I went to my parents house this week! It’s not exactly what you think, I didn’t go completely rogue and break a whole bunch of social distancing rules. My mom had a foot surgery on Wednesday, and I wanted to go help out for a couple days. I know, technically I did break social distancing rules, but since we have both been quarantined for approximately seven weeks, we decided it was probably okay. My mom’s surgery went well, and she is on the path to recovery. It was wonderful seeing my parents again! It was almost a little awkward at first meeting. I was cautious about hugging them due to some kind of mental, social distancing hangover, but then it came to me how crazy I was being, and we hugged away! 🙂 While I went to help her out, it also helped me out. I REALLY needed a break and change of scenery, even if just for forty-eight hours! It was refreshing for me, and I have the best husband in the world for taking over parent duty full time! 🙂 The kids want to go see Nana and Papa so terribly, and so we are planning to go back next weekend and visit with the kids. I’m thankful that we are starting to carefully visit loved ones again! While it may be a while before we venture out into public places, I can handle that! It’s not being able to come into contact with those we love, that made this so hard anyway.

Other than my little adventure to MO, the last couple weeks have been pretty routine. We have been enjoying the weather and spending as much time outside as possible. We planted these flowers in our flower beds last week. Like with everything I plant, I worry and fret about their well being, growth, and ultimate survival. Please pray with me.

The kids have been enjoying their sandbox. I’m afraid our whole back porch and yard is starting to look like a sandy beach. It even finds its way into our house, reminding me of our times on vacation at a condo on the beach. In this sense I don’t mind the sand! Crazy huh! 🙂

The kids decided to make their own miniature golf course in our back yard this past week too! They were pretty creative! David retrieved items from our garage and made a five hole course, using buckets, jump ropes, storage bins, and other toys. They had a lot of fun! Last year on our beach vacation we went mini-golfing, and the kids loved it! There is also a Curious George book where George creates his own golf course. David wanted to try building his own miniature golf course like George did. 🙂 I hope we get to go to the beach again soon!

One of the foods we have been missing around here is Chinese food! So we decided to make our own! We made general Tso’s chicken, rice, steamed broccoli, and cream cheese wantons! Andrew cooked the chicken, and I cooked the wantons. This is a pretty labor intensive meal, but totally worth it to satisfy the craving! I’m thankful my husband is a good cook. He likes this cooking vlog show called Binging with Babbish, and so we used the recipe for General Tso’s Chicken from this blog. The chicken turned out amazing! I totally recommend using the arbol chiles in the sauce to add spice! We used a few, but were afraid of it being too spice. We should have listened to the recipe and used at least six.  I made the cream cheese wantons. I watched Ree Drummond make these on her cooking show quite some time ago, and wanted to try her recipe. They are super easy to make, however, it takes time to individually wrap each wanton. I believe one could make the wantons ahead of time and keep them covered in the refrigerator with a damp tea towel. Then you wouldn’t have to spend all that time trying to wrap wantons while preparing the rest of the meal! If you are having that Chinese craving, I totally recommend these recipes!

Samuel saw me using chop sticks, and wanted to give them a try. He is pretty smart, and after a while started stabbing his food onto the stick! 🙂

Love,

PK

P.S. Did you notice how long everyone’s hair is?! It’s starting to get pretty serious! I may need some major help in the hair cutting department soon! Any suggestions or recommended tutorials? My other option is to just let everyone have long hair! That’s what I’m starting to lean towards! 🙂