Sunflower Farm!

Two of my roommates and I went on an outing today! It was a much needed get away from the area we live in.

One of my roommates researched and found a sunflower farm about 30 minutes away. It cost money to go in but it was worth it! (We paid online before going and wore a mask in line to get in and to leave but once we got out to the fields we could keep our distance from others.)

With the price of admission, they had these cute umbrellas we could borrow to shade ourselves from the sun and they made for some good photo ops. :)

 There were pretty multi-colored flowers in part of the field.

We made it to the sunflower part of the field!

 Rachel, Cat and I

I learned today that young sunflowers follow the sun but once they're more mature they always face east.

 It was hard to get good pictures of us with the front of the sunflowers since the sun was behind us.

 I liked the umbrellas they let us borrow. :)

As part of admission, we each got to pick three sunflowers to take home.

 We did some fun poses while there. :)

On our way out of the farm I saw this cute mask wearing cow. :)

I liked this farm and thought it was great! It was pretty dang hot today but it didn't even matter because of how lovely the fields were. :)

 

Food!

Sometimes I get the urge to write and can't do anything else until I do. This is one of those times. Even though I want to write I don't know what I should write about. Should I write about how I've been struggling a lot recently? Should I write about how hot its been outside for the past week or two? Should I write about some of the socially distant activities I've done since the last time I posted about that?

I decided no on all of those and thought that talking about food would be the best thing to write about. :) 

I've found that during this weird time, food has been a source of comfort for me. I'm grateful for the restaurants that are still open. I know the pandemic has been tough on the restaurants and I try to support them when I can.

I love Rita's Italian Ice! I've been there a couple of times since the pandemic started and getting the mix of Italian ice and custard always makes me feel better. (It's grab and go.)

I love Big Buns Damn Good Burger Co! I'm picky when it comes to burgers and this is one place I've been to multiple times before and during the pandemic. (They have curbside pickup during the pandemic.)

Bruster's Ice Cream is delicious! Graham Central Station and White Raspberry Truffle are my favorites! (They have delivery or grab and go.)

Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers has also been a go-to burger place for me during the pandemic. (It has a drive-thru.) 

Chick-fil-A is also on my list of places to go through the drive-thru.

There are other places I've bought food from too, these are just my favorites. :)

What are your favorite go-to restaurants during this pandemic?

Photo Books

I've made a few photo books since quarantine began. It's been fun reminiscing about some old trips I've been on.

When I was a teenager and in my early twenties I used to scrapbook. I never did anything fancy. I basically just taped the pictures onto card stock and wrote what it was next to it (sometimes adding cute embellishments) and then sticking it in a sheet protector and then a binder.

But I like making photo books on the computer now though. Since all of my pictures are digital now and I've found a user friendly website to make the books on, it's fun! Sometimes it's hard to remember details about a trip (unless I blogged about it right after it happened) but I'm just happy to have physical pictures of my trips in one place that don't take up too much space on my shelf.

Here's a photo book from my cruise I took a couple of years ago with my parents and my sister, Heather. I sent a book to my parents and my sister too.

 I like this page from the book!

I've made four different photo books so far since being in quarantine, but I haven't ordered all of them yet. They can get kind of expensive depending on how many pages they are, so I'm waiting for a good sale to buy a couple of them. ;)

I used mixbook.com to make my photo books and I like how easy the website was to use and the way they turned out in print!

Social-distancing Picnics

Life is weird right now. We are highly discouraged from socializing inside of buildings because of how easily Covid-19 spreads.

It can be spread outdoors but not as easily as indoors. So some of my friends have put together social-distancing picnics. We all bring our own food, blankets/chairs and sit six feet apart.

Diana was the first of my friends to put together one of these picnics. We met at Nottoway Park. It was a nice day outside and so good to see people in person!

Rachel put together a small barbecue picnic on Memorial Day so she could test out her new mini grill. :)

My brother, Peter, invited me over to his family's house for a driveway campfire on a Friday night. I brought my own chair and we roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, and chatted. :) 

And yesterday, we celebrated one of my friends birthday by ordering from Cheesecake Factory and having a small social distancing picnic at Nottoway Park.

I'm so glad I've been able to see people in person. Technology is awesome and it's great that we can video chat with people but there's just something nice about seeing people in the flesh.

Offbeat Places!

One of my facebook friends posted about a cool statue a few miles down the road from my house that I had never seen before.

I decided to look up the exact address. The website I found info about it on also gave me suggested Nearby Offbeat Places.

So today my brother, Tim, and went on an adventure finding some of these Offbeat Places. :)

Three of the Offbeat Places were on the same little street (a street with car dealerships and auto mechanic shops).

Man Eating Dog Food represents a man at the end of his life reverting to his spirit animal (in this case a dog).

Across the street from the first statue is Man with Pigs. This statue honors the person's family that owns the car dealership in the background who used to be hog farmers nearby.

Just down the street a little bit was Scrap Metal Cowboy!

This was the statue my facebook friend posted about. This was about 2 miles down the road from those other statues.

It's called Pennies from Heaven. It's in a parking lot in between two office buildings.

Isn't it cool?!

Our last stop of the adventure was Foxstone Park. This was the park where former FBI agent, Robert Hanssen, left state secrets for the Soviet Union/Russia for over twenty years.

(This place showed up in my search of Offbeat Places to visit.) 

There was a nice wooded trail in the park that we walked on for awhile.

This is the bridge that Hanssen hid the state secrets under.

It was fun to have a little adventure today and everything was outside and free and not crowded. :)

A New Normal (For Now)

I don't know exactly how many days its been since quarantine began, it feels like it started years ago but at the same time just like yesterday. I think it's been a little over 8 weeks now (crazy!) and it kind of feels like a new normal is happening (at least for now until the situation calms down).

Just so that I can remember this down the road here are some things that are happening or not happening in a lot of areas of the USA as of today May 17, 2020. 

-We are highly encouraged to wear masks when going to a store or office or anywhere inside of a public building.
-Every checkout lane at a grocery store now has glass between the customer and the cashier.
-At some grocery stores they sanitize the conveyor belt etc in between each customer causing longer wait times for checking out
-Some stores have a limit of how many people can enter their store at a time and so there will be lines of people standing 6 feet apart outside of the store waiting to get in
-Some grocery stores have it so that the aisles are one way (although people don't always pay attention to that).
-We can't eat inside of restaurants. The restaurants that are still open have curbside pickup or delivery only.
-We can't see live shows in person.
-Video chatting or social distancing small gatherings outside are two of the new ways to get some face-to-face social time in.
-When passing someone while walking outside, we try to keep a 6 foot distance from them by walking out onto the street or onto the grass (if possible in the situation).
-We carry hand sanitizer with us wherever we go.
-We fill up our gas tanks less frequently now since we're driving a lot less.
-Schools are closed and teachers and parents are trying to figure out how to continue the school year from home using technology.
-A lot of people who have office jobs are working from home.
-Some musicians are giving live concerts from their homes via social media.
-Talk show hosts (like Jimmy Fallon) are filming their shows from their homes (being filmed by a family member) and have Zoom interviews with the people they would normally have on their show.
-Hair salons, department stores etc (stores deemed non-essential) are closed.
-Movie theaters and live theaters are closed.
-A lot of parks and some trails and beaches are closed.

This does not cover everything but it gives you an idea about what is happening in the world right now.

Is there anything else I should add to the list?

We live in a weird time my friends. We live in a weird time.

Music!

Sometimes music speaks to me in ways that spoken words can't. These songs have been helping my soul today. Life is hard and uncertain right now, but Heavenly Father is aware of us and understands what we are going through.

Do you have any songs that are helping you through this hard time?