Quarantine Snapshots

There's been joy in this roller coaster journey. Small snapshots into what really matters.

I've been more aware of the light, watching how it changes my mood and affects my world.

People have gotten more creative. My neighbor set up a fun scavenger hunt for many of the kids on our street for the morning of St. Patrick's Day. That was when this all seemed new and fun and temporary.

My kids were pretty creative at the beginning as well. Eve made an Amazon box into a car that parked on our back patio for a week.

Hyrum used the wax surrounding a Babybel cheese as a seal on a letter requesting game time, and Eve wrote us the sweetest note. She frequently drops notes around the house for me, and I hope she never outgrows it.

I bought a new plant at the grocery store. Brad noticed water on it one day but didn't think anything of it . . .

. . . until he saw it again the next day. When I googled the plant, we discovered that this plant "weeps" when it's overwatered, but that it doesn't hurt it since it's native to the rainforest. See the drip on the end of the leaf here? Cool, right? I'd never heard of that.

Early in our quarantine adventure, I took the kids out to buy a few more pittisporum for our yard. It's funny how just looking at this photo from three weeks ago makes me feel like somehow we were doing something "wrong." 

God blessed us with an incredible rainstorm. AZ kids love the rain and never pass up a chance to run around in it--because it's usually warm. Not this time. But that didn't prevent them from getting soaked and laughing.

I took my fiddle leaf fig trees out, but the storm quickly blew them over and ripped a few of their leaves, sadly.

We are lucky that we get to spend quarantine with the Johnsons, the cute family that lives in our guest house. We share the yard and otter pops and and goldfish crackers and card games almost every afternoon. It keeps all of us a little more sane.

One afternoon they set up an obstacle course in the back yard, and Eve was the photographer.

Marc is the cool dad, and they even went camping in the backyard one night. Ruby stuck her head out and yelled, "GOODNIGHT JEN!" before they zipped it up for the night.

Strangely it was one of the coldest nights we had in March, and halfway through the night, Marc had to put on the rain fly so the little people didn't freeze.

There's been a lot of reading in this house that loves books and stories.

Tucker's family has been here most days, but that is the extent of our exposure to the outside world--six little people and their four parents. It's strange that the world has shrunk to that now.

We began our quarantine with lots of bike rides along the canal, but those have slowly lost their allure.

I was laid up after a minor bike crash a few weeks ago, but I'm back exercising and running along the canal I love. Before long, it will be hot and I won't be able to run any time of the day.

We watched this pair of ducks for weeks, hoping to see babies following along between them, but it looks like they either didn't lay eggs this spring or that none of them hatched. That idea made Eve very sad for the poor mama duck. And me, too.

I'm very grateful that Target has been deemed an essential store. I can get groceries and essentials (in theory, but still have yet to see TP on any shelf anywhere since this whole craziness descended) and chocolate-covered Peeps, since Target is the only place I've ever seen them.

Admittedly, I've purchased way more than my share of these delectable creations.

I've watched the night sky closer as well, since I lock the feathered ladies in their coop every evening. There's such peace in the transition from flaming color to darkness, and often I stand out there for a moment to remember how good life really is, despite all the crazy inconvenience and fear and everything else.