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Mustang Island State Park

I grew up on the coast and I absolutely love the beach. The sound of the waves, the feel of the sand between my toes, it’s the ultimate recharge place for me. And y’all, because of Covid we hadn’t been to the beach for over a year! 13 months to be exact. Well, I decided that it couldn’t be put off any longer! I did a bit of research and the closest beach to us is Corpus Christi. And wouldn’t you know it? Just on the other side of Corpus is a state park! It’s like it was meant to be. lol.

Mustang Island State Park is about 4 hours from us which is a doable drive. I didn’t want to risk staying in a hotel, nor did I want to deal with food and packing, so we decided to do it as a day trip. Which was an insane idea but I regret nothing!

The beach was perfection! I’m actually wondering if they brought in sand after the last hurricane because the sand was so soft and pristine! Mia was beyond thrilled at the giant sand box. lol. We picked up some sand toys at Target curbside and it was totally worth the $10.

I think spring is my favorite time to go to the beach. It’s warm enough to feel like you’re at the beach, but cool enough that my kids are happy just to get their feet wet so I don’t have to worry about them in the water.

No lie, the drive back was brutal, especially because we got stuck behind an accident in San Antonio for a hour. Literally. But it was so worth it! We basically drove for 4.5 hours (we had to make a pit stop to see the World’s Largest Pecan in Seguin!), played at the beach for 3.5 hours, then drove for 5 hours back home. I *may* have limited snacks and water bottles in the car so that we could avoid potty breaks. lol.

What can I say, I’m a sucker for cheesy roadside attractions!

We are fairly cautious when it comes to Covid and I went round and round in my head as to if we should do this or not. But it seemed very safe. We drove, so no exposure there. I did stop to get gas, but I get gas here too. And once we got to the beach, it wasn’t crowded at all so we had no problem keeping to ourselves. I think there was at least 20 feet between us and the next closest person. Plus, the wind was blowing very strongly and the sun was bleaching everything.

And now that I know we can do it in a (very long) day, we might go again the next time we have a day off!

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Corona Academy

It’s back to school time! Of course, for us this is pretty much more of the same since we’ll be doing virtual school this year. After talking with the kids’ pediatrician and Mia’s cardiologist, we decided that virtual school was the safest choice for our family at this time. Luckily, the school that we’re at seems to be really on top of things so I’m cautiously optimistic that it will be ok.

I’ve been brainstorming ways to make this ok for the kids. Kate was really looking forward to decorating a locker, having lunch with her friends, and being more independent with her school work. To facilitate independence, she decided to move her main work area from the office to her room. She currently has a lofted bed with her desk underneath, so I let her decorate her desk with some fun new desk organizer stuff, and she clipped a sheet to hang off of her bed and give her a fun background for her zoom calls. Here she is trying the set up out during a week of virtual girl scout camp.

As for lunch, I think the plan is for her to have a zoom lunch chat with her 2 besties a few times a week. All 3 of them opted for virtual school. 🙂

I’m curious to see what kindergarten will look like for the twins. And by curious, I mean terrified. lol. I do not feel at all confident about teaching them. But, it’s all going to be ok. For the first week, I’m going to go ahead and prep the letter a week/ Montessori trays for them and then I’ll see how it goes. Maybe it’s awesome and they get used during downtime. Maybe we stick with each letter for 2 or 3 weeks instead of 1. Maybe we chuck it out the window. I’m trying to cultivate my inner (currently nonexistent) flexible persona. lol.

No, it’s not perfect, but we’re all practicing making the best out of our limited options. That said, I’m anxious to see how the first week goes. One awesome thing is that the kids all still get early release days on Wednesdays so we went ahead and sprung for the Garey Park membership. Who knows, once we find out how long Kate really has to be logged on for every day, we might bust out my phone’s hotspot and try school from the park. lol.

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My CoronaCraft

Despite having multiple ongoing projects that I need to work on, I decided that this would be a great time to start a whole new project! And you know what? I have no regrets. lol. That’s right y’all, I finally started on my 60* diamonds!

With my hexagons, I didn’t know any better so I just cut out all of my papers on my Silhouette. It worked just fine, but I was bummed that I wasn’t using a standard size and so I couldn’t get an acrylic template to use for fussy cutting. This time I ordered my papers and acrylic template from Paper Pieces and they are awesome! So much easier than cutting them myself. 🙂

I’m not sure what the final quilt will look like, but obviously it’s going to be scrappy!

Specifically, a scrappy center with a coordinating low volume outer.

And naturally, there are plenty of fussy cuts!

And it should come as no surprise that I’m going with a full on rainbow theme. 🙂

I’m trying to decide how big to make this, but I know that, at minimum, there will be 2 hexies of each color. That could make a pretty cute wall hanging. But maybe I should go all in and plan on a lap quilt? Thoughts?

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Self-Isolation

Warning: disjointed stream of consciousness ahead.

Anyone else feel like this is a bad dream that they’re ready to wake up from? I feel like the world has gone crazy in the past week. But as I’m encouraging Kate to focus on the positives, I thought I would try to force myself to list some of the positives as well. So in no particular order:

  1. We have a back yard! And it’s nice outside! Seriously, this is huge. My kids are spending hours outside every day and I love it. Note to self: might need to put some sunscreen on Xander…
  2. We are all safe and at home together. So glad that we have each other. So glad that RaptorDad has the ability to work from home. So glad that the kids have each other.
  3. Siblings. This one is so huge that I have to make it its own line. I struggled so much with the worry that Kate would be an only child while we were dealing with infertility. I am so incredibly thankful that they have each other.
  4. Cloth wipes. I so much don’t want to go there, but if we run out of toilet paper we do have cloth wipes from when we were cloth diapering the kiddos. At least we won’t be reduced to using leaves. lol.
  5. English Paper Piecing. It’s so slow going that I’ve got plenty to work on for a loooooong time. lol. And I’m making some serious progress on my hexies! I’m hoping to have fully half of it assembled by the end of the week.
  6. Video chats. I’ so glad that Kate can talk with her friends so she doesn’t feel too socially isolated. And I can talk to my family! My mom, sister, grandmother, and I all had virtual happy hour last night!
  7. Bluebonnets are popping up! And we can take bluebonnet pics while continuing to practice social distancing! We won’t get a cousin pic, but I can still take pics of my niece and nephew by themselves.
  8. Home schooling. We’re still technically on spring break this week, but I’m expecting Kate’s teacher will be sending home work for her to do next week. I’m not cut out for homeschooling permanently, but it’s been eye opening to just be able to spend some time with my kids. Usually our days are taken up by drop off and pick up at 3 different schools, therapy, after school sports and activities… I do really miss those things, but this forced slow down has actually been kind of nice.

I’ve had Montessori trays on my to do list for months, but I’m actually making some now. lol. Maybe I’ll start posting some of them on my blog. This week the littles are doing some St. Patrick’s Day themed activities.

I keep seeing people recommend keeping a journal because this is such an unprecedented event. Not sure if I’ll do that online or not. Maybe?

For now, I’m just trying to focus on the positives. I’m also trying to relax and just go with the flow. Those of you who know me personally know that’s not my natural state. lol. For example, I generally have a pretty strict “no screens during the week” rule and I’ve thrown that out the window. But I am trying to set some limits so that Kate doesn’t just stare at a screen all day. Current policy is that she can video chat with her friends before 9 or after 2:30. It seems to be working? The kids are outside running around and they’ve created some kind of elaborate game. I’m going to consider that PE. lol.