Quaranteaster Quick Takes

Linking up late with Kelly, the ever faithful Friday quick takes hostess.

1) Speaking of linking up, I know I floated the idea of  doing an Easter outfit  link-up but then I realized that it was a very overly-ambitious idea for someone who has shown herself to be the worst, most inconsistent of bloggers. Also there was a decent percentage of our family that only had t-shirts and gym shorts on all day (ahem Joe and Fred) and we never did get a family picture like I had hoped and dreamed. But! I will take this opportunity to showcase my new favorite dress that I did actually wear the entire day, because it is one of my best thrift store purchases and was procured for only $1 (!!) My girls loved it so much and would not stop telling me how beautiful it was all day and our resident 11 year old photographer kept asking me if she could take pictures of me in it. So here you go, just me, in my one dollar dress, no link up, no family picture, sounds about right for this Easter.

2) I attempted to get back to running last week and after one attempt I ended up posting this on Twitter:

Actual footage of me on my run yesterday in front of an entire neighborhood of people out enjoying the beautiful weather. pic.twitter.com/en6IPI9Ybf

— Ana Hahn (@AnaBethHahn) April 6, 2020

I only wish someone had been around recording me because it would have made such a perfect GIF. I was also thoroughly impressed with my own ability to jump back up after wiping out just to escape the eyes of the many onlookers. I took that as my sign that running really is not for me right now and have not attempted another run since. It was a nice idea while it lasted, but I think I'll just stick with my trusty old Jillian workouts where no one can see me.

3) After 3 weeks of zero trips outside the confines of our yard with the kids, we decided to venture to a nearby open field area with a nice walking path next to it and it was utterly glorious. It was so surreal to get into the car with the kids and realize it had been almost a month since we'd done that.

Fred frequently wears clip-on neck ties with his t-shirts. I hope he does it forever. The weather was so gorgeous last week and I'm trying to just focus on my gratitude for that gift instead of complaining about the really crummy weather we've got coming this week, but will likely devote an entire quick take to complaining about it once this week is done.

4) We had a really nice Easter Sunday despite being quarantined, but I would be a lying liar if I said it wasn't kind of crushing to not attend Mass. It definitely was. We are really close to our neighbors (i.e. our house is actually connected to our neighbor's house) and since they are older and were not able to see their grand-kids for Easter they asked if they could fill eggs and hide them in our yard for a little Easter morning egg hunt. It was the sweetest. Then MORE of our friends dropped off eggs for us to hide for another hunt in the afternoon followed by a supper fun ZOOM group chat where we prayed together, so many blessings from a very good God during this weirdest and hardest of times.

5) We spent the better part of Triduum and Easter watching the show The Chosen with the kids and even though I only really caught little bits (Fred the 3-year-old was maybe not its intended audience) it was one of the most well done and beautiful shows about the life of our Lord I've ever seen. I highly recommend.

6) We don't usually take a spring break for our homeschool because I prefer to end early and begin summer sooner but we also don't usually operate under stay at home orders for months on end. So as acting principal and superintendent and the only teacher for all the grade levels of Clairvaux Academy I made a last minute executive decision to have holy week be our spring break. I figure we will just do school a bit longer this year since, well, we won't have anything else to do and the structure is good for these long days in the house. After a week off I have come to the conclusion that I have ever needed a break from homeschooling as much as I needed this one. I got to do things like clean the house and read to the 3 year old without feeling like someone's education was being neglected. Plus we played games during the day and went on bike rides and it was really wonderful. I'll be spending the rest of today planning for the rest of the week and I'm maybe dreading it a tiny bit but I'm sure it'll be ok. I learned a valuable lesson though: let yourself take breaks!

7) I'm making chicken cordon bleu casserole tonight with our Easter ham leftovers and I'm maybe a little bit excited because 1) I LOVE ham leftovers and 2) I'm basically Liz Lemon.

Give me all your favorite Easter ham leftover recipes and have a wonderfully  happy quarantEaster Week!!!