UPitP- May 2 and 3- Beautiful and almost busy weekend
Our first weekend in May was a pretty good one, all things quarantined considered. Speaking of the "Big Q" and the coronavirus, May marks the beginning of some opening up of restrictions while simultaneously some restrictions are being added in the state of Ohio. Gotta love a good juxtaposition and that's what we have going on here in Ohio. Some businesses that had to close in March per the governor's order will be able to open up while all businesses that are open have added requirements/ restrictions beginning May 4. So... there's that.
Back to the weekend, Saturday dawned fair with pleasant temperatures. The day kept getting warmer and sunnier and temps topped out in the high sixties. It was a gorgeous day. I went for a short run shortly after I woke up. Abby and I went to Kroger late in the morning. Donnie worked out in the basement and then he and Alyssa had lunch on the deck together (Abby and I were still at Kroger; we don't always eat lunch together on Saturday but we always eat dinner together). Jacob had to work all day.
I went out to get the mail in the afternoon and ended up staying outside for the next 2 1/2 hours socializing with neighbors/ friends. I feel socially compelled to add (because it's the disclaimer that everyone makes when discussing human interaction these days to avoid covid- shaming) that we maintained social distance. It was good to catch up with friends and commiserate/ complain/ share how we've been impacted and what's been going on in our socially isolated worlds.
After dinner, we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and move a little so we drove to Grant Park. It's a city park in Centerville. Donnie grew up in Centerville and lived there until he went to college. Donnie had been to Grant Park numerous times as a child. The kids and I had never been there before although I'd heard good things about it. It was a very nice city park- there were trails, small bridges over a babbling brook, and many signs with information about various animals indigenous to the area.
We didn't stay too long. Our neighborhood was hopping when we drove in from Centerville- lots of families were outside socializing (safely of course :)). I was ready to be a hermit again so even though the weather was nice, our family spent the rest of the evening inside, watching TV, reading, and relaxing.
Sunday morning, I woke up early to the sound of thunder. Yep, we were having a thunderstorm. It was raining and lightening, too. After about an hour, I heard no thunder and saw no lightening, so I went on a short run. It was raining but not hard; I don't mind running in the rain at all.
We watched our church's sermon online at 10:00 am. It was another good one. I am enjoying church in the basement reclining in my theater seat. It will be weird, though good, of course, to take the time to get ready for church, then drive to church, sit in a live audience and then drive home again. Although if we're going to be sitting at home like bumps on logs until no one on Earth has to worry about get the virus like some pundits are suggesting, then I don't have to worry about a change in the church viewing scene for quite some time.
Sunday afternoon we embarked on new home project. By the end of the afternoon, we were exactly 9/61 of the way through with it. The preciseness of the completion ratio is due to the nature of the project- we are replacing the wooden spindles of our staircases with wrought iron ones. We completed nine of the spindles and our house has a total of 61 spindles so we are 9/61 finished with the project. It's a decently time consuming project and one that requires a lot of Donnie's strength; fortunately, he has an abundance of that. Free time is not something that Donnie has an abundance of so it will likely entail a few more weekends to complete. I and/ or Alyssa helped him the entire time. It is a two person job and one of the persons has to be strong and adept with power tools so the project is dependent on Donnie. Completing it, no longer how long it takes, is something to look forward to. And in a world laden with news of sickness, death and events being canceled, it's great to have something to look forward to. Even if it's something as banal as stair spindles...
I made a tasty meal in the crock pot for dinner. It seems like I make the same things over and over for our meals. When I spotted a bone in turkey breast at the store recently, I bought it. I made a whole turkey on Easter Sunday which wasn't too long ago but before that, we hadn't had turkey since Christmas. Turkey is definitely not in the rotation. The main reason it isn't in the rotation is that one child does not like turkey at all- white meat, dark, doesn't matter, she doesn't like it. For Easter Sunday, I made sides that my turkey disliker likes and made her only eat a tiny bit of turkey (protein!). I sort of hated to have turkey a few weeks after Easter for the turkey disliker's sake but it sounded good to me (plus everyone besides the turkey disliker really likes it) and different than our standard rotation fare so I went ahead and made it. I added white cooking wine to the crock pot per a suggestion on the turkey wrap. I think the cooking wine added a great flavor to the turkey. Even the turkey disliker deemed the turkey, "Ok. Better than the turkey we had on Easter." I was pleased as could be and better yet, had enough left over for dinner for Monday. Win-win!!
Saturday- at Grant Park
Sunday staircase project- we started with the basement stairs in case something went horribly awry with the demolition of the old spindles and/ or the installation of the wrought iron ones. We use the basement stairs so much less than our other stairs so it wouldn't be as big a deal if we couldn't fix anything right away. As it turned out, the demolition of the old and installation of the new spindles turned out really well.
Lots of time and work went into the project...
Love it!
Also, there was a rainbow Sunday evening!! That is all.
Back to the weekend, Saturday dawned fair with pleasant temperatures. The day kept getting warmer and sunnier and temps topped out in the high sixties. It was a gorgeous day. I went for a short run shortly after I woke up. Abby and I went to Kroger late in the morning. Donnie worked out in the basement and then he and Alyssa had lunch on the deck together (Abby and I were still at Kroger; we don't always eat lunch together on Saturday but we always eat dinner together). Jacob had to work all day.
I went out to get the mail in the afternoon and ended up staying outside for the next 2 1/2 hours socializing with neighbors/ friends. I feel socially compelled to add (because it's the disclaimer that everyone makes when discussing human interaction these days to avoid covid- shaming) that we maintained social distance. It was good to catch up with friends and commiserate/ complain/ share how we've been impacted and what's been going on in our socially isolated worlds.
After dinner, we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and move a little so we drove to Grant Park. It's a city park in Centerville. Donnie grew up in Centerville and lived there until he went to college. Donnie had been to Grant Park numerous times as a child. The kids and I had never been there before although I'd heard good things about it. It was a very nice city park- there were trails, small bridges over a babbling brook, and many signs with information about various animals indigenous to the area.
We didn't stay too long. Our neighborhood was hopping when we drove in from Centerville- lots of families were outside socializing (safely of course :)). I was ready to be a hermit again so even though the weather was nice, our family spent the rest of the evening inside, watching TV, reading, and relaxing.
Sunday morning, I woke up early to the sound of thunder. Yep, we were having a thunderstorm. It was raining and lightening, too. After about an hour, I heard no thunder and saw no lightening, so I went on a short run. It was raining but not hard; I don't mind running in the rain at all.
We watched our church's sermon online at 10:00 am. It was another good one. I am enjoying church in the basement reclining in my theater seat. It will be weird, though good, of course, to take the time to get ready for church, then drive to church, sit in a live audience and then drive home again. Although if we're going to be sitting at home like bumps on logs until no one on Earth has to worry about get the virus like some pundits are suggesting, then I don't have to worry about a change in the church viewing scene for quite some time.
Sunday afternoon we embarked on new home project. By the end of the afternoon, we were exactly 9/61 of the way through with it. The preciseness of the completion ratio is due to the nature of the project- we are replacing the wooden spindles of our staircases with wrought iron ones. We completed nine of the spindles and our house has a total of 61 spindles so we are 9/61 finished with the project. It's a decently time consuming project and one that requires a lot of Donnie's strength; fortunately, he has an abundance of that. Free time is not something that Donnie has an abundance of so it will likely entail a few more weekends to complete. I and/ or Alyssa helped him the entire time. It is a two person job and one of the persons has to be strong and adept with power tools so the project is dependent on Donnie. Completing it, no longer how long it takes, is something to look forward to. And in a world laden with news of sickness, death and events being canceled, it's great to have something to look forward to. Even if it's something as banal as stair spindles...
I made a tasty meal in the crock pot for dinner. It seems like I make the same things over and over for our meals. When I spotted a bone in turkey breast at the store recently, I bought it. I made a whole turkey on Easter Sunday which wasn't too long ago but before that, we hadn't had turkey since Christmas. Turkey is definitely not in the rotation. The main reason it isn't in the rotation is that one child does not like turkey at all- white meat, dark, doesn't matter, she doesn't like it. For Easter Sunday, I made sides that my turkey disliker likes and made her only eat a tiny bit of turkey (protein!). I sort of hated to have turkey a few weeks after Easter for the turkey disliker's sake but it sounded good to me (plus everyone besides the turkey disliker really likes it) and different than our standard rotation fare so I went ahead and made it. I added white cooking wine to the crock pot per a suggestion on the turkey wrap. I think the cooking wine added a great flavor to the turkey. Even the turkey disliker deemed the turkey, "Ok. Better than the turkey we had on Easter." I was pleased as could be and better yet, had enough left over for dinner for Monday. Win-win!!
Saturday- at Grant Park
Sunday staircase project- we started with the basement stairs in case something went horribly awry with the demolition of the old spindles and/ or the installation of the wrought iron ones. We use the basement stairs so much less than our other stairs so it wouldn't be as big a deal if we couldn't fix anything right away. As it turned out, the demolition of the old and installation of the new spindles turned out really well.
Lots of time and work went into the project...
Love it!
Also, there was a rainbow Sunday evening!! That is all.
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