Ten Months In, Closing On A Year!

So this virus has put a bit of a damper on things, we once again spent a special day peering in an 8 inch screen at the twins while they showed off thier royal capes and pink spa masks. And yes, they are enjoying pretending  and are quite good at it. One of the things we most looked foward to was being able to spend holidays and time with them, but - this is not forever. And in the grander scheme of things we have spent more time with them in the past ten months than we have in the past 4 years. They truly know us, I enjoy being called NanaPoppop when they're speaking to both us, I'm guessing it's a time saver. And I have to say if I could pick a time of year to be quarentined this would be a good one - at least it's not cold and we are not stuck in the house. Brandi makes sure she videos everything and shares it online, thank goodness for technology. My family Zoomed a gathering - it was fun seeing everyone but I can see we need some practice. We are not doing anything for Easter, since I've been working on diet and exercise for the past 3 weeks  I gave myself a day and bought a limited amount of candy, once it's gone it's gone.

We still see Kim and Steve, but we strictly observe social distancing and so far so good. Kim made me a cloth face mask which I plan on wearing FOREVER. On one of my last trips to see the girls we stopped in a store and I bought 4 applicaes of Our Lady of Guadalupe - she is one of my all time favorites - and gave them to Kim. I was musing over something and then thought it would be awesome if I had a facemask with Our Lady on it. Kim is an excellent seamstress  and an even better friend, I probably have the most best facemask ever! We don't get to spend too much time with them but with the good weather outside is not too hard and we make it short, the car ride there and back is fun and we get out of the house at least! 

Kim has been doing what we've all been doing, hauling every bit of crap out from every corner of the universe and sorting it out, donating, etc....  I think at the end of this we will all have the cleanest, barest houses we've ever had. David continues to work on the Astoria house, he has been making great headway since there's not much else to do, is there? I've been doing a bit of sorting - my clothes are all neatly folded and are stacked according to color, I've cleaned out and rearranged the kitchen, the bathroom, the shelves in the den,........ I finished knitting the socks yesterday and am now working on Project #2 while Project #3 waits in line. We are both wearing out our ereaders, tablets, phones, the charging station is constantly in use! 

I'm out in the yard a lot too, I've finally cleared almost all the marion berry vines from the 3 pine trees in the yard, you can finally see them! The vines are as bad as the red vines in Pennsylvania - long wicked thorns that seem to rip through even my leather palmed gloves. I'm forever prying them out of my hands and forearms, my ankles look like I've been attacked by vampiric squirrels most days. The vines are tough and wrap around everything - they can grow up to 12 (or more) feet and the heavily thorned vines make it all the harder. I usually strip a section, get a good grip and then haul it as hard as  I can. I can only pull one or two vines at a time so it's been slow going - but it IS going. I got the spot where the trash was the worst cleared and turned for the most part, still have not decided what I want to plant there. If I dawdle around much longer the grass might come back and then it will be problem solved. They are projecting our office will be reopened to the public by May 4rth, I hope so. I would like to get back to real life!

The Quarentine Doldrums

Today we drove out to the tulip farm since we are very limited with entertainment choices. I checked to make sure it was open (it was), it's not too far away either. The pictures turned out to be more entertaining than the actual doing it - All the fields were closed to the public but one, the building was closed so I could not buy bulbs. But since we made the trip we got on line as only 10 people were allowed in the field at one time, I didn't see any employees so I guess we were on the honor system.  It was a 20 minute wait but we got in, the flowers were beautiful, there was a UPick section but we didn't have anything smaller than a 20 and picking 40 flowers....nah.   It was nice to get out - the sun is out and it's in the 60's, a bit breezy for my taste, a lovely spring day. Glad we went early as the line wound around the parking lot when we left. 

We had a little shopping to do, we did our big shopping trip last week so for the next weeks it will be odds and ends. It was around 1 so we stopped at Fred Myers - packed! David and I have been very good on the social distancing and staying home, neither of us are wearing masks and gloves as it's rural out here, staying 6 feet away is not a hardship - usually. Then I remembered tomorrow is Easter, did you forget too? That is the hardest part of this - we had to cancel our plans with Brandi and the girls. It would have been our first Easter with them, as we had to video chat thier birthday last month it was especially disappointing. We had planned on having them come down here for the holiday and inviting Kim and Steve, sigh. It will be another holiday of peering into a screen to see that they liked what we sent. What I sent was Princess Capes, absolutely hilarious straight out of disney Velvet Royal Gear with fur trim and a hood - I'm hoping they'll love them. I was secretly envying it, and no, they do not come in an adult size. We bought them a gift as they don't need too much candy and they really don't need another stuffed animals, they're usually up to their eyeballs in them. 

My job has been kind of funky, most of my time is spent with the clients in thier homes, doing assessments, etc... Not being able to do home visits has thrown a monkey wrench of epic proportions into the works so now I'm being given 16 different jobs to fill my hours. Sigh. I'm just hoping it will not turn into too big of a mess, been there and done that in the past so it's stressing me out a (lot) bit. Things feel so scattered lately, I'm sure I'm not the only one picking things up and putting them down, starting to dust then halfway through sorting through clothes. I have 3 knitting projects going, none of them finished so today I am finishing the socks, then I will be down to two - for now. I am still mulling over planting, ugh. I look at plants, think about it, leave, look at plants, think about it, leave....... I cannot decide if  I want to plant small bushes or ground cover or flowers......... I guess I'd better decide soon, it will be winter before I do anything at this rate..