Quarantine and chill and kindness chatty clubhouse: Jump in and join the conversation! All is welcome!

[lovemygoofy]

Question of the day: 4/24 Road trips?

Are you a road trip person? I realize I don't know what the heck the future is bringing or when things are going to ease up
but I'd like to do something for a vacation. I'm thinking maybe shorter road trip through the mid west/great plains (whatever that upper middle area is that I haven't been to) I don't have real location in mind yet since we don't even have an idea timelines. I was thinking I didn't want to be where the people are (I'm totally hearing Ariel singing lol) and might as well go check out the heartland.

We have drove around this country a ton moving and I don't really think twice about getting a bag packed, throw some stuff in the cooler and hitting the road if that is the destination. If I'm doing something like MAJOR vacation destination, I don't want to road trip there. Does that make sense? Are ya'll road trip vacation people?

 

[lovemygoofy]

My wife and I are ardent supporters of THE Ohio State Buckeyes and the Toronto Blue Jays. I find the NBA and NHL boring and stopped watching the NFL 20 years ago...don't miss it. Wife used to be a NASCAR fan, but stopped following when Jeff Gordon retired. College football and baseball take up enough time...gotta leave some time for other interests.

I will "like" your reply but I just wanted to say go SEC....that's all

 

[lovemygoofy]

I am totally NOT a sports fan. Not interested in watching, not coordinated enough to play. I'll deal with ice hockey, though - especially if there's a good fight!

DH likes football, hockey, and soccer. He played the latter 2 from a young age. Loves his Patriots and is devastated that Tom Brady left. Now Gronk is headed to the Bucs as well...DH says they're going to be known as the Tampa Bay Patriots soon.

DS is showing some athletic ability already. Since the age of 2, he was able to keep control of a ball while kicking it around the yard. He played in the town soccer league in the fall and we signed him up for the spring season, which was canceled. He will play again in the fall. He also really likes his gymnastics class. We took him last summer and he LOVED it, so we've kept him going through the fall and winter, up until the quarantine.

So I actually made dinner tonight. It's rare that my mother relinquishes control of the kitchen. She doesn't like fish, which is the reason she let me cook. So DH and I had baked cod topped with cracker crumbs. I melted some butter, mixed it with lemon juice and a little white wine, mixed in crushed Club crackers, and sprinkled it over the fish. I'm just proud of it because when I made it once before, I used WAY too much butter and that's all we could taste. This time I did it just right and it was good!

DS is getting horribly out of control. He really needs to go back to school and play with his friends. He screams so much lately...I just can't get him interested in anything; he just wants to watch Spongebob and jump on the furniture. Tonight he had such a meltdown over wanting Daddy's drum set (which is stacked on shelves in the basement), he went to bed at 6:30. I'm trying so hard to be gentle with him, direct him to other activities, but it's just not happening. I don't know what to do

I am NOT a specialist in children things not even a little. Have you reached out to your son's teacher about how she deals with him at school? I would think whatever discipline and incentive actions such as timeouts or stickers she uses so you could implement at home. I would think there needs to be some sort of schedule set up for him. Start slow but wake up, breakfast, few minutes of tv and then maybe book time, outside time, snack/lunch and then rest and then afternoon filled.

The one thing I know that majority of people need is routine and established boundaries. We don't self regulate ourselves as adults or as children. Unfortunately it's going to cause you more work to prep but it would likely make you both feel better. Good luck. I'm sorry you are having such difficult time.

 

[lovemygoofy]

some sports, yes. I like football, baseball and hockey. I don't watch college sports, only pro. Go Broncos! Dbacks! Rockies! Avs! Coyotes!

For lunch today, I made a Tuscan white bean soup, with leftover salad from last night. For dinner, we had Five Guys.

My ice cream maker came in! Got the bowl in the freezer now. If I feel energetic tomorrow, I'll go up to the post office to get my Dole Whip mix (/sigh USPS). Right now, I'm leaning towards just making a chocolate ice cream tomorrow, and waiting to get the DW until next week, because I have another package coming in sometime next week. Save me a 2nd trip. IDK

I just wanted to say Happy Late Birthday. I know it wasn't the best day for you but you deserve a happy birthday

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I just wanted to say Happy Late Birthday. I know it wasn't the best day for you but you deserve a happy birthday

Aww. thanks.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Question of the day: 4/24 Road trips?

Are you a road trip person? I realize I don't know what the heck the future is bringing or when things are going to ease up
but I'd like to do something for a vacation. I'm thinking maybe shorter road trip through the mid west/great plains (whatever that upper middle area is that I haven't been to) I don't have real location in mind yet since we don't even have an idea timelines. I was thinking I didn't want to be where the people are (I'm totally hearing Ariel singing lol) and might as well go check out the heartland.

We have drove around this country a ton moving and I don't really think twice about getting a bag packed, throw some stuff in the cooler and hitting the road if that is the destination. If I'm doing something like MAJOR vacation destination, I don't want to road trip there. Does that make sense? Are ya'll road trip vacation people?

I like road trips. When I was young, my mom and dad were over the road truck drivers for awhile. I stayed home with my older siblings. My oldest is 15 years old than me, so she was an adult by that time. I got to spend most of three summers going on trips with them. I managed to see every contiguous state, except Florida, and hit Tijuana and a couple visits to Canada as well (late 70s, no one cared about passports and such). I had fun for a couple of months, going all over and seeing new things, then I'd get to missing my friends and my stuff, and they'd leave me at home again.

I like road trips, both the kind where you have stuff planned and the kind where it's a phone call and you hear on the other end "It's 4:30 on a Friday. I'll be home in an hour. Pack us a bag of clothes and stuff, fill the snack bag and cooler, and let's go away for the long weekend."


I made chocolate ice cream...from scratch!!!! It's super dark and creamy, not too sweet. We're having pasta w/marinara sauce and Italian Sausage, and the last of the spinach salad.

 

[lynxstch]

We used to take road trips every weekend. But hubby's health has prevented that from happening for the last couple of years. Our last real road trip was down to Ocean City to visit his 2 sons and our granddaughters. We used to just pack a lunch and drive in a direction with no goal in mind. Would find a nice park, or a waterfall, or just a nice spot to have lunch. We were sitting at a park one day having lunch and a beautiful deer walked thru the woods, right up to us. Guess she was hungry, as she took the carrot I held out to her and ate it, then sniffed the air for more, lol.
We had butterfly shrimp, egg rolls, and jasmine rice for dinner tonite.

Grateful for--the rain that fell during the day, watering the flower seeds I have planted
Grateful for--another week down, hopefully everyone/everything will be on the road to normal again soon
Grateful for- the weekend coming up. No big plans, a trip to Walmart and/or Lowes, looking for some decorative fencing for my flower beds. Planning on stopping at Dairy Queen for blizzards, and then just relaxing the rest of the weekend.
Have a great weekend DIS family, Tina as always, thanks for keeping this going..and one thing..even at age 42- Matt finishing college IS a big deal. It's a big deal at any age, and I hope you can find a special way to celebrate it!

 

[fla4fun]

Well, I hate flying with a passion, so if I go anywhere in the lower 48, it will be a road trip. I have a lot of fond memories of road trips when I was a kid (I didn’t go on my first flight until I was 19), and still go on them to this day. The last big road trip was to DC about four years ago, but I have been on shorter ones since then. I would love to be able to hit the road right now.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

Question of the day: 4/24 Road trips?

Are you a road trip person? I realize I don't know what the heck the future is bringing or when things are going to ease up
but I'd like to do something for a vacation. I'm thinking maybe shorter road trip through the mid west/great plains (whatever that upper middle area is that I haven't been to) I don't have real location in mind yet since we don't even have an idea timelines. I was thinking I didn't want to be where the people are (I'm totally hearing Ariel singing lol) and might as well go check out the heartland.

We have drove around this country a ton moving and I don't really think twice about getting a bag packed, throw some stuff in the cooler and hitting the road if that is the destination. If I'm doing something like MAJOR vacation destination, I don't want to road trip there. Does that make sense? Are ya'll road trip vacation people?

We're definitely in the minority, but we LOVE road trips! I haven't been on a plane in 6 years and DS has never flown. We actually find it a lot of fun; we're not on a schedule, we can see new and different things and stop if we want to. Starting when DS was 18 months old, in February 2017, we have driven from CT to Florida every year (my in-laws are snowbirds). The first year, we went straight to Clearwater and spent a week with Granna & Granpa. February 2018, we went to Clearwater, but then drove back to Disney (Magic Kingdom) for a few days. My in-laws were supposed to go with us, but they decided at the last minute that they couldn't do it, not even on scooters. But it all worked out. February 2019, we went to Universal Studios for a few days before going to Clearwater. And this year, just before the quarantine, we stopped at Legoland before Clearwater. We actually wanted to do this while we can, as he will be in kindergarten this fall and we cannot take 2 weeks for a vacation next year. We're trying to decide if we can pull him for a few days in February, drive to Florida taking fewer stops, and just go to Clearwater for 4 days, or should we do our Ohio trip, or should we wait until April vacation and go to Epcot and Animal Kingdom at Disney...?

In September 2017, just after DS turned 2, he and I went with my mother out to Illinois to celebrate my uncle's new marriage. He had just reunited with his high school sweetheart after 50 years - quite a love story there! DH flew out later in the week; we had a mini family reunion, went into Chicago, then drove up to Wisconsin before driving home. We also drove up to Maine for a day trip later that fall. So DS has already been to many states in just a few short years!

I am NOT a specialist in children things not even a little. Have you reached out to your son's teacher about how she deals with him at school? I would think whatever discipline and incentive actions such as timeouts or stickers she uses so you could implement at home. I would think there needs to be some sort of schedule set up for him. Start slow but wake up, breakfast, few minutes of tv and then maybe book time, outside time, snack/lunch and then rest and then afternoon filled.

The one thing I know that majority of people need is routine and established boundaries. We don't self regulate ourselves as adults or as children. Unfortunately it's going to cause you more work to prep but it would likely make you both feel better. Good luck. I'm sorry you are having such difficult time.

All of the teachers at his preschool say he is a delight. Very well-behaved and always does as asked. The first time they said this to me, I remember I said, "Are you sure we're talking about the same kid?" So at least he knows how to behave outside the house. His teachers say they've never had to discipline him at all. His best friend's mom says that she tells her son to "watch Joshua and behave like him" (because she doesn't get to see what he does at home).

We started off okay. We've always been good with a "loose schedule;" I get things together the night before, saying we're going to do these things tomorrow, and he always says Okay. Morning comes; he gets to watch a little TV, have breakfast, brush teeth and get dressed, and then we start our activities. I give him a choice of 2 of the activities I've planned (like read a book or do a craft) - at first he would choose one. Now I don't even give him the choice, I'll just say, "Come on, it's time to read a book for your reading log," and he just screams "NOOOOOO! I WANT TO WATCH TV!!!" This morning I asked him why he suddenly doesn't want to do anything I suggest, and he said, "Because it wasn't my idea." So maybe I have to figure out how to make him think it was his idea? He also gets bored easily, so I have to keep trying to come up with different ideas in the first place.

He keeps asking about going to the playground with his friends. He doesn't understand that the playgrounds are off-limits right now. We have one less than a mile from our house and he asks about it when we go on our walks. I sometimes wonder if I should take him down there and let him see that it's taped off, that we really can't go there right now. I know he doesn't understand "The governor says we can't." I don't know how to explain not being able to see his friends, though.

I will say, there's a part of me that's happy that he's stubborn and strong-willed. It will serve him well in life. It's just really frustrating at this age.

 

[Meriweather]

I like road trips, but not too long a drive. We've explored out state quite a but in the 9 years we've lived here.
Have that trip in Oct. planned so hope it happens. Grand Canyon. DD has lived here for almost 12 years and never been (we live in AZ), so decided that would be our girls trip this year and added DGD to it.
One of my weekend plans is to book the other rooms.....already have the one in the GC for 3 nights.

96 today......heat advisory for Sunday 105!! But that does mean pool time!! Family is coming over tomorrow to us it.

Dinner tonight is Cobb salad......kind of (no blue cheese)

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Good evening. Gloomy rainy cool day here. I am having a bad day. All the what I'm missing thoughts are getting me down. The feeling that nothing will ever be the same again. Not even sure I want to go on the cruise we have a deposit on unless there is a vaccine. I am sure that once the sun comes out again and I can take a hike, I'll feel better.

Tina, glad you are having a good day. I think we all help bring each other up when we are down.

Apirateslifeforme, good luck with your son. I am too far removed for suggestions. In about 4 weeks I'll have my 3 yo DGD for 3-5 days while her mom is having a c-section. We'll see how I fare. I am good for a day but 3-4 overnights will be an experience. She was going to daycare until March 13 and now home 24/7 with both her parents who are working at home. I am trying to have a list of activities to do.

Question of the day: 4/24 Road trips?

DH and I do like road trips. In fact, we were supposed to be driving to Chincoteague VA for this weekend. Before retirement we would fly to go to FL but may drive now. We have made the drive before. We flew to the west coast, too far to drive, but can drive anywhere on the east coast. In fact, after COVID, DH and I are more likely to go places we can drive vs fly.

Gratitudes:
Baked cookies today. Granted, they were from a mix, but still.
Dinner of grillers and left over rice and veggie was amazingly good.
I cleaned out some more boxes in the basement.

 

[Kitty 34]

I would love to do a mini road trip (Lake Michigan for instance; hour and a half away) but where the heck would I go potty??? Seriously.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Question of the day: 4/24 Road trips?

Are you a road trip person?

Yes, most of our traveling is via road trips. We usually go to WDW via car. Last time we went, in 2017, we drove the whole way in one day. We also took a 3-week cross country road trip in 2013.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Hi everyone, prayers you are all in good spirits this Friday. It was/is HOT here. Bianca and Bernard, first and most important, Happy Belated Birthday! I do hope you had some fun on your special day. Secondly, I am sure ready for some homemade chocolate ice cream

Tina, and anyone else in this thread, I don't use Zoom, at least not yet. I would enjoy chatting or even PM-ing. There is an online web based site that I have used before (not sure about naming it) but could PM anyone interested. What I like about it is that you do not have to download anything and it does not send any spam/seem to keep a record of your use. The only "catch" is that pretend Minnie wants to chat with Daisy. Minnie would have to email Daisy a chat invite from the site and hope Daisy saw this email while Minnie was still waiting in the chat room. Hope this makes sense!

Apirateslifeforme, hug to you and your young son. I truly feel so much for young kids right now especially who just are not able to understand why they can't go play with friends or even to school. I am far from a specialist. Joshua probably feels safest at home (as he should ) and is confused/bored, etc. As someone so young he communicates that by acting out. Does he have any older toys or books that perhaps he lost interest in and so were put away? If so, perhaps get them out to have something "new" for him.

Three extra Blessings from today:

I was thankful that a UPS man delivering a package to a neighbor seemed to take notice of the thank you to delivery people sign outside my door. Prayers it did bring him a smile.

Email from a friend and a PM from another.

A fun puzzle book.

The last road trip I took was many years ago of Washington and part of Oregon including the Columbia River Gorge and Crater Lake National Park, beautiful!

I'm not a traveler these days but will be extra grateful to God when it is safe to take a "road trip" to Next year, I would love to visit all of our good friends and at Disneyland

 

[ronandannette]

{{sigh}} Tough one today. Our Provincial Chief Officer of Health announced all current restrictions will stay in place until August 31. This of course forces the cancellation of the Calgary Stampede -the world's largest rodeo and an exhibition billed as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth". It has run annually since 1886 and attracts 1.5 million visitors over 10 days. It's a bred-in-the-bone part of our culture and this news is unthinkable.

I'll be committing a small act of civil disobedience tomorrow when I meet with a dear friend for a walk in the park. Her eldest daughter was to be married tomorrow and this disruption put a end to so many plans and dreams when the wedding had to be cancelled a month ago. Then, completely unexpectedly, the couple tied the knot on Wednesday alone with just the pastor - they texted my friend and her husband after the fact. They bless the young couple but are absolutely heartbroken, which is very understandable.

The cherry-on-top is having been informed I will be announcing wage-reductions to my staff on Monday morning. This is after we are already splitting the workload of 8 between 4 of us due to lay-offs last month. We're all in it together though - my reduction took effect today and the executives already took theirs at the end of March (50% cut for everyone at VP level and above).

There's always something to be thankful for though even if it's simply the fact that we trust God 100% and know He's still in control.

As for road trips? I'd like to take off on one right now, but that's not really in the cards.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Hugs, Ronandannette, I pray once this is over you indeed are able to enjoy a fun trip if even local to church or some other enjoyable place. Take care! Congratulations and God Bless to your friend's daughter and her new husband. I am so sorry their wedding was not what they had hoped for.

There's always something to be thankful for though even if it's simply the fact that we trust God 100% and know He's still in control.

AMEN from me on that!

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Ronandannette, I feel for you. And wow, August 31.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I love, love love road trips!! (Of course, I'm usually not the one driving, so I get to look to look around. ) We fly when we go to Florida (from Massachusetts) but we drive to western New York almost every summer, to amusement parks 2-3 hours hours away, back and forth to Maine (DS's college) quite a bit, and we drove to DC last year.

I love packing special snacks, planning neat little stops along the way, even making trip playlists! When DS was little, we would do "mileage presents" - little toys to unwrap when we hit certain distances, so he had new things to play with in the car.

I even loved road trips as a kid (in spite of getting car sick back then). We drove to visit relatives in Pennsylvania every year, and I had this favorite gift shop where I always got the best huge taffy! My mom would bring the cards from from our Trivial Pursuit set and read questions for the rest of us to answer, and my brother and I would pretend the forest out the window was another planet.

...This morning I asked him why he suddenly doesn't want to do anything I suggest, and he said, "Because it wasn't my idea." So maybe I have to figure out how to make him think it was his idea? He also gets bored easily, so I have to keep trying to come up with different ideas in the first place.

Excellent insight! He's at an age when a little control is important to him (especially with so much out of all our control right now.)

My niece and nephew (age 4) loved a game where I would write down a bunch of activities on little cards and put them in a bag for them to take turns drawing out. It somehow made the same activities more fun.

I'd also recommend some games where you take turns being "in control" - Simon says, follow the leader, Mother may I...

Sometimes setting up a project and letting them "find" it works too. (Google "invitations to play" - I think that's the trendy term lately.)

He keeps asking about going to the playground with his friends. He doesn't understand that the playgrounds are off-limits right now. We have one less than a mile from our house and he asks about it when we go on our walks. I sometimes wonder if I should take him down there and let him see that it's taped off, that we really can't go there right now. I know he doesn't understand "The governor says we can't." I don't know how to explain not being able to see his friends, though.

That might not be a bad idea! Kids often do better when they actually see what's going on.

Also, is there any way he can have "playdates" with any of his school friends over FaceTime or Zoom or something like that? If you know any of the parents, they may be in the same boat, and they may have those apps anyway. Quiet things like setting both kids up with Legos work well, so they can show each other creations as they build, but they can also be a little more active if you've got the space - like playing Simon says over it.

Apirateslifeforme, hug to you and your young son. I truly feel so much for young kids right now especially who just are not able to understand why they can't go play with friends or even to school. I am far from a specialist. Joshua probably feels safest at home (as he should ) and is confused/bored, etc. As someone so young he communicates that by acting out. Does he have any older toys or books that perhaps he lost interest in and so were put away? If so, perhaps get them out to have something "new" for him.

I agree. Kids always save their worst behavior for their safest adults!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Question of the day: 4/24 Road trips?

Are you a road trip person? I realize I don't know what the heck the future is bringing or when things are going to ease up
but I'd like to do something for a vacation. I'm thinking maybe shorter road trip through the mid west/great plains (whatever that upper middle area is that I haven't been to) I don't have real location in mind yet since we don't even have an idea timelines. I was thinking I didn't want to be where the people are (I'm totally hearing Ariel singing lol) and might as well go check out the heartland.

We have drove around this country a ton moving and I don't really think twice about getting a bag packed, throw some stuff in the cooler and hitting the road if that is the destination. If I'm doing something like MAJOR vacation destination, I don't want to road trip there. Does that make sense? Are ya'll road trip vacation people?

I love road trips but those days are pretty much over now. Only one of us has a drivers' license and he's no longer comfortably driving anymore. Learned this after buying an custom interior designed travel trailer but but let's just leave that off to the side; no need to raise my blood pressure. The closest we'll get to a road trip now is a long distance train ride and those are fun too what with some else in charge of clean up and getting us there.

Last night's dinner was a baked chicken ravioli casserole (similar to a lasagna), sauteed kale, and the end of the Italian egg drop soup; just enough for each of us to have a cup. Dessert was the last of the meringue "flats" with sorbet and macerated berries.

 

[monkeydawn]

We LOVE road trips here. Growing up Mom would never fly (she still doesnt, flew exactly once and had to be driven back home LOL) so all of our vacations were via car. We'd usually break up the drive, starting at 7 am, being finished by 3 pm so we could enjoy the hotel pool. As an adult my husband and I found visiting our parents easier by car, we didnt necessarily take our time and enjoy the road trip but we did them. Then, 11 years ago we got our first MINI Cooper. They make driving so FUN that you want to do road trips. We really started our love of road trips ten years ago when we went to our first MINIs on the Dragon. The Dragon is a stretch of road in NC/ TN that is 11 miles with 318 curves. Its a pretty famous gathering place for sports cars and motorcycles. Every spring (except this year...sigh) hundreds of MINIs gather over one week. Our first trip to the Dragon we did it like my parents did road trips and broke it up and focused on the journey as well as the trip. That's the year we found Foamhenge, a life sized replica of Stonehenge made of foam in VA. And once we arrived at the Dragon we'd spend hours driving in ralleys on those mountain roads. Since then we usually do at least one epic road trip a year and usually at least one weekend a month we are day tripping. I can pack those tiny cars well enough to last us 3 weeks if we can go that long!

----

Is anyone else finding grocery shopping exhausting? I went to 4 stores yesterday, was gone less than three hours and I felt exhausted the rest of the day. Is it the constant fear/ worry while we are out? The decontaminating of the groceries when we get home? What the heck...I used to do shopping days with friends where we would go from 7 am until 11 pm or longer (it involved a small road trip to get to the shopping). How can I be exhausted after less than 3 hours out?