The Corontine, Week One

Isn't it amazing how much life as we know it can change in a week? Or a day, for that matter? Last Sunday we were going about our Sunday routine as normal, attending church services during the day and a singing in the evening. When we got home, we learned school had been canceled for four weeks and gatherings of 50 or more should be canceled. The next day, that gathering limit was down to 10, preferably less. So much uncertainty to process in our minds and hearts as so many unknowns lying in our future.

I am not censoring my rambling today under the assumption that there are many readers who have all the time in the world to endure the endless details spilling out of my brain.

Day one (Monday) was the day we removed all events from our calendar. It was almost kind of a lifting of a burden of a busy social life. No more obligatory house cleaning, food prep, planning, schedules, or other obligations. Oh, and I started potty training Joanna.

Day two (Tuesday) all of the uncertainties of the future began to weigh me down as I processed everything. Like, what in the world was happening? How can the whole world just get cancelled? Will there be groceries in the store when I get back to town? How fast is this virus going to spread? How soon is it going to affect us or those we love? When is the class of 2020 going to graduate? And, obviously, how am I going to cope with no face-to-face social interactions with the outside world? I didn't think I was stressed, but my body told me otherwise. By Tuesday night I was in a very bad mood, overtired, headache, and no patience left to be found (perhaps the activities of the day exhausted me too). What frustrated me even more was that it was only day two of many days ahead, and I already felt like I couldn't cope.

The children were busy in the kitchen on Tuesday...

A huge spread for our noon meal! Each one of them made a couple entrees!

Last Friday I got a sourdough starter, so my baking projects on Tuesday were my first loaf of sourdough bread and a fresh strawberry pie with sourdough crust. 

Tuesday evening was also the night that Matt brought his office home with him as Stanley closed down their offices until at least April 6th. Matt left right after he got home from work to go get the tractor from his dad to till our garden. By the time he got back home and the garden was tilled, it was dark and I was at my wits end. But hey, now we can plant the garden once the weather improves again!

Micah is loving riding his bike! Maybe we don't need a triple stroller after all! 

Day three (Wednesday) Matt had to work away from home doing some power line inspections, and I didn't try to get one thing done around the house due to my need to get my mood and outlook put back together. I just fed my children, sat on the couch, read books to the kids, and let them make a huge disaster of the house. By that, I mean it was such a mess that when Matt got home he stopped outside the living room and his eyes popped out of his head. I was in such a daze that I didn't even realize the reason for his odd expression until he had disappeared to the bathroom to put his eyeballs back in.

The boys like to play "teacher" or "librarian" and read books to us.

I did decide to get the house put back together, and that helped me feel better too. That evening I took a walk and prayed. I decided we are going to make the most of this opportunity to stay home with only our family for the foreseeable future. Afterwards, we listened to church services. The refreshment of hearing the word shared and the (virtual but real) connection it gave us to our brotherhood was wonderful. We also listened to a very good talk from Rockville church regarding the coronavirus. I went to bed with a renewed hope for the upcoming weeks and months.

Day four (Thursday) things started to go better as we started to adjust to our new "normal." It was Matt's first actual day in his new "office" in the basement bedroom. He ate breakfast and lunch with us, which was so nice. It was great to see another soul during the day with a maturity level over age four. I also realized after talking on the phone on Wednesday that hearing another person's voice really lifted my spirits, so we video called my mom and Travis. I also kicked into high gear with child training and discipline, because if we are all going to be stuck together in this house, we better have some love and order going around so it can be a God-honoring bonding time. 

It was a beautiful day after the rain stopped and we spent some much-needed time outside. Courage S. brought over some ducks for our pond, so that was something exciting for the children as they set up a little shelter and some food after Matt was done working.

The first day was a little rough for Micah. Every time Daddy had to "go back to work" he got so sad! 

Matt's new office

Some visitors at the office!

Can't resist a good puddle!

Checking out the ducks!

Micah was so proud of the "tie" he made. Matt thought it seemed a little sketchy.

Day five (Friday) Matt had a meeting in the morning but otherwise had the day off. My day got off to a rough start when I was taking Joanna potty and Matt gave the boys a carton of eggs and a frying pan and told them to make me eggs for breakfast. Then he picked up his bowl of cereal and headed downstairs to go to work. I was left in the bathroom with Joanna doing her business while listening to eggs fall and splatter on the floor as the boys tried to make breakfast. When I finally got out there to clean it up, the children walked off with the humidifier and spilled water all the way down the hallway. So then I mopped water up off the carpet before finally proceeding with our day. I had just gotten showered and dressed after 11 when Matt came back up for the day and took the kids outside to play.

I made another pie filling for the second pie crust I made on Tuesday. This time it was a chocolate silk pie, except with okra and coconut oil as the two main ingredients (blended smoothly and hidden, of course). It wasn't as tasty as the strawberry pie, so I ended up eating a lot of it myself. But that's ok because almost all of the ingredients are super foods so my body will thank me. :)

I also made sourdough pizza for supper. It was some of the best pizza we have had here in awhile! Mainly because I have been making pizza crusts out of alternative healthy flours that just aren't exactly the pizza crust we were used to. This actually tasted like real pizza crust.

We decided to get out by going for a drive. I needed to pick up honey from Tami, eggs from Phil and Kelli, and Matt needed a computer cord from Jake. We all enjoyed the scenery of the K Road and Highway 99.

Joanna was up during the night with a cough. The other boys also have coughs now. Every sign of a cold now makes me feel like we need to be even more strict with our quarantine. We are upping all of our immune boosting foods and drinks these days!

She is such a willing sport to drink whatever concoction I make up for her...usually it involves a good dose of apple cider vinegar because I am starting to think that is the cure for everything. 

Day six (Saturday) was a pretty good day. My final sourdough experiment of the week was a large batch of oatmeal honey bread. It was a day-long project (due mostly to six hours of rising time) but turned out well! I've also made sourdough pancakes a couple times now, and next up on the agenda is sourdough cinnamon rolls. Why all the sourdough craze? Well, for one I just got a starter last week and I love new experiments! But I got the starter because I learned that sourdough bread is apparently low-glycemic if you let it ferment long enough. I've been using white whole wheat flour, which is reportedly good after letting it ferment at room temperature for seven hours. With white flour I think you are supposed to do several days for enough of the sugar to be eaten up.

Matt found a new way to keep Micah entertained...let him bang all the nails down, then flip the board over and have him hammer them back the other way!

Matt and the boys worked in the garage for a bit, then the boys came in and played in the basement. About 10 minutes into their play, I realized Matt wasn't down there with them. And I realized (per a report from Levi) that the boys were playing with the kitchen sink sprayer. By the time I got downstairs, the whole kitchen area of the basement was underwater...like, slosh, slosh, slosh went your feet on the carpet. The wood stove area was flooded. There was water in the cupboard under the sink. The couch by the sink was drenched. The walls and cupboards were all dripping water. And...somehow, somehow...there was water dripping down the windows that are definitely out of range of the sprayer. Their play wheelbarrow was full of water, and at the moment the boys were soaking their dolls in the water giving them "baths." Wow, oh, wow. After I got done mopping up all of the solid surfaces and opened the cupboards up to dry, I called Matt down and he got the fans going and started a fire in the wood stove to get things dried up faster. Thankfully we had nothing better to do than clean up the mess, so we were able to find the humor in it. As I keep saying..."we've got all the time in the world." Ain't it true these days.

Playing doctor! She reminded me of all the nurses helping fight COVID-19 these days. 

Another near disaster happened later in the evening while Matt was outside burning the pasture. Micah said, "Mommy, look! I cut some of Joanna's hair!" What?! Yeah, because Joanna gave him the scissors and wanted him to cut her hair. Thankfully it was just a little curl toward the back of her head and you can't even tell, except it is the one little lock of hair without a sweet baby curl on the end. I nearly forgot to dig the cut hair sample out of the trash and put it in her baby book for her "first haircut" envelope!

Just had to put this on here to show that it really turned out ok. You probably have to know what you're looking for to see the strand of hair that doesn't have a curl on the end. Her hair is getting so long! 

Day seven (Sunday) was also a nice day. We enjoyed a more relaxed pace to our Sunday morning routine since we got to sleep in longer than usual. We did try to keep things as similar as possible to church day, so most of us got dressed up- that is, as much as time allowed. Matt ran out of time for his button-up shirt and tie, and Joanna and I didn't bother with tights or shoes. Levi had already gotten himself dressed in everyday clothes since he didn't know we were going to dress up, so he didn't end up in church clothes. And Micah didn't have to put up a fight about what he wore, because Mommy didn't really care if he matched. As much as we really miss the fellowship of church services, it is certainly much easier to have church at home. It is definitely worth the extra fuss to be able to actually go to church! We will be so thankful to be back with our church family again!

Once again, it lifted our spirits to be joined in Spirit with our church family as we listened to services in Burlington in the morning, and Mediapolis's recorded morning service in the afternoon. What a blessing technology can be to us these days!

We also had somewhat of a "church lunch" between services. Since I am the only one giving my children food these days, I didn't feel quite as guilty getting out all of the unhealthy food in my cupboards and freezer to make church lunch slightly more genuine. By "all of the unhealthy food in my house," that meant some english muffin cheese sandwiches from the freezer, animal crackers, and a few swiss rolls that were sent home with us from church lunch a few weeks ago. I think I have one more Sunday's worth of stuff I can pull out before everyone is out of luck.

By the end of the afternoon service, all the children were asleep and Matt and I soon fell asleep too. There's another perk of our current church situation: naps work a lot better.

After the house started waking up again, we were invited to do a Zoom video call with my family while my Dad was trying to test it out for a possible Sunday School option. It was fun to be able to talk to everyone! Jonathan and Justin just got back from a spring break trip to Florida so they are all practicing some serious social distancing/isolation. After supper we also enjoyed talking on the phone to Grandpa and Grandma Schulz and Matt's Grandma Knobloch. Later, my family got my Grandma Knobloch hooked up to a Zoom call with everybody so we got to talk to her too before we all headed off to bed!

Today (Monday) we are doing well. I am feeling good about this new temporary way of life. I love having Matt home, and he has actually been able to stay busy and productive during the day down in his bedroom office. The children have not tried to bother him (though I am sure many of the sounds going on throughout the house get a little distracting at times!). It is nice to see him at lunchtime and when he comes up for a break. I think he also likes being able to sleep in a bit without a forty minute commute!

Matt brought the tractor back to Mom and Dad's tonight. The boys went along and Matt delivered a nice surprise to me when they got home...a sleeping Micah! Joanna still thought he might want to listen to the book she was reading.

I also love having nothing on our calendar. It seemed devastating at first, but it is so relaxing. I feel like we are in a decent stage of life to be going through all of this. For one, none of our kids are missing school (or even Sunday School, for that matter), so it didn't really change my daily life. During the day I'm as busy (or non-busy) as ever keeping up with my children and household; it hasn't changed besides the fact that I'm not allowed to go anywhere now even if I wanted to. Our previously full evenings are now cleared up. We can actually relax once in awhile, and Matt can get all kinds of his projects done outside and around the house. I can stay relatively caught up around the house...and if I get behind, I know there will be time tomorrow, or the next day...as I said, we have all the time in the world right now.

Other reasons we have to be thankful: Matt has a job he can do from home; we have running water, electricity, modern conveniences, and technology; the weather is beginning to improve...really, what do we not have to be thankful for? We are very thankful to be in good health; as far as the coronavirus goes, it doesn't seem to be targeting young children so I am thankful for that. I am thankful Iowa got "shut down" when cases were first starting to show up in our state so hopefully we can keep the local spread from getting out of hand. I know that people we love will end up in critical condition and perhaps the virus will be fatal to some of our loved ones. We could even be a part of the count. But I am thankful that God holds the future and that He doesn't reveal it to us ahead of time.

I know things will get worse before they will get better, but the worse things get, the more we learn to lean and depend on God. We are praying for everyone who is less fortunate than us during this time, as well as those who are working endlessly to keep our people safe and healthy.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

The Circumference of a Bike Wheel

Two weeks later, I'm here again. Just when we all thought life would never slow down...God came along with coronavirus and closed social life as we know it. Good thing we love each other or this would be a long few weeks or maybe months. :) Our freedoms of assembly and going out and about seem so much more precious already! And we haven't even had any nights of canceled plans yet. But the calendar ahead of us is getting oh, so white.

The first week of March was our "visiting" week. Sunday the 1st we visited Aunt Barb, the 2nd evening we spent at Grandpa and Grandma Schulz's, and the 3rd at Grandma Lanz's. Wednesday evening we visited with a few people at church. Thursday was our evening at home. Friday evening we attended a large Schulz family gathering at Uncle Roger's, and Saturday we attended a much smaller Massner family gathering at my mom and dad's. 

That Friday was Matt's day off and he chose to spend it alone with me! We went to Fairfield and ate lunch at Everybody's Cafe before going on a 14 mile bike ride. We worried about it being too cold, but we bundled up and it was a beautiful day! I cheated a little (or a lot) because Matt lined up Jake's electric bike for me to use. I still got plenty of exercise, but didn't get completely worn out. It was the ticket!

My handsome biking partner!

My mom watched the kids for the day. Uncle Bruce also happened to be spending the afternoon and evening there, so they got some bonding time with him! 

At that point, I was pleased as punch to see that our evening schedule was completely clear for the next week.

Matt spent that Saturday working with his brothers on the cabin at the Schulz home. 

It was a pretty uneventful week, thus the following stream of photos. 

This boy loves carrots. He chose carrots for his bedtime snack one night and ate half the bag before he started slowing down! 

I found all three of them in the dryer one morning. The boys each had a level that they were using as "remotes" to watch the "TV" which was the dryer door. 

This is how Micah wanted to eat his spaghetti one night. 

The kids were playing puppies around lunchtime one day so I just fed them like dogs. 

They like me to roll up their blankies so they can pretend they are holding babies. Joanna loves to pretend she is holding "Sus-sell" (Russel).

Saturday was National Pi Day, March 14th. Of course one cannot let Pi Day go by without making a pie. This year I made the pie that could be done the fastest with the most accessible ingredients in my house...a lime pie - no doubt flourless and sugar free. It obviously had to be ready by Pi time (3:14). And what more, we are currently a Pi family, as our children's ages are 3-1-4. Yeah, enough of the nerdiness already.

Our 3-1-4 Pi Kiddos!

Meanwhile, I am hoping by the time I get back to town in another week that there will be grocery stores open and food available. I had a nice, normal grocery day last Tuesday and apparently the next day the madness started. I bought a big package of toilet paper back in December and we have nine rolls left. My newly potty trained three year old goes through toilet paper like it is his business. So, naturally my first reaction to the coronavirus was worrying about what we were going to do if we ran out of toilet paper. Matt got weary of me talking about toilet paper, but I have moved on from that and onto the stark reality of not being with other humans for the foreseeable future. School is cancelled (which doesn't affect the general functioning of this household), church and its events are cancelled, and today the white house asked that we limit to gatherings of less than ten people. So then our potluck for tomorrow night even got called off.

Since I brought it up and I am sure you all want a good dose of TMI, I am thrilled to say after a month that it seems Micah is potty trained. Unfortunately, it is still a disaster every time he goes to the bathroom on his own. This past week he has been experimenting with all sorts of different peeing positions...because obviously the simple stand-and-pee technique is getting much too mundane. Most of his sessions end up with water (or other fluids) on the seat or his hands. And every bathroom visit results in a bowl full of wadded toilet paper and a pant-less Joe meandering around the house. But he doesn't go in his pants anymore which was technically my initial goal. So, I would say we are doing great.

Micah is so big now that he wants to help potty train Joanna. Yesterday at church, I looked across the kitchen to see Micah and Joanna standing there holding her diaper and tights. "MOMMY, JOANNA WENT POTTY!!" Uhhhh....yeah. Based on the details Micah shared later (so proud he was), he brought Joanna to the handicapped restroom, locked the door so nobody would come in (you know, the proper thing to do when going to the bathroom), helped her take off her tights and her diaper, then she climbed up on the potty and did her business. Then they both came out to share the delightful news with me. By some miracle, everything that needed to be in the toilet ended up there, and Joanna's clothes were all still dry. So we got her dressed back up and away we went. Micah made sure I gave her some treats for going potty. Later I was reliving the event considering all of the possible disasters we were spared. God is obviously present at church. And everywhere, really.

Once our calendar got completely "wiped" clear of events, I decided I might as well redeem the time by potty training Joanna. :) My ultimate goal is to be done with diapers before the baby arrives.

The boys have a book called "Ants in my Pants" and now there are "Boys in my Books!"

Thanks to those who commented or wrote to us last time! It sounds like I have at least a few people who are willing to admit they read this blog! I know there are lots more of you silent ones out there...but that's ok. I get thrilled to hear from readers, so thank you!

Stay well and be wise...pray for our nation and world!

Number 100

This is the one hundredth post on this blog, for the record. Thanks to all who still follow along with us!

Well, the baby arrived and I'm feeling great! Oh wait, not my baby...but I did get some practice with holding little Russell at the hospital. He's a sweetie!

We enjoyed an afternoon of sledding at Dad and Mom Schulz's.

Playing Cranium:)

All the kids decided they wanted babies in their tummies...(this was still a couple weeks before our announcement)

My kitchen helpers! I spent the month of January constantly behind on dishes, so they helped bail me out one day.

A sweet picture from the big Schulz Christmas in December that we received. Micah, Abram, Weston, Krista, and Asher.

The children finally got to meet baby Russell when he was a week old! They were in love! (And Levi was in a phase where he felt compelled to stick out his tongue every time I took his picture. Joanna is imitating him.)

Matt put up the shades in the new windows in the basement so they are all ready to go! The outside still needs some work when the weather warms up. 

It snowed the weekend of the 18th - perfect packing snow for building a snowman! When we were ready to go inside, Micah insisted he was going to stay out and watch the snowman until it melted. Thankfully, I convinced him that it might be awhile or he would have been out there for a few weeks.

Along with the weather came some nice ice for slipping and getting a black eye! Oops!

The week of the 24th kept us on our toes with classes on three nights, a planned doctor appointment and grocery shopping on the off-day, and squeezing in an unplanned doctor visit with Levi that ended in a diagnosis of strep throat and ear infection. In one way, the sickness kind of helped slow us down a bit because I had to cancel piano lessons on Wednesday and Thursday.

And then, our big boy turned four! In line with his character, it took him a couple days to adjust to the new age and admit that he was now four. He is not keen about transitions. But he enjoyed his birthday to the fullest!

Also fitting for his character, Levi had a very specific request for his birthday cake: a mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich cake. It ended up being super simple; I layered mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches with cool whip (which I dyed his two favorite colors, red and blue). I wasn't feeling up to making a nice beautiful cake this month so I was happy for an easy-pleaser.

It actually turned out to be very colorful when we cut it open!

Our gift to Levi was a "four" puzzle that revealed the anticipated baby!

A favorite gift was this dog on a leash from G & G Schulz. It has had a new name about every day...things like "Caramel Eyes Apple" and "Leash."

The next day, I decided to keep all of the kids home from church because they had been coughing and had slight fevers and weren't acting well. These new stickers from G & G Massner came in handy that day! 

We were planning to host young couples on Tuesday, but since our children still had coughs and runny noses on Tuesday, nobody felt comfortable coming with their babies. So Nate and Lucy graciously offered to host for us. I made my meat and brought it up there, and then we spent a quiet evening at home. 

Levi got four dollars that he spent at Dollar General. A couple purchases were these capsule animals...

...and these beautiful lips that he just couldn't resist. Along with some candy and a card game. 

My mom sent home some of my old clothes. Joanna thought this ten-sizes-too-big outfit was the greatest! So retro:)

The first weekend of February, we went to Monmouth for Ray Defenbaugh's visitation in the afternoon. Due to the long line, we ended up being forty-five minutes late for supper at my mom and dad's. It was a very low-key "family night" because Jesse was sick in bed with pneumonia, Jonathan was still in Ames, and Bill & V stayed home with Russell since we didn't know whether Jesse was contagious at that point (and we are obviously just reckless parents when it comes to exposing our kids to sickness).

The next day was the funeral at the Biggsville gym. The children and I sat in the bleachers at the back of the gym in the non-designated AC children's section; Matt directed the choir. The funeral ended up lasting about two hours. We were so exhausted at the end of the day, but it is a funeral we will not forget for a long time. Ray was an inspiration to all of us.

The next couple weeks, I started to regain some energy to get caught up on two weeks' worth of dishes and laundry, do two months worth of ironing, put away the Christmas decor, and prepare meals containing meat again. My hormones have also started to rebound a bit after about a month of being down and depressed. So, I guess as February comes to a close I can say I am feeling much better overall.

The next birthday cake project was Micah's! He was so excited to turn three. I told him for the past several months that when he turns three he is going to start using the potty and wearing underwear. So far (2.5 weeks later), so good! 

The finished product (his request was a balloon cake)!

Birthday buds! Alan had his "birthday party" at our house the same night as Micah's. Only Alan's party was on the pond in the form of a hockey game!

Our Valentine's Day Bouquet! 

Around 10:30pm on Valentine's Day, my brothers showed up for a late night hockey game!

Micah and Joanna enjoyed splashing in the puddles one Saturday!

Drummer band!

Monday the 10th was our last day of foster care classes...it is so nice to have our Monday evenings back again! Our final home visit was the next Monday afternoon. It will probably be the beginning of April before our home study is finalized and approved and we have our license, but everything is out of our hands now.

On the 14th, I took the kids up to Muscatine to get groceries and eat lunch with Matt. That evening, Matt and I went with a group to sing for Jody Eberhardt, who was on hospice care at home. We spent the remainder of the evening at Mom and Dad Schulz's. That weekend was Travis and Kenna's wedding and we got the privilege of hosting four single sisters...two we knew, Cherelle and Liberty S....and two new ones from West Bend, Anna and Abigail Z. Sunday after the reception we went to Mom and Dad Schulz's for a family night.

A walk in the woods had the boys discovering a tree house!

The next week involved two trips to town, one for my doctor appointment and another for Joanna's 18 month check-up. Thursday evening we returned to town for Jody's visitation and got groceries afterward. Friday we attended potluck at Nate and Lucy's, and Saturday was memorandum at church.

Uncle Jesse spent the evening here on the Sunday of the Parent's Supper! He had spent the last two evenings babysitting our children, so I guess it was our kids' turn to babysit Uncle Jesse!

The boys wanted to match me on Monday!

On Tuesday, my mom came and picked up the boys to spend the day with them at Shug's Tiny Town in Burlington for their birthdays. It is kind of like a children's museum of sorts with all the different kid-sized shops to play in. The boys had a blast. They met Grandpa for lunch at McDonald's. They were wiped out at the end of the day but had many fun stories to tell!

The hair salon

Going fishing!

"We're fire mans," says Micah.

We kind of slowed down the next couple days. Joanna had a fever last Wednesday night and it returned Sunday and this Wednesday afternoon. Micah got a fever Tuesday night, Levi had a fever and sore throat all day Thursday, and Micah had a fever again on Friday evening. It doesn't make any sense to me...I never know if anyone is sick or healthy around here! But apparently we should just start assuming everybody is sick. I planned to host Baby Joy on Thursday but we ended up rescheduling since so many were cancelling with sick kids anyway. We also cancelled piano lessons and our evening plans so a very full-looking Thursday turned into a quiet day at home.

I was so proud of Micah...he learned how to put together this square block puzzle all by himself! I can't even do it, so that's saying something. 

"Orange" you silly!

We're looking forward to some beautiful weather this weekend as we take our big "leap" into March!

If you read our blog, please comment below with something inspirational. Or a simple "Salutations" would be great too! After 100 blog posts, I would love to hear something from our readers!

And then...

Another little baby will be joining us in August, Lord willing! I'm at around 13 weeks right now. January was a miserable month, to be completely honest. I have high hopes for February as I come out of the bog of the first trimester and am able to start feeling more excited about the baby growing inside of me. We are a very blessed family! We revealed the news about our "fourth" on Levi's fourth birthday. Clever, I know. :) The boys are very excited in anticipation of the baby...after watching three cousins grow in bellies this year, they have somewhat of an idea of what is going on. Except I don't think they comprehend how long six months is going to take!

Thankful and blessed...praising God for all His wondrous works!