A Heartwarming Car Parade

 Birthday and other celebratory car parades have become the new thing in the coronavirus era, and I got to witness my first one in April. It actually brought tears to my eyes! It was for a woman who lives on the street behind ours. She's a beautiful fashionista with her own clothing business, and she's fighting cancer. It touched my heart that her friends did this for her birthday. She's a popular lady--there were a lot of cars that kept coming, more than I took pictures of. It's so nice to witness acts of kindness, especially during hard times.

Boo Boo added to the festive atmosphere by barking at the cars as they drove by. 😄

How did the balloons not fly away!?

This probably would have been me, pretty much just a simple sign. I'm so basic! 

It really made my day to watch this car parade go by, even if it wasn't for me! 😄

General Conference and Easter

 General Conference was different this year (as almost everything is different this year). It wasn't held in the Conference Center with the huge crowd that usually attends. In fact, there was no crowd, and it was held in a room with only the speakers present who all sat socially distanced from each other. The Tabernacle Choir couldn't sing, so clips of their songs from the past were used. It was strange, but it worked fine, and the messages were what really mattered, and they were comforting and illuminating, especially during the first few unsettling weeks of the pandemic. I'm so thankful that we have a literal prophet of God to guide us, and that I believe in him as much as I believe in my Savior.

I stocked up at Whole Foods that week (not just on whole foods though 😄).

Easter was coming up the next weekend, so...Easter cakes!

A couple of views during Conference. Sam was watching from the upstairs hall. This is what I saw when I looked up from where I was sitting on the couch.

Another snack

President Nelson called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for COVID relief for the following Friday, which was Good Friday, which I participated in. I hope it helped in some way.

I'm so thankful for President Nelson. Following his counsel has helped me in significant ways over the last few years.

I don't have many pictures from Easter. It was a cold day, and like all the other days that month, it was spent at home. I missed being able to go to church. 

Our Primary did a fun little online Easter Egg hunt where you posted a picture of Easter eggs in your home and the number of them, and people had to find them all. Sam helped out with ours. It was cute.

This was our Easter brunch/dinner. It was good. I wouldn't normally do this but we were in lockdown and it supported a local business that we like.

Off with its head! That's the only part I ended up eating for some reason.

It was the first Easter that we didn't dye eggs, one, because eggs were hard to come by at the time, and two, because the boys have pretty much outgrown it and don't care if we do it or not.

Even though they weren't all that they usually are, Conference and Easter were two peaceful oases during a cold, strange month.

Why U Home So Much?

 April 2020 was so weird. It was the first full month of lockdown when we were home all the time and everything was still unknown and the kids were doing full-time online school and our usual routines and schedules were upended. It's when the economy felt like it was really starting to fall apart (which it was). It was a cold spring for us here in Massachusetts, which made us stay in our houses even more. But as always there were good things to be found, and I will proceed to blog about some of them (namely, the ones that I have pictures of!).

Since we were home so much, Boo Boo, Violet, and Bentwood got a lot of attention. I don't know how much they wondered what was going on with all of us home so much more than usual, but they didn't seem to mind! I'm thankful to have pets because they can be such a comfort, especially during hard times.

Bentwood: sweet, gentle, and so chill.

He was enjoying the freshly vacuumed carpet.

These pictures of Sam and Boo Boo on the stairs are so cute. I took several but these are two of my favorites.

Sam and Bentwood hanging out.

Bundled up by Sam

Freed from the bundle by John

Another bundling, this one by me. I love this! 

Lunchtime food attendants 😄

See?

Speaking of which, Boo Boo sometimes likes to hang out in the kitchen while I'm cooking dinner.

Dog or cat (or human), laying in the sun feels so good.

🐕🐈🐕

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Things That Made Me Happy in June

Frankie Drake Mysteries, a fun mystery show set in 1920s Toronto with a ladies' private detective agency

Getting together with friends and family again

Making smores with our fire pit, including some unique and delicious ones with peppermint patties and peanut butter (not together!)

Getting a generator

Blooming roses and other pretty flowers around the yard

Beecham House, a new period drama show on PBS that I'm enjoying

Floating around the pool on my favorite tube 

Consistently warm temperatures

Going out to eat again

My growing vegetable plants. The garden is working!

Things I'm Looking Forward to This Summer

Harvesting my own vegetables

Going to the Cape for the sixteenth summer in a row

Going to the beach and enjoying the fresh sea breezes and salt water

Going to Nantucket for a few days for my birthday

Beginning a new decade of life

Getting professional massages again

Reading books. I always love reading but I think I love it most during the lazy and relaxed days of summer.

This is my last blog post until mid-August. I always take at least half the summer off from blogging. Dry your eyes! 😂 I'll be back with my ramblings and randomness before you know it! Stay safe and healthy and have a great summer! 🌞

March 2020 Randoms

Sam

We were dressed in the same colors one Sunday and as you can see Sam was thrilled to take a picture of this phenomenon with me. 😄


On one of the last normal school mornings before everything went downhill.
(He's dressed in gray and black again!)

A cute way to carry a "stuffie" around. 

Found on my phone from when he was making videos and taking pictures for a YouTube video he was putting together about water bottle flipping.

Cleaning up his trash and dishes at the end of the day, with a mischievous smile on his face (he stuck his butt out right after I took this but I'm not including that picture).

Oh fine, here it is.

John

"Why are you taking my picture while I eat, Mom?" I'm so weird (I said it for him).

John joined a wrestling club for their spring session and only got to do TWO practices before it shut down because of the virus.

At the table again

Me 😁

All of us 

This was part of a special get well video we were doing with some of my friends for our friend who'd just gotten a mastectomy.

After a mild and boring winter, snow finally fell. In March.

Within 24 hours it was of course all gone.

Then we got a bigger "snowstorm" that month--it was only about an inch or two and was all gone by the next day, but it was still kind of cool (literally, ha ha). March was so weird this year.

The next day...

I saw this on Facebook and liked it. Literally.

This is a good thing to tell yourself on a bad day.

Lincoln was the best. I wish he were the president now, and I say that as a Trump supporter. He navigated the country successfully through the Civil War and ended slavery. We need those skills now more than ever.

I changed my phone's screensaver to this pretty picture.

Oh Joe.

Who needs a bodyguard when you have Jill Biden? 😂 She went after this protester who stormed the stage while Biden was speaking. Jill was on it! 

I saw this map of Boston in the paper and took a picture of it to keep on my phone because the layout of Boston and its different neighborhoods has always confused me. I can find my way around Philadelphia and New York City way more easily than my hometown city.

The lovely Cape! I know my way around it pretty well by now.

I stubbed my toe really badly. It hurt for days.

From the Police Beat in the town paper. 😂 Sometimes they have the funniest things in there.

Yummy veggie-tarian lunch

This encapsulates my life fairly well. Except for painting.

😂😂😂

Waiting in line to go in to Target right before it opened. This was in the early days when many people were on the hunt for things like toilet paper and disinfecting wipes.

President Nelson calls it again in an October 2019 General Conference talk to the men of the church: ..."This is the only way you will keep yourself and your family spiritually safe in the challenging days ahead." 

💙💚💙💚💙