UPDATE: The winner is…Michelle Oxrider!
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This was me with the fam yesterday (dd is taking the pic; the guy second from the left is my grandaughter’s boyfriend). While we have plenty to do to keep us busy around the old homestead to combat boredom, we really needed a break. Since we had our own innertubes, we loaded up and headed out early yesterday to avoid any crowds on the river. Other than some kayakers, we had the river to ourselves for four hours! Doing it on a weekend would have been out of the question because—too many people, and we’re still self-isolating as best we can.
Yes, self-isolation is still a thing here with numbers in Arkansas on the rise. We have way too many people who still think COVID is no worse than the flu, and who refuse to mask or keep their distance. Our schools are trying to figure out what next year will look like—whether they will offer at-home options to folks who’d rather not let their kids mingle and bring home the virus. We’re praying we’ll have a choice, or we might have to go the official homeschool route, which we really don’t want to do.
So, back to our tubing day… We brought water and snacks and plenty of sunscreen. The river is shallow in a lot of places, so we floated, hit the shallows, and picked up our tubes to walk to the deeper waters and floated again. I’m not as nimble getting in and out of a tube onto sifting, silty riverbed, but my SIL is a big guy and strong, so he helped me when I needed it. We laughed and paddled and lazed. The little ones had their tubes tied to the adults’ tubes. We’re all swimmers, so no vests. All in all, it was a lovely morning.
We’re already trying to map out our schedules to see when we can do it again. The kids are ready for more adventures. We’ve been trying to think out of the box. We’re lucky we live in the country, so there’s plenty of outdoor area for them to play. We have a pool—another huge plus. Still, we all get cabin fever.
We bought an outdoor projector to watch movies, but with mosquitoes already out in force, we can’t do an outside movie night until Fall.
Do you have any suggestions for things a family can do “out in the world” and still be safe? Answer for a chance to win your choice of a download of one of my books!
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Since I live in Michigan, the beach is always an option. We have miles and miles of beaches and they aren’t all public. Then there are the many lakes. We may not have a ‘thousand lakes’ like Minnesota, but darn close. Many of our beaches are also sand dunes. Four wheeling in ‘dune buggies’ has become very popular. Personally, I liked just hiking across the dunes to the Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen anymore. Too many dune buggies careening around. Ah, the memories of family time in the old days. *sigh* These days . . .
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I have only been doing things around my house and yard… luckily we have a large pool.
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basketball at your house
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One of the things we’ve done the few times we’ve managed to get Teen Dude to detach from a book or screen is to go out into the parks and do a service project. In Ohio we have a HUGE problem with invasive plant species like garlic mustard and honeysuckle choking out the plants / trees that “feed” the wildlife in our area parks – so we go out as a family for a “pull date”. Now that allergy season is in full force, though, we’re once again trying to just stick inside. Ohio is opened/opening up, but we prefer to just SIP (shelter in place). Like you mentioned – numbers are going up and it’s not a good thing :(.
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We like to go for walks and then picnic.
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I think our go to is long walks, and the kids like to go to a local field and work on their tumbling skills. I will walk around the field, but there isn’t any (intentional) tumbling on my part 😉