Yesterday was my birthday!

Happy Wednesday! Yesterday was my birthday and I turned 41 years old. I decided in the morning that I was going to take the kids on a nice long walk at one of my favorite walking routes. We walked on the bike path, stopped at the Brown Family Environmental Center to look at the flowers and butterflies, and then walked down to the river so that the kids could throw rocks and I could pick up a couple more rocks to paint. We also were treated to a large hawk in a tree that was neat to see and a much smaller bird a few branches down from the hawk, giving the hawk lots of heck! LOL Overall we walked almost 3.5 miles! It was a gorgeous morning and the kids didn't argue or complain. 

Ben spent much of the walk holding my hand. He said he didn't want me to be lonely. 💖

This is 41!

After we left the walk, I got them McDonald's for lunch as a treat which they really enjoyed. 

Then after my niece and nephew got picked up and "A" got picked up, I headed out to the BMV to get my license renewed. I was gone from home for about a half an hour; I think that was a new record! I got my new federally compliant license and will get it in the mail in 2 weeks. There was only 2 people waiting ahead of me and they were pretty efficient about the social distancing, etc. Overall, it was a pleasant experience for once! LOL 

When I came home, my birthday went downhill. Bill was in a bad mood and got pissed off when I told him I had taken the kids to McDonalds as he said that was what he was planning on getting me for dinner (since I told him I wasn't cooking.) He just was in a foul mood.

I ended up ordered pizza from Creno's as a deluxe pizza sounded good. I spent the early evening putting together a free desk that a friend had given us for Rebecca's room. (I want to surprise her when she comes home from camp!) (The desk was free, I just had to get bolts to connect the legs as my friend had lost them. $5 later we had bolts!). He did get me a nightgown and a big bag of chocolate but other than that there was nothing special about the evening-- no cake, no dessert, no singing happy birthday. It is what it is. 

Today, I woke up in a bad mood. I took the kids to the park to find a new community painted rock garden. I told the boys they had to take their rocks that they had painted and put them in so others in the community could enjoy them and they weren't just sitting on the art table at home in a pile.

Benjamin ended up hiding his 2 in other areas of the park. I also let the kids throw rocks into the lake for about 20 minutes which they loved. The weather was hot but good! 

This afternoon we took a drive out to a semi-local used furniture store in search of a chair for the desk. I didn't want to spend more than $30 for a chair. I had looked online at options and the cheapest desk chairs were going for $60-$70! I found a perfect white chair for $25 at the store. (I will take pictures later once I get her room done the way that I want to do it.) I still need to get a new bookcase for her room, but everyone around here is sold out and they didn't have any at the furniture store we went to today.  

Tomorrow I get "A" at 5:20 in the morning, followed by my niece and nephew around 5:45. It is going to be a LONG day. I need to figure out things to keep them busy! I think I am also supposed to get a shelf delivered for my pantry-- it was supposed to be here today but my notification from FedEx said it was delayed and I will have to sign for it. I really hope I don't miss them tomorrow. I want to completely redo my pantry area and make it more efficient and better organized.   

So that is what has been going on in my world yesterday and today. What's been going on in your world? 

Monday and my to do list for the week

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was okay. Saturday much of the day was spent helping Rebecca pack for camp and then a date night at home with Bill with yummy Mexican food.

Yesterday, we took Rebecca to camp and dropped her off. In fact it was super easy drop-off-- everything was done at our van in a drive through style. There was a sort of scare when they took her temperature with the forehead scanner and it came out high, but when they took it by mouth it was 98.2 so normal. I think it was because it was HOT outside and we were in our van with no a/c. I will admit that I have a pit in my stomach, but she needed to go to camp for her mental health. The camp is doing everything in it's power to keep the kids safe. 

After we dropped her off, Bill, the boys and I went on a walk on the Heart of Ohio Trail. I really wasn't in the mood to walk but Bill wanted to. We did end up seeing some beehives on someone's property that was kind of neat to see. 

After our walk, we took the kids to a local ice cream shop for a snack.

While Rebecca is gone, I have a ton of things that I need to do. I want to deep clean her room while she is gone. Rebecca has the smallest bedroom in the house but it is the messiest! LOL. A friend gave me a small desk for her bedroom that I want to surprise her with when she comes back. 

So with that being said, I have a ton of stuff on my to-do list this week. 

• Deep clean Rebecca's room (change sheets, declutter dresser, declutter shelves, etc)
• Clean the kitchen
• Deep clean both bathrooms
• Deep clean litter boxes
• Clean Ben and Jacob's room
• Go to Used furniture store to find desk chair for Rebecca's room
• Get license renewed
• Redo pantry organization (I ordered a larger shelving unit and hope that that works)

Not sure what else this week will bring. Tomorrow is my birthday and I am not sure we are doing anything. I guess I should get off of here and get something done.I told the kids that since it was going to be SUPER hot today that I was going to let them have a movie day and I was going to get some cleaning done. They are all engrossed in "The Incredibles" movie so I should go get some bathroom cleaning done while I can! What are you up to today? Hope everyone has a good Monday! 

Trees, Flowers, Cows and the Sky

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. Sundays are meant to be a day of rest and relaxation and one of the ways that I rest is to spend time in nature. I try to spend a least a little bit of time in nature each week and I notice my mood goes down when I don't get to go outside. This past week was rough, but I did try to get some nature time in. So let's see the little slices of nature that I saw this week:

July 23, 2020: Kokosing Gap Trail, Mount Vernon, OH

July 24, 2020: Brown Family Environmental Center, Gambier, OH

Hope everyone has a good Sunday! 

Long week with a couple positives!

Thanks for all the notes of support on my last post. This week has just been hard. Maybe it is all the COVID crap news. I haven't done an update for here in a while so let's see where our county stands...

Last time I wrote an update on numbers it was July 1 and we were at 48,222 cases, 2,615 deaths and 39 cases in my county. The numbers were just depressing to look at. Well here we are July 24 and the numbers are much worse. 

Here in Ohio, we are at 77,309 cases, 3,039 deaths, and 115 confirmed cases in my county. Yikes. 

Our county is now under a level orange alert, meaning there is active community spread. Ohio is now under a mask mandate for the entire state as of Thursday. Our county fair, scheduled to start Sunday, was cancelled as of yesterday. Our county heath commissioner basically said if she had the power she would shut our county down for 2-3 weeks completely. As of last week, our local schools say they are starting back in school full time. I will believe it when I see it. There has been so much animosity in our town about the mask wearing, etc. It is hard. 

When I haven't been entangled in all the emotions that come along with COVID crap, I have tried to keep busy. This week we have finally gotten some rain, in the form of pop up storms, so we weren't able to get out and walk for much of the week. I had to come up with indoor activities. I ended up attempting to make play dough with cornstarch and shaving cream. The dough never came together, but the kids enjoyed scooping it up and playing with it non-the-less. 

We did finally get a long walk in on Thursday. We walked 3 miles on the bike path. Just as we were finishing our walk we heard thunder and we had a few hours of off and on rain and storms. We did end the evening with a rainbow though so that was a much needed sign of hope. 

Today, I took the kids to a local playground this morning. We were going to walk, but a friend dropped off a pampered chef order (that I ordered 3 months ago!) and we chatted longer than I thought we were going to. The kids had fun at the playground!

This afternoon, I NEEDED to get out of the house and walk. So we went out to the Brown Family Environmental Center and hiked almost 2.5 miles. 

The hike was beautiful and much needed. However, on the drive home, as I was driving, a bee flew in the van and stung me in leg (through my workout capris!). I haven't been stung by a bee in a really long time and man it hurt! 

Tonight, I have been watching "Opening Day" of my favorite Major League Baseball team-- the Cleveland Indians. It is strange not to have fans in the stands, but it is good to have live sports again. 

This weekend, I have a ton to do on my to-do list. I need to make a Walmart run tomorrow so I will probably get up early and go. I also need to do a lot of cleaning in the house. Not much was done this week as I wasn't feeling it. 

Hope everyone has a good weekend!