CVSD: Day 33

At the beginning of March, middle Tennessee was hit by a series of terrifying tornadoes in the middle of the night. East Nashville, where my brother and Daniel's sister both live, was devastated. The storm rolled on to Cookeville (where we used to live) and many people lost everything. It was horrific, but thankfully our family members and their properties were okay.

Fast forward several weeks and our state was put under a quarantine lock down followed by a shelter-at-home order. It's been a hard month. But Tennesseans have stepped up and taken care of each other, even amidst the hardness of it all.

On Sunday we celebrated Easter. Holidays on your own are hard. Quarantine holidays are sad. Daniel and I both had migraines. Daniel's dad and his wife drove over to give the kids Easter presents. They stayed on our upper deck and we chatted with them from our porch for a little bit before it started raining.

Worshipping from the living room, via YouTube, is proving to be one of our least favorite aspects of quarantine. I have never felt more profoundly that "the church" is really the people. And I miss the people. I am so thankful to know that the grave is empty, but we miss celebrating that important part of history with our church family.

We were expecting bad weather Sunday night, and right around midnight things got bad. Daniel and I were watching Netflix. It was a loud fight scene, but the wind was howling so loudly that I made Daniel pause our show and flip over to catch the weather. My app on my phone just said severe weather. It sounded worse than that. I kept searching. Finally we found a news station saying "Tornado Warning" for south east Chattanooga. We are north of Chattanooga, but the wind was crazy loud.

By morning we would learn that the east side of the city was hit by an F-3 tornado. Whole neighborhoods are decimated. Live wires cover the ground in some areas. All of our friends are okay, but many are out of power and there is a lot of damage to contend with. Because of the coronavirus, we are told that the best way to help is to stay home and let the first responders do their work. Even though we are fine, there is an emotional component of this that makes this feel extra hard. Hopefully there will be ways that we can help in the days to come. In the meantime, we are continuing to shelter at home.

CVSD: Day 28

We have been trying to space out our weekly grocery trips to about ten days apart. This means a big shopping trip, and no we aren't hoarding. These trips make me thankful for the pre-quarantine days when I could hit up the grocery two or more times a week. This is one luxury that I am looking forward to in the future.

I geared up this morning, making a homemade mask and putting laundry baskets in the car with lysol wipes. Masks are now recommended for all Americans and our local grocery stores are limiting the number of customers allowed in at one time.

I arrived around 9:30am and walked right in. My mask was hot and itchy. Most other shoppers had masks, some did not.

Easter is on Sunday and Isaac's 5th Birthday is in 10 days. I picked up some goodies for an Easter Egg Hunt and Easter Baskets. I couldn't bring myself to look at Easter outfits. I also snagged some egg decorating kids and decorations for a birthday party. We are ordering Isaac's gifts online... hopefully they will get here in time.

As I walked through the store, most customers were cautious and polite with kind eyes peering out over masks. Since I had so much to buy, I noticed that by the time I was ending my shopping, the aisles were getting more crowded. I just did my best to stay 6 feet away from people.

In the baking aisle, I stopped an employee to ask if there was any yeast available as I had been unable to locate any. The poor man immediately directed me to stand back 6 feet. He was definitely on edge. I gave him his space and he softened and said that he didn't think they had any yeast. I thanked him and started to walk off when he spoke up, curious about yeast. He mentioned that the yeast had flown off the shelves and he had bought some, but was unsure what to do with it. Even so, he figured it was important since it kept selling out. I told him I used it to make bread since we are only allowed one loaf. A loaf lasts my family about three days, so I have been supplementing with homemade bread. He had no idea and thanked me for clearing up this great mystery for him. It was nice to have a conversation with another human. Even if we were speaking through masks.

I finished up my shopping and went to wait in a long check-out line. The poor lady working the the check-out looked exhausted and worried. I told her that I appreciated her being there. There are so many people I appreciate but I'm not always great at telling them. These days I am trying my best to let people know that I appreciate them.

After getting my groceries wiped down with Lysol wipes and loaded into the car, I headed home where my boys put all the groceries away while I showered and decontaminated myself. Any time I go to the store (this is my third trip in four weeks), Isaac gives me a big hug and thanks me for buying all of his favorite foods.

CVSD: Day 26

Today is the start of Spring Break. And we are sheltering in place at home, along with most of America.

Jack has been asking for forever when Spring Break would start. He is just glad to not have to crack a book all week. I have never been so grateful that our boys get along so well and that we have an acre of woods for them to spend a good portion of every day exploring.

We rarely hear them say that they are bored, though they do regularly ask for us to buy them a gaming system and Minecraft (but they asked for that before the pandemic). I think we will get them something soon, but we have still been holding off.

If they do say the "b" word (bored) they know they will be given the option to figure out something to do or be given a chore to complete. They typically figure out something for themselves.

They are working on building a tree house out of materials we already have at our house; they built a stick and leaf shelter/fort; and have created their own Adventure Club. I believe it requires wearing camo, carrying binoculars and exploring the woods.

When they tire of exploring, they have been playing an ongoing game of tag that has morphed into various versions. First it was bike tag – they just had to get close enough to yell the other person's name and say "You're it!" Then today it was hammock tag – they have hung their hammocks one above the other and flip over and over trying to tag any exposed skin on the other person before one of them flips again. Another version was on the back porch and they would name objects leading to the other person to "tag" – for example, Isaac was standing on the couch so Jack said, "I tagged the floor, the floor tagged the couch, and the couch tagged you! You're it!" They think these games are hilarious and play for long periods of time. I love their inventiveness.

Tonight will mark the 9th night they have slept outside on our back porch. I am tempted to offer to let them set up our two-man tent out there, but they seem pretty content with their fortress of cushions.

Every year I try to keep track of the birds that are flocking back to our property. So far this year we have spotted the following: a Red Shouldered Hawk, several Pileated Woodpeckers, lots of Yellow Bellied Sap Suckers, a Screen Owl, Cardinals, quite a few Tufted Titmouse, a Northern Mockingjay, crows, a Morning Dove, a Goldfinch, sparrows, chickadees, and so many other birds that I constantly hear but haven't gotten eyes on yet. We typically see quite a few Bluebirds but I haven't noticed any so far this year.

I wish we could go somewhere fun for Spring Break, but if we have to be stuck at home, our property is a pretty nice place to be stuck.

Superfly

We didn't end up taking a whole week off for Spring Break.

Instead we took a couple of days at the first of March to spend time with cousins who were their Spring Break, and then we took another couple of days off in April when the local schools were on break (including Isaac's preschool).

When cousins were here we visited the Creative Discovery Museum and Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. And then our family did some fun excursions including three hikes during the course of spring break week.

We had actually planned to go camping at the end of this week, but the weather did not cooperate. Instead we made a deal with Jack that if it stormed we would visit Superfly for a day of jumping.

Friday we hiked at Big Soddy Gulf and then that evening we cooked our dinner over a campfire in our back yard. Saturday the rain started, so we kept our word and visited Superfly.

Thankfully Daniel discovered a coupon so we only had to pay half price!

We had previously visited Superfly with the elementary group at church and the kids loved it. Jack has really been wanting to go back, so this was a perfect activity.

It did not disappoint.

Both boys surprised us with their abilities to climb, balance, flip, and jump. Maybe they will be American Ninja Warriors when they grow up?

After they were worn out from jumping, we grabbed a late lunch at Chuy's and then popped over to see grandparents.

It wasn't camping, but we still had a great end to our Spring Break.

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum with Cousins, 2018

Several years ago, we met up with friends from Huntsville to go see Thomas and Friends at the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum here in Chattanooga. We had a really good visit, but had never made it back.

A friend from church had mentioned that they had got an annual pass for their family to the museum and really enjoyed going to ride the Missionary Local (train) often with their kids.

When my brother, sister, and her kids were here I initially thought it would be fun to take them to Rock City, but the morning we planned to do this excursion ended up being pretty cold.

So instead, I had the bright idea to go to the train museum and ride the Missionary Local.

So on a last minute whim, that is what we did.

Our crew is slow moving in the mornings, so we opted to make it on the last train of the day that would be leaving around noon.

The train ride is only six miles, but takes you over several bridges and through a tunnel in Missionary Ridge. It ends at the old East Chattanooga Station. It takes an hour because you ride to the end of the line, then disembark at a train yard where you get to watch the engine spin around on the turn table.

While they hook the engine back up to the train, we were taken to the train shop where they work on trains from all over the continent.

It was pretty impressive.

Thankfully my sister came prepared with snacks, because the kids mostly wanted to snack. But they still had a good time!

I went ahead and got a pass for our family. The kids enjoyed the ride and also exploring the parked train cars in the museum yard (this was probably their favorite part!).

We are hoping to do some more excursions, and even upgrade to some of their longer scenic routes when the leaves change in the fall.

This turned out to be a perfect activity for what started out as a cool morning.

Afterward we went to eat a late brunch at the Daily Ration in North Shore. Thankfully it was warm enough to enjoy sitting outside in the sunshine while the kids played corn hole!