Now that we’ve been encouraged (forced) to stay at home for almost 4 weeks because of this virus, I thought I’d catch you up on some of what filled our time: grocery shopping, yard work, reading, taking walks, and finding toilet paper. I’m sure you can identify with much of what we experienced.
Just as the restaurants are closing, we decided to have one last breakfast at our local J. Christopher’s. So sad to see it so empty.
Soon after the federal guidelines came out, our state joined many others to have stay-at-home restrictions. We knew that our life wouldn’t be all that different from other times we’re at home, but our hearts went out to families that were going to have to go through upheavals in their lifestyles.
One of our first activities before our state encouraged us to stay home was to vote in the primary presidential election.
voting at our beautiful local library
Empty shelves met many of us as we went to shop for cleaning supplies and Lindt 85% chocolate.
Some shelves are still empty after 30 days.
One of the items that was hard to find was toilet paper. But our local Ace Hardware had this option for us.
Might be hard to manage these large rolls in our bathrooms, but at least TP is available.
After about 3 weeks, we were finally able to get some disinfecting wipes.
Posts on FaceBook have had such great ideas for families to fill their days. I really like this scavenger hunt plan. If we had tried this with our sons we would have had to come up with some prizes to motivate them.
great for a family walk at a local park
Costco shopping
Shopping at Costco has been a real eye-opener. On one of our first days as we were getting used to the initial guidelines, panic shopping set in.
Cart after cart was filled with toilet paper, paper towels, and water. The line to pay was all the way back to the meat area—on both sides of the aisle.
Eventually Costco set up lines for us to walk through to get inside. Luckily we’re all used to walking through lines at Disney’s locations.
Still had to keep distance from each other.
Oh happy day, seniors can get in early 2 mornings a week.
But the first early senior morning was so popular that the line wound all around the corner. Some of the people didn’t look all that old, but they were probably shopping for their parents, right?
Eventually we figured out going in the middle of the day would work better for us.
Barney is navigating the Disney-like lines. Such cute legs!
spring
Spring in north Georgia is so beautiful. It takes about 2 months for all of the trees to bloom. This drive is one of our favorite views with all of the white petals on the Bradford pear trees.
These Lenten roses in front of our house greet us early each spring as Lent starts.
The downside of Georgia’s spring is the pine tree pollen that coats everything with yellow yuck for about 3 weeks. What a mess. Luckily it’s here during cool weather so we’re not tempted to open our windows.
blood drive
It’s so hard to just stay home doing nothing when so many are being challenged and we want to help, so when our church sent out an email about a blood drive that we could sign up for, we went for it!
In 28 days we can give again! Later we learned that this blood drive was the largest the Red Cross had had this spring.
In the middle of one of the church’s parking lots we saw Alpharetta’s drive-thru Covid-19 testing station. Hope it gets busier when we get more testing kits!
life goes on
During our weeks of staying put, we took walks on a regular basis; started working out; Barney had a virtual doctor’s appointment; I went to physical therapy (my social outing for the week); Barney worked on his truck; and we both cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. Have a look at some of our other activities.
driving through our local Starbucks to see Matt and get a mocha
Hours in the yard mulching leaves and laying them out helped make the yard look so much better.
Sure appreciate Jason’s work!
Don’t you just love it?
A tree guy will be coming soon to take out some dead and dying trees. Hopefully that will allow more sun to get in so maybe we can grow grass.
Jason had problems breathing one night so Barney took him to the ER in the middle of the night. Only some badly bruised muscles around his ribs. They were in and out within an hour!
I was able to read 2 nonfiction books during our stay-at-home that I really enjoyed.
Learned so much from both of these books especially since we had been introduced to Texas’ independence last year as we traveled along the Rio Grande and had been to the SEALs Museum in Florida on our last trip.
favorite room to escape to
A few years ago we had our porch restructured, which has allowed us to use it most of the year.
porch ready for spring
This has been our go-to room for celebrations during this time.
Jason’s birthday
Easter dinner. I had given up bread for Lent so thoroughly enjoyed these hot cross buns on Easter day; a family tradition when I was young. Yes, I shared.
pancakes
Since we’re home for breakfast every morning instead of going out once a week for a change of pace, I decided to try pancake recipes on Saturdays to find the best pancake ever. Here’s what we have had so far; I’ll add more to this post while we’re still at home in the waiting game to get back on the road.
First week’s try was a package mix since we couldn’t find baking products in the grocery store. Not a do-again since the pancakes were tasteless and just stayed in my gut for a while. The bacon was precooked that we just had to warm up in the oven. It was okay since it didn’t make a mess to clean up.
Secondweek we tried a 3-bowl recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks. Much better tasting, but still a heavy meal.
Every fall our local J. Christopher’s Breakfast and Brunch restaurant serves pumpkin pancakes, which are delicious. I decided to make our own.
Third week (on the left) was pumpkin pancakes sprinkled with nutmeg. Great taste, but the flour made them taste heavier than I remember from J. Christopher’s. Fourth week (on the right) was Paleo pumpkin pancakes with coconut flour and tapioca flour. So much lighter, but the texture was a little strange for my palate.
Fifth week was sweet potato pancakes. Only recently have I started eating sweet potatoes, and we’ve been able to use them in so many different recipes. These pancakes were light, tasty, and didn’t leave a heavy feeling in our tummies. A do-again!
Yesterday the federal plan for opening up the country was laid out for us, so the next post will cover life until we take off on another long trip. Yea!
