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.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Saturday, April 11, 2020
CVSD: Day 31
It's Easter weeked and the USA has passed the half a million mark for confirmed cases of Covid-19, though the numbers are probably way higher considering how many people have not been tested.
Worldwide, the number is around 1.75 million. The number of cases being reported daily in China is less than 100, so either the disease has run its course there or they are not reporting correctly. It's hard to know what is what these days as there seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around.
I have been feeling very contemplative lately. I pray more. Read my Bible more. And don't have many words to say. My energy has gone to keeping life as normal as possible for our kids. Today that meant an Easter Egg Hunt in our back yard.
My allergies are kicking in. Sore throat. Headache. Watery eyes. I just want to nap. That's about where things are right now in my world. I love my family and miss my friends.
Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, an everpresent help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging... vs. 10 Be still, and know that I am God.
Worldwide, the number is around 1.75 million. The number of cases being reported daily in China is less than 100, so either the disease has run its course there or they are not reporting correctly. It's hard to know what is what these days as there seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around.
I have been feeling very contemplative lately. I pray more. Read my Bible more. And don't have many words to say. My energy has gone to keeping life as normal as possible for our kids. Today that meant an Easter Egg Hunt in our back yard.
My allergies are kicking in. Sore throat. Headache. Watery eyes. I just want to nap. That's about where things are right now in my world. I love my family and miss my friends.
Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, an everpresent help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging... vs. 10 Be still, and know that I am God.
Wednesday, April 08, 2020
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.
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.
Monday, April 06, 2020
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.
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.
Saturday, April 04, 2020
CVSD: Day 24
We have now been home for 24 days straight. I've gone out twice for groceries and Daniel had to go on site for work twice in that time. He also ran some errands yesterday knowing that the shelter-in-place would take affect today. The kids have left our neighborhood once in that time period (we went on a family hike on a neighboring mountain). Other than that, we have allowed bike riding and walks around our neighborhood.
I am finding that we are fairly suited to this self isolation thing. I have a feeling that our yearly camping trips (ranging from 3-3.5 weeks) have played a part in helping our family cope with being on our own. While we are all missing our friends, Daniel is really missing being in the field for work. Being chained to our dining room table and his phone for 8+ hours a day has been hard on him.
A few things I am doing differently over the last few weeks: I've been baking bread each week. I am a lot more conscious of leftovers and not letting food go to waste. And we recently started a compost pile – Jack is determined to grow some food this year and he spearheaded the compost idea. I think we will be starting a small vegetable garden as part of our homeschooling. We live on a really wooded lot, but I think we can find enough sunshine to support a 3x3 bed.
The kids have slept outside for 5 of the last 7 nights (two of those nights we made them stay in because it was cold). They are pretty determined to continue to sleep on the porch. At the end of this pandemic, if the only thing our kids remember is that they got to sleep in cushions fort for months on end, I will call that a win for their childhood.
I am finding that we are fairly suited to this self isolation thing. I have a feeling that our yearly camping trips (ranging from 3-3.5 weeks) have played a part in helping our family cope with being on our own. While we are all missing our friends, Daniel is really missing being in the field for work. Being chained to our dining room table and his phone for 8+ hours a day has been hard on him.
A few things I am doing differently over the last few weeks: I've been baking bread each week. I am a lot more conscious of leftovers and not letting food go to waste. And we recently started a compost pile – Jack is determined to grow some food this year and he spearheaded the compost idea. I think we will be starting a small vegetable garden as part of our homeschooling. We live on a really wooded lot, but I think we can find enough sunshine to support a 3x3 bed.
The kids have slept outside for 5 of the last 7 nights (two of those nights we made them stay in because it was cold). They are pretty determined to continue to sleep on the porch. At the end of this pandemic, if the only thing our kids remember is that they got to sleep in cushions fort for months on end, I will call that a win for their childhood.
Thursday, April 02, 2020
CVSD: Day 22
The number of worldwide Coronavirus cases hit one million today. Almost a quarter of those cases are in the USA (I believe the number was around 240,000). Of those cases, 90,000 something were in New York State (Tennessee currently has around 3,100 cases). It's nuts that those are the numbers we are seeing.
This afternoon the governor of Tennessee issued a shelter-in-place order a couple of hours after the mayor of Chattanooga made this same decision for the city. Almost all parks and trails are closed. We watched the Signal Mountain Town Hall meeting early this week and they said they had to close our local trail because people from as far away as Atlanta and Nashville were overwhelming the trails, which makes social distancing while hiking next to impossible. It stinks that strangers have ruined that for our community.
While we feel somewhat isolated from what is going on (which is the point of the social distancing), it is all feeling a lot more real with these orders. Also, many of our friends are experiencing layoffs. The economy is in the toilet. Not sure what this will all look like at the end, but continuing to pray for those directly affected and those working jobs that put them right in the middle of it every day.
Gas is currently $1.51 within 5 miles of where we live. That is the cheapest in decades. Not that we need gas to go anywhere right now...
This afternoon the governor of Tennessee issued a shelter-in-place order a couple of hours after the mayor of Chattanooga made this same decision for the city. Almost all parks and trails are closed. We watched the Signal Mountain Town Hall meeting early this week and they said they had to close our local trail because people from as far away as Atlanta and Nashville were overwhelming the trails, which makes social distancing while hiking next to impossible. It stinks that strangers have ruined that for our community.
While we feel somewhat isolated from what is going on (which is the point of the social distancing), it is all feeling a lot more real with these orders. Also, many of our friends are experiencing layoffs. The economy is in the toilet. Not sure what this will all look like at the end, but continuing to pray for those directly affected and those working jobs that put them right in the middle of it every day.
Gas is currently $1.51 within 5 miles of where we live. That is the cheapest in decades. Not that we need gas to go anywhere right now...
Wednesday, April 01, 2020
Weekly Hikes in March
Green Gorge, Signal Mountain
For our first hike in March, none of our homeschool hiking buddies were able to join us, so I messaged a neighbor whose son goes to a private school that gets out early, and they were able to join us on a quick hike to one of our favorite neighborhood trails.
North Chickamauga Creek to Strip Mine Falls (Blue Hole), Mowbray Mountain
The second hike we went on was a new one for us, and we were delighted to have several other families join us. We hit up the North Chickamauga Creek Gorge where we hiked to Strip Mine Falls via the Hodgkin Loop.
The kids had such a blast. We hiked the loop in reverse so that we could end at the creek. I knew that kids would get distracted with throwing rocks in the water, and I didn't want to spend half of the hike nagging kids to keep moving.
It was a perfect way to do this hike. The kids got to explore and climb on parts of the bluff, cross the Strip Mine waterfall twice, and then enjoy the rushing creek while the mamas talked.
They also found a crevice in a rock that they could shimmy up. They could have spent hours at this special spot climbing up through the hole. This was such a great hike. We will definitely be back!
Green Gorge, Signal Mountain
The same week as the North Chick hike, our community was told to start practice social distancing. For us, this meant pretty much locking down our family to our neighborhood, though we did have one friend that we continued to stay in contact with for the remainder of the month. He was able to join us on a walk to Green Gorge (our neighborhood trail) for our third hike of the month.
The boys also spent the last three weeks riding bikes with him. Biking makes it fairly easy to social distance. As of today our state has called for "sheltering-in-place" so they boys can no longer play with this friend and they are super bummed about this latest development in the era of the Coronavirus.
Green Gorge, Signal Mountain
I ended up taking a walk by myself one night in the rain. I found myself down at Green Gorge. Just me and the creek and God. It was so therapeutic and I came back ready to embrace whatever lies ahead of all of us.
Three Gorges Segment of Cumberland Trail, Mowbray Mountain
We saw a total of 8 other hikers all afternoon ad were able to safely distance ourselves. It was so good for our family to get outside together.
We hope to be able to take neighborhood walks and bike rides while we shelter-in-place for an unknown amount of time. All of our parks and trails have been closed. We watched a live Town Hall meeting last week on YouTube and were saddened that the town council had to close some of our trails because there had been a huge influx of people from places like Atlanta and Nashville overwhelming the trails of our little community.
I am so glad we live on a wooded property. The kids can still climb our huge rock wall and explore our woods. Their hammocks are up and they spend 80% of every day outside. I feel so terrible for people living in apartments or homes with tiny yards during this crisis. We spend part of every day watching the birds and squirrels and chipmunks in our yard. All we have to do is look out our windows.
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