It is about the middle of May. The Kansas state wide stay at home order ended May 4th. Our county extended for another week. Bringing our areas stay at home order to last a whopping 52 days. Now we are in Phase II of the Covid 19 recovery plan. I believe phase IV is when things are supposed to be back to ‘normal’. The media and politicians are a mess, it is ridiculous to listen to everyone basically bicker and fight and make things up to get their own agendas across. The original idea of slowing the progression of the disease so health care could get prepared has now been changed to-no one should leave their house again until their is a vaccine or cure discovered, and if you think differently then this you are a selfish, hateful, evil person. We will not be done with Covid 19 until NO ONE ever is at risk of dying from it again. Interestingly enough the people I see against moving forward all have a guaranteed paycheck and other than socially their lives haven’t been disrupted that much. People on both sides of the argument have started protesting. The research and numbers from across the United States and other countries-excluding China who had obviously lied from the start, is coming back that while this disease is very contagious, it is not as deadly as first thought. The number of people that have or had Covid is way higher, I’ve seen reports that say 22-44% higher than the numbers show. So deaths are said to be between 4-10% are actually less than 1%. That is using the current death number which is suspected of including anyone that has died since March 13 whether it was from Covid or not. It is really hard to figure out what is fact or fiction on the news end of things. That is what the media is shoving in our faces. The impression I get and see and feel in my little world is that people are wanting to continue to be cautious but are ready to get back to their lives. There are risks all around us everyday. It is impossible and ridiculous to think you can eliminate and control them all. It is also quite evident that there are emotional and economical issues along with other consequences that I think are going to start causing a lot more problems than Covid, the longer things are put on hold.
We have done our best over that last few weeks to make the most of our situation and keep life happy and normal as possible. We have been blessed that Ryan has still been able to work from home. We have not had to worry about food or water or toilet paper or meeting financial obligations. We have been blessed with peace and calm in our situation. All of us have had struggles on occasion emotionally and socially. People are social and emotional beings and we have learned how important our needs in those areas are and require more attention then one might think. Luckily we have all been healthy for the most part as well. Ryan’s arm has started bothering him again, but he was able to get into Physical Therapy and is hopefully on the road to recovery. My finger was the only other trip to a doctor we have needed.
We decided to put in a basketball goal. This turned out to be a bigger project than planned. We ordered the first one and had Matthew dig the hole. Then we set the post and filled it with concrete. A few days later when we went to finish it we discovered there were missing and broken parts. So we tried to get a new one but the people we ordered it from were unable to tell us when that would be possible, if possible at all. So we returned as much of the old one as we could then ordered a new one from someone else. We got that one and it was the wrong one. Instead of a nice sturdy goal it was a cheap crappy one. So we returned it again and got the right one. This one was a square post instead of round so we had to dig a new hole and set the new post. Then dig out the original one enough to put dirt and grass in the area again. Finally we were able to get a basketball hoop in and we have all enjoyed it. Matthew taught me how to do a lay up too.
Matthew learned many new skills with this project. Including how to use a jack hammer. 
How to fill a hole. 
How to dig a hole. 
And how to dig a new hole. LOL
I finished a project that I have had on my mind for a while. I did a picture wall in my basement. I have tons of frames I have collected over the years and plenty of pictures that I like to look at. I love the idea of a picture wall but I was worried about it not being my usually clean minimalist style and getting on my nerves after awhile. I settled on doing it in the basement because I knew it was going to be busy, but I wouldn’t have it in my face all the time so it wouldn’t bug my clutter avoidance side. I liked the way it turned out and I put a lot of my favorite snap shots over the years up. Just FYI the top far right picture has since been fixed so it is not crooked and taller then the rest. I promise.
We have gone on many walks over the last 52 days. Most around our neighborhood and on the near by walking path but we also explored several new areas too. I don’t know exactly I have just been told that Olathe has over 100 miles of walking paths to explore. We saw lots of animals on our walks including many different kinds of birds, frogs, snails, fish, cranes, squirrels, dogs, cats, spiders, rabbits, turtles and more. Matthew snorted a large bug up his nose on one of our walks. It took several minutes and lots of sneezing to finally get it out. I did not take a picture of it. My brother and his family came to see us for a few days on their way from Connecticut to their new home in Oklahoma. We went on a walk with them and saw a village of fairy houses that had been set along the path.
Very cute, very strong baby turtle. 
Snail 
One of the fairy houses.
Ryan and I also celebrated our 18th anniversary. I got a little excited and told everyone that it was our 19th anniversary, but Ryan showed me the math. LOL. We will plan on celebrating together later in the summer. On the actual day I went back to work for the first time in a few months, and Ryan traveled to Wichita for the week to help catch up on some stuff. Also his first time ‘going’ to work in over a month.
A few weeks into the quarantine I got around to going through the kids back packs and putting them away for next year. I realized waiting this long was risky and when I opened Allison’s first and saw her lunch sack I was very nervous. Luckily she had emptied it at lunch her last day so when I opened it I was not accosted by rotten moldy food. The rest of hers and Emilee’s back packs was uneventful. I was about done with Matthew’s when I felt a lump in one of the side pockets. I dug it out and pulled out a potato complete with a face and hair. When all the kids saw it they were very excited to see “Beth” again. Apparently it had been several months since the last time they saw “Beth”. She was much more wrinkly and had grown some extra arms and hair. Thank goodness Beth didn’t turn into a pile of mush while tucked away in the dark pocket of Matthew’s bag. Apparently Matthew had made her for some project at school and when he brought it home everyone had met Beth on the bus then he forgot about it and left it in his bag. He even had a picture of Beth with one of his friends that had made a Rapunzel potato. Weird.
Beth as a young potato with her Rapunzel friend. 
Several month older Beth on her way to the trash bin.
Most nights we tried to have a family activity before the kids went to bed. We would play a game, or watch a movie, or hang out and visit. One of our favorite games we ended up playing most nights is called ‘Cover Your Assests’. It’s perfect because even Emilee can play. She is actually pretty shrewd and does a good job. Matthew on the other hand is known for having the worst poker face ever and most often looses the game in spectacular fashion because he doesn’t use much strategy either. It was always fun though.
Emilee wanted a picture of her extra big win for one of her hands. 
Family snuggle time.
Hair salons have been closed long enough for people who rarely get haircuts to miss one. For Matthew and Ryan who prefer to have their haircut every month they have missed a few. The girls have taken full advantage of their longer locks and enjoyed trying different styles for them. Both have been good sports about letting the girls have fun with their hair. Ryan has also grown his beard and let it grown until this past weekend. Then he decided to have some fun and shave a Hulk Hogan style mustache to gross us all out with. We went on a walk and much to Matthew dismay and my embarrassment drew far to much attention from passerbys. He has also gone to the store and a few other public places sporting his new look. Most people don’t know it is a joke and just think he is a gross weirdo, but his friends have all chimed in with their two cents. He is keeping it to get a reaction from his co-workers tomorrow on his video calls. Then I’m sure he will shave it and come up with some other creepy style. Matthew just looks at him and shakes his head and says, “How do you expect me or anyone to take you seriously when you look like that?!”
I went back to work last week. I am filling in at an office that opened the first day the stay at home order was lifted. It was a little stressful at first. One of their hygienists called and quit the day before because she couldn’t deal with the work and stress of coming back to work. The assistant had a panic attack about 15 minutes after being there. I had a pretty good mental battle of my own between rational and fear based anxiety. I think it will be a real problem for the majority of people when they start going back to work. After the first patient or two there we were able to get the flow down with the new safety precautions and procedures that we will have to do for an unforeseeable amount of time. It was nice to get out though and interact with people. I am going to be working there Monday and Wednesday until they find a new hygienist.
It is interesting to see the price and availability or lack of availability on certain items with all this going on. My kids always enjoy a fun slip-n-slide in the summer. I used to find them for 5-20 dollars. Granted they never last the summer but they can use them enough that I feel they get my money’s worth from playing on it. Pools opening up are still in question for summer so they have been begging me to get a slip-n-slide. When I started looking if you could find them you had to plan on paying anywhere from 100-250 dollars! They were heavy duty ones but they are still made of plastic. Good grief! I was able to find a ‘deal’ on one and told me kids they better take good care of it because this is the last slip-n-slide I will ever be buying. They have used it many times so far and love it. They best part is they can set it up and clean it up themselves.