As I gaze out my office window, I see the grass and trees basking in the sun, I hear the birds singing “good morning” and I feel a chill in the air. It’s a beautiful day outside with lots of promise. I am lucky enough to enjoy a visit from a hummingbird in my Easter lilies.

While I am preparing for my work/homeschool day, I pray that things go well. My workday typically goes smoothly, but the homeschool part of the day is questionable at best. Some days go well without any issues, but then other days end in my daughter’s tears of frustration as she works on her reading and writing. I try to balance the hard stuff with the easy stuff so that she enjoys a portion of her school day.

Today, I will make some of my phone calls outside just to embrace the beauty that God has put on this earth to keep me sane. I will watch the squirrels dig in the grass for acorns and I will listen to the birds sing.

I will end my day on our back porch waiting patiently for a visit from a hummingbird. I will also watch the squirrels as they sneakily grab a snack from our bird feeders. My day will be filled with snippets of nature to keep my soul balanced.

Over the years, I have run off and on but I have never really committed to it. I would run a couple of days and either life would come up or I would have a migraine or back pain issues that would stop me in my tracks.

This year, I decided to get my migraine and back pain under control so that it would not interfere with my daily life anymore. By doing so, I have been able to be more active with my family. I shoot baskets with my oldest daughter and take long walks with the family or with just my girls if my husband has to work.

I have been listening to a couple of podcasts that have helped me to get more motivated to take better care of my health. One of which is Losing 100 Pounds with Phit-N-Phat. Corinne Crabtree is the host of this podcast and she tells so many good truths about why women struggle to lose weight. The other podcast is Not Your Average Runner. Jill Angie is the host of this podcast and she explains how you don’t have to be thin to be a runner.

Since we have been in quarantine, I have made it a goal to exercise at least five days a week. Most weeks I have met my goal, but there have been some days that I just don’t feel like it. I set this goal to keep me from sitting on the couch doing nothing, which is not good for my mental or physical health.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have started running again. This time I have a goal of running a 5k a day. Once I meet that goal and run it for a couple of weeks, I am going to bump the goal up to a 7k. The point is to continually raise my goal so that I have something to strive to reach. I don’t know how high I will raise my goal, but only time with tell.

 

It’s been over a month now of homeschooling and I am sort of getting into a groove. I have put together a daily schedule of my youngest daughter’s schoolwork. Some days we sail through it without any conflicts and other days it is like pulling teeth to get simple work done.

First, I am not a teacher nor was I gifted with the skills to teach. Second, my youngest daughter is cut from the same cloth that I am (we are both very stubborn). Third, I really don’t like being both the teacher and the principal – it’s hard to teach and discipline a child at the same time.

I have to keep reminding myself that none of us expected to be thrown into this virtual learning situation. It is a major adjustment for her and me as well as for the teachers. I am working on showing my daughter grace as she works to complete her assignments. I am working on showing myself grace as I try to teach her what the teacher has assigned. I am also working to show the teacher grace as I know they are learning how to teach virtually on the fly.

In the end, I know I will have learned that I am not cut out to homeschool my daughter. I will also have learned to show others grace as God shows me grace every day.

Just walking through our yard, I can see much beauty in God’s creation. We have the green grass and the green leaves of the trees. Then we have all of the brown tent moths that have recently come out of their cocoon.

As a nature-lover, I enjoy having plants all around our yard so that I can watch how they grow throughout the year. Spring is my favorite time of year because that is when plants begin to bloom. We have jasmine growing on a trellis on the side of our house.

We have an Easter lily that is in bloom and a hydrangea that will bloom soon.

 

Just this morning, while planting lettuce, spinach, and daisy seeds with my youngest daughter, we saw a baby dragonfly.

I am always amazed by what God has created just for us to enjoy. It makes me feel very special. How about you? Do you feel special knowing that God created everything on this earth just for you?

 

For the past month, we have been quarantined to our home. I have made weekly supply runs to get what we need to survive, but also a few things to brighten our days, e.g., gardening supplies.

My favorite thing to do on a daily basis is to get out and enjoy the beauty of our yard and neighborhood. Before it started getting so hot, I would go on daily walks with my girls. We will just need to plan our walks for mornings or evenings when it is not so hot. I feel blessed to live in the country where we have so much nature.  Our property has lots of oak trees and the squirrels abound.

Recently, my husband removed our old deck that had rotten out and replaced it with a smaller deck. He then added a walkway on one side and a garden area on the other side and a cactus/vegetable garden in front. I helped him stain the deck since I was the one who chose the two-tone style.

We also hung some metal art, planted some flowers, filled the bird feeders and added mulch to our flower bed. When we bought the house, the previous owners had a pergola with a swing. They took the swing and left the pergola so we are using the pergola as the centerpiece of our flower garden. We have bees, squirrels, birds, frogs, lizards and earthworms that call this garden home.

I love that we have made our backyard into such an oasis so that we can enjoy God’s creation every day. Our next project for the backyard is to repaint our patio furniture that will go back on our deck.

What have you been doing during this quarantine to draw closer to God? In addition to gardening, I have been reading the Bible daily and praying for those who are on the frontlines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Coronavirus quarantine has brought about a lot of self reflection. It has shown me the importance of keeping my daily routine with a few modifications, e.g., no need to fix my hair and put on makeup to work from home, the ability to take a long walk in the middle of the day with my girls to enjoy the weather and get out of the house, etc. The quarantine has also showed me how strong our family structure is in that we have always been a close family and spend a lot of time together normally. We also know how to, and when to, go our own ways when we need some time apart. I am grateful that my girls can play outside without my direct supervision as it enables me to get my work done and gives them time outside to play games or just hang out.

I am grateful that God has given me the family I have, the neighborhood I live in and the nature all around me. Though we cannot go shopping or do the things we are used to doing, we are learning to focus on what we can do and find new, creative ways to spend our time. My daughter, Becca, has discovered a love of june bugs and caterpillars. She love to pick up the caterpillars and let them crawl on her. Becca has also made a terrarium for a school science project. Knowing my daughter’s love of caterpillars, I took a picture of one eating a leaf while I was outside gardening. My older daughter, Liz, spends her time playing basketball or online games. My husband has decided now is the time to pull up our old back deck that had rotten wood and redesign the layout to enable us to have a vegetable garden close to the house.

As many families are doing their best to make it through the quarantine both alive and sane, I am grateful to God for giving us all the time to reflect on what really matters in this world. I pray that all stay healthy and I especially pray for those who have been deemed essential employees, my husband being one of them who works in a hospital, to keep them safe.