Easter 2020

Easter this year was different, but then still sort of the same.
For years we spent Easter at home, just the four of us because Rob had to work the next day and we liked going to our own church.
Occasionally we'd go to Grandma Connie's house, but usually it was just the four of us.
Several years ago Grandma Connie died, so I took over the Easter festivities at our home. It has only been a couple of years but we REALLY loved seeing Aunt Linda and Uncle Dude on Easter. So we missed them a lot this year.
We also missed going to our church, but not church in general, as we were able to watch the Mass at the cathedral in Philly. (Well three out of four of us did - Lizzie the sometimes atheist sort of hung out in the kitchen ...)
Then we had a delicious dinner.
Oh, and the REALLY different thing was that I eventually had to WAKE THE GIRLS UP to come get their Easter baskets. It is amazing how much sleep we are all getting in this time of nothing much to do!!
So here are some pictures of our day!

We started Saturday night with our first campfire. There were lots of sticks that needed burning before Rob could cut the grass, so we obliged by roasting things in the fire. Lizzie tried to roast a clementine, and that was a BIG SMELLY fail!

Easter baskets! I don't care how old you are, you still like getting candy once a year! (Or more!) The girls got a selection of items including some gift cards to do some quarantine shopping and Aunt Tina came through (as she always does) with more gift cards, silly games and CANDY. The Crunch bars in the picture are Rob's. I ate the bananas in the background.

FINALLY the girls got up around 10ish and were very happy with their baskets.

Then it was time for Mass. Hannah decided to get dressed up. Only Rob's head is pictured because he did NOT get dressed up.

Dinner time!

This is my plate. It's ham, mashed potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes (flavored with some butter and maple syrup). I also had green bean casserole, but I don't like it so you never see that on my plate. I notice as I am posting this that you can tell that I DO like potatoes though as they always dominate the plate!

 Here's the green bean casserole and one of its biggest fans!

Dessert was something called Devine Cake that is a recipe from Rob's family. I always incorporate family dishes and traditions in each holiday so the girls (and all of us, in fact) feel that connection to those who have gone before us. This cake is pretty much a very light pineapple cheesecake. It's made with cream cheese and dream whip (has to be dream whip!) and the crust is lady fingers. It is delicious and reminds me of Connie, but reminds Rob of his grandmother as it was her dish first.

YUMMY!!

 Did a little facetiming with Beanie and Bella to end the day. One of the things that I DO love about the quarantine is that I am able to see (virtually at least) and talk to family more. (And posterity, please forgive the terrible photo of me -- one should never look down at the screen while face-timing or zooming!!)

So that was Easter during the quarantine ... a good time was had by all!!

Easter memories!

It will be weird on Sunday when we gather around the dining room table for Easter dinner and it's just the four of us.
It won't be the first time, as we usually stayed at home for this holiday, but for the last several years we've had Rob's brother and sister over and it's always fun to see them.
This time of quarantine is annoying not so much because we need to see our loved ones, but because we can't. There is a world of difference between someone sitting across your dinner table and someone on the phone. Believe me, I am grateful for the phone and zoom and facetime, but now that we've been only communicating that way for a month, I really miss the face to face convos.
But it's just one more holiday - not forever.

Having said that, though, I've been looking through photo books that I "inherited" from my parents' house and found a couple of gems that I believe were from Easter past, although I am not certain. It just looks like we are dressed for Easter and I'm not sure if there were other times we got that dressed up for church! And I DO remember the Monahans visiting us for at least a couple of Easters. The picture with baby Mike has me stumped though, as I cannot really any time when Aunt Brenda was at the house with Aunt Mary, Uncle Al and the kids ... but here is the picture proof that it happened!

I think this picture was probably taken when I was 11ish. The twins look to be about 3. I should also note that Beaning is wearing a dress that Tally and/or I wore for Easters way back in the day!

 
This is the one I am not sure of. I am probably 12 or 13 and that baby is definitely Michael, but I cannot for the life of me remember when were all gathered at the house on Hilltop. I had to post though, because of T.A.'s outfit. That is something we should never forget!!

This is probably Easter 2014ish. Rob and the girls and their Beanie Boos!

One year we had the Garritys over (we went to Terry's house for Easter dinner) and we did an Easter Egg hunt. I'm thinking maybe 2011?

It was definitely a year when Easter was early, which is why the kids are all wearing coats!

The girls supported some of their Girl Scout friends at this Breakfast with the Bunny one year. This was probably 2015 or 2016.

I will post about our quarantined Easter early next week.

Other updates for this week:
Hannah got all of her driving hours in to get her license. Sadly the DMV is closed so who knows when she will get to take the test.

School is officially closed until the end of the academic year. Both girls are sad about that because while they don't like the learning part at a school, they do like the social part. And now ALL they are doing is the learning part. :( I feel terrible for the seniors though, as they won't have any of their activities. Even prom is canceled (may be postponed, though, not sure about that yet.)

The girls were supposed to have their wisdom teeth out on Wednesday, but that was postponed until May. I doubt they will do the surgery then, either. But whatever - it's not like they'll be missing any school for it!

Everyone is good (just had a big scare when the power went out for an hour - I can handle home confinement, but I need the internet!!)  Lizzie is still dancing. Hannah is still singing. I am watching Monk and Psych reruns and Rob is growing a beard. :)

For posterity!

These are unique times.
I've lived through unique times before - the gas crisis of 1978, the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Each carried with it a set of challenges and feeling that life would never ever be the same. And certainly there have been some lasting changes. We have had to change the way we do things. But while those events changed the way we do things, they really haven't done much to change who we are - for good or bad. I'd like to think that these feelings of bonding together or the opportunity for introspection and insight gained will last - but I know humans well enough that eventually we'll all be busy and crazy and stressed again. Back to human doings instead of human beings.
But we do need to remember these times because the next time something like this happens - and you all know there will be a next time - it's good to know that even though some of us are hoarders and conspiracy theorists and complainers, there are also (the majority I'd like to think) who really do want to do what's best for the greater good.
So, I talked to Hannah and Liz today about what's going on. We may revisit these videos when the quarantine is lifted and we can all roam freely about the country again - but at least they will remember what they were feeling three weeks in.
Here are there videos (Blogger won't let me embed long videos at the moment so you'll have to click through to get to the videos at YouTube!)

Lizzie on the Quarantine

Hannah on the Quarantine

(Hannah's is longer, but I add in my 2 cents on that one more! And also Hannah and I are both blabbermouths and Lizzie is much more poised and succinct!)

And here are some things that are going on in our world.
The girls last full day of school was March 12. March 13 and 16 were counted as snow days, but on the 13th the Governor of Pennsylvania closed all the schools for two weeks. Before the end of that two weeks, the schools were closed until April 30 and then just a few days ago the schools were closed indefinitely.
At OJR at this moment the girls are learning via the computer. It's different and Hannah does not like it. Lizzie is more comfortable with it because she already cyberschools three of her classes, but both of them miss the camaraderie of school.
Rob started working from home on March 19. We are coping. I'll leave it at that. :)
Gas prices are at a record low (around $2.09ish) but since you can't really go anywhere it is not nearly as enjoyable as it should be.
Some groceries are hard to come by. I have been trying to make my mother's pot roast for Sunday dinner for the last two weeks and was hopeful again for this upcoming Sunday, but so far there are no roast beefs in my 'hood. So this Sunday we will have quiche because I was able to score some bacon. Chicken seems to be in good supply though, so clearly no one likes that.
We were slow to get toilet paper but we are all set with that now. I sill can't get disinfectant wipes, but make do with Lysol cleaner and dish towels.
Oh and it took nearly two weeks for us to get some brown rice. I had a couple cans of tuna, but now that is unavailable, too. Luckily I can look at my pantry and usually come up with something to eat, but I do have to use my brain. No body is going to starve though - so that is good!!
So that's where we are. Things could be much worse, such as (as Lizzie and I talk about in the video) if Netflix wasn't available! But we have heat, and food and toilet paper and everyone here is healthy so I'll take that as a win for as long as it lasts!!

Corona week 2

Okay, things got serious this week. And by serious I mean that I ACTUALLY HELPED LIZ CLEAN HER ROOM!! I know - crazy times we are having here.
I had a lot of phone readings this week, mostly from regular clients who needed some sort of reassurance. I'll blog more about this later, but the word from the other side is that this is a HUMAN thing, not an ENERGY thing. So it's up to the humans to take care of it.

But in addition to that I have been cooking and baking and even tried to help Lizzie paint her room until she fired me for "taking over." And by taking over she means that I told her that she SHOULD keep the tarp on the floor even though it was noisy and crinkly but she moved it anyway and then promptly dropped an edger full of paint right onto the carpet. SPLAT!!!

Somehow that was my fault, so I was sent out of her room.

So, left to my own devices I decided to pick up my guitar. I bought myself a new guitar for Christmas and played it about three times. So last week I played every day for a couple of hours. I even recorded a song for all of you blog readers:

You can find it here!

You can hear that my voice is still a little rough from the flu, but it is, what it is. And the message is one I fully embrace. Love is MAGIC!

School went well this week, although the switch from optional learning and review to continuity of learning and new learning is looming. Also I have noticed that everyone is more of a night owl now. I am usually the only human in the house still awake after 10 p.m. and now I never know who is going to come down the stairs and start digging around in the refrigerator at midnight. It makes like exciting (that IS what counts for excitement around here!)

Coronavirus week 1

I keep this blog so that we (and pretty much I mean Hannah and Lizzie) can look back and remember all the fun stuff we did while they were growing up. In fact over the last few weeks we've been laughing over videos they made when they were in kindergarten. I am so glad that I had this blog, although facebook has really taken over most of my day-to-day sharing.

Not for the next few weeks though. We are currently in the midst of the Coronavirus Quarantine and I think that I can use the blog to document how crazy this time is, but also to record some of my thoughts about the whole thing, which are fluid at best. I'll try to add videos and photos when I have the time (ha ha - all we have is time right now!!)

So, week one!

I had actually been quarantining for at least a week before it became the suggestion. I got sick (the flu I think, but Hannah and Liz as well as my friend Amy all believe it was the coronavirus!) I picked something up at a pageant that Hannah did the last weekend in February. I had a really high fever by Wednesday and was down for the count through most of the weekend. Eventually everything seemed to clear from my lungs (Rob got sick and then Lizzie got sick, too. Hannah has remained healthy this winter!) we were told to stay inside.

Here's a picture of Lizzie being sick and getting a breathing treatment at the Urgent Care (look Ma - no hands!!) Luckily the treatment didn't interfere with her ability to use her phone:

The school closure started on March 13. Originally it was just supposed to be Friday and Monday, but by midday Friday there had been enough cases locally (Montgomery County) that they decided to close the schools for two weeks and get the kids started on remote learning. Some people were calling it homeschooling - I was just calling it a mess. No one in this household wanted anything to do with school.

Sometime during that first week of social distancing Rob also got the word that he was to begin working at home. If you know me, you know that I have always said that Rob is welcome to work from home ... just not THIS home. Hardy har har.

So by the end of that first week it was four of us plus the two cats hunkered down here for the duration, although we had no idea what that duration was going to be.

That Friday, Hannah was supposed to compete at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) in Jersey, but they switched to a virtual version of the contest, so we went to her voice teacher's house (remaining socially distant from her) and recorded six songs for Hannah's entry. Here is one in the Musical Theater Category: It is In My Dreams from Anastasia the Broadway musical.

Check it out!

So we closed out the week on a high note. It wasn't fun and there was a lot of sadness - especially since Hannah wasn't allowed to see her boyfriend Will. They even had to miss their 2nd anniversary. I know they'll be able to celebrate a little later in the spring, but that's hard to see when you are 17. Luckily they have managed to talk and facetime.

Lizzie also took a little more time for her foot to heal, which was great, and she has spent the week taking dance lessons from people at ABT and PDT and the PA Ballet a few times a day. It's not the same as being in class, but, as she says, at least she won't get fat.

That probably won't be true for the rest of us, who are eating our way through the quarantine as cooking and baking are two things that have NOT been cancelled. Sadly, neither have calories.

So here are a couple of pictures from Hannah's pageant. She is the new Pure International Pennsylvania Teen. a

Newly crowned Hannah Banana - the National Competition is in July, so hopefully it won't be canceled!

Here she is hanging with all her prizes. She got luggage, jewelry, clothes, makeup and her fees paid for the National competition. Hannah likes this system because it is faith inspired and they really do look for nice, normal young women:

This is Hannah and Sami. They met through the Cinderella program at least 5 years ago. Those friendships run deep even though the girls only see each other a time or two a year!