April: Month Two of Quarantine

The Dynamic Duo, standing guard.

Welcome back, America.

Month Two of Quarantine.

So, originally, when all this Covid-19 nonsense first went down and we told that we were going into quarantine - the Friday before St. Patrick's Day, if you'll remember - we were told that we would be returning to school on April 6th.  We'd take two weeks off of school in order to 'flatten the curve' (remember that over-used line?), then that third week off was Spring Break, so we'd be at home for that as well, and we would all return back to school the first week of April.  And normalcy would resume.

Remember all that?

Yeah, that didn't happen.

Kris found her old T-Ball hat while digging through a tote.

Governor Whitmer, stuck in an unprecedented position to be sure, pushed the quarantine back another two weeks, and then, once that deadline started to loom, she pushed it back another two weeks.  This meant we were in quarantine for the entirety of April.  All.  Month.  Long.

Now, to be totally honest with all of you out there reading this. . . I am 100% cool with being forced to stay at home.  I'm actually a really, really big fan of the whole 'Stay in Place' order from the governor.  Sure, I miss my students at work, and I miss going into Radio Wasteland, but damn - I'm getting a ridiculous amount of stuff done around the house.  Nerdy side-projects, lots of yard work, etc.  Plus, to make it all the more better, both Kris and I are still getting paid the same (or more) than we were before (and counting ourselves lucky.)

So yeah, anyway. . . all of April we've been stuck at home.  You'd think we wouldn't have a lot of pictures to show for a month at home, sitting around on our collective asses, but - as you're about to see below - that's not the case.  We're big fans of documentation around these parts.

Behold, America - the Houghs' 2nd Month in Quarantine (otherwise known as the Month of April). . .

Ella and Abby, climbing a tree outside the Johnson residence, before we all set off for a family walk around the Chestnut Hill neighborhood.  As I've discussed before, our family and theirs more or less quarantined together for the first few weeks of this thing.

Social Distancing in the Collier's driveway.  This particular walk took the Johnsons and us first over to the Larson residence, then back over to the Collier's, where we mixed up some drinks and hung out with several of the usual couples in our friend group.

Morgan snapped this with a panoramic option on his phone.  Consequently, my arm got all jacked up.

Another day, another sword fight in the driveway.

Kris and the girls did some chalk art on the driveway one day while the weather was in the upper-50s/lower-60s.

A virtual hang-out session, via Zoom, with the infamous Sausage Pad.

Some random dog videos, courtesy of the Cannonball. . .

Abby, showing off another one of her new StitchFix outfits.  Kris has been big on these things this month - she's gotten, like four of 'em, and the girls have each gotten two.  If you've never heard of this thing, you could look it up (I, personally, wasn't all that impressed.)

Another day, another puzzle.  Puzzles are a big deal around these parts.

Doing some living room yoga. . .

(This is how Samson likes to snuggle.)

A Zoom hang-out with our good ol' Orlando peeps, the Voigts.

We rocked the shit outta that puzzle. . .

Typical quarantine morning in the Hough residence.

Palm Sunday.  The girls attended a kid's service (via Zoom, obviously) and constructed these 'palms.'

Finally got pissed and decided to do something about a tree that was suffocating one of my pine trees in the central garden in the backyard.  Hacked it down with a handsaw, leaving only the bottom (which, at 5" in diameter, would be too much of a pain in the ass to saw through on my own - I'll wait to borrow a chainsaw from someone later on down the road.)

I love burning brush in the backyard.  Doing this definitely got is in the mood for summer bonfires, so we decided we'd have one later on when the sun started to set. . .

Watson and Samson, soaking up sun on the back porch.

One of our neighbors knitted face-masks for Kris and the girls, which was super nice of her.

This month Alayna decided to re-dye her hair again.  She's been a big fan of this color lately.

Supporting my local brewery (this one is one of my favorites of theirs.)

Abby, upon hearing that we were having a bonfire in the backyard, wasted no time in assembling her s'more station (note the sweatshirt, folks). . .

I don't get down with s'mores, per se, but I do fancy myself a beer by a roaring fire. . .

Working hard on the task at hand.

Happy camper.

Kris goes in for a selfie. . .

. . . aaaaand with kids.

Kris and her go-to seltzer koozie.  Her and all the moms in our friend group all have matching ones.  Go figure.

Another Sunday School Zoom session.

I do enjoy me some Garth Brooks, folks.  And while he's not one of my favorite country singers, I got this limited edition, numbered, analog-mastered boxed set (which features his first five albums and a live album, plus all of the same on CD, and a poster) for a measely $37.  Seriously.  Deals like that are impossible to pass up, I had no choice.

Playing tug-of-war with Samson. . .

The day before Easter, we once again jumped through the hoops of Easter Egg-decorating - one of those super-shitty, family traditions that parents hate and kids seem to enjoy (though, to be honest, I'm not sure how much the girls were into this year - I'm hoping our days are numbered with this God-awful song-and-dance.)

Wrestling with the dogs, wresting with the girls, trying not to get injured in the process.  Dadding is hard.

(This stuff always smells like butt.)

Hanging out, enjoying the show.

Mad scientists hard at work.

Went with some weird-ass glittery things this year. . . more or less because that's what I saw on the shelf and no longer care if my children are happy with what I pick out.

(This is my sole function in this family.)

There was something you had to do with the dye inside a plastic baggie that you then dropped the egg into. . . I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention to the instructions.  Not that it mattered in the long-run how they turned out, we didn't get to enjoy them for very long:  Kris forgot to put the eggs back into the fridge, so they sat out overnight and were consequently ruined.

Hilarious, kid.

The next morning, the kids made their own pancake breakfast (yet failed to clean up the kitchen after themselves. . . that was a ton of fun for me to deal with.)

Kris shows off one of her hand-knit masks our neighbor made for her.

On yet another neighborhood walkabout with the Johnson family, we passed by the girls' school.  It's definitely surreal being in this situation - everything's closed, the streets are empty, and everyone's terrified they're going to catch this dreaded disease.  Personally, I'm convinced we're all going to get it at some point, but I highly doubt anyone we know is actually going to die from it.

After thatching our yard, raking up moss and dead grass, picking up sticks and burning them, and otherwise de-winterizing our massive acre yard, we filled up two bins and over twenty bags of yard waste.  We definitely kicked some serious ass this year.

It had been awhile since I last did this, but I decided to give my pipe collection a serious deep-cleaning treatment.  Took hours, but turned them all to their former glory.

Snuggle bros.

Havin' a Zoom meeting with BP and Kimmel (we're gettin' pretty technologically advanced with our Virtual Backgrounds. . .)

Once Governor Whitmer made the call that we would be calling off school for the rest of the year, school districts across the state took two weeks to draw up a game plan for how the rest of the school year was going to look.  We had been posting optional virtual assignments for our students the first two weeks of quarantine, but it was all an unstructured and confusing affair, with little accountability involved.  Beginning April 20th, we would be virtual teaching for real - assignments would count, we'd be designing them in our grade-level departments, and we'd be logging student engagement in giant spreadsheets for administrative review.  In order to prepare for this official roll-out, we had to sign up with our principal in order to access our classroom for a one-hour window (to pick up necessary classroom supplies, our computers, etc.)  I snapped this pic for my students while I was in my room, just so they could see it one last time. . .

Chris sent me a pic of this tape - featuring my old high school band, Jeff's Left Front Pocket - that he found at his house down in Indianapolis.  

Alayna having her own phone allows us to sprinkle in pics from her camera roll from time to time in these blog posts of ours.  Granted, as you can see here, her idea of 'picture-worthy' differs substantially from ours. . .

Virtual schooling in the dining room.

No frickin' clue. . .

Midland Schools has been handing out free breakfasts and lunches for kids every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (as otherwise all that food would go to waste.)  We're obviously not the sort of family that needs free food, but the kids are a big fan of the school's food options, so Kris and I have taken turns heading up there to pick up the day's meals (they hand out a breakfast and a lunch, plus some snacks, in a bag per student.)  Kris took this selfie of her and several of the parents in our friend group, who just so happened to be up there at the same time - all social-distanced, of course.

Alayna did my hair one afternoon while we were sitting around watching TV.  This was a horrible, horrible mistake on my part, allowing her to do this - it hurt like a sum'bitch yanking out all these rubber bands.

Why is Abby hanging from the front tree with her pajamas on at sunset?  These are the sort of questions we stopped asking years ago.

One morning, Kris and I decided we'd swing over to Gill-Roy's (a local hardware store) to pick up some new Adirondack chairs for around the fire pit.  We've been wanting some for the last year or two, and finally decided we'd pull the trigger in order to accommodate guests when the need arose.  We let the girls each choose their own color (as you can see here), and Kris picked out three more in neutral tones (the two red ones, not occupied by offspring in this pic, are our old ones.)

I originally went with this larger - and more expensive - chair as my personal chair for around the firepit, but ultimately returned it because it sat more upright, so wasn't as comfortable.  I returned it later that day for a chair that was the same color, just shaped like the ones in the previous picture.  A pity, really, as the former had a swivel-out cup holder that was pretty rad.

We also, the same day, bought our first propane grill - we'd been a charcoal-only family for years, having been long-time fans of the classic Weber.

I did a ridiculous amount of research online before pulling the trigger on a grill, and ultimately was led to the Weber Spirit II three-burner grill.  It was the highest-rated and most-recommended grill one could find under $600, and the only grill rated better was the Weber Genesys (which was basically the Spirit II with a few more bells and whistles.)

I should've been grilling with propane years ago - this was soooo much easier than heating up charcoal briskets. 

Quarantine grilling.  We had to grill in the driveway for the first few days so that we could store it in the garage until the grill cover arrived from Amazon.

Also bought a cargo container to go atop Kris' van.  We've been on a bit of a spending spree lately - not having to buy gas as often has given us a surplus in our monthly budget we otherwise didn't know what to do with.

Mom dropped off some Cops & Doughnuts (rather, the Clare City Bakery) for the girls one morning.  We had already purchased some donuts for the girls the day before, so they breakfasted like royalty for a few days.

Yet another f***ing puzzle. . .

Kris' work had all of it's employees create a series of signs from home that, when all strung together, formed some kind of a sentence (ultimately this was up on their Facebook page or something.)  This is her contribution (lettering look familiar to anyone?)

Evening wind-down with Netflix (featuring Samson, in a rare moment of not getting into trouble around the house.)  Kris is gonna be super happy that I posted this.

This tent set-up in the basement - constructed so that the girls could 'camp out' in the basement whenever they wanted - has more or less been utilized since late March.  They probably sleep down here four nights a week, the only downside being those nights where they don't want to sleep in the basement and it takes them forever to transport all their various pillows, stuffed animals, etc. back upstairs to their rooms.

Another Sausage Pad zoom hang-out.  I'm a big fan of Zoom's Virtual Background feature (I utilize several, but one of my favorites is aboard the Millennium Falcon.)

Daily violin practice (which, of course, is frequently neglected or half-assed - Alayna takes music lessons about as serious as I did as a kid.)

Alayna recorded me giving it a whirl.  Not my thing.

Abby doing her daily set of squats in a fancy dress with heels.  'Cause that's how she rolls, folks.

Kris takes a selfie with some random homeless guy that's trying to rest on her couch.

My first attempt at some shrimp skewers on the new grill - turned out pretty bad-ass, if you ask me. . . so of course the kids wouldn't touch 'em.

Kris finally got around to Pinteresting the shit out of this pair of tables she picked up from shady-ass house in Bay City, nearly a year after purchasing them off Facebook Marketplace (if you'll be so good to recall.)  I may have put my foot down with this.

Samson takes his daily siesta.

One day, towards the end of the month, the weather raised above 60 with pure sun, so we spent most of the day outside (and rightfully so.)

No frickin' idea what's happening here. . .

Later on that evening, we decided to throw another bonfire and have some of the families from our regular friend group over (we've been around these other families so often over the course of the last month and a half that it's gotten to the point where if one of us has Covid-19, we probably all have it.)

Danielle brought a bunch of glow sticks and masking tape for the kids so they could dress themselves up in the dark in order to look like skeletons (as you can see on the trampoline in the background.)

Honestly, it was pretty funny. . .

After a few hours of a fire tended mostly by Morgan - who's a huge advocate of the notion that every bonfire should be a barn-razing, funeral pyre - we had a bed of coals so hot that you had to sit about ten feet back from the firepit.

Kris and Abby, taking another selfie (this time while making muffins.)

Alayna took this pic of Samson sleeping on her lap with the remote on his face.  90% of the pictures on her phone are of the dogs, with the other 10% of pictures being screenshots of memes she thinks are cool and/or funny.

Erik gave me one of these over at his house was incredibly warm and sunny day over at his house - some really weird beer that I couldn't put my finger on, from the UP or Wisconsin or something.

Kris' Bay City tables from a year ago, now chalk-painted like she originally wanted.  Took twisting her damn arm to get the project finished, but at least it's done and out of my garage now.

April 29th, this old, cranky bastard turned 7. . .

The girls - bored and climbing up the walls for something to do after seven weeks of quarantine - wanted to go all-out for the dog's birthday.

Kris looked up (yes, on Pinterest) how to make 'dog-friendly' cupcakes for the occasion.  Samson totally looks pissed he hasn't been given one yet. . .

Kids definitely got a kick out of this.

(I think this was Abby's handiwork.)

I don't recall everything that was in this, but I remember it was ground-up dog food, blended carrots, oats. . . crap like that.

Kris had made a bunch, so her and the girls drove it around the neighborhood and dropped one off to all of our friends who were dog-owners (and I guess they felt it necessary for the Birthday Boy to tag along. . .)

Alayna's BFF, Maddie, got to give one to the World's Fattest Dog, Stella.

Rough-housing in the basement, totally unprovoked.

The girls have been wanting to sort through and sell off some of their Shopkins (they've both gotten to the point where they've kinda grown out of playing with toys) - so we were hanging out down there setting stuff up for awhile.

Keeping a constant guard over the front yard.  Thank God we have this line of defense standing watch over us at all times.

I know I haven't taken a hell of a lot of pictures of the process over the last month and a half, but Kris and I have put a ridiculous amount of work - hours and hours worth - into the yard during this whole quarantine bullshit.  Fertilizing repeatedly, thatching up dead grass, tilling beds, raking up moss, tackling soil PH levels, clearing the yard of sticks and debris, pulling up plants and re-setting flowers, you name it.  Still have a ways to go, but there's already a noticeable difference to be seen.  We figured we'd have to hit it hard this year and have the yard set for a few years, since we had a shit-load of time on our hands this year due to the coronavirus - God knows when we'll get this sort of time plethora again.

We bought the girls some deluxe Snuggies recently - a definite splurge, because they were way more expensive than they should've been.  I figured since we spend so much damn time on the couch watching TV anyway, they might as well be comfortable doing so.

And, in closing, a final shot of Kris' f***ing tables (which are now on our new Living Room table set). . .

- Brian