St. Patrick’s Day 2020
I am such a sucker for holidays — any holiday — and looked to St. Patrick’s Day as an outlet to bring a little joy and normalcy back into our home and focus on enjoying our boys’ excitement for the day.
Chase made a leprechaun trap at school last week and was so excited to use it. You guys, his teacher hand-delivered the traps to all the kids’ houses on Monday since they wouldn’t be able to use them at school this week and I was, once again, absolutely blown away by the dedication of teachers out there to their students. Bless those of you who pour into our little ones! I cannot tell you how much your work means. I also think a million parents out there would like to sing your praises this week after attempting to home school their kids. No small feat!
Oh and in case you’re wondering if I’ve adopted one of those Pinteresty color-coded schedules floating around the internet for our social distancing days, the answer would be a hard no. I love a schedule as much as the next person but with a 20-month old in the mix, it’s a bit of a challenge to find educational activities that work for both 4.5 year old and a toddler. Thankfully Chase’s teacher has been texting his preschool class with some daily optional activities so we’re spending some of Ryder’s nap time focusing on school work but it’s all fairly laid back.
Anyway, back to our morning! Things kicked off for me around 5:30 a.m. when I joined Ryan in the garage for a leg day workout. (Well, Ryan did his own workout. It was leg day for me!)
It was a simple workout that incorporated a series of supersets and triplesets and took me around 30 minutes to complete. I took a hot shower after my workout, said goodbye to Ryan as he headed off to work and then got to work playing leprechaun.
Last week, I scooped up a $1 St. Patrick’s Day banner, some festive goodies and a new Cat in the Hat Learning Library shark book for the boys at Target and assembled everything in a little basket that the boys found by following a series of gold coins leading from their bedrooms to the kitchen counter. It was simple but they got a big kick out of everything!
We also had green pancakes that I whipped up the in blender with some whole wheat flour, eggs, spinach, cinnamon, banana and baking powder.
After breakfast we headed outside on a morning walk with Sadie. I was determined to get some fresh air with our gang since rain was on the forecast for the rest of the day.
(Shout out to my Aunt Laurie for making the boys’ fleece blankets. They LOVE them so much and they’re a chilly walk staple for us!)
We walked around our neighborhood and then stopped at a little trail where the boys played with their cars and trucks in the rocks and dirt for, no joke, 45 minutes. Give these kids fresh air and some mud and they’ll be happy for all the days!
Once we made it home we refilled the bird feeder we recently ordered for our front yard because the birds have been draining it in less than 48 hours.
We bought the same one we love in our backyard because the squirrels cannot get to it and Chase is still all about looking out our windows for his favorite birds. (He uses our bird identification pamphlet to identify new birds he doesn’t recognize and gets so into it!) I swear his enthusiasm rubbed off on our whole family and now we’ll excitedly yell out any time we see a bluebird, cardinal or another one of his favorites.
Eventually it began drizzling so we headed inside and I whipped up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrots and strawberries for all of us for lunch while Chase and Ryder played with kinetic sand. You guys, on Monday I had this big plan for the boys to play paleontologist with the two pounds of sand I ordered off Amazon after I hid some of their dinosaur toys in it. Well, apparently two pounds of kinetic sand doesn’t go very far and I had to laugh when I saw my paleontology activity turn into a bit of a dud.
Thankfully any amount of kinetic sand is still a blast for kids, so they were still all about it! (Also, for any of you out there thinking sand in the house is the worst idea on the planet, kinetic sand is very different and can be pulled and shaped and is almost stretchy. What I’m basically saying is it’s not the nightmare you might think!)
After lunch, it was time for Ryder’s nap. While he slept, I set Chase up with a new audiobook in his room for his quiet time. He happily listened to part of a book from the My Weird School series for a solid 45 minutes which was a win for both of us.
We then spent the rest of Ryder’s nap completing Chase’s school assignment for the day from his teacher which included talking about words in the “at” family and drawing them inside of an “at” house (cat, rat, etc.), writing the numbers 1-10 and watching their teacher read a story about Vicky Violet (aka the letter “V”) from their Letterland lesson.
Eventually Ryder was up and ready to join the action. The rest of our afternoon looked like reading books in Ryder’s room before indoor bounce house fun and a bath.
Ryan arrived home as we were wrapping up bath time and then we sat down to our St. Patrick’s Day feast!
I loooove corned beef and cabbage (with carrots, purple potatoes and onions) so much so naturally I jumped at the chance to make this dinner for our family yesterday. Ryder and Chase only liked the carrots but Ryan and I were all about it!
Eventually everyone was pooped and ready for bed so we headed upstairs and did the whole bedtime routine before Ryan and I chatted for a bit and read until we could no longer keep our eyes open.
Plans for today look a lot like Monday and Tuesday. We’ll be spending a lot of time at home, hopefully making our way outside for a few hours and keeping our distance from everyone. Ryan will be home with us for the first time this week after his work made the decision to have everyone work from home beginning today. I know we’re both very, very lucky to have the ability to do our jobs from home and I feel so much for those of you out there who have to work outside of the home right now (especially those in health care — THANK YOU!) and those who want to work but cannot because of closures, lay offs, etc. Again, please leave comments below if there are organizations you’re supporting or would love others to know about so we can help in whatever way we can during this crazy time.
Thank you so much for stopping by the blog and making PBF a part of your day today. Sending you all so much love!
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This post made me smile. Thank you for sharing your day and ideas!
Are the public schools in your area closed? If so, see if you can find out what they are doing for meals for kids. So many school-aged children only get a decent meal from their school lunch/breakfast and might be going without right now. Both my current school district and the one I grew up in has teams that are putting together meals and distributing them and I was able to donate money to both groups to help pay for food that I knew would specifically go to those kids.
Love how you kept St. PATRICK’S day alive. Kudos mom!
Just wanted to thank you for your post today! I have been following your blog for a few years now but have never commented. I loved seeing your boys happy little faces this morning. I needed some sense of normalcy with all the craziness going on around here! ?Please keep blogging! Have a great day!?
Agree with Angie! Please keep blogging the way you do. I love reading about your “normal” days and your positive attitude is contagious.
Love your blog, Julie! I thought I’d chime in with a way of helping that I came across yesterday. Jefferson Bethke, a Christian author and speaker (@jeffersonbethke), set up a platform on his Instagram for people to help each other out in the middle of this craziness. Basically, he created a Google spreadsheet where people who are struggling because of the virus can share their needs. Then, people can connect with them through Venmo/PayPal and send support. It’s been so heartwarming to see so many people sending support and prayers through this!
I saw that too! I love that Jefferson Bethke started that!
“(He uses our bird identification pamphlet to identify new birds he doesn’t recognize and gets so into it!)” Love this! I love feeding and watching my birds. 🙂
I didn’t know if you knew this: “What does it mean to see a cardinal?
A cardinal is a representative of a loved one who has passed. When you see one, it means they are visiting you. They usually show up when you most need them or miss them. They also make an appearance during times of celebration as well as despair to let you know they will always be with you.”
And mine know when to show when I need a sign from my parents, sister, brother. xo
Can you share the shoes are you wearing in your workout picture? They are so cute!
Your positivity is infectious! It looks like you all had such a fun St. Patrick’s Day despite this strange time. I made green pancakes last year and need to do so again! They’re so fun no matter one’s age. Chase’s teacher sounds like an angel! Teachers really are the unsung heros. I’m a Registered Dietitian working in dialysis, and all of this has definitely added so much more strain on our work. But I am thankful to still have a job. My heart breaks for those who have been laid off! I hope you all have a great Wednesday.
Great blog, Julie! I was really sick on Monday and could barely move (I had a double ear infection). My husband was trying to work from home and we have a third grader and a four year old. It was so rough. I have seen some parents on line write about how hard it is now that both parents must work from home while trying to homeschool multiple kids. SO hard! But any situation would be better than getting this virus. This is definitely such a crazy time. I really appreciate you continuing to blog because following your blog feels so “normal” and anything that reminds us of life before all this craziness is so comforting!
I’m definitely having a hard time teaching my third grader (even though I taught for nine years!) with a wild four year old in the mix. We’ve read about planets, the Titanic, I’m reading a chapter a day of Seedfolks, we did a writing lesson (Somebody Wanted But So) with Edward Hoch’s short story, The Zoo, and we’ve had lots of PE time outside. We’ve had some art lessons and thankfully we could pick up his SOL workbooks from his school, but his county (in Loudoun, VA) sent out an email implying that the end of the school year could be over. 🙁 I am going to remain hopeful that my kids will get to go back at least for the last month. We know there’s no way we can follow a strict schedule. I’m going to see if I can get him to do kids yoga with me on You Tube. We’re just trying to do our best and have him read on his own too.
I agree with the comments above! Please keep blogging, Julie! Definitely appreciate your positivity!
I donated to Meals on Wheels and another local charity that is putting together care packages with hand sanitizers and canned goods for the elderly in my community. Please continue to share your ideas on ways to help because it’s hard not to feel a bit helpless during this time.
Also, I appreciate that you shared the Tone It Up app on Insta! If you come across any other resources like that to help deal with social distancing, please let us know! Thank you!
You are always so inspiring and a breath of fresh air! Thank you for all that you do!
Your green pancakes reminded me of something from when I was a kid. My sister and two cousins and I stayed with our aunt and uncle (who did not have kids of their own yet). Our aunt thought it would be fun to let us put food coloring in the mashed potatoes for dinner. We of course chose blue, but with the yellowy potato color, they turned out kind of a sickly green. Our uncle was not impressed when he came home from work, but he was a good sport about it.
Glad that you and your family are hanging in there. Fortunately kids are pretty easy to entertain, but it is a full-time job.
Thank you for your post. I love your blog and look forward to it weekly!! It is a weird time, but please keep up the blog. It’s one thing that is part of my “normal” life that still remains! Stay healthy. ☺️
So far I have donated to a local church that is preparing meals to supplement kids that depend on school breakfast and lunch. As many servers do not have work right now or hours have been reduced, please remember to tip generously even on pick up or to-go orders. Many of these meals are being prepared by the same servers you would encounter if the restaurant was open for eat in dining. My niece is a server and a part time bartender and is already feeling the effects. After the craziness settles down and we can return to being able to dine again at a sit down restaurant, I plan to tip over and above my usual amount to help the server recoup some of their lost income.
Sounds like you are pretty much keeping your boys in their routine with the exception of Chase actually going to preschool.
Hey Julie. Just wanted to say that your DITL posts are by far my favourite ones and I really appreciate you still making the time to do them, despite having to take care of 2 little kids at home full time right now. It has made a difference to my day and helped me focus on something other than the fear and anxiety regarding whats going on in the world right now. Sending lots of love and good health to your family!
I’m a doctor (as is my husband…we also have a 10 Month old baby). I’m heading into the trenches almost daily. Thanks for asking how to help! Here’s one suggestion: you can remind folks that we have a SEVERE shortage of personal protective equipment for doctors – masks and gloves will run out soon and we will be putting ourselves at serious risk. If folks have even one mask at home, please consider donating to your local clinics and/or hospital. I promise that the doctors and nurses need it more than you do.
I had a box of 150 masks at home that I bought months ago when I was fighting a cold and home on maternity leave with a newborn and a toddler. I gave them to a nurse friend and she was so grateful. She was telling me they are extremely short on masks and are only allowed one in a 12 hour shift. That’s scary. We need to protect our healthcare workers the best we can and not hoard these types of supplies.
It’s really scary. Thank you so much for donating!
Hi Julie! I know you were a fellow Body Pump enthusiast like me, and wanted to be sure you saw that Les Mills has free content right now. actually kept an online subscription because my gym didn’t offer the classes and Body Pump #111 is AMAZING. The music is solid and lots of classic motions (mack raises for life!) My 5 year old is loving the Mo Willems lunch doodles and Scholastic free daily lessons, too, in case you needed more fun quarantine activities. If you haven’t done “popsicle stick catapults,” highly recommend googling that one, too. We used a marker rubber banded between two pieces of strong cardboard with a spoon on top and practiced measuring with the tape measure to record the distance. I feel like Chase is a lot like Reagan and would love that one.