March Recap ~ Illnesses, Shows and Sprinkles of Fun

 March was really a month of illness in our family. Rebekah, Timothy and I all got Covid. As expected, it was most difficult for Tim. He is still recovering from his bout with Covid at the beginning of the month. His lungs and cardiac issues just don't mix with this virus. Thankfully, the vaccines and Paxlovid kept him from needing hospital care. We suspect that Elijah may have had it, too, but he didn't test positive the first two times we tested him and was just over being tested after that. He never showed any symptoms. Dear Husband, who had Covid in January, was fine until a week ago. Then he got sick, too. He tested negative for Covid, flu and strep, but sounds horrible. We think he may have some other virus or a very severe case of allergies. We are all finally completely on the mend.

Luckily, we were all healthy the first week of March. Rebekah had her Winter Works performance. It was the studios contemporary ballet production. Rebekah really enjoyed herself and the pictures came out great. 

Far Left

Center front

Rebekah and I had tickets to see the Broadway Musical BeetleJuice the very next night after her performance. I am not a huge fan of BeetleJuice, but it was a really fun show. Rebekah loved it. I really think the guys would have liked the show, but they wanted nothing to do with it...humph!

We lost power one night and had a fun game of Monopoly by candle light. I love spending time with my crew. They are all grown up and live busy lives. 

Elijah also got Employee of The Month at Target this month. We are very proud of him. He still works part time and comes home completely exhausted, but he is well liked and does his job well. 

I had to laugh when I looked at the pictures in my camera roll. They are mostly pictures of treats. Apparently, we needed many treats to make it through this month of illness and gray skies. We tried three new places this month. The first was the new bubble tea place. It was very expensive and the drinks were just so-so. The second place was a Hawaiian restaurant where Dear Husband and I went out to eat. It was delicious! We look forward to going back for someone's birthday. Lastly, we tried the new Italian Ice place. Wow! It was so good. Can't wait to go back when it is really warm this summer. 

Bubble Tea

Yummy Mocktail

Italian Ice with soft serve ice cream.

Spring must be around the corner. One of the neighborhood bears is back. We took this picture while my husband was waiting for the bear to clear our driveway so he could leave for work. 

I read several books in February and March. 

• Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth. I loved this book. It was a wonderful complement to the PBS show. I plan to read the other books in the series. 
• The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi. This is a middle school book about the Hatfields and the McCoys. It was well written and not as violent or disturbing as reading an adult version which was fine by me. 
• The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy. This was a wonderful book about the children of John Brown and the Underground Railroad. I really enjoyed it. 
• At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier. This was an interesting book, but sad, violent and filled with tragedy. 
• The Second Mrs. Gioconda by E.L. Konigsburg. Another middle school book that my kids read and I never got around to. It is about the Mona Lisa and Leonardo da Vinci. I enjoyed the quick read. 
• The Lost Girls of Paris by Pan Jenoff. This was an interesting mystery from just after World War II. However, I kind of argued with the characters all they way through and found multiple twists and turns to be not plausible. 

I only got to see my little guy that I care for a few times in March due to our illnesses and his family traveling. We did manage to do the Before Five In a Row book, Runaway Bunny. We did lots of bunny crafts and finished out the unit with a bunny sugar cookie house. He loved decorating it. 

April is looking like a very busy month. 

Blessings, Dawn

February Recap ~ New Roof, Pet Covers, Accomplishing Goals

February just flew by. It was a month of lots of repairs. Most notably, was the installation of our new roof. It is forest green and we love it. We are so thankful to have a good roof on the house. Our old one was upwards of 40 years old and lost shingles with every storm. 

I decided that I really wanted some pet covers for the sofas in the library. However, they are ridiculously expensive and not that pretty. Then I found this old quilt at the thrift store. It had plenty of material and was cheaper than buying fabric. I am not a seamstress...at all! I barely know how to use a sewing machine and rely heavily on my husband to help whenever I pull it out ( he can sew a million times better than me). I measured, cut and with dear husbands help, sewed bias tape around all the cut edges. It worked out much better than I hoped and I even have material left over if I ever need to make a repair.  Now, I can wash them whenever necessary and the sofas are safe from cat craziness. 

Dear husband found a new set of trails behind his workplace. It is the former land of the sprawling military hospital that only a tiny fraction of the land holds the current Veterans Hospital. The rest of the buildings from the World War I military hospital have been allowed to decay to ruins. Our city was a mecca for tuberculosis sanitariums in the late 19th century so there were many small and spread out buildings throughout the forest  at one time. We had a lovely walk sticking to the abandoned road, but didn't see any foundations from all of the former buildings. We will have to try some of the trails that go off into the woods next time. They are supposed to be visible building ruins on some of the trails. 

Old water tower from more recent times

An old labyrinth in the forest. Not sure if it original or not. I don't think the mental health benefits of walking a labyrinth were known until recently. 

My windshield was cracked in a freak accident recently. Someone who wishes not to be named tossed a small piece of  plastic to someone else who didn't catch it and it hit the windshield (while the car was parked). Unfortunately, the first new windshield that we had installed had a ripple in it right in my line of vision. There had to come back and replace it again with another windshield. I am happy to have it all peacefully resolved. 

I decorated the front porch for spring today. It has been so warm. I just couldn't wait any longer...lol. I bought the rug at an estate sale and it was much dirtier than I realized. Even after steam cleaning it, I didn't feel that it was really clean enough for our bedroom which is where I had wanted to put it. I was going to pass it on to Goodwill when my mom suggested putting it on the covered front porch. I figured I didn't have anything to lose. So, I added it to my spring look. I am pleased with how it looks. We will see how it holds up. Yes, I took the picture at night. Real life folks. 

We had a lovely Valentine's day at home. We shared this yummy cookie with the whole family. 

My little charge and I are having lots of fun playing with all his new toys. He got so many fun things between his birthday and Christmas. We didn't do any BFIAR this month. We were having to much fun with blocks, trains, solar system books and puzzles and counting games. We will get back to it in March. 

Loving his Valentine cookie I gave him.

We also made a quick trip to Louisville, Kentucky. You can read about it here if you missed it. 

March has so much excitement right around the corner. See you all then. 

Blessings, Dawn

Eighteen Hours In Louisville, Kentucky

 We made a quick trip up to Louisville, Kentucky last weekend so Rebekah could audition for the National Summer Audition Tour (ballet). Only Dear Husband, Rebekah and I decided to go because it was such a quick turn around. We arrived at the Galt House hotel close to Midnight. This is a very swanky hotel that we just happened to be offered with our genius points on booking.com. We sure have been traveling a ton in the past few years. The offer from Galt was cheaper than the Holiday Inn down the street. We were immediately enveloped into a sea of lovely ladies in full length ball gowns that were attending the Bluegrass Ball. What a greeting. We got settled into our room and had a good night sleep. 

We had breakfast in the morning at the hotel restaurant. My french toast was a delight. We then had a fun wander around the huge hotel. It really made a splash. 

Breakfast

view from our hotel room

a steamboat from our hotel room

Rebekah in front of one of the steamboats on the Ohio River.

Hanging out in one of the hotel's large public areas while the hubby got coffee to go. 

Rebekah wasn't due to the audition until 4 pm, so we wanted to keep her busy to reduce her nervousness. We decided to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.  The Factory tour was very nice and educational. We enjoy baseball as a family and it was really neat to see how baseball bats are made. Dear husband loved trying out the ones on display.

These bats are made by hand on a lathe machine.

Our tour guided showing the machine. 

Some famous player's bats. 

These are weighted bats with a hole drilled in the end. 

Big enough bat, dear husband?

He found a mit to go with the bat. LOL.

A museum docent let David hold one of Babe Ruth's bats. 

Outside the museum and factory

We decided on a leisurely lunch after our museum/factory tour. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch. They serve big portions. We got one three course spaghetti and meatball meal and two sides for all three of us to share and it was plenty. We also got fancy drinks. Dear Husband and Rebekah got Italian sodas and I got the Cotton Candy Limeade. It was something to behold and tasted good too. Rebekah may have posted in a joking way on instagram that her mom bought the kids decadent drink, but I say you need to feed your inner child if you want to stay young. 

We dropped Rebekah off at her audition after our late lunch. David and I walked about two plus miles along the trails in the Riverfront park. We visited The Lincoln memorial and sat with his statue for a few minutes (it being his birthday that day). Then we walked over most of the Big Four Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge that connects Kentucky to Indiana. 

We picked up Jimmy John's for our drive home and went back to collect Rebekah. The first poor girl who came out was crying and ran to her father's embrace. Rebekah came out with a plastered smile and said that the audition had been extremely challenging and most of the 30+ girls had struggled a great deal, including herself. She was pretty sure she wouldn't be selected by any of the 13 universities and professional companies who had watched the audition. We reassured her that she had already been selected for several summer intensives through other auditions or invite backs, so this was just the icing on the top. She appreciated that, but apologized several times for us making such a long trip and all of the extra cost. We told her that the practice was good for her and this was all a part of life. Besides, we got to see a brand new city to us for a few hours.

UPDATE ~  I can say that she was wrong. Some of the ballet companies have already gotten back to her and she was selected for her top two choices. I will announce where she is going in a few weeks when her entire summer is firmed up.  It looks like she will be doing four summer intensives across three states.  

We arrived home just past midnight. It was exhausting, but a fun and successful trip. 

Blessings, Dawn

January Review ~ COVID, Wild Life and Macarons

 Well, it took almost three years, but COVID finally made a visit to our house. My dear husband got it at a supervisor luncheon at work in which all but one supervisor got COVID. Thanks to his vaccines and boosters, he only got marginally sick. We have strict home isolation tactics for sick family members, including home testing and K95 masks, the rest of the family was spared and none of us got sick or tested positive. I still had to take a week off from work because the parents of the little one I take care of didn't want to take any chances (which I completely understand). We are very thankful that it didn't spread through our whole family.

Tim had an excellent cardiology check up. He will have to go to Duke again in 4 months and then again in 6 months while they work to get through some extra tests and get all of his doctors coordinated into the same time period for check ups. This time they checked his new pacemaker and did an echocardiogram. We are very thankful that this January was calmer than last January when Tim had three cardiac surgeries. 

My little guy that I take care of turned two this month. He loves all animals but is especially partial to moose. I bought him a plush moose and the book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin. He loves them and asks for the book to be read over and over again. I think we will make some sock puppets soon like in the book. 

Dear Husband and I had a fun outing to a local bakery called Old Europe that we love. They just opened a new location that is very charming. I realized that I could not remember ever eating macarons. We decided to try all the flavors they had. I must admit, I didn't really care for them. It is probably the first thing from this bakery that I haven't loved. I will stick to key lime pie, thank you. 

My goal is to read two books a month. This month I read The Gown and The Light We Carry. I really enjoyed both of them. The Gown is a historical fiction that is exciting and a fast read. I really liked getting a more behind-the-scenes look at how Queen Elizabeth II's gown was made. The Light We Carry is one of those books I could see reading more than once. It is very inspirational and talks about so many tools that help to conquer fear and live confidently in these challenging times. 

The kids are doing well. They are working, doing their social activities, dancing and doing school. It is a busy season of life. 

Lastly, we have had so much wildlife in our yard this month. Besides our mama bear, we have a falcon family and a possum that keeps visiting our wood pile. 

February is right around the corner and promises to be busy. The year is ramping up. I always feel like January is slow and every month after that gets faster and faster. 

Blessings, Dawn