, so Ella transitioned to a full distance learning schedule. She didn't mind the switch because she was finding herself eating lunch alone (sad) and missing friends terribly. 

Celebrated my birthday. Letterboard sign courtesy of Jay. LOL!

I made an epic chocolate mint cake to celebrate! It was super delicious!

Thanksgiving was spent at home. We had a Turkey saga from HyVee! Ordered a turkey so I didn't have to cook the meat and all of the sides. Jay spent 3 hours (3 hours!) in a line of cars to pick-up this turkey!  It was so nuts. And, the turkey meat we received what not what we thought we were getting, so overall, the meat was disappointing. After a comment to HyVee about our experience, we were reimbursed for the  cost of the disappointing meat plus a gift card to shop. Nice! It was a pretty quiet day but we were able to FaceTime family to chat!

Ella was giving us commentary during the Thanksgiving Day parade...

There were turkey hats and shirts...

And I had a pre-feast pants check! (Ruby photobombed!)

Also in November happenings, Ruby Pearl got her hair cut! 

She's the only one with a regular hair cut since the pandemic started!!

With mild weather in November, I decided to decorate outside a little earlier than usual. I had to change up the decor also since our porch railing was taken down earlier in the summer!

October 2020 Happenings

What did we do in October? NOT A LOT! School continued in hybrid and Jay and I continue to work from home! The highlight of the month (Halloween), we were able to gather outdoors for a Halloween gathering with Ella's friends and their parents. It was fun to see people in person! LOL!

In baking news, I made a pumpkin bread and added white chocolate chips in hopes of replicating the taste of the pumpkin cookies from Great Harvest. It was so good!

NFL games started, so we were able to get a letterboard sign update on the Vikings!

This year, both Jay and I voted by mail. I will say it was easy, but I missed my red I VOTED sticker!

Halloween decor went up and then we got some SNOW!

2020 pumpkin painting! 

Theme this year - donuts (we have eaten a LOT of donuts!)

For the Halloween gathering, Ella chose to be a Flamingo. Pretty hard to find a Flamingo costume especially in a pandemic, so I made it myself!

Since there wasn't a lot of trick-or-treating going on, I thought it might be fun for Ella to try a bunch of different candy that she's never had before! I was able to find most of the candies on our "need to try" list! We did a few different taste tests and then she rated her favorites!

 First round: 

1st - Whatchamacallit

2nd - Clark Bar

3rd - Score Bar

Second round:

1st - Charleston Chew

2nd - 100Grand 

3rd - 5th Avenue 

4th - Mr. Goodbar

Third round:

1st - Rolos

2nd - Twin Bing

3rd - Take 5

4th - Baby Ruth

5th - Payday

Here's Ella's list of the over-all winners!

1st place - Whatchamacallit

2nd place - Twin Bing

3rd place - Rolos / Charlesten Chew (tie)

This was fun activity!

Ella had a biking unit in October and let me tell you she was NOT excited about it. She is the kid who doesn't want to ride her bike and therefore has not yet mastered riding one. Sigh. I made her let me take this picture of her headed to middle school with her bike helmet for her biking class! Her teacher was a big help and hopefully she will be able to ride this summer!

Ending the month with friends was the highlight!

September 2020 Happenings

September meant back to school! Ella didn't get to start middle school with many of her good friends. Our district started in a hybrid model, splitting each grade into two cohorts and then into "houses" based on last names. So, Ella is spending her first year in middle school in a separate cohort from her besties. A bummer for sure, but she's doing great with all of the transitions and obstacles this school year has thrown at her!

First Day of 6th Grade Pictures!

Had to get the mask picture in also! Kids are required to wear a face mask at school, only allowed to take them off during lunch and when outside!

Ella is always trying to get Ruby Pearl to sit and take a picture too, but it's so hard!

With school back in session, Ella was going to the building 2 days a week and then distance learning on 2 days with a flexible learning day on Friday for catch-up work. She has had a lot of down time, so it was a good time to get more items ready for the garage sale! We were part of our neighborhood sales in September and thank goodness my mom was able to come up to help us! She's a garage sale hosting pro, and she was a huge help! We sold a lot of stuff, but because we have so much stuff, we are going to have another sale in the spring to hopefully unload a good portion of what is left! 

September also meant trip(s) to the apple orchards!

This year, we took a road trip to Chaska (lol, not really that far) but we'd never been to the Apple House, which is the U of MN store for the apple orchards that they manage in the Arboretuem. The apples were delicious and bonus - there was a food truck selling apple cider slushies and mini apple cider donuts! Masked Selfie!

We also trekked to the orchard that is closer to us (Northfield) and spent a little bit walking their gardens and enjoying more apple cider donuts!

Because we were outside and nobody was around we were able to snap our selfie without masks!

August 2020 Happenings (spoiler: still living in a pandemic)

Well, yet again, the blog updates didn't continue. It might be time to end this little corner of the internet, but I can never figure out a good point to stop! And, what do I do with this blog then? Do I print it? What happens? Too many things to decide upon, so for now, let's see what we did (and didn't do!) in August 2020, another summer month in the pandemic.

To be honest, not much happened. A lot of neighborhood walks with this little lady...

Cleaning out Ella's closet! 

We spent a good portion of the last part of August preparing for our first ever garage sale!

We tried out some stuff in the Ninja Airfryer. (Like I said, not much going on!)

My favorite banana muffin recipe got an upgrade with a struesel topping! 

P.S. They are delicious!

And this gem from the internet is amazing! It's ME!!!

What Happened to Summer? (Living in a Pandemic in the Summer)

I am updating this blog like a boss today right?! It's August 12 so this post is on point with what we've been doing so far this month (spoiler alert: not much!)

Most of my days are filled with worries about the upcoming school year...

 The above absolutely sums up my feelings.

We had a big lead up to the governor annoucing the plans for schools and then his message basically left it up to each district. UGH! So, we waited for our district to evaluate and meet with the local health officials. And now we know the plan. It's a Hybrid learning situation.

I don't feel great about it. 

I wonder if it's worth the risk to send Ella to in person learning two (2) days a week.

Our district has cancelled all open house and orientation opportunities.

Yet, they want us to send kids to school in person.

It's hard for me to come to understand this decision.

First, we said we'd leave it up to Ella. Now, I'm not sure if we should!

The other part of the Hybrid learning situation is that they have split up to the student population by last name to allow for the 50% capacity in person learning threshold. Bummer for Ella since most of her good friends fall in the opposite group. 

She will start middle school this year. 

Will she have to meander the hallways to switch classes (she's never had to do this before because this is her first year at the middle school) and what about lunch? Will they even use lockers this year? 

So. many. questions. 

So, I'm waiting.

I'm waiting for more details and better guidance from our schools on how they intend to keep everyone safe and what happens if someone tests positive. Will we all end up distance learning anyway? 

I know nobody knows and everyone is dealing with this just like us. 

It's just scary and hard.

Recent letterboard...

Jay shopped for groceries and apparently thought we were feeding monkeys here! 

What in the world with all of the bananas!

School supply order arrived! I placed an online order for all of it this year due to the pandemic. 

So weird to do that! But, at the same time it was pretty sweet to open the box and have all the stuff there. In the store, it's hard to find some of the items!

Looking forward to reading the latest Grisham book on the deck this weekend 

Also on the agenda for later this week - working on trimming some landscaping!

The things I haven't told you about July (Living in a Pandemic in the Summer)

July, oh July. The month of July FLEW by. We started off the month with our first trip out of our local area! We went to Worthington for the 4th of July. They still had fireworks, and we were excited to see family and hang out for a few days out of our own house!

While there, Ella scored a bday gift - Look at this shirt! So perfect!

Hanging out with cousins!

Waiting for dusk so the fireworks can start!

Ella was all lit up for the fireworks show with a unicorn headband! Obviously we had red white and blue puffcorn to snack on too!

Fireworks in a pandemic meant that we stayed in the vehicle to view them. Other people went out to sit on the grass, but they were supposed to social distance and wear masks. Due to the bugs and germs, we stayed in the truck

Back from the weekend festivities, this is the latest look for grocery runs - I have added my blue light glasses. I first started to wear my sunglasses inside, but that was kind of odd, so I changed to my blue light glasses. Pretty soon I will probably wear swim goggles! LOL!

Sometimes this is how I feel! This letterboard brought to you by Ella

In July baking news, this was a strawberry "salad" but really it's not. It has a pretzel crust with a cream cheese filling situation and a strawberry top. It was okay. Jay really wanted to have it. I'm glad I only made a small sized pan because we didn't even finish it.

Being 11 and spending the summer entirely at home means a girl has to get creative! 

Spa day on the deck!

Or picnicing in the grass with the girls!

Ella has also started to get into science experimenting. This cool one she found on Pinterest (she LOVES to check out my Pinterest finds). Pretty cool experiment using Dawn soap and a wash cloth to create bubble "snakes"

Ruby didn't know what to think!

Jay and I still working from home. I'm still working from the kitchen because it's too hard to figure out where else to go. LOL! Most days, you will find Ruby close by....

Ella finally got to have her 2 besties over for a sleepover in July. They had the best time! Even though they have talked for hours and hours over Facetime since schools closed in March, seeing them live and in person is so much better. There was lots of giggles, exciting screams and girl stuff.

July 27 was a big day! 

On July 27, 2019, we drove a LONG way into Wisconsin to meet Ruby! 

Can you believe she's been living with us for an entire year?

It seems longer than that to me. 

I am not a pet person, but Ruby Pearl really is a perfect dog for us. 

In honor of her big day, she was gifted some new toys, including this new favorite!

Ella made some sweet treats for us in July - no bake oreo cheesecakes. 

They were delicious!

Hi, still working from home but wanted to point out that I get dressed on the daily!

Forgot to tell you back in May about the flowers we planted in the yard!

Our neighbors have invited Ella to help plant bulbs in their garden in years past and then they have shared the flowers with us in the late summer. This year, because of COVID19, they gave Ella a bag of bulbs for her to plant here. She and Jay planted them and the flowers have started to bloom!

We rounded out the month celebrating Jay's birthday!

It was a relaxing day hanging around the house. We got donuts for breakfast (duh!) and then went to Rack Shack BBQ (our FAVORITE) for dinner! I made Jay get a pic. LOL!

We're not ready to eat in a restaurant yet, so we get the food as takeout and eat in the vehicle!

For gifting, we added to his Home Depot gift card stash and he got a shiny new coffee gift card too.

Dang it Ruby!