Hi everyone and happy Monday! In usual Monday fashion we are linking up with several bloggers for their Hello Monday link up. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. We had some great weather, which was bittersweet. It was so nice to take walks in the warm sunshine, but man there's nothing like an 80 degree day to make a girl want to go to the beach. We captured a few pics of our weekend to share, and I also worked on writing up a recipe for the broccoli soup I shared on Friday favorites. That recipe is here if you're interested (hint-it's yummy!)
Later this week I will be sharing our Mother's Day Gift Guides which are fun. I made a guide using Amazon, but also made an inexpensive/homemade gift guide as I know times are hard right now. Many of us are the mothers in the equation, but if you're interested check back later this week for those. Also don't forget that on Thursday this week, Adrienne and I are hosting our What's in my... link up and this week we're sharing what's in our CARS. Here is the graphic if you're interested.
I love seeing how people organize their trunks, center consoles etc. Please link up and join us! :)
Here our some pics from the weekend.
Friday-
Friday was absolutely gorgeous here. It was 80+ degrees, sooo warm and sunny. Ella woke up around 6, so our day started early. We took a nice long family walk; bright and early before anyone else is out is best. We still wear our masks when we're out, although our police department let us know that it's a recommendation and only required when going to essential businesses. We're choosing to wear them to protect ourselves and others by wearing a mask when we're in an area that could potentially mean other people.
Ella spent a majority of the morning playing in her pool, blowing bubbles and running around like crazy! I am always shocked by her amount of energy sometimes. She asks to go on walks multiple times a day (which I totally get, because we can't do anything else) but unlike most toddlers, she doesn't want to be in her stroller... she wants to walk! This girl will walk a full mile next to us on her own. Does anyone else have a toddler that loves to walk??
We found out that green spaces in Seal Beach are now open, but obviously social distancing is still required. We decided to pack a picnic and check out the green belt to see if there were many people out and there was nobody there!!! We put a blanket down and enjoyed a nice little picnic. It was the first time life felt normal in a long time and I loved it.
You would have thought we took Ella to Disneyland. She was running around the grass and screaming! It's like she was screaming "freedommmmmm!" Now obviously we can't wear masks when we're eating, but otherwise,we all wear one, even Ella.
So happy to be in the sunshine.
I made sure to bring hand sanitizer wipes with us and masks just in case we came too close to others.
We made an easy curry chicken salad, an easier pasta salad and packed some grapes and crackers for the side. Michael and I ate the chicken salad as a lettuce wrap and Ella just ate it off the fork. She loved the picnic. It was only 20-30 minutes or so, but that little bit of outside time felt sooo good!
The rest of the day was all about laundry!
I woke up pretty tired on Saturday, as Ella had me up at 2 am rocking her back to sleep. You can tell she's getting more separation anxiety now, which is very common around her age of 18 months. She falls asleep on her own every night, but she enjoys those middle of the night cuddles.
I put together a breakfast board for a fun family brunch. Ella loves breakfast foods, so I knew she would enjoy this the most! Michael and I also had some scrambled eggs.
I was trying to take pics and Ella was trying to steal the food before I was ready... haha!
She ate an entire waffle, the whole yogurt, a piece of bacon and lots of fruit. We have been letting Ella go ahead and feed herself, regardless of how messy she gets. We know if we don't let her do things herself that she'll never learn. Sometimes this makes our life harder, but it will be worth it. She made such a mess with her yogurt that I ended up giving her a mid-day bath which NEVER happens.
All clean and looking incredibly big :(
Later in the afternoon Ella wanted to go for a walk. When she wants to go for a walk she lets us know by grabbing her shoes and stamping her feet. It's so cute. On this day she wanted to bring all 3 of her bunnies in the stroller, along with Michael's water cup. She also REFUSED her mask on this day. She normally puts it on with no trouble. We let her walk without one but made her to avoid any and all people as we always do.
Guess who abandoned her stroller and left it for Mom to carry?
The people of Seal have the greenest of thumbs! So plush and beautiful.
I spent the rest of our Saturday working on organization. I put away some of Ella's Fall/Winter clothes and took out some of her Summer stuff. Before you all think I am nuts, 95% of Ella's clothes were given to us by a friend. I rarely buy Ella clothes because we get so much given to us.
We went for a family drive in the afternoon. Looking like a bit of a hot mess but #keepingitreal
And we discovered on Saturday that my seeds began to germinate and boy was I excited! I love our little herb garden (affiliate link.)
And that was Saturday.
Early morning start again with this stinker. She was up at 4 am wanting some cuddles with Momma... I obliged. We went for a long family walk, I took my coffee & Ella took her milk. We were up and at em so early we didn't see many people out on our walk. This was taken right outside our home but our masks went on shortly after!
I got some 'me time' and did a pick up of groceries. We had ordered sometime last week and I was excited to get a bunch of yummy stuff! Ordering groceries online is a little too easy and a bit dangerous for me. I have already gained 5 lbs in this quarantine and need to ease up on the junkfood.
Another walk with my babies. Dad dressed her, can you tell?
I didn't do a lot of documenting on Sunday because I was a little forgetful. We had seared salmon with sauteed veggies and cauliflower rice for dinner.
And we ordered this broom for Ella because she is obsessed with ours but can't really use it. Hopefully she learns to sweep the kitchen with this ;)
We don't have a ton planned for this week. I need to do some reading regarding new recommendations for dentistry in today's world. Dental hygienists are one of the most at-risk professions for Covid-19, so I want to make sure we are prepared when we do have to go back to work. We are currently supposed to start back work on May 18th, but that is dependent upon how things are going. I want to try finishing my book this week and I need to start my clean eating diet this week. Wish me luck!!!
We'll see you later this week! xoxo
What a happy little weekend! Glad you were able to enjoy a picnic, that is so fun and I am thinking we might do that in our own yard this week. I love that Ella loves walks so much & tells you when she wants to go :) I'll definitely be thinking of your family as you prepare to possibly return to work, XO
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun weekend! I just started following you on Instagram so that's fun! I wish I lived in California ... looks beautiful there!
ReplyDeletePlease share what you learn regarding the changes coming for dental hygienists. I live in MN and I have a cleaning scheduled for the tuesday after our shelter at home orders lift so I want to make sure that I am doing what I can to keep them safe and that they're doing what they can to do the same.
On another note ... do you mind sharing what one thing you like about the changes to the world because of Covid? one thing you don't like? One thing you'd like to go back to the old days tomorrow if you could?
Have a great night! <3
Hi Lindsay! Aw, thanks for following! I appreciate it. Right now, I think it's too soon for my state to allow routine dental appointments because we are still seeing a growing number of cases, and there is currently no reliable way to test people... We're getting close, but if they were to say we're opening next week I would in no way feel comfortable.
DeleteI'm not sure how your state is doing as far the number of cases. It's going to be different state to state on when the 'best time' is to open. If your office does a reminder call, maybe use that as a time to ask them if they have made any changes to further protect patients. You should hear answers like... "increased PPE, high speed suction during cavitron use, appointments spaced apart, no patients allowed to wait in the waiting room-in car only, no paperwork done in office etc." If the office doesn't give you reassurance that they have made changes I would totally express those concerns to them. I plan to do a whole post on life pre and post COVID-19 so that will answer those questions :)
-Ash
Hey Ash!
ReplyDeleteSo sweet of you to get back so quickly. I personally do not fear getting COVID because I know that for most the experience is similar to a bad cold or flu. My brother (who continued to travel due to his work) actually tested positive and so did his wife and they experienced very few symptoms and have since recovered completely. So I will be getting my regular cleaning if I can. I am sure that many others will be a tad more nervous about going but I want to do my part to make others feel more comfortable getting their regular cleanings and I also know that dentists need to get back to their regular clients because they are struggling to pay their bills too! I personally feel very blessed to have a job where I can work from home and my work has to do with pandemic planning so I have been busier than ever the past few months! So I am ready for people to get back to work so I can enjoy the summer a little bit too! (hope that doesn't sound selfish! 🥴)
You all are just so cute. I love seeing all of Ella's outfits!
ReplyDeleteAw thank you! :) Our close friend has a little girl older than Ella and we get all her hand-me-downs.. it's such a blessing because I never have to go shopping for her clothes. It gives me more $ to buy fun things like books and toys! (Not that clothes aren't fun!)
DeleteOh I bet it was just wonderful to get out and have a picnic! We rarely bought clothes for our boy either; between hand me downs and clothes from the grandparents they were usually pretty well set... now I'm buying clothes for all three and it's crazy how fast they're still growing.
ReplyDelete