March 19, 2020

Today is Friday! We have been home all week. We have been having a blast and getting to do a lot of things at home that we haven't done in awhile. Let's just say, things are getting cleaned and the garbage cans have been FULL!!!  I have been cooking sooo many meals, and let me tell you, I am so not used to that. With the hours that we both were working, neither of us ever felt like cooking. I will say though that Don was getting some meals around here at home the last few months before this started and I loved coming home to a cooked meal! The kids are even enjoying it when I cook lunch for them!! So today I made pancakes with sprinkles...and of course they were "Frozen" sprinkles. They were gone of course and I am thinking I will need to do that again soon. 

After lunch we made time to play a couple of card games together. First we played UNO and then we played WAR. My kids love this game and it just wouldn't end. I believe Donny won, but I really don't remember, lol.

After a few games of cards, I decided I needed to finish cleaning in the living room. It was so close to being done, that I just had to do it. And I pray that it stays clean..that the toys stay put and that I don't let things over take everywhere. And if I do, I better get on it and clean it up!! I think that tomorrow it will be completely done, yay!!

At bedtime, we read a classic book. One of my favorites and I think my son really likes this one too. We love reading and I hope that love continues on with them. 

And just so I have it as a reference and to keep track for history purpose, here are a couple of images from MLive's facebook page. 

And now we have stores closing so they can clean and restock. But it hasn't even gotten to our county. We are sure it is here, they just haven't been tested yet. I am sure once the tests start coming in, we will see them pop up everywhere.

We are all in this together.

March 18, 2020

Oh man, we are already into Thursday of our first week home. The Coronavirus is closing everything up, everywhere. These are a couple of pictures to show what I mean by everything is shutting down. I got these off of the MLive Facebook page. The Big Three shutdown operations, due to not being able to social distance in the factory and too many people were getting sick.

 So on days that this is happening, we are home and staying safe. We aren't going out. Don is an essential worker, so he goes to work and comes home. I am thankful that he is still working. But I know that they don't have a lot of people around and they can easily social distance at his job.

Today was just another not so busy day. Some school work, some cleaning and a lot of time together. Just being thankful that we are together. And we have started to read a lot of our books that we have. I have actually decided that it was time to start reading them on Facebook live. And Makayla agreed that she would do that with me. Lastly for today, Makayla tried chocolate milk for the first time and she loved it!! We signed up to get food from the school for the time that the kids are out and they sent home two bags worth of milk!!! I think all but 5 were drank..they loved it. And the kids love the food that is coming home in those bags too. I am so happy to be part of an amazing school district!

Yay!! Tomorrow is Friday!! Cannot wait to see what the rest of this week has in store for us!

March 17, 2020

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Today we just took it easy.. Did a little school work, cleaned in the living room, played with legos and then outside we went. We are waiting for days when we can be outside for longer than an hour or two, but for now we enjoy what we can. 

Donny's creation

       

And I am getting the livingroom cleaned...now if I could just get everyone to help me keep it clean, that would be great! This is a difficult task with kids, especially a small one that likes to have her horses everywhere!!

And this is my awesome pillow I got from Thirty-One!!! If you are ever in need of some amazing products, I may be able to hook you up with someone. I mean my best friend is a consultant and everything! 

March 16, 2020

Good Morning!!

I don't know the last time that I was able to take a picture of a beautiful sunrise at home. This was a chilly morning and we will be getting ready to start our new normal. We are all on a learning curve and will be trying to figure out what is best for us. Yes, I can have a schedule all written up, but I know it won't go as planned. That is why I just have to go with it. 

So after breakfast, the kids got online to check and see if they got any work for school. Makayla had and she was super excited to get started on it. And here I am thinking, will this last? She is excited to do her school work.. I cannot believe it! And we were off!

 Here is Makayla doing her morning journal work. Today she was supposed to draw 12 dinosaurs and label them. Well, she used her imagination and drew 12 Brachiosaurus. 

She remembered the dinosaur from the zoo with the really long neck and that is what she wanted to draw. And for a girl that has an imagination for drawing, you let her draw what she wants to draw.

Makayla also had some books on her tablet that she could read to me. I love listening to her read and I cannot wait to help her on this journey. We love books and have plenty of them.

Donny didn't have anything on this first day on distant learning. So he was setting up things on his Minecraft game. Something that he has always enjoyed doing.  But I also need to get him away from the computer or he would be there all day and half the night. But he has an awesome world in Minecraft. 

After school work, we went back outside. It was cloudy, but we had to get out there. We also had already filled one garbage can and Donny likes to take them to the end of the driveway. So we played outside for awhile before coming in to continue having some fun before the day was done. 

And when we came in, we of course had to draw some more pictures. I have plenty of masterpieces from this little girl. I could make a book.

And our first day of staying home is complete. Cannot wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for us. 

I love being with my kiddos and this is going to be great!

March 14-15, 2020

It is the weekend, first weekend of quarantine. We aren't going anywhere now and we wait to see what happens for the future of many things.

Today I decided it was time to get this house clean...and I mean clean. I am done with the way it looks and want it to be organized. Now I know, we have kids involved and that might not be the easiest thing to do. But I think I can try and get it pretty close. So this weekend was the kitchen. And I say this weekend, as it is never a quick job for me to clean. I am so happy with the way it turned out, now I just pray that it stays this way.

 It was also time to start teaching Donny how to do some things around the house. So while I was cleaning, in between I was teaching him how to do the dishes and use the dishwasher. He may not have been enjoying this lesson in every day life, but it was time. This is now part of his list to do every couple of days. 

I then told the kids that once things were done, we could go outside and enjoy the beautiful sunshine that we were getting. Of course I want my kids to get out and play. They could use all of the fresh air they can get...especially now that they are going to be home for a few weeks. They don't need to be cooped up inside on electronics alllll day long. 

So that is what we did. We went outside. I found all of the outside toys that I could find and discovered that we needed more things to play with outside. I guess when you aren't home much you don't realize things like this. So, hopefully we will be able to get some outdoor toys soon. 

 And yes, my kids love being outside, once you get them there...and sometimes it is tough to get them back inside. But I am thankful that we are all together and we will get thru this.

Now let's get ready for the week..our first week home and distant learning.

March 13, 2020

Something we thought we would never hear. Schools are closed due to COVID-19. We didn't know what was really going to happen with this situation. 

We were told the kids would be doing online school work, but it was all review. I figured that would be ok, they needed to keep up on what they were doing. 

I was thankful that I was going to be home with my kids. And couldn't wait to make some memories along the way.

Catching up

I think that I will just stick to right now...I have way too many things to try and catch up on...I just need to do better with posting.

Makayla turns 6 this year and Donny turns 14. Don and I will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary (and if you want to get technical we will celebrate 19 years together in May).

We are on a new learning curve right now and that is what brought me back to this. I have a little extra time and would love to get things written down. Yes, I have facebook...but I would love for this to be a journal and I would love to write more down. Not just have it in pictures. I grew up with a mom that wrote in a journal every day and she still has those...it is great to be able to look back and say, this is what happened on this day 10 years ago...not just look at pictures.

So my next posts will start back with things from March. I will start back when this whole COVID-19 shutdown started. When the world stopped doing a lot of things...and I will post our pictures and thoughts from each day....so I have a lot of writing ahead of me. And I think this will be for the best.

We are loving our family time right now and we are loving the memories that we are making. Soon there will be more memories made when summer hits!

Makayla Lynn 5/6/14

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

I never officially made a post for Makayla. So I guess this is it! It will have pictures thru the years just to catch up, as she has been in some of the previous posts already. 

Makayla Lynn Kinney was born May 6, 2014 at 3:08pm. She was 7lbs 14oz. And her big brother is pretty proud to have her here.

And here are a few pictures thru the years:

First trip to the zoo:

To Be Continued...need to save more pictures and I will update this as I save them

Vacation 2018

Summer Vacation 2018

Road trip to Kalahari in Wisconsin

August

We headed out on Monday morning. We were ready for a week of fun! Our good friend, Steve, was going along with us. So this was going to be a great road trip!

Our first stop was in Illinois at the Volo Car museum. What an amazing place to visit. It took around 3 hours to go thru the entire thing. So many neat things to see and interact with. The pictures don't do it justice. It is certainly a place to check out if you have never been there before! Here are just a couple of pictures from there. I have so many pictures, but didn't want to overload with just this. 

The Dukes of Hazzard car!

They had a little area for kids to play...great for our kids 

before getting in the car to drive again.

 We now got on the road to head to Kalahari in Wisconson Dells, WI. It was such a rainy drive and things were flooding. We heard that one town that I believe we drove thru got a crazy amount of rain...like 10 inches or more!!! We had to stop at a Walmart (it was seriously the smallest Walmart I have been in) and we needed to get new wipers for the vehicle. But we got them changed and we were back on the road. We were ready to have a blast at Kalahari!!

And we have arrived at Kalahari!! And it was raining...couldn't use the outdoor water park, but we were ready to swim!!! And that is what we did!!! Three days straight, plus they had an amazing arcade and indoor mini theme park. A ferris wheel, some small rides and the Go-Karts. And we had the unlimited wristband and we put it to good use!! All I can say is if you haven't been to Kalahari, you need to go! It is sooo worth it and you won't want to go to any other indoor water park! We have been numerous times and we are already starting to plan our trip down to Texas when they open their new one!!

Donny and Uncle Steve on the go-karts

The view from our room! The deck was huge!

Thank you Kalahari for another amazing vacation! We cannot wait to come back! 

 And now it is time to check out of the hotel and start heading towards home. But we have a few more things up our sleeve for fun and we cannot wait. Our first stop was Ripley's Believe it or not. Must say, it is a very interesting spot. And the kids enjoyed it. But we were ready to go after about an hour. 

And we are now on the road, heading back to Illinois. We will be staying the night there and then head home in the morning. OR will we? Maybe we have a surprise for the kids. ( and us as this wasn't even planned)

So, we decided to extend our trip by a day or two and drive down the historic Route 66. We had picked up a map and some information about what to see, and decided to check it out! And what a great choice it was!!! We drove south to come north...and drove by so many places to stop and see. Gas stations turned into souvenir stands, the historic Joliet Prison and the Blues Brothers car. Something that none of us will forget!

We had a wonderful vacation and cannot wait to plan our next one. 

Thanks for the memories!