A Sunny Springtime Weekend

Hello, hello! I’m writing this real time from my bed at 5:56 a.m. on Monday, hot off an enjoyable weekend. The springtime weather seemed to act as a natural mood booster and forced us outside into our yards from nearly sun up to sun down both Saturday and Sunday.

In an effort to document more of our happenings from a moment in time that will be in our great-grandchild’s history curriculum one day, I thought I’d share a few pictures and stories from the weekend, the first in April 2020. 

On Friday night, Jamie cooked our Home Chef meal, a delicious chicken, mashed potato, and veggie dish. It came with four servings but fed all five of us plus had an extra serving that went into the refrigerator. 

The girls love carrots but hollered in disapproval about the site of Brussel sprouts. They had to eat just two of them and otherwise finish their plates before picking a dessert. Hadley (our generally pickiest eater) had no problem downing her food. Jillian did a stellar job as well. Sadie ate her chicken, passed on everything else, whined pretty hard about not getting dessert, but forget about it once it was time to play in the tub for a bit. 

Babies during bath time is just the best!

After we cleaned up the kitchen and living room, we got the kiddos in bed and settled in to watch Netflix together. We watched a bunch of trailers (I am a serial Netflix-trailer watcher), ended up on Kevin Hart’s documentary, but then I fell asleep 15 minutes into it, per my usual. 

Saturday

On Saturday morning, I was up and ready to get the day going around 6:15 (I’ve never been able to sleep in). I made some hot coffee and the big girls’ a mug of hot chocolate that I left on the kitchen island for them when they inevitably woke up soon. I wrapped up in a blanket and enjoyed my coffee on the back patio (my favorite way to ease into any given day).

About 15 minutes later, Sadie found me out back. I told her to grab her mug and come join me. It was just the two of us for almost half an hour and was wonderful for us. 

The rest of the crew joined soon as well. Around 7:30 a.m. we got moving. The girls ate breakfast (sliced apples and peanut butter), Jillian drank a bottle, and Jamie and I began to piddle around the house.

Jamie got in a garage workout while I folded a bunch of laundry and cleaned out my side of our master bathroom vanity/drawers/under sink area, etc. I’ve been shooting to knock out one “spring cleaning” task per day, and it feels good to get some of these areas tidied up. I also went ahead and prepped dinner for later that night so that it was done and out of the way. 

The girls enjoyed going in and out from the backyard to the playroom while Jillian took a two-hour morning nap. Nice morning!

Around noon, we loaded everybody up and headed out for a picnic lunch. I’d been craving Mexican take-out after seeing two of my best friends get Mexican that week, so we placed a curbside order at Rosie’s. Jamie suggested we take it to a park near his office, which was just perfect.

Jillian used her hands as a “popsicle type” vehicle to eat her refried beans, which she loved. You can see Jamie behind her sprinting back to us after grabbing a pack of wipes from the car. LOL.

The weather was just stinkin’ phenomenal. We were relaxed and happy.

The girls ran around and played hard while Jamie and I hung near Jillian and enjoyed some down time. 

After lunch, we packed up and took a stroll around the water. We ended up spotting the most precious little family of ducklings, likely the youngest I had ever seen. I don’t know who was squealing more, the girls or me. 😉

After we left the park, we took the scenic way home and drove through some neighborhoods. So many people out doing yard work, sitting in their garages with the doors up reading, playing catch on the front lawn, etc. So nice to see!

I also snapped this picture of the $1.49 gas price while we sat at a light. I wonder if we’ll ever see it this low again in our lifetime. 

We got home around 2:30, which felt a little late to put the big girls down for quiet time (Jillian took a 45 minute nap in the car but woke up when we got home). Jamie had some work on the back patio to do (clean windows and the outdoor ceiling fan, wipes dead bugs, ALL THAT FUN STUFF), so he brought Jillian outside with him in her jumper and I baked sugar cookies with the girls. I’d promised them we’d do it the day prior but never got around to it. We used Sally’s sugar cookie recipe, which is perfect if you plan to ice them!

While Jamie was working outside, he walked around front and found a package on our doorstep. My All Things Madison business cards had arrived! I’ve had one business already ask if they can house a stack on their check-out counter, which thrilled me! I’m not sure what I’ll do yet with the rest, but I’m just glad to have them! I designed and ordered them with Canva, which was incredibly ease and affordable.

We laid Jillian down for a cat nap around 4:00, and then she was up about 4:45. We loaded everybody up for a quick stroll/bike ride around the neighborhood before coming in to pop dinner in the oven that I had prepped earlier that morning. I had cut up some sweet potato, chicken sausage, and onions earlier in the day, tossed them lightly in EVOO and spices (cumin, sea salt, and cinnamon) and then baked it for 35 minutes on 425 degrees. Delish!

After cleaning up from dinner and getting the girls bathed and in bed, we sat down to hang together for the little bit before calling it a night. We attempted to watch “How To Fix a Drug Scandal” on Netflix, got through an episode or so, but weren’t hooked enough to watch another. 

Sunday

At 6:30 I was up and itching to start the day with a good sweat sesh. Two of my favorite people to follow on IG (Brighton Keller and Madeline Moves) had teamed up the day prior to do a live workout, so I wanted to catch that before it went away.

Hadley woke up as I was getting dressed to work out, so I asked if she wanted to lay in bed with Jamie (he was still asleep) or come in the garage with me. She wanted to hang with me. 🙂

The workout was a quick 35 minutes, which was just the right amount of time to knock out before the rest of the house woke up. 

It was a gorgeous morning, so Hadley went back and forth between watching me (and doing some of the moves with me) and doing chalk on the driveway (in her Frozen II pajama gown). She is so imaginative and had chalked a house with a pink sunrise (as she watched the pink sunrise) that was watching a rocket blast into space, complete with nine planets and tons of stars.

She couldn’t wait to show me what she’d created when my workout was complete. She is so creative and so fun! Six year olds rock. 

When we came inside, Jamie and Sadie were playing “Don’t Break the Ice” on a yoga mat. I was confused. LOL. He said that Sadie wanted to do Cosmic Yoga on YouTube with him but then pitched a fit when he couldn’t find a “Paw Patrol” themed yoga. Oy. Then she asked to play “Don’t Break the Ice”, so they did until she pitched a fit about that too. She’s often not a morning person. 😉 

Jillian woke up after hearing the fits in the living room, but it was 7:30 and time for her to get up anyway. 🙂

We pieced breakfast together, watched our 8:30 church service, and finished getting everybody dressed and ready for the day. I’ve learned that our best days start with getting the kids fed, dressed, teeth brushed, hair fixed, and rooms cleaned. Today is day #23 of “this”, and we know by now that doing these things before anythings else sets the girls (and us) for a good day. 

On tap for me that morning: the grocery store!

I hadn’t been in nine days, so it was time. I had planned to go to Aldi but last-minute swung into Target instead. It was a total ghost town, to the point where I kept looking around to make sure that it was actually open. All I kept seeing was employees. I ended up spending way too much money (THE GOOD ‘OLE TARGET WAY!)  but did get the girls some fun Easter stuff, some play clothes/dresses (Hadley has grown like a weed since last summer), and a load of groceries. Couldn’t find eggs, bread, or chicken though, so I’ll be running out again at some point this week.

Jamie worked in the yard all afternoon with the big kids nearby. Jillian and I spent the afternoon inside deep cleaning the kitchen, living room, and art supply area. I found Sadie’s stack of birthday party invitations, which I ditched except for one to put in her “memories” bin.

She’s never had a real birthday party with all of her friends, and she was so beyond excited about this one. She had picked the venue back in November and her guest list as well.

When we sat down to tell her that we wouldn’t be able to have it like we planned, she said in the sweetest little voice “Is it because of Coronavirus?” Yes, baby.

We will make do at home and still have a wonderful day (her birthday is Saturday, the 18th) and then pull out all the stops for birthday #5! (We aren’t rescheduling this year’s party because we don’t know when this will all end.)

I also got a wild hair and did a little spray paint project Sunday afternoon too. I used Rustoleum’s blush pink chalk finish spray paint, which worked well on this bathroom stool. 

After Jillian’s afternoon nap, we went on another family bike ride/stroll around the neighborhood before coming home and having dinner. Jamie and I ate a Home Chef meal (it included just two servings this time) while the girls ate some pasta.

At 6:15 Jamie and I had a scheduled Zoom call with some people we go to church with, so we did that and fed Jillian her bedtime bottle while the big girls snuggled in Hadley’s bed and played on the iPad. 

By 7:30 all three girls were out cold. Jamie and I finished straightening up the kitchen/living room and then I crawled into bed to plow through a new Southern Living Magazine (I am old soul at heart LOL), window-shop on Wayfair and Pottery Barn, and eventually order some new treatments to hopefully tackle this dang Melasma that came on strong during my last pregnancy. Such a random trio: Southern Living, Pottery Barn, and Melasma. This is 32. 

By 10 p.m. we were both more than ready to call it a day and rest up for Monday. Back to the grind. Jamie has to report to the office this morning (arg) and the girls and I will be back to the routines that we nicely polished last week. 

Have a beautiful Monday, friends! It’s April 6th – we are getting through this. Stay safe in your homes. We’ve got this!

Let’s chat!

What have you been doing to keep your spirits up during this confusing time?