Week 15.

Day 100.  

It has been one hundred days since things hit the fan and the world shut down.  

My mind has trouble grasping the scope of everything that has happened and how things have changed.  

I'm grateful every day that we've gotten through this unscathed.  

There are many people in our parish that do not qualify for government assistance.  We've been doing what we can to provide for them.  Folks need food, but other things that are equally essential and more expensive are needed, too.  Diapers and period products are in high demand.  Caroline and I have been trolling Walmart.com to find the best prices on pads and tampons.  We were spending so much time on it that the boys were intrigued.  After an anatomy & physiology lesson (Sam was HORRIFIED, the other boys rolled with it), we decided that every woman deserves good products to manage her period and providing those & diapers would be our family focus.  

Now, when I'm ordering things off WalMart, at least one of the boys comes up to me and asks, "You're getting the good stuff for them, right?" 

We're doing everything we can to raise good men.  

We finished up with the Zoom dance classes and virtual recital this week.  A new session of Zoom and in-person classes starts in a couple weeks.  There will also be 1-2 week long theatre camps for each kid for a few hours each day.  

How do I feel about the kids being inside doing theatre?  

It skeeves me out a little...but they'll be masked, will maintain distance, have access to hand sanitizer and there will only be 9 kids in each class.  

So while I'm anxious about it...looking at the risks and evaluating them...I think this is a low risk as we can make a higher risk activity that the kids love and miss keenly.  

We got the rest of the pre-recital pictures taken and also found out Caroline won an award for Student Achievement in the Teens.  She's excited about it, but with it being our first year at this studio, she's not exactly sure what it's all about.  

We are so proud of the kids.  

A cross country move, a new studio, new teachers, learning, persevering, adapting, kicking butt and taking names.   

We've been trying new foods with our time at home.  I found a random can of sweetened condensed milk in the basement and simmered it in water for 3 hours...and VOILA!

Caramel.  

OH.  MY.  GOODNESS.  

So good.  

So good, in fact, that the only thing left was an empty can in the fridge the next morning.  

We also got ourselves some water buffalo to grill at the farmer's market in Leesburg, VA.  

Water buffalo beats bison for eating on any day of the week and twice on Sundays.  

Dang.  

On the way home we had to listen to our favorite Adrian Cronouer clip from "Good Morning Vietnam".  

Included in the trials and tribulation of attending Mass at home...

1-Kitty participation

2-Running commentary from the kids ("Wow - My favorite deacon got an Apocalypse Beard.  Cool").  

We're not quite ready to get all of us to Mass on Sunday yet.  65 people in tiny St Timothy is a lot, even if it is at half capacity.  It does weight on me that if we go to Mass as a family, that we're 10% of the congregation and that prevents other people from attending.  

So we did get to a weekday Mass this week.  Only 20 people...and it was wonderful.  

We are all so very grateful to be back.  

I do think we'll continue to do a daily Mass once a week that's much less crowded. 

One of the most wonderful things about Walkersville is our community.  Sam was sent a Half Birthday card by one of the ladies in our parish that we would see all the time at daily Mass before the pandemic.  

It made him feel SO special.  

Again.  I am so very grateful.  

Tseitle has taken to lounging in the bathroom sink.  When I got face-to-face with her, I got the look.  

Pretty sure this is Kitty Resting B!tch Face.  

Happy Birthday to Pops.  

We had the potential for so much weather to roll through this week and it all went around us.  Clouds were lowering at one point, which freaked Nate out...but other than some wind...nothing.  

Here's to an uneventful Week 15