Life Lately + A Little Announcement

How are you holding up during this global pandemic? Is “social distancing” and homeschooling your kids going well for you?

As expected, we have good days and bad days. There are days when my kids are obstinate and whiny and all I want to do is send them to another room to play. There are other days when they are cooperative and we do activities and games and have a great time. I shared a daily quarantine schedule last week, and we’ve loosely stuck to it. We’ve modified it to some degree each day, but we try to stick to a loose schedule as much as we can. You’ve probably seen COVID-19 memes out the wazoo, and some are pretty funny. My mom sent this one last week –

I’m very thankful for the packet of work pages the girls’ schools sent home. Raley really enjoys doing her work and has not complained about it once (which I’m actually surprised about). Audrey is hit or miss. I need to find some more challenging pages for Audrey to work on that will hold her attention a little better. If you have any suggestions for 4-5 year old work pages, please send them my way. She’s getting bored with tracing and circling letters.

A few other activities we’ve done the past few days are play with play-doh, kinetic sand, bake and decorate cookies, go on walks, walk the greenway, attempt to have dance class and practice recital routines (that didn’t last long), dance to Kidz Bop dance along videos,  play with sidewalk chalk, play on the swing set (when the weather allows), make crafts, watch online art tutorials and draw pictures, play board games, have movie nights, and participate in daily challenges/watch videos from their teachers. Raley also enjoys the “Teach Your Monster to Read” app, but honestly, I don’t like them hooked to technology so I try to limit this.

These activities sent by their schools were a lot of fun if you’re looking for something new. They especially loved the ABC exercise activity.

If you follow me on IG or my personal Facebook page, you may have seen our little announcement we made yesterday. Surprise! We’re having a baby! It still seems surreal that we have a third on the way. I shared many of my thoughts and worries about having a third child when I discussed our early pregnancy loss a few months back. What I learned from that experience is that God has a big plan for our lives. I stated that I wanted Him to take control and let us know if we were meant to have a third child, and that’s what He did. Honestly, when I looked into our future, I couldn’t picture it, but if He can, then I know that this is right and we’re very excited to meet this little one!

This little surprise has changed a few of our plans for the year, and then COVID changed them even more. David and I were planning to go on a New England road trip in the fall for our anniversary. Our plan was to go over fall break (early October) and see all the beautiful changing leaves and scenery through several states in the northeast. It turns out I’m due October 10, so that trip won’t be happening!

We tried to decide what we could do instead that could take the place of that trip, and we decided to take the girls to Disney World as a last big family of four trip. We had planned to go over Spring Break (next week), but COVID nixed those plans. 😥 We rescheduled our Disney trip for May and I’m praying reeeaaal hard that this crazy outbreak gets taken care of and we’re able to go. If it comes to it, we’re not sure we want to push the trip back into June or July because of how hot Orlando is during those months. We’ll just have to see what the next few weeks brings us!

We also went ahead and bought a minivan! We knew we would need a third row, and my car was starting to have some issues + needed new tires real bad (like dangerously bad), so we went ahead and got a van! We got a Chrysler Pacifica, and so far we love it! It’s got so much room and the kids love it! I’m actually excited to get this little one in there too.

Some other changes that we’ll have to figure out is the room situation. Currently our spare bedroom is an office, which has a desk and David’s library of books (like wall-to-wall bookshelves filled with books). What we have to decide is if we want to clear out the office, meaning figuring out what to do with all those books and the stuff that we currently store in the closet, or have the girls share a room and turn one of their rooms into a nursery. So far we’re leaning toward clearing out the office, but we’ve got to consider all the pros and cons on both sides before we decide anything. Do any of your kids share a room? Do they like it?

That was a huge brain dump of thoughts that I’ve had going around in my head regarding a new baby on the way. I’m 11 weeks now, so in about another month we’ll get to find out the gender! Any guesses on what you think it might be?

I hope you are not just surviving, but enjoying this time at home. If you have any activities you think we should try, send them my way! Also if you have any thoughts on siblings sharing a bedroom, I’d love to hear from you! Have a great rest of the week. ?