The Party House

This was a week filled with celebration in our household. We had Easter, an at-home prom and Grandma's birthday. I love to celebrate life events. We look forward to each event even more than usual during this quarantine. I will get into our celebrations in just a minute but first an update on life.

Dear husband was forced back to work on Thursday. He had plenty of sick leave to continue staying home, but he wasn't given the option. His boss said the orders came from far up the chain. So, he is back to the guest bedroom and we have increased our cleaning practices. Some days I feel like we are doing overkill and others that we aren't doing enough. It is a very confusing experience with few known facts to help us in our decisions. However, we keep coming back to an abundance of caution, so our entire family can make it through this experience. We are strong and shall rise above this and what seems likely to come (an economic depression). No matter what happens in the world and our nation, our finances take a downward turn on May 1st with the loss of our son's adoption stipend. We have been preparing for this for a long time and hopefully we are ready for this occurrence . So much is different than we thought it would be. We always assumed that four out of the five of us could take on part-time jobs if needed. With the downturn of the economy, that looks to be unlikely. However, I am not terribly worried. I know we will find our way through. We are just taking it one month at a time, and being home all the time is much cheaper than our normal lives.

I have started recording our accomplishments with all of our extra time at home. This week I shredded about 800 pieces of paper that were mostly medical papers and old bank statements that were no longer relevant. I now have to file about 200 pieces of paper that are still relevant. The huge filing drawer is now empty. Honestly, this has been on my to do list for years. It feels good to get more organized and to have less stuff.

I think I am going to turn this drawer that used to be filled with papers into a blanket drawer.

How are grocery stores doing in your areas? I mostly hear updates from others in my area and really haven't been to many myself. Our stores are stocked at about 70 percent. There are no cleaning supplies to be had and there are limits on milk, eggs and toilet paper. Chicken is hard to find and all of the meat is scarce. I did head out to Whole Foods this week. Our pantry and freezer is still stocked with a few weeks of food, so I really just wanted to stay in a very comfortable place and not run out of critical things. I decided to go to this store because it sells my son's favorite soap and his birthday is coming up. Yes, he asked for soap for one of his birthday ideas. Also, I knew this store was taking extra precautions and carried organic meat. I did experience some sticker shock, but I am not sure if the prices were higher or if I usually only go to this store for a few select items. There was almost no meat to be had. There were still no pickles...why no pickles? Here is what I got for $103. It doesn't seem like much. We were almost out of cheese and milk. I did find both of those. I found one can of refried beans, but there were no other canned or dry beans to be had. I may try Sam's in a few days.

The Perrier and makeup wipes were treats for the kids.

We have been getting extra produce from Misfit Market for almost a year. I really appreciate it, now more than ever. This is what we got in our last shipment.

We also put in a small garden last weekend. So far it is looking good. I hope we can make it grow successfully. This rocky mountain soil is hard on plants. We did add a few bags of good gardening soil. We also worked on the strawberry bed that had been attacked by vines. It was almost lost last year when we had intense rain.

Easter was lovely. I purchased a ham and Easter candy when everything started looking like our country was in trouble. We had a calm time of reflection and family togetherness at home. Then we made our little feast and ate dinner. We took a plate to Grandma and left it on her porch table. It was a different kind of Easter.

Anne heard about a nationwide prom being held on YouTube and wanted to join in. She FaceTimed with a friend while they did their makeup and laughed about the dance they had gone to last year. She asked me to dress up and join her. She decorated the living room and even created a photo booth. We made snacks and settled down for the YouTube prom. It really wasn't that cool after all, so we found our own music and laughed and danced a bit. Then we settled into a movie. It was a fun evening and lifted Anne's spirits a bit about the homeschool formal having been cancelled this year.

Lastly, we celebrated Grandma's birthday. She came over and stayed more than six feet from us in our back yard. We had take-out from Red Lobster. The family fish fry was a great deal. We then played Scattergories. We gave her presents and finished off the party with angel food cake. It was a great success. I am getting used to these quarantine parties. We have one more to go at the end of the month. Grandma didn't want a photo taken, because she's way past time for her monthly haircut and the salons are all closed!

I only got a picture of my dinner plate. 

I hope you all are safe and sound.

Blessings, Dawn