Coronacation Week 10 May 18-23

10 weeks. I never thought this “stay at home” situation would last this long. But here we are 10 weeks in. There are still 4+ weeks left of school, no gymnastics or any youth extracurricular activities, we are wearing masks to go and do anything outside our own private  yards, it’s a bizarre time.

On Wednesdays there are 4 moms and daughters who meet up at our local park for lunch and conversation. Ally has not joined us, but I go and this week one of the moms talked about how we should think of this as our “now normal” not our “new normal” because life as we know will get back to normal eventually. But that it was going to take longer than any of us want and it will be in this current state for a long time. It will be our “now normal” for months, maybe even a year or longer. 

It was and is helpful for me to remember that. 

This week wasn’t as fun filled as week 9 but it was still pretty good. We started a new project at work so I’ve been busier than usual. 

On Monday Ally participated in a social media project for her gym.

Daisy found a new place to hide; in the bins at the top shelf of Ally’s closet!!! Ally texted me this picture with the plea “I need a little help” 

Crazy cat.

I finally hung up pictures for gallery walls around the house. I’d like to get some more frames and pictures. But these were a lot of work so we will see.

Ally has started doing TikTok with Daisy!

Ally and Becky were that close to finishing Granny that game they started in week 9.

Lots of bonding for them this week. 

I modeled new company masks for my social media pages.

We got a zero gravity recliner for the back porch.

Ally had lunch at Colette’s.

And spent some time sprawled on her bed with Daisy that afternoon. Note: Daisy in her dress.

I’m starting to think Ally’s favorite part of doing a puzzle is breaking it up!

We started a new puzzle.

Ally asked for sleep on the guest bed/futon with Becky so she could sleep with Cloey. 

Cloey who is now wearing Daisy’s dress.

Ally sent me these two pictures.

Super cute.

My family in the morning.

We got some new outfits for Cloey for Becky’s weekly school message. Here they are mid-photo-shoot.

Cloey got a new crate. She HATES it. We put her food bowl in it and she barked for 45 minutes refusing to go in. Finally Becky shoved Cloey in and shut the door.

This crate looks so much nicer in the kitchen than her old one. We hope she gets used to it.

Ally asked for Nutella. We usually get an all natural chocolate hazelnut spread but she heard there was a knife inside the lid of Nutella brand. Turns out there is not but she found out she likes Nutella.

Coronacation Week 9 May 11-17

9 weeks I can hardly believe it’s been 9 weeks of this and we have many many more to go.

The new thing this week was the game Granny. Ally and Becky played it a lot. Apparently it’s about a scary Granny who has a club and if she finds you she will beat you to death with the club.

They scream in fear sometimes. Crazy if you ask me.

The salad....again. This is Becky eating it at 10pm while on a Zoom Happy Hours call with some of her co-workers. Note the empty wine glass and flushed face. Becky is having a fun Coronacation.

It’s not a weekly post without some Ally and Daisy cuteness.

Thursday Ally had a tumble date at her teammate Stella’s house. They also had a water balloon fight with Stella’s sister and her friend.

Ally decided to stay and do Zoom practice with Stella. It was her first practice in 9 weeks.



Stella’s dog made things a little complicated!

Ally had a blast.

The Cloey costume of the week was Cloey wearing a mask.

On Friday Ally went to Colette’s house for lunch. I forgot to get a picture of them.

On Saturday Becky and I went to pick up an order at Target. There were over 50 people waiting to get in the store. The employees said it was at least a 30 minute wait. 

Becky had a short 5 minute wait outside for our order while I waited in the car.

We did restaurant pick up again on Saturday. 

And while we did the dinner pick up and Target run Ally was at Ellie’s house. They of course did TikTok and as a treat walked to get Frozen Yogurt. I ordered it online for them to pick up. 

Playing Granny in bed!

Sunday Ally had a Zoom Birthday party for Stella. All 8 teammates were on the call. They giggled and squealed and banned moms and siblings from their party locations. In advance of the party Stella’s mom has dropped off a party bag. Each bag had cupcakes, glass, sparkling juice, champagne flute, napkin, paper plate, nail polish, face mask, candle and a packet of papers that had party games on them. So the girls did face masks, had a trivia contest, voting games, ate cupcakes. Had a fun party from their remote homes.

Mother’s Day 2020

Mother’s Day during Coronacation isn’t that much different.

I cut Becky’s hair again. I texted a picture to our stylist and she was impressed! The secret is a little at a time. I think I’ll be trimming it again this weekend. 

This picture shows off the new earrings I gave Becky for Mother’s Day. Sapphires! 

The card from Ally means the most. It kind of makes up for all the struggle. 

Becky gave me new Apple AirPods I asked for.

And Becky posed with her salad:

Ally was so excited to have Cloey snuggle in bed.

Coronacation Week 8 May 3-10

Wow. Eight weeks of “stay at home”. We are starting to get in to a routine. You’d think that would have started before now. But not really. It takes a long time to get used to this “new normal”. 

Masks are required in public now so even our social distancing socializing means wearing masks unless we can really be 6’ apart. But we did do some socializing which was a really nice feature of the week. 

In pictures:

Even Daisy got dressed up this week.

Sunday was the day of 2 Ellies. First we went to school friend Ellie’s house. We brought Ellie and her mom and sister masks.

They gave Becky a 4 pack of amazing beer as payment for the masks. Becky was so excited she poured one as soon as we brought it home. And then proceeded to drink it while doing a Church Youth Group Zoom!

We had warm weather and sunshine which was so nice for a change. 



Ally getting eating one of her meringue cookies before heading out to Eli’s house. (Eli is short for Eliana, one of her teammates.)

At Eli’s house the girls blew up the 16’ airtrack and then carried it to the park near her house. It needs an electrical outlet to run the pump to inflate the mat. 

I bet it was a site to see. 

Getting ready to tumble. Becky and Eli’s mom sat at a distance away from the girls who wanted privacy.


This is Ally much of her days. On her couch in her room with her cat.

A selfie after a rare morning shower. Love her smirk.

We did have a disaster this week.

Becky was making baked potatoes for dinner and one exploded in the oven!

HUGE mess inside the oven.

We got out the vacuum to clean up all the dried loose bits and then it took 2 cycles of the oven cleaner and 30 minutes of Becky scrubbing the grates by hand to clean it all up. What a mess. Becky did prick the skin, photos of the remaining skin show that. I think she didn’t puncture it enough. She thinks she baked it too long. But the other 3 potatoes came out fine.

Oh well. 

Huge thanks to Great Aunt Martha and Uncle Phil for the moose munch care package for Mother’s Day.

May 7 was Cloey’s 6th birthday so we had a small party for her.

A cake of biscuits, peanut butter and carrots.

Our guests were Olive and her mom Lucia. 

Our next door neighbor lost his job last week. Trip Advisor laid off 900 people. He had worked there for 13 years. I made a pecan pie and brought it over to them to bring some cheer. Marina is Italian and posts on Facebook in Italian but it does translate for me. Here is the thank you post from her. 

It does feel good to see people and do nice things for others. Helps me remember we are all in this together.


Our waffle maker came and we finally had sourdough waffles. They were really good.

Ally helped make cookies for when Colette came over for lunch.

The girls had fun eating lunch and doing Tik Toks (in masks). We agreed to make it a weekly lunch date.

Becky had Friday night Happy Hour FaceTiming with Beth. Becky was really happy after 2 gin and tonics! 

Saturday I went to see one of my work sites. I have some lovely clients and Becky and Ally came too. It was great to see the project and for Ally to meet my clients and their adorable 2 miniature dachshunds.

Now she keeps asking for another dog. 

We keep saying NO.

On the way home we got curbside Frozen Yogurt from Ally’s favorite shop.

And later in the day we picked up our Mother’s Day meals. Yes, this year we decided to purchase prepared meals for Mother’s Day. A local bakery/restaurant was offering a special Mother’s Day option. It’s the same place we got Christmas dinner from and that was so delicious we thought why not treat ourselves. 

Above is the brunch: ready to make egg sandwiches, blueberry apricot scones, 4 cans of iced coffee and a pint of cookie dough.

Dinner; roasted salmon (which only Becky will eat) and Cobb salad.

With a raspberry lemon cake for dessert! 

Later in the evening Ally and I worked on and completed a puzzle we started earlier in the week.

Daisy was being a pain and made it challenging to work!

But we finished it! 




Ally and I do puzzles very differently and her stamina for them inspires me to stick with it. But it has been fun doing them with her the past 2 months. We have a bunch more to do too.