Corona Virus Quarantine Day #35: April 23, 2020: Walking on Sunshine

My guest writer today is the sweet, brave, smart and beautiful Ellen Dorsey.

In the morning today we did school.  We did a lot of math today and some reading pages and specialty project.  After that we went down to the barn for a long time and I played volleyball.  My favorite part of volleyball today was working on serving or setting.  When we got out of the barn we rode on the go cart and Hunter and Finley were trying to hit the go cart with a Frisbee!  They only hit us once!

Then we went to the river.  Finley was climbing his tree like he did last time but this time he fell off at the top.  It was crazy.  Mommy was freaking out, he was fine though.  We saw two snapping turtles, a tadpole and I collected sea shells.  We swam in the river today and Cooper was a bit crazy.  He kept jumping in and looked like he was doing flips.  The time down at the river was fantastic.  With all the seashells I collected I want to try to make a necklace out of them.

We were really dirty and cold after swimming in the river so we all needed a shower! Thank GOD the sun was shining so it warmed us up.  We also had to sit in the back of dad’s truck for the ride home.  After dinner Fiona and I watched an episode of Fuller House.  We like that show because it’s so funny.  Mommy said the original is good too so maybe sometime we can watch that.  Fletcher and Mommy had a “date” and watched Little Mermaid and the boys and daddy watched the NFL draft.

Today was an awesome day.  My favorite part of the day was swimming in the river.  I really want the corona virus to be over.  I want to go out somewhere and see my people.  The only good things that has come out of this is all the time we get to spend with our family, having a fun time at our house and we have more time during the day to do things.  When we are in school I had a lot less time.  So that’s good.  But this virus is hurting people and I don’t like that.  Today I am thankful for our family, Gigi, Zoey, Cutie Pie, our house, the barn and good food to eat and the nice weather.

Love, Ellen

 

Mommy’s thoughts:

In so many ways this day started like the 30+ days that came before it.  Breakfast, clean, dress, school, lunch etc, etc.  In that regard it’s exhausting.  I’m tired and sometimes I’m testy.

All of the adults across America are little testy right now, at least the ones I know are!  But then I look out the window while I’m in a staff meeting on Zoom I see the sun shining and our kids playing. They appear to have made up some game that involves jumping off some rocks, our play set and tag.  And as tired and testy as I may be at times, that all dissipates and I feel at peace.  Bryan and I both have jobs.  We are fortunate enough to be working, we have been given the gift of time with our kids and we are healthy.  Not one thing to complain about right?

But today I had my moments, mostly internal moments…but moments nonetheless where I felt just…ugh.  I am not sleeping super well, partly my own fault and partly the fault of a certain 5-year-old cutie named Fletcher who feels the need to snuggle at 1:30 in the morning.  So when I feel like I did today, the only anecdote that works is exercise and playing games with my people.

The time spent in our barn is so magical to me.  The two older boys are working so hard and I see a bond growing in them that wasn’t there before.  They used to feel like they had to compete (I think…though neither ever verbalized that)…now they very much seem to be pushing each other and supporting each other and I often hear a “good job Finley or good job Cooper” when they are working hard on their end of the court.  It warms my heart so much.  They have grown so much closer during this time and I thought they were pretty close before this started.  So that gave me all the feels today.  It is a great hope of mine that our kids grow up and are best friends.  Today it seems like they are walking that path and I’m grateful.

The girls are working equally hard as well.  They want to get better at volleyball and are doing skills that a lot of 8 and 9-year-old kids could not do.  We try hard things and struggle through them at first but then they get to see how working hard and sticking with it and working through frustrations are all part of the process. Such an important lesson for any athlete and for them to be learning that so young…it really is so beautiful! But good LORD do I miss being in a gym and playing and coaching volleyball.  I love working with my girls but I miss working with people who are not related to me as well!

Then to top off the day we went back to the “river” aka the creek.  The kids have been begging to go all week, they wanted to swim in it!  Yikes.  For those of you who know me best…I’m a bit of a germophobe…(much less so than I used to be), but swimming in a creek is not my idea of a good time.  But man…these kids were jacked up about it all day and I am forced to push all those red flags in my head that would suggest climbing on trees and swimming in a creek could be dangerous far away.

I must have been asked 100 times throughout the day when we were going.  And I’m happy to say I’m so glad we did.  Again it was amazing to see them supporting each other through hard things.  Ellen was so afraid to cross the “river” because apparently she thought she could drown (which was 100% not possible).  It was hard not to laugh (feel free to judge me but I did laugh) when she stood on the opposite side of the embankment and struggled to do something she had done just a week before.  For whatever reason she had convinced herself she could drown, which of course isn’t funny but keep in mind she could touch the bottom… It was an irrational fear but that doesn’t make it any less real for her.  She was so determined to do it and I was so proud of her for not giving up and for taking the literal leap into that gross water to swim across.  When she got out of the water Fiona was there cheering her on and Cooper immediately said “you did it Ellen, good job!”  It was really a special moment and I was so very proud of her.

Crazy proud of this little lady!

These maniacs swam back and forth a dozen times!  I had to take issue with the face going in the water.  Gross. 

I love how you can see their reflection in the water.  When I took this picture it just made me happy!  Also, they were so happy so that helped!

Fearless Fiona.  Mommy was not a fan!  Too much stress for me!

A few of our greatest goals as parents is to teach our kids to celebrate other people’s successes and that if you want something bad enough anything is possible.  Today, collectively they did both of those things.  So regardless of how our day started and that fact that we are over a month in this quarantine…it ended with a bang.  So thanks be to GOD for this glorious weather which made all these great moments possible.

These two buddies chased the local dog that comes to the trail by herself…for a long times, “swam” with her and had themselves a good ole’ time!

They wanted to flip off the tree into the water and I had to say no thank you to that.  I’m the fun killer! 

I hope you all got out to enjoy this crazy amazing weather today!  It was truly the most perfect weather.

#celebr8awesome

#dorseyshenanigans