Positive for Corona Virus

 We made it to Christmas. All the way to the end of 2020 and with vaccines currently being administrated and a small...very small...light at the end of the tunnel and what I feared most happened. Several days before Christmas Papaw was having episodes of vertigo. Nobody assumed it was from the virus. Charles and his family came into town and they stayed clear of us. We had a potential exposure in Noelles day school and had gotten a negative test back but the timeline still had it iffy. All my family had lunch together without Mark or I...we were working. Everyone said Papaw looked rough and we began to worry that he might have potentially had a stroke. Christmas morning Grandmommy and Papaw were supposed to come over bright and early but they didn't show. I called grandmommy and she said they were not good and she was taking Papaw to the hospital. We had a wonderful Christmas morning with Charles, Valerie, the kids, Nana and Grandpa over despite all being worried about Papaw. We then found out that Papaw tested positive for the virus and had pneumonia. As we wrapped up Christmas morning my mom started feeling sick and later that day a few of us were having symptoms of the virus. We all got tested the next day. Kids positive, my parents positive, Charles positive. The next day we were all feeling symptoms. Papaw is in the hospital not getting better but not having any major scares either. 

Charles quarantines in the camper until he can get another positive test just to be sure. Work is complicated for him if he is positive. My parents are very sick. Mark is sick and I am sick. The kids are mild. Charles test positive again and decides to just quarantine in our house. My parents are still very sick. Valerie and kids never test positive and eventually go back to TX. We try to keep grandmommy in good spirits with socially distanced visits. We still aren't 100% sure she ever got the virus. She will get a test to see if she had it later. It's been 10 days and Mark is better, kids are better, I am feeling better as well but easily winded. I am shocked at how long the virus has taken a toll on me and my parents. Mom is still pretty sick. It's depressing and hard to imagine feeling 100% again but I know the day will come. Our quarantine ends today according to the health department.

 Papaw is still in the hospital. We are all so worried about him but it does seem as if he is getting a bit better. I am scared for grandommy. It is torture to have a loved one in the hospital and not be able to see them. It isn't fair. I'll be in touch with updates. 

Corona Virus Questions

Here are some questions to answer during coronavirus:

1. What is the date and where are you sheltering in place? Early March. We immediately traveled to TX for cousin time and stayed for 2 weeks. We then came home and quarantined.
2. What is some recent information that you can share about what is happening with the pandemic? Right now, at the end of July, the virus cases continue to rise rapidly. Many small businesses, especially restaurants are suffering. People are TIRED of all of this. There is a vaccine in the works. It looks promising but still seems to far away.
   
3. How do you feel right now? In slight shock that this is real life. I also feel grateful for our business, my family, and our house/yard. I feel happy and normal some days and a bit sad and uncertain on others.
   
4. What do you think about how it is being handled locally, nationally or internationally? Pretty poorly locally. Our town is doing a bit better than our state. Leadership seems to be confused, conflicted, and not very well at communicating. I can't really blame anyone however, who could navigate something like this and make decisions for large populations on something we know nothing about.
   
5. Has anyone you know been affected by covid-19? How so? Thankfully, no one directly. So very extended family, friends of friends. I did have one good friend catch it along with her whole family but they were lucky to have a very mild case.
   
6. What have you had to change about how you fulfill basic needs? Our store was SO hard to navigate when all this first started. Now we are well staffed and organized yet we continue to have staff needing to be tested on a regular basis which is stressful. We have to wear masks any time we go any where and we rarely take the kids out of the house. Basic items have been a bit more challenging to find at time like toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies and certain foods as they are in shorter supply.
   
7. How has this affected your work or school? Work was an EXTREME challenge at first. I would love to do a separate post one day on all of that. The kids schools were shut down in March. It's now July and they have yet to give a clear answer on when they will resume. Many, including myself, feel that when they do reopen they will shut down shortly after. We have chosen to homeschool this year. Crazy.
   
8. What is something positive that has come from this experience for you? Our children have grown very close during this time. They play so well together and really love eachother. We got to go to TX and visit my brother and his family and spend additional time with them. I think this pandemic has taught me how much family means, including my grandparents. Also, our store has been SO busy and we have made so much more profit than ever before.
   
9. What are you doing to pass the time? We painted many rooms in our house, redecorated many rooms, we built and maintained a BEAUTIFUL & plentiful backyard garden, and we've re-finished the camper we bought last year. It's beautiful. We've also spend time growing business.
   
10. What do you miss most right now? I really miss traveling. I miss taking my babies places. I miss going to stores and trying things on carefree. I miss restaurants all being open and normal. I miss routine and normalcy.
    
11. What is the first thing you’d like to do when this is all over? Well...I don't feel like there will be a lightswitch end to this thing. It would be wonderful to have the virus just disappear one day BUT I want to go on a trip. I want to take the kids to fun places.
    
12. What are you most worried about? I am worried about it not ending. That sounds dramatic but when the shut down first happened they said 2 weeks. Then it turned into 6 weeks. Here we are with no end in sight. I am worried that things have changed for ever. That we can never have big group meetings again. That we will always have to wear masks. I am worried for the health of my grandparents and that they might get sick. I am worried that when this passes...what if another virus comes along. I just don't want this to happen again.
    
13. What lessons has this experience taught you? Patience, love, understandingness.
    
14. What are you thankful for? I am thankful for our business continuing to do well. I am thankful for our house and yard giving us plenty of things to keep our mind occupied. I am thankful for my family and especially Mark.
    
15. What is something that is helping you cope? Staying busy, saying how crazy this all is, growing the business, and bettering our house and yard. Also, God is in control and I fully trust him and his plan even though I might not like it.
    

Summer 2020

Fast forward to Eli graduating kindergarten and on to Summer of 2020! The summer Eli graduated 1st grade but it really wasn't a graduation at all. I need to do a full post on this so I can look back on it but this is the summer of the corona virus. Schools got shut down in March, we were thrown into "homeschooling",  navigating our businesses, entertaining the girl, and trying to figure out what in the world was going on. Things have been absolutely insane. But...I will reserve cornona virus for another time. Real quick I wanted to write an update on the kids. We are almost done with the summer. Taylor is a HOOT. Her and Noelle both started school last year but only got about 1/2 the year in before the schools shut down. Noelle is as sweet as can be. And Eli is turning into a big boy. At the moment all of his friendships are pretty much on hold as well as extra curricular activities because of the virus. I will say the kids have all 3 bonded very well through all of this. I am so glad they have each other to play with while we haven't been able to go places are do anything. Yesterday we officially decided we are going to homeschool Eli for his 2nd school year. The girls as well but they are still technically in preschool. It should be interesting to teach Eli at his level and also have Pell & Taylor learn. In a few weeks we are renting out a beach house for a week and I can't wait. We really need a little get away!

More corona thoughts to come.

Eli graduates kindergarten

Eli graduated kindergarten today. His little class ceremony was so cute. He had a great year but is so ready for some summer fun! We jumped right into it with a quick trip to Chuck E. Cheese, a new toy from wonder works, and an afternoon of playing legos! Looking forward to seeing what the rest of these summer days have in store. They are the best!

First 2 Weeks Of Kindergarten

We're two weeks in! Eli is enjoying it but I can tell he is wiped out by the end of each day because he starts to get pretty moody come bed time. He's been a trooper riding his bike to school every morning and I've been a trooper too running 2.6 miles every morning to get him there. For the most part we are rocking our morning routine. I wouldn't say I love it. I'd much prefer to sleep until 8/9, play with my babies all morning, get them dressed whenever and go about our day our way  but alas, we must grow up. Despite it not being my most favorite part about life I am pretty proud of how the mornings are going. Everyone is up and moving at a proper time. We've yet to run late. Lunches are mostly pre-made and everyone has everything they need to get Eli to school.

What do we need to get Eli to school? Oh, you'd think we were hiking Mount Everest. The girls both need a bowl of cheerios to eat on the way, each need ice water, Pell needs her book bag with her "lunch box" and a book in it. Eli needs his energy balls so we can stop half way and snack. He needs a drink for the ride, a drink for school, his lunch box, book bag, helmet and many bike accessories. It's quite a circus. I am sure the neighbors are entertained seeing us trotting down the road at 7:45 in the morning. 

Eli is meeting a few new friends. He says he enjoys his days but he has to do a lot of work. He's usually excited to tell me one or two fun things about the day before wanting to run to his room and play. At drop of in the morning he is pretty adorable. The music teacher helps with the car line and Eli always says "Hi Mr. Benson" in the sweetest little baby voice ever. There's rarely moments when I see pieces of "little" left in him but something about the way he says that is so cute. Before Eli goes into school we park his bike, he eats another energy ball, drinks some water & then I say a little prayer for him. Today he didn't think I was going to pray and he asked "What about my prayer?" so that made me happy but I wasn't going to forget it. After our quick prayer he gives Taylor & Pell both a kiss on the head and pat before running off to go in the school. 

Every time I see him go in the school I wish he didn't have to go in. Life seems to short for me to send him off for 7 hours a day but I hear I'll grow to love it so I guess I'll just wait for that time to come. The girls & I have been having a good time while Elis at school. I've made it a point to leave my phone away from me so I can focus on playing with them undistracted. They are so cute and we do have a good time. 

We're still working out the afternoon schedule. It interferes with nap time pretty annoyingly so Mark may make some tweaks with the work schedule and try to get done in time to pick Eli up. Overall, things are going well with this new schedule!

Christmas 2017

I wanted to write about our holiday season before Christmas came and gone and now we are well into January and I just decided I better throw a little out there before it all slips away and next Christmas came without any recording of our first Christmas with the 3 kids. I’ll start with Taylor since there’s the least to say. Taylor just started sitting in a high chair, her jumper, and eating little bits of baby food. I lugged her chunky booty to all of the festivites and she loved it. She is such an easy baby (though still not a great sleeper but she’s taken a turn for the better at 7.5 months) and she is all smiles being out and about. She wore her cute little Christmas outfits with her sister and enjoyed all the sights. I took the 3 of them to magnolia gardens festivites by myself and I felt so lucky to be able to do so. We own a retail store and I still got off many Saturdays during the festive time to spend with my sweet babies. Anyways, Taylor fell asleep in the carrier and Pell & Eli enjoyed the festivness even though it was 30 degrees and wet. We froze but rushed home, changed to warm clothes and cuddled up with hot chocolate, a movie, and some snacks. I’ll remmeber this day forever I think because it was such a nice time. It’ll just be one of the moments I look back on when the years have gone by too fast. We also did many other fun things. Saw the lights, went to many festivals, made lots of crafts, a gingerbread house. We did a countdown chain and had our chocolate countdown from Nana. We saw santa a few times, watched lots of christmas movies, and read plenty of Christmas stories. Every time christmas passes I wonder if I did enough to give the kids good memories to look back on. When I type it out it certainly seems like it but the month or so we celebrate seems to go so fast. Pell didn’t say a whole lot of words this christmas but she learned “snowman” and “santa” pretty well by the end of it. She liked Santa. She wasn’t about decorating cookies or gingerbread houses. The concept of decorating food and not eating it was a little out of her relm of understanding. She made crafts with us and did a good job and she participated in all festivites. She liked it all but wasn’t overly excited. Maybe festivals and all were a bit overwhelming or maybe she was just like “yeah, this is what it should be”. Who knows. She is super cute though. We rode around the block Christmas Eve night and she LOVED it. Just laughed and laughed with her cousins and Eli while she fell all ove the place in the back of the car. We didn’t make them buckle up and I sat back there with them. Eli loved every bit of festive things we did. He was always looking forward to frestivities and asking to do them. Every night he would talk about how excited he was for Christmas to come. He still wasn’t old enough to narrow down a great gift list for us but he knew he was getting gifts and he had a LONG list of things he continued to add to throughout the season. He knew who Santa was and he could get a little nervous and shy whenever we would go to meet santa. It was pretty cute. I know he lost a little sleep thinking about Christmas. He had a Christmas preformance at school and he did very good. We gave his class our seed characters with a feeder and he was so proud of his gift to his classmates. Christmas morning Eli was the first to get up and we walked passed Cj & Daniels gifts, straight to his and just stood there for a second shaking his hands with a huge smile on his face. He had to run upstairs to tell Cj to come down and the kids were all smiles looking at there gifts. Eli was THRILLED with his battle bots which is his current obbsession. The one struggle we had this year is that this was Elis first real memorable Christmas. He hardly remembered last year and couldn’t quite remember how it all went. The week of Christmas was so busy with our work schedule, family, and parties that he lost some of his manners. He kept wanting more gifts or being vocal about ones he didnt like (which changed quickly after a little talk) but the wanting more didn’t really stop and so I’m hoping we can work on this throughout the year. Overall, it was an amazing Christmas. We broke all kinds of records at the store this holiday season and still managed to create so many awesome family memories! It was nice to have family in town, especially all of Elis cousins. It just makes my heart to happy to see all the kids together and that Eli, Pell, & Taylor get to have cousins they know and love. It will be difficult to top this Christmas next year but I know we can do it. Eli will be that much more aware and so will Pell. Taylor will also be so cute and much more fun as well! Can’t wait!!! Danielle 

Eli Starts Kindergarten

Eli starts kindergarten. Our first summer is over. Both of these things are breaking my heart. I’ve been ignoring the fact that this day has been coming and drowning my sorrow in travels and fun filled days with my sweet babies all summer long. We’ve truly done it all this summer. Traveled many places, seen many new things, hit up all our favorite things, played with friends, played with family, got new toys, laughed, fought, but mostly stayed busy. I can probably count on my hands the days we just stayed home and did nothing and half of those were because we got hand, foot, mouth. I love taking our children to see new things but now that the day before kindergarten is just about over I can help but feel like I was just trying to squeeze in as much as I could before we enter this whole new world. I am sure it won’t seem as life changing or intense as I feel like it will be but right now I think of how much he will change. Next summer he won’t be the same child he is now. And every summer from here on out he’ll be different than the year before. I keep seeing a post around facebook about how you only get 18 summers. Only 18 summers and 5 of his are already gone. My heart can’t handle it but I know that’s life. I just pray that he finds good friends and has good teachers. I pray he’s surrounded by love and is happy. I pray that God shows me how to guide him through all the things he’ll be faced with from now until he graduates and even beyond that.

It seems so silly. I hope I look back and think this is silly. I just can’t help but feel like this is just another step towards loosing my baby. Kindergarten might go wonderfully but what about 1st grade? What about 2nd? What about 6th or 10th??? So honestly, this will probably be our easiest school year yet but that’s what hurts. It’s one step further from me that he takes and one step closer to the real world.

Eli’s determined to ride his bike to school every day so we will start that tomorrow. We had to get new training wheels for him today because we aren’t quite ready for without and the cheep ones he had before kept falling off. I have his lunch all packed and ready to go, and his school supplies has already been dropped off. Hopefully I can re-cap the day tomorrow. I hope I’ve gotten most of my tears out today so I can hold it together at drop-off tomorrow.