Out like a Lamb!

Hello again! We are getting along well and I am definitely getting used to this isolated life. Our household is lively enough that we don't get lonely or bored, and the children are young enough that their lives aren't real shaken by the events of the world. We do pray often for those who are feeling lonely, isolated, and fearful during this time.

Even my high-energy social-event-loving husband is getting along well. He normally doesn't like to miss out on anything fun, and since he's not...well, it's ok (FOMO is a real thing!). He's loving the extra time to get projects done around here. The radon fan installation project is almost done in the basement, and now that the weather is warming up he's got fruit trees to tend, grass to burn, and all kinds of other fun things to do.

I realized last Tuesday that I am getting too used to being isolated when I started getting social anxiety before my first outing to the doctor and the grocery store. Upon my arrival to the store, I concluded that all the disease spreading is probably going to happen in the grocery stores, because they were as busy as ever. And based on how much food was in several carts at the checkout aisle, many people's idea of "reducing your trips to the grocery store" meant reducing from five times a week to only two. I am wondering what "reducing your grocery trips" meant to the woman behind me in line at Aldi who had only an avocado to check out. I am sure she had a good reason for making that trip to Aldi, but to the rest of you... please plan ahead before starting that guacamole recipe!

As for me...well, I would consider reducing my trips to town from twice a month to once a month, but I learned as soon as I arrived at Aldi that such a thing would be nearly impossible with all of the limits on how much one can buy. Many of the dairy products were limited to two items, all canned goods had a limit of four per item, and there were several other limits that didn't affect me quite as much. They were also wiped out of most of their canned goods, bread, meat, and obviously household essentials like toilet paper and tissues. There was thankfully no limit on cottage cheese or cream cheese, or I would have been in real trouble. The items I couldn't get at Aldi I was able to find at Hy-Vee. A highlight for me was getting 30% off all the produce at Aldi since they are overstocked. 

My doctor visit was for my 20-week ultrasound and checkup. We are so thankful that everything appears normal and healthy for baby and me! There is a 50% chance that we decided to find out the baby's gender. Fine, make that a 100% chance. It was a fun highlight for our week and the children enjoyed seeing the pictures I brought home!

Matt had a floating holiday to use up this month so he sacrificed our planned trip to town together to stay home with the children.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday kind of ran together in an uneventful blur. At some point I made this no-bake cookie dough cheesecake with the kids. They had a little too much fun cleaning up the blender for me.

She is a food lover like her mama!

Saturday Joanna and Micah made and decorated Rice Krispie trains out of a kit they had gotten for Christmas. We enjoyed one for Sunday lunch and the other is in the freezer for next Sunday!

Saturday night I cleaned (this is my newly-designated weekly cleaning to prepare for our only guest of the week-the King of Kings!). Sunday was another church day at home. We followed our similar routine from last week. After supper, Matt started showing FOMO symptoms after he kept seeing pictures of all the "fun" people were having with their families. 

Him: "How come we never get to do anything fun?? All we do is sit here doing nothing." 

Me: "I don't know what you are talking about. I thought we were having fun sitting here doing nothing!"

After some thought about what would actually be a "fun" thing to do with little children, we decided to go on a "Heart Hunting" drive through Mediapolis to look at the hearts (and teddy bears?) in the windows. The boys enjoyed seeing all the pretty hearts on display! We even got to wave at a few people. Oh, the joys of seeing other flesh-and-blood humans! :)

Our first "stop" was at my mom and dad's, since we hadn't seen them for a few weeks and I knew she had put a few hearts in their window. I think I mentioned last week that there is a strict social distancing policy going on in their household. I was amused when they all ran out to wave at us, still maintaining their "social distance" on the sidewalk. It is becoming second nature to them. They do mention that it is difficult to find activities to do as a family without coming within six feet of each other. Johnny and Justin are still on their post-spring break "isolation" period; maybe after another week they will let up a little? 

Social distancing at its finest!

A "quiet" evening followed at home.

Friday I had made up the dough for these sourdough cinnamon rolls that I then baked on Monday! They turned out pretty good!

Mmm!!

Micah gave them the seal of approval!

One night Levi was talking with grapes in his cheeks. It made him look hilarious; not sure if this picture is going to do it justice. 

We are 2.5 weeks in and I still can't tell if we are making progress on potty training with Joanna. On a bright note, "Sussell" (Russell) is learning to use the potty, so at least he won't be making any dirty diapers for us. 

This is how clever boys get their mom to read books to them when she is busy washing dishes. 

Monday and Tuesday nights we enjoyed the beautiful weather working outside! I planted the garden with most of what we plan to do this year. I am also thrilled to say we plan to make an addition to our yard by turning half of our garden into grass!

Joanna is in that stage where hoods and pockets MUST be used if they exist on a jacket!

Now that April has arrived, we are preparing for Easter! Yesterday the children got to open the first of their resurrection eggs. The boys have been so excited ever since they found the eggs in the storage room last week! They did not have the attention span to listen to my story, so we acted out the Palm Sunday story instead...with our rocking horse, some coats, and the greenery still decorating our desk from Christmas (it is time for spring decor)! It is fun to share these stories with such eager hearts!

We pray you are all doing well, until we see you again! Enjoy the beauty of spring, and be blessed reflecting on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ this Easter season.

Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!

Luke 19:38

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!