So how are the weeks in quarantine treating you?  After I got use to having David around 24/7 it all started going pretty smoothly and the days are flying by.   March, April and May are my favorite months and here is April almost gone for another year.  I hope by this time next year the quarantine will be a distant memory.

I have been deep cleaning this week.   We have a room that years ago I turned into the cabin room. It was supposed to be the grandchildren’s room when they stayed overnight and where all the toys were kept.  For some reason most of the grandchildren didn’t want to spend the night. I don’t think it was because of the ghost stories I told them about our house!   So as they grew up, the room became a kind of catch all for things I didn’t use. Piles of quilts were on the single bed.  So this week, I decided to clean the room well and get it organized.

I found this Camp sign in an antique store years ago. It fit the theme for the room quite well.

A flag, one of our boy’s boy scout shirt, an old tin mess kit, a flag and a talking bird add to the atmosphere of a camp.  That bird was bought when our first two grandchildren were very little. It sang “Zippity Do Da,” and those kids would want me to play it over and over.  I’m not sure it works any longer, but we had a lot of fun with it when the grandchildren were little.

Through the years I bought pictures that had the woods and camp theme.

So we got this room all completed, curtains washed, floor scrubbed and everything dusted. Now I can leave it for another ten years!

A good thing not to do.

David neatly stacked several more of my quilts.  There are still more to get off the bed.

I rolled some more quilts and put them in this old laundry tub.

I have collected American flags over the years. I have several forty-eight star ones and one forty-nine star on and several fifty star ones.   I washed some of them and ironed them and we folded them neatly and now will store them in a basket.

I love our flag.

I put David’s old army shirt on my dressmaker’s form and put an apron on it.  Kind of been the story of our lives, the military man and the homemaker.  And one of our son’s cub scout caps to top it all off.

This is the view out this bedroom’s window.

 

Here’s the chandelier we hung in the bedroom we painted. It’s even better looking in person.

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And I love the shadows it puts on the ceiling.

It almost looks like a doily is on the ceiling.

It’s taken us over forty years to get this house the way we want, but I think we’ve finally done it.

Because we can’t go out to eat like we did, I’m having to cook more and we’ve had some delicious meals. I really don’t enjoy cooking and I never cooked before we were married, but I have some tried and true meals I can throw together that we both like.

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Meatloaf, scalloped potatoes and corn.  I am not bragging, but I have never tasted meatloaf as good as mine at any restaurant.  We bought a takeout meal the other day and we ordered the meatloaf dinner and I could hardly eat it. They had used shredded carrots in their meatloaf, but it overpowered the meat and just did not taste good.  Bonnie and Belle got a treat that night!  One time a long time ago when I was in the hospital, I ordered the meatloaf for one of my meals and it came and I looked at it and could not eat it. It was grey. How does anyone make meatloaf look grey?   So I will stick with my meatloaf until someone makes one I can eat.

Orange Chiffon cake.  It is so yummy and a light dessert.   Not a lot of icing.  If you like oranges, you would love this cake.  I’ve made two since the quarantine began.

 

Blueberry muffins are always a treat for us. These are from a box, but are so moist and full of blueberries. Have we gained weight? Probably. I don’t ever weigh myself. I don’t need that grief right now. David said he has gained a few pounds. He’s use to walking all over the Ralph Lauren store all day for hours.  He’s sitting a lot more except when he’s mowing or working outside.   So when this is over, it’s back to one meal a day and we both need to exercise more.  We will call it the nonquarantine diet.

 

The garden is still beautiful.

The azalea was full of blooms.

The crabapple tree from our front porch.

I just love this tree. You can see it from a mile down the road when we are coming home.

 

The redbuds never disappoint.  I saw a weeping red bud tree advertised and I’m thinking of getting one.

Lilacs and snowballs make a pretty arrangement.  We can smell the lilacs all over the house.

They are around for such a short time, but are worth every second they are around.

And of course, I’ve been quilting and knitting socks.   A lot of people are sewing masks, but I just could not get into that.  I’ve worn a mask once since this happened. At the doctor’s office and as soon as I walked out the door it came off.   I’m still not feeling the panic some people are feeling. I know there are some who have been ill and in the hospital and can’t even have visitors and I just could not stand that.  I told David If I got that sick, keep me at home because I never want to be trapped in a hospital again and not be able to see anyone. I pray you all are keeping healthy and finding some joy in this forced in home time.   I’m sure we all will look back on it with different feelings.  Some good, some bad, but knowing it was a very different time in our nation’s and the world’s history.  So keep staying safe. Love your family, Call someone you know is alone because those are the people who have been hardest hit, I’m sure.  I’m so glad I have David to keep me company.    Bye.