I had a much-needed social distance mom date with a friend this week. We sat in the back of our cars 10 feet apart and gabbed for two hours. One of the things we talked about was how one of the most stressful parts of this already stressful situation is being completely unable to plan anything besides maybe what’s for dinner. Birthdays, vacations, family visits, holidays, summer camps, sports leagues and anniversaries aren’t happening as scheduled. Pretty much all we can look forward to right now is an unknown time some distance in the future where life might go back to being boring and normal and we can complain about stuff like traffic and Dunkin’ making my order wrong.

In a lot of ways, this isn’t that big of a change for me. We don’t live near parents or grandparents or aunts or uncles, so we often spend our holidays as a nuclear family. I’m also an expert at postponed or canceled plans thanks to our life being at the mercy of the Navy. Oh, you thought you had a beach vacation? Too bad, your husband’s work schedule has completely changed and you’re not going. My kids are old hands at Daddy missing their birthday or not seeing him for months at a time so the travel ban that keeps him in New Hampshire is disappointing but not insurmountable.

Unfortunately for me, the way I’ve always handled the uncertainty and inevitable disappointments is by staying as busy as possible. Military families can handle a lot, but we do it with a little help (or a lot of help) from our friends. The combination of social distancing and a completely empty calendar is tough. Add in things like a broken dishwasher or a flooded basement to deal with alone – because although there are people I could call in a life-or-death situation, I feel terrible asking them to leave their houses for something so low on the emergency scale – and I am not the woman I’ve been pretending to be for the last 10+ years. I can do it completely on my own for about 72 hours at a time before having some sort of ugly breakdown.

But I don’t think that’s unreasonable during quarantine. I don’t even feel bad about it. I just keep reminding myself that at some unknown time some distance in the future, life will go back to being boring and normal. Hang in there.

Here is what April 7th looked like at our house:

April shower are just about over and that means I’m excited to get my May flowers into the garden in the next couple weeks!

Wayfair sent me two unfinished wood Adirondack Chairs to customize so I could put my own spin on them and add them to our backyard patio. I’m still in the process of cleaning the space up and getting our garden ready for spring and summer. Nature does not want to cooperate. I don’t want to plant anything until I’m sure it won’t freeze. I can’t do yard clean up if all the leaves are wet because it’s been raining for days. I can’t paint chairs on the patio if it’s pouring. And also (this has nothing to do with nature) it’s hard to make my garden dreams come true if my handyman (aka husband) is always gone on work trips.

But between rainstorms and travel, E got the chairs together and out to the garage and I got them painted and accessorized.

The chairs are solid wood and really sturdy. They came in long thin boxes and it took E a little while to put them together, but they are definitely not coming apart again. (They almost ended up living in the basement though, because they baaaaaarely fit up the stairs.) They’re very generously sized, with wide armrests perfect for resting drinks.

The idea of painting in between every one of the slats with a brush was exhausting, so I went with the easier option. I bought 3 cans of the yellow and used 2.5 of them to cover both chairs. I used painter’s tape and some old paper to define the stripes I wanted to paint. To be totally honest I just did my best guesstimate and it turned out FINE – the screws on the back of the chair made it easy to line up the tape and I was trying to finish during naptime so finding a tape measure wasn’t going to happen.

How fun are those colors? Our outdoor seating is dark brown with beige cushions so that bright pop is going to be so cute out in the yard. Our old wooden table fell apart over the winter so we’re in the market for new patio furniture table too, but these will be perfect for sitting and relaxing with snacks and a glass of wine or a beer now that it’s finally warming up.

And today it is FINALLY nice out, so I moved the chairs to the yard where I can keep an eye on Linc’s dirt digging work while I enjoy the sunshine. I picked up a couple of throw pillows to make them even cuter. I got super lucky and found these at Big Lots – aren’t they perfect?

Linc definitely approves of the new chairs.

And now that the sun is shining I can mow that crazy grass. I’m so happy it’s finally time to sit back and relax in the yard!

Currently: It’s raining, Linc is sleeping on the couch, Finn is napping, Caroline and Evan are finishing homework, and I’m knocking out busywork while watching this crazy-ass photography show on Netflix called Tales of Light. It’s part nature documentary, part adventure story, party Canon commercial, but the cinematography is gorgeous and it’s great background noise.

Sunday:

Linc was acting like he was going to eat this goat

But then it followed us all over the property, so he didn’t scare it too much

My face on the last day I am 34

Monday:

This is the “before” picture of my vegetable garden

SO EXCITED that Bumpa offered to wear him for a walk

Star Wars obsessed

Tuesday:

Chance of me every being able to do that: less than zero

Blogger baby slept through half the show

But was totally into the candy store

Wednesday:

I pulled the covers off my patio furniture cushions. It didn’t do much good.

Cheese face

That’s not where I left my baby

Thursday:

Doing a little chilly morning photo modeling

YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT SAYS (it’s to go over the baby carrier)

Egg decorating is serious business

Friday:

Doing important grinding work at OSV

Tiny woodpile helper

“Good news! You get to play Jesus in the pageant! Bad news…it’s for Good Friday.”

Saturday:

SO EXCITED TO SEE THE BUNNY

This is adorable

How many times is too many times to watch Moana? (The answer is it’s never too many)

Now I’m only a week behind on iPhone posts! And if it ever stops raining I’ll have actual content to share too – it’s just hard to get my vegetables in the ground when we’re expecting 48 hours of downpours. I also have a baby who refuses to stay put and keeps trying to pull up on things but then getting stuck and crying. That means I have about 3.2 minutes to get stuff done at a time. Turns out I’m not super productive in that timeframe.

While my parents were visiting, they helped get our yard and garden under control. In the corner by the porch steps, Mom cut back a rhododendron which left a big section of dirt exposed. Then I dug up the side flower bed that’s been overrun with grass for the past few years. So there is currently a lot of dirt in the yard for Linc to play with. He is pretty excited about it.

Dirty AND a runny nose. He’s two.