week one of “family month”

Alright people – week 1 of “family month” (or quarantine) is checked off. How are you feeling?

The girls and I have been doing pretty good overall. Of course, we have our moments where we are clearly going stir-crazy and the screens have definitely come out more than usual (thank you YippeeTV!!!), but we’re stocked up on all our essentials (beans, rice & toilet paper anyone hahaha) and I’m enjoying our new rhythms.

Although our family tends to stay home most of the week anyway, there’s something different about everything being canceled, rescheduled and church encouraging all small groups to meet-up online in the name of “social distancing.” Plus, because I am the main care-giver, Aaron and I agreed it’d be best if he be the one to run to the store if something is needed.

That being said, we’ve spent a solid week at home it didn’t take long for our social Rylie to ask to play with her friends. Day 2 actually haha. Thankfully Rylie and Emmaline are BFFs so that has eleviated some of the social pleading. I do include the girl’s in our FaceTimes and my Mom group’s Marco Polos.

Day 1

Honestly, I didn’t realize this was going to be “day 1” until later… but I’m documenting it nonetheless. Our big project was the clean / purge their playroom for what feels like the 40th time, I’m loving the clean space they have to imagine together.

Day 2

Aaron started the day by motivating our family to take a walk and it was incredible. We loved the time outdoors and I could tell it had a big impact on all of us.

We were already playing with the idea of sticking around the house, but when our church strongly encouraged everyone to avoid contact with others (if possible), it really sank in that this was a serious thing. I knew immediately this was an opportunity for our family and I was going to take advantage of it. You can read my initial thoughts about it on my “family rest” post.

Day 3

We greeted the day with the decision to potty train Emmaline. What better opportunity to potty train than a time when you have no foreseeable plans to leave it haha.

The first time was rough. She was in tears from holding it in and it took a lot of reassurance for her to actually let it go (yes… we did write a parody to the tune of “let it go.” Should I share it? hahaha 😛 ).

Later that morning, we decided we’d take another family walk. Since we enjoyed it so much the day before 😉

I was inspired to create an outdoor scavenger hunt, and it was a huge hit! I shared it on the blog the next day and I’ve had a handful of mamas tell me how much their own family enjoyed it. 😀

That afternoon we broke out the construction paper + markers and the girls absolutely loved having time and space to create.

Rylie drew multiple pictures, including this gem that is currently hanging on our fridge.

She informed us of her characters names and I honestly don’t even remember them because I was in so much shock that her drawings actually looked like people. Considering she was refusing to even draw a stick figure the prior week, I’m literally speechless and extremely impressed!

Oh, and back to Emmaline potty training – she had a few successes and we made it the biggest deal of the century! She was extremely proud of herself.

Day 4

I broke out the construction and markers again so we could do our monthly themed craft.

Day 5

The girls and I got out for a walk before 8 am and even though it was a tad early for the world, it was a terrific way for us to start our day!

Both the girls brought their strollers and choice of stuffed animals so they could be like Mommy pushing Paisley.

The rest of the day was a mix of playing and me creating some new content for our daily lives for these upcoming weeks.

Day 6

I’ve been reading “The Magic TreeHouse” series with the girls and I decided it would be fun to create a theme to go along with the book’s.

Right now we are one Book #3 which takes Jack & Annie (brother & sister) go back to ancient Egypt.

I wanted to keep it simple, so we just did a craft + an activity.

I took a plastic fork and two googly-eyes and wrapped it up in toilet paper for a mummy.

While the girls colored their coloring pages (which I found online. You can snag them here) I read a couple chapters of our book.

Towards the end of quiet time I broke down and started a painting project in our house. I’ve been considering starting solo (while Aaron is at work) for a while but kept putting it off. Finally decided to get started and I’m loving it.

Of course the girls wanted to help which caused for slight stress but overall they did a good job just painting the wall haha

Day 7

Sunday morning started with listening to my church’s worship service. But to be honest, I turned it off before the message because I knew I would miss most of it due to the kids so I opted to watch the message later.

To stick to our daily schedule, I got the girls dressed to get some fresh air. I knew it was raining though so my backup plan was to back our car out of our garage and keep the garage door open as we played. The girls drove around in their Little Tikes cars while I did a little reorganizing. I moved our train table from the Playroom down to the garage so the girls had something to play with. I also grabbed an empty tub with a lid so we could put all the pieces in that tub when we were done and the lid would prevent bugs.

It was a huge hit today and I’m excited to have this space for future use.

Side note – I got this 80s/90s looking outfit from the thrift store last week for $2. I was in love with it on the hanger but I’m kind of obsessed with it on Emmaline! haha

We came upstairs for our snack and our activity for the day. Since I deemed today “Thankfulness Themed,” we wrote a couple thank you cards to send.

I worked on painting the bathroom some more & once Aaron got home from work we enjoyed a chill evening.

How was your first week?

What was something you accomplished?

What was a major win?