Quarantine Field Trip to Patapsco

Corona Quarantine Day #47

I can't believe the country has been shut down for nearly 50 days!

The lockdown and the repercussions of this virus have been hard on everyone, but the weather this April (cold, rainy, gray) has made it even harder.

But, alas, today was a beautiful day!  So, we took full advantage and headed to Patapsco State Park.

Patapsco State Park extends along 32 miles of the Patapsco River and encompasses over 16,000 acres.  The park is known for its trails (over 200 miles worth) and scenery.

Ella, as usual, pooped out on us. Dad to the rescue!

These two often have a hard time meshing.  When I hear kids arguing, 9 times out of 10, it's these two!  So, when I peak over the edge of the trail and come across this sighting, it makes me so happy! 👫

Easy does it, Ella Grace!

All our hard work paid off when we finally made it to the waterfall!

Daniel's Dam background

Filter fun

When we made it to the top of the waterfall, we came across this adorable little family of ducks. We were all entranced.  

Looks like Mommy Duck and I were on the same page today.... Grab the hubs and the babies and go out and explore nature!

Speaking of nature..... we wrapped up the day by watching Call of the Wild, which Tanner has been wanting to watch for the last couple of months, ever since it came out.  However, we made him read Jack London's novel first (which he and I did together) and then earn watching the movie.  We finished reading it this morning, so when we got home from our hike, we finally got to see the movie! Tanner's review:  the book was better (they almost always are!) but the movie "was still pretty good!"

Corona Quarantine Day #44: Trampoline Camping

What do you do when you're a Boy Scout and you LOVE camping..... yet every campout for the past couple of months and for the foreseeable future is canceled?  Well, you recruit your siblings to have a campout on your trampoline!

Dave and I were convinced they wouldn't make it the whole night, mostly because they would get cold.  We have had a cold, windy, rainy, yucky April.  We've had a nice weather day here and there, but overall, it's been cold, dreary and wet.  But alas, they persevered and proved us wrong! So, hey, that's one perk of quarantine!  Mom and Dad let you have a trampoline campout on a school night!

I also just wanted to document everything we are doing now via zoom.  Here is Ella doing Speech Therapy with her Speech Therapist in her Sponge Bob PJs.  I was going to crop it so my messy kitchen wasn't pictured, but then I decided it was worth documenting what is on my counter: a box of gloves, a box of masks and Clorox wipes.  Signs of the times....

And last night, we attended our first drive-by Wedding Reception.  The daughter of our very good friends Joe and Monica got married a few weeks ago and weren't able to have a reception due to the lockdown.  So, last night, they set up a little reception of sorts where you could drive by, wish congrats to the happy couple through your window, blow bubbles, etc.

It's a little crazy to attend a wedding celebration and not be able to hug and mingle and eat and everything else. But I love how everyone is doing the best to do what they can within the limitations in which we find ourselves.

Congratulations to Maddie and Justin! This will be the first adventure of many! 👰💗

Corona Quarantine Day #40: Field Trip to a Nature Trail

WHAT'S HARD RIGHT NOW:

We're out of eggs.  My whole life, I just took for granted that I could just go to the store to get what I need.  Now, for so many staples, the shelves are just empty.  I donned my gloves and required mask and protective-ware and headed to get my eggs.  Instead, I was greeted with nothing but an empty shelf and a sign reminding customers of the new mask-mandate.

This came up on my Facebook memory feed today..... a memory of T playing baseball 6 years ago.  And it just reminded me of how right now Lacey should be playing soccer, Tanner should be playing baseball, Riley should be playing soccer and lacrosse and Ella should be playing lacrosse.  And it just made me think of how desperately I miss all of that!!

The Governor spoke today with the latest update.  He has outlined a four step plan of trying to get our state back up and running. This plan involves cases trending down consistently, increasing testing capabilities, increasing beds/surge preparedness and tracing of COVID + patients (trying to figure out how/when/where they got infected).  But he also said we aren't where we need to be in order to entertain the thought of re-opening now.  He said that Maryland has had 14,775 confirmed cases.  631 of those have died.  He said that 3,325 of those cases have required hospitalization and that 1,432 are currently in the hospital.  Most of them (905) are in regular acute care, but 527 of them are in ICU.

WHAT BROUGHT ME JOY TODAY

It's supposed to rain 6 of the next 8 days, so we decided to take advantage of the day today and go on a "hike"!  I use that word loosely because it was much more along the lines of a nature walk, but either way, it was fun!

The Nature Center was of course closed, but the trail, which goes along the Chesapeake Bay, and is part of the U.S. Naval Academy, was open!

Thank heavens for my family and for nature.... two things which feed my spirit and soul right now!

Riley J

My Lacey girl. 

Corona Quarantine Day #36: Three More Weeks.....

For documentation's sake, here is the latest Covid update.

Governor Hogan issued a mandate to start wearing masks whenever in public.  Many people have already started doing this, but as of now, it is mandated.

On March 11th, we were told that schools would close on March 13th, but would be back in session on March 30th.  As March 30th approached, they tacked on another 4 weeks, telling us that we would be back in session April 27th.  Now, they just announced they are tacking on an additional 3 weeks with a back in session date of May 15th.  The kids were all heartbroken.  They were so excited to go back to school and see their friends and were so excited that they only had one more week to go until that would happen!  So now to know that they have a whole month to go until that happens is devastating.  I don't have the heart to tell them that there's a very good chance they won't go back to school at all.....

The sign that is now in front of my hospital, Medstar Franklin Square Medical Center.

I am now getting "re-deployed" to the entrances of the hospital to do COVID screenings on people.  I hate it.  Today I had to tell a brand new almost-to-be father who came to the entrance with his wife, who was in labor and having their very first baby that he wasn't allowed in the hospital.  I had to tell him that he needed to sit in his car while his wife endured labor alone.  English was his second language and he was clearly very distraught at this news.  I felt terrible! He kept coming in and asking if he could go be with her yet.  He was talking to his wife on speaker phone and I could clearly hear her moaning in intense pain and crying and begging him to come be with her.  And I just had to keep turning him away and telling him to sit by himself in the parking lot while his wife sat alone in the hospital room.  At one point, he came in to tell me that his wife had called him to tell him that her water broke and nobody was there to help her.  It honestly was so horrible!  What is the sense in this?! I apologized profusely to him and told him we'd come get him as soon as we could. He kept asking why he couldn't go back and I said I didn't know why and was so sorry.  A Nurse Manager heard me say this and then she got mad at me and laid in to me that I didn't "defend hospital policy."  I told her I thought the policy didn't make any sense!  Every woman deserves for her husband to be with her at the time of delivery and every father has the right to be present when his child enters the world - even in times of Covid!  I'm clearly not cut out for this and am anxiously awaiting the day I can just go back to my office and be a dietitian!

Fortunately, the hospital tested his wife for COVID (which they have now started doing for all women in labor and delivery) and when her test came back negative, he was finally allowed in to be with her and thankfully made it in time for the delivery.  

What I see every day on my way to/from work.

In happier news, it brought a smile to my face to find Ella doing "school" while wearing an army hat and PJs.

And my 11 year old son clearly has reached a new level of boredom! (I'm impressed that a middle schooler can still fit inside the dryer!)

And we experienced our first "Zoom" virtual birthday party.  All the girls were told to have their dolls with them.

It was a cute idea, but honestly it didn't really work.  None of the girls really knew what to say/do through the computer.  Six and seven year olds are meant to be together!

BUT.... what did work was our first car parade!  All the moms of the girls invited to the birthday party decided to get together and do a car parade for the birthday girl.  Ella made her this.

And then we all lined up at the appointed time.  And then we rolled down our windows and drove by her house and we all honked and shouted and waved and held up signs and balloons and threw out candy and cards and presents from our car to the birthday girl who was with her family in their front yard. It was super cute and actually brought tears to my eyes.  It's so touching to see the efforts of people coming together to make it a little easier on someone else.... like a little girl who can't be with her friends on her birthday.

And one thing that has really been helpful is that we've ended up "co-quarantining" with a family in my court.  They have three kids that match up perfectly with Lacey, Riley and Ella (poor Tanner).  And early on, we realized it was going to be virtually impossible to keep Ella and Dom apart.  They have been best friends since birth spending every day of their lives together.  It was so hard explaining that they couldn't see each other anymore!  Well, Ella would be riding her bike in the court and Dom would just grab his bike and start riding in the court too.  And then naturally, at some point, they'd ditch their bikes and start playing together.  So, the four of us parents kind of threw up our hands and decided we'd co-quarantine.  And it has made life much easier and more enjoyable.  Last night we got together for a campfire and s'mores.  For a couple hours, it almost felt normal.