Coronavirus Quarantine Week 8: May 3 – 9

Dallas got Makai a tough 300 piece puzzle.

We thought it would take several days or a week. He finished it in less than 24 hours.

We’re continuing to spend a lot of time outside on our new patio set. Love it. Our next investment needs to be a deck umbrella.

I really cannot understand these anti-mask people.

Makai liked all these “yellow flowers.” !!

I really like this tulip!!! I’d never seen a tulip with this coloring before! Makai and I have been taking so many walks and really getting to know our neighborhood in a way that we hadn’t over the last couple years. We’re starting to learn every house and every plant!

I don’t know why I got this ad sent to me, but this is for sure a “salad” I could get behind. There are so many ads for restaurants closed, doing curbside, doing delivery, whatever their policies are..

Pizza Hut is stressing taking breaks and offering Mental Health Recharge days. I definitely took advantage!

Makai is learning his kindergarten lessons easily. He’s ahead on some things. He could probably skip the whole rest of the year and still be ok. Yet, I’d been SO incredibly stressed out EVERY SINGLE DAY. I don’t know why seeing this in writing really helped my brain a lot.

In the middle of everything, we refinanced. It was strange, but really easy. The closing officer came to our door (mask and gloves) and handed us the papers to sign. She then went and sat in her car and if we had any questions, we texted. Then when we were done, she came back to the door and took the papers, went back to her car to review them.

When the 100 pc puzzle came, it was done at super speed. I have a couple 500 pc puzzles on order.

Taco Tuesday + Cinco de Mayo. Makai was BEYOND excited to have a homemade taco bar at home.

Cross stitching some Christmas ornaments.

Dallas made pork chops with mushroom gravy and rice.

Homework: What’s your favorite letter?

Sometimes it feels like freedom just to get in your car and drive for 5 minutes with the radio on and the windows down. Our car was dead in the garage for several weeks and maybe I didn’t realize that it was taking a psychological toll too. Junebug Cafe opened just before quarantine. I saw recently that they’re selling growlers of my favorite cold brew, Dark Matter’s Chocolate City, so I went and picked one up. I hope they survive this strange time. My craving for iced coffee has increased as we’ve had warmer days. It’s only 55 outside today but I managed to get sunburned while taking a call on the deck.

Breakfast.
  Math class.

Important work going on here.

For the musicians..

I started talking about gardening on Friday and accidentally made Dallas give me my gift early because it was a gardening tool and tote set!

My Mother’s Day gift is 6 gardening tools, gloves, and a squirt bottle that all fit into this utility tote. So cool! I used it all day yesterday.

I shopped at Farmers Market Garden Center. They all wore masks and required customers to. It was easy to stay away from people in the lot. To get inside and browse and pay you needed to stand in a socially distanced line. They had a security guard to enforce it. He told me he used to work at nightclubs downtown and was just happy to have a job.

Makeshift workbench.
Raking the dead grass out in the back yard.
So much dead grass. Dallas went over it 3 times.
Planted marigolds and spikes on the front steps.
Weed whacking.
  The raised bed was overgrown with mint from last year. I ripped a ton of it out and delivered it to Jessica, Kristin, and Rachel. We also had thyme come back from last year, but not a ton. I also planted cucumbers, basil, rosemary and chives in the raised bed.
Makai wanted strawberries so I planted them here along with one extra marigold plant.
Makai acting like he’s watering something so he can play in the water!
    I got this print for my office. Who run the world (girls!)
Makai said he needed to air his butt out while he was doing the puzzle.
  I got dressed up for a special event. I put on makeup for the first time since March. I used my special Malie Hawaiian shampoo, conditioner and body wash.
I even set the table nicely.
It was Sara’s 40th birthday!
Sara, Jessica, Stacy and I all ordered dinner from Elske. Stacy went and picked it up and dropped it off at my house. Jess delivered Sara’s to her.
We ate dinner “together” and talked and drank wine. The dinner was delicious!
    When it was time for desert, we had Sara light her candles, blow them out, and make a wish!
Even though we couldn’t be together, it was fun!

This was the gift I sent to Sara for her birthday!

We have a garden!

I might have planted these things too close. We’ll find out. Makai picked out green beans, watermelon and a chocolate mint plant for himself. For Dallas he chose ghost peppers and bell peppers. I also got thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, parsley and chives. Makai said the flamingo’s name is Fifi!

6.23.19
Makai is picking mint leaves for me to put in my coffee in the mornings!

07.06.19

07.09.19Lots of beans!

7.25.19The watermelon and mint were really taking over, so I moved the basil and parsley into one planter, and the rosemary and chives each into planters of their own. The rosemary and chives went on the front porch next to a plumeria I’m growing from a stick I got in Hawaii.

08.02.19I was roasting vegetables when we picked the green pepper, so we sliced it up and included it!

08.03.19Rosemary, chives, plumeria.

8.03.19What to do with all the mint that’s gone crazy wild? Drink mint water!

08.04.19
Our basil and parsley are doing GREAT! I made a salad with the parsley today:


Chickpea Salad

08.16.19Bringing tons of herbs to Wisconsin!

08.21.19
 This watermelon was small, but kind of damaged so we had to pick it. When I cut it open it was totally not ripe. We tasted it, but it was not good!

8.31.19Our basil did VERY well this year. I made a double batch of Fresh Basil Pesto and still have a ton of basil left! Jess, Sarah, Stacy and the Stubers all got jars of pesto and we used a lot ourselves!

9.14.19

Dallas harvested some of the ghost peppers! We were so afraid of how hot they might be. Dallas made some chili with the peppers and it was spicy but not unbearably so. He did take it easy though, because he didn’t want to ruin a whole pot of chili!

09.16.19
Our herbs did so well, I took orders at work and brought them in to share!

09.28.19
We waited as long as we could before picking to allow this little watermelon to grow. Finally we had to pick it and I was excited to cut it and taste it, but I forgot it on the deck. The next day we went outside and it had rolled onto the ground where the rabbits and squirrels got into it. And unlike the other watermelon, we could see that this one actually did get ripe inside. AW! I left it outside a couple days and then threw it away.

10.11.19
Brought more herbs to work. The last harvest before a frost scare!

Mojitos, Turkey Burgers, Smores


Mojito, South Yarmouth, Cape Cod


Turkey Burger, South Yarmouth, Cape Cod


Steph Making Smores, South Yarmouth, Cape Cod

After a long day at the beach we decided to make dinner on the grill. Well, first Julie made us mojitos with the fresh mint that Jess’s uncle gave us. Fresh herbs also went into the turkey burgers, which btw, were delicious. Later on we started a fire in the stove/pit thing. Steph was having problems until I realized that she didn’t have any kindling, so I searched around the yard and found some sticks and we got it going. We sat around drinking wine and making smores for a couple hours. I think we smoked the neighbors out, but it was fun.