Camp Covid 2020
What a wild and crazy year 2020 turned out to be. While we were exploring Big Bend - seemingly off the grid, the world essentially started to fall apart.
We were unsure of what we would return to seven hours from our creature comforts, and started texting friends to grab essentials for us in case they were all gone by the time we made our way back home. Luckily we had planned a stop back by the lake for a weekend before returning back to Katy and the local grocery store hadn’t been nearly as picked over as all ours back in suburbia.
And so began our first pandemic….
So began all these new words and terms in our lexicons; socially distanced gatherings, virtual learning, Zoom happy hours…
So began the toilet paper wars and shopping via instacart and curbside pick-up…
So began working from home, covid tests and mandatory quarantines…
In the beginning it felt like we were all in it together. The sidewalk chalk affirmations we read on our much more frequent walks held a sense of community and togetherness… We will get through this. It felt like we were all at Summer Camp just trying to figure out the daily routine and activities of our new normal. We had Arts and Crafts, Water Time, Nature, and even a few talent shows. Of course we had to feed the campers, and let me tell you - the cafeteria did a whole lot of experimenting during this past year…. So much so that we had to add in some extra activities to work it all off!
Of course none of us could have predicted how long all of this would last or the life changing implications. It’s like our parents just forgot to pick us up, and we’re still just shuffling around from cabin to cabin…
But in the end, I can say that I feel extremely grateful for so many things...
The pandemic has given us a chance to slow down and enjoy so much more time with each other…
We have a happy place that we can get away to that we take advantage of OFTEN up in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas…
We have so many people around us that are willing to drop everything and help in whatever way they can…
We have schools and teachers who totally revamped the way they’ve always done things and got to work for our kids…
We live in a place with mild weather and a pool in our backyard… enough said!
And of course, the big one to be grateful for… We haven’t contracted covid!!!! Despite taking a few tests we’re all still covid negative and anxiously anticipating our turn to get the vaccine.
Of course the big one is we miss our families - desperately! Not being able to be there for our loved ones, especially during hard times has been the worst part of this whole experience. But we do it out of love… to keep them all safe.
There will come a time… soon where we will be able to get back on a plane, mask-free and just be annoyed that we have to travel with kids. I’m so eagerly awaiting that day.
Until then, here’s a little tidbit of how Camp Covid has been going in the Fife Household.
The Beginning
This was the weekend everything was blowing up. We had just finished our Big Bend Spring Break trip and made a weekend stop at the lake before gearing up to head back to our new reality. It was also the last time we ate at a restaurant in a while. Glad that the last one was Lupe’s ;)
On the way home we stopped to pick up Franklin BBQ for the first time. Luckily we didn’t have to wait in line since we had preordered and were given a designated pick-up time. But for that BBQ, we would have waited in line. I can tell you, it’s 100% worth the hype.
Our Virtual World
The concept of “Virtual Learning” immediately had a sense of anxiety attached to it for me. Although it was announced that it was just for two weeks, and then they would reevaluate, we were all watching the news… It was pretty apparent from the start that this was going to be longer than that.
With an autistic child who thrives off of routine and a mom who does not I was extremely worried about what basically amounted to an extended Summer. I know I am not alone in this, and of course everyone has their own set of circumstances. I am lucky that I stay home and didn’t need to shuffle around working from home while also teaching my kids, things that in some cases I had to relearn myself!
I’m not going to say everything went perfectly…. Holden obviously didn’t love being made to get on multiple zoom calls with his teachers per day, and sitting still proved to be a bit of an issue. Isla was inundated with a massive amount of new technology and homework that she simply wasn’t used to, and unfortunately with most of my time devoted to Holden, she was left treading water more than I would like to admit. But everyone including the teachers did the absolute best that they could. I can’t imagine how hard this was for them, with their own children learning from home as well.
But somehow we all pulled it off and made it to graduation day!!! 4th Grade Graduation looked a little different than End of the Year Parties from the past, but the teachers did a great job and all the kids participated virtually to mark the end of what’s sure to be one of the strangest years of their lives.
One of the toughest parts was not being able to see these people that we are so grateful for and to Thank them personally for all their hard work. My kids have been blessed with some pretty amazing teachers, and this year was no exception. I know that Isla will always remember Mrs. Eccleston. Maybe one day my little non-writer will even pick up this pen and tell her just how awesome she was.
Fifth graders didn’t get their usual “clap out” in the halls, but the teachers and administration put on a pretty great car parade to bring an end to these kids elementary days. Not sure what’s planned for Isla’s class this year but one thing I do know is that these folks will make it special.
As I mentioned, being so far away from family and friends, or even close by, but unable to see friends has been rough. Virtual has made hanging out possible-even if it’s not quite the same…
After so many virtual meet-ups we got creative and incorporated some poker games into our screen time hang-outs.
The more zooms we jumped on, the better got with the technology. See above… Somehow our friends Greg and Justin are in two places at once!
The above and below photos are two zooms that we may need to keep going; our college and Jordan’s high school friends respectively, all live out of town, and it was always fun to catch up with everyone… no matter how chaotic the conversations got.
Isla even got in on the fun with a zoom friends meet up of her own.
Socially Distanced Get Togethers
As the pandemic wore on with no end in sight we were particularly grateful for our weather here in Houston, and driveway/outdoor socially distanced parties became the norm. Of course, this would only work in the pool come June, but luckily we had that covered as well.
This was our first properly socially distanced get together. I measured and drew up spots using sidewalk chalk, and Aaron brought us all masks before wearing masks became totally commonplace. However strange it looked, it was it was comforting doing something normal like having a drink with friends.
Isla got in on the fun, giving socially distanced hugs to her friends.
Food
We were just as susceptible as everyone else to all the online food trends and Tik Tok videos. We tried everything from homemade boba to whipped coffee to doughnuts, pretzels and weekly loaves of bread. We acquired a few new kitchen gadgets and devices along the way and honed our pizza, and smoked meat skills. I think it’s safe to say that covid was not unlike the Freshman Fifteen. Luckily, not everything we made was bad for you…
We also learned a lot along the way, like the ends of a green onion can be placed in a small amount of water and produce endless green onions… Who knew?!!?
I’ve been making homemade bread since we got out of college using an old bread machine that my parents gave us. It makes great bread, but I had never tried to make one outside of the machine. Turns out it’s WAY easier than you would expect and the results are (chefs kiss) good.
The problem is stores started selling out of yeast and flour as everyone became a bread baker in quarantine. After a lot of Amazon scouring I was able to find a ridiculous amount of yeast (we’re still using it nearly a year later), and a giant bag of flour that had to sit on the bottom of our pantry. We actually ended up using all of the flour and have since had to buy a couple more…. Did I mention that Covid Fifteen is a real thing?
Of COURSE I bought bread bags to give loaves to our friends… Do y’all even know me at all?!?!
Bread quickly morphed into homemade naan, tortillas, pretzels and buns for brats when we didn’t have any.
Once we invested in a Ooni pizza oven, and it was finally delivered (guess what, it was backordered because everyone decided to also become a pizza chef in quarantine), bread making turned into pizza dough making, and a new hobby was born.
Of course there was the larger breakfasts, food trends, and classic pandemic style foods along with just an excess of eating in general. What can I say? We were bored…
We started to get nervous when ramen was one of the first things to sell out. Isla’s been on quite the cheap ramen kick, and she’s super particular about it. Of course when we took her to our local Asian mart and tried to get some of the good stuff she just wasn’t having it. Luckily we were able to find her brand after not too long. She was happily slurping in no time.
I have to say the whipped coffee or dalgona was one of my favorite pandemic food trends. It’s a new staple during the hot weather months in this household. For an easy recipe click here. As a bit of a coffee snob the instant coffee was a tough pill for me to swallow, but I really like this brand easily purchased on Amazon.
Isla’s also been really big on boba lately. With everything closed or with strange hours a lot of the times we’d go to get some and just find it closed or not offering the flavors we wanted. We decided to take matters into our own hands and make it ourselves. Turns out it’s a lot easier than you would think. Easier than picking it up at your local tea spot? No… but easier than you would think ;).
Thanks to Tiffani Thiessen’s (AKA Kelly Kapowski) cookbook I was finally able to master a poached egg, and made my absolute favorite breakfast.
From Left: Salad for a crowd, ramen using leftover smoked brisket (thanks Jordan!), poached eggs on avocado toast, breakfast crepes with Nutella and berries, Clean out the Fridge Fritatta, Beet Salad with goat cheese and balsamic reduction (told you some of it was healthy) and a weekday breakfast taco.
And then of course there was the baking…. OH the baking! And along with the baking came my little batter licking dough stealer Holden…
From top left: cinnamon churro cupcakes, key lime bars, peanut butter granola cookies, blueberry lemon bread, classic butter cupcakes, NYT chocolate chip cookie dough and brown butter Nutella banana bread.
I’ve never been much of a baker, but have gotten pretty good at cookies, bars and sweet breads. Cakes and cupcakes have always been my nemesis, but they seem to be starting to come together. What is it that they say, practice makes perfect? I mean - who am I to question the experts… Bring me all the cupcakes!
And here’s our little Sweet Bandit in action…
Holden’s always ready to lick the batter….
…or patient enough to wait for the perfect moment, when no-one is looking to steal some dough.
Another big pandemic purchase was a Traeger smoker. We had one years ago that always had issues, but like with most things this invention has gotten better with time, and we couldn’t be happier with this new smoker and all the delicious meats that it provides.
Of course being in Texas, we first had to try some brisket…. They don’t sell briskets in small amounts, so we had to reimagine all the different ways we could use it. Turns out, there’s quite a few tasty options.
From left, brisket ramen and brisket chili
From left, ribs and turkey
Pork belly asian buns were hands down one of the best things we’ve made… unfortunately it’s SOOOOO fatty that it probably won't be much of a staple, but great for special occasions… Like using up the slabs of bacon from the bacon gift baskets we received over the holidays! ;)
We were lucky enough when some covid relief came in the form of Jordan’s mom (scroll down for more), to get out for some socially responsible covid dining.
Sushi at MF was long overdue, and the complimentary bottle of sake from Neil was the perfect way to celebrate. MF sushi is an old favorite, dating back to our time in Atlanta, but we decided that with all the amazing restaurants in Houston, we should get out and try a new one every month. Next up was Musaafer, and it didn’t dissapoint.
While restaurants were open and doing socially distanced meals the right way, bars certainly weren’t. So to celebrate Jordan’s last birthday in his 30’s, Isla brought the bar to us.
Seriously, how cute is our bartender with her virgin cocktail?!?!
Besides kicking up our home bar game, we spent a lot more time up at the lake enjoying a change of scenery. Always grateful for this place, but never more than this past year.
Lake Life
mornings looked a little different with the kids learning virtually and Jordan working from home at the kitchen table, but the evenings were predictably the same; just as beautiful and peaceful as always.
There were more walks…
…and breaks in the baby pool between Zoom calls.
There was even a scavenger hunt complete with a golf cart driven by Isla to the final clue.
and of course, there was plenty of lake time.
Once we felt comfortable, we even welcomed visitors.
The lakes always been our happy place, but this year it became our escape as well.
The Beach
We also escaped to the beach. Although it was supposed to be a beach down in Florida, getting to visit my parents, we had to change it to Galveston in order to accommodate the current situation.
The kids were REALLY sad to not be able to see their grandparents. Fortunately, for them, a beach is a beach, so they were fine with switching it to Galveston in that regard. UNFORTUNATELY the week we went there were a LOT of jellyfish, and we all got stung - Holden, multiple times because he refused to get out of the water! Out of all of us, he definitely likes the beach the most.
Dolly’s first time in the ocean was a major success. She had a lot of fun running around and splashing with the kids.
A plus to having Galveston so close was that we could invite friends down for a beach day at a moments notice.
Although it may not have been the sandy white Florida beaches we had envisioned, we’re grateful to have a beach in our backyard that we can make just as sweet memories at.
Nature
I don’t think any camp experience would be complete without some Nature. Fortunately we have a great big state to explore, and we definitely took advantage. From bike rides that ended with a flat tire and a rescue, to bike rides that ended in donuts, to caves and waterfalls, we did it all.
When we weren’t inside cooking, or outside exploring, we were taking part in another time honored camp tradition…
Arts & Crafts
In this house, arts and crafts also encompass a lot of sensory type play…
Fun & Games
Another way we passed the time together was with a lot of games and pool time. If you know me, you know my affinity for board games and sun bathing, so this suited Counselor Kelly just fine.
The pandemic saw a lot more front porch drop-offs… Food and games were top of the list. Neighbors started to drop off riddles and puzzles for the kids (and grownups) to complete…
It was just one more way for us to feel connected during these unprecedented times, and really helped foster our sense of community.
Houston Summers are hot. So hot that this one even got in the pool despite not being able to swim.
The hose and water balloons were the toys of choice this past pool season, however, pool floats remained as popular as ever…
This bucket became a surprise top contender for this years favorite pool toy.
We are grateful to live in a place where we can be outside during this pandemic. And when it gets too hot, we can cool off in the pool.
This guy (and this Mom), would anticipate Dad’s arrival home from work everyday so that he could play in the pool and Mom could have a break!
I mean seriously, what would we do without Dad’s?!?!
Turns out it was a good thing that Holden was almost always near some sort of water source because he spent the majority of Camp Covid shirtless…
Reinforcements
Listen, as we all know this is tough business…. Luckily I have two pretty great women who I could call in for help, and they came running.
This woman is Claudia. She was Holden’s summer school aide one year when he was really little. They fell in love with each other that Summer and she soon became our go-to babysitter. Once all this craziness hit, and they announced that school would be virtual for the rest of 2020, Claudia volunteered to come and work with Holden. As much as she would have liked to do this totally pro-bono, after so long I told her I just couldn’t allow her to in good conscience and she started coming 3-4 days/week from 9-2. This gave me time to hang out with Isla, get some cleaning and stuff done around the house, make and go to appointments, as well as carve out some time for myself. It was truly a sanity saver. She is truly a sanity saver.
Later on in the Summer, Jordan’s mom asked what I wanted for my birthday on a FaceTime call. I jokingly said, “for these kids to go back to school!” She immediately came back with, “well, what if I just come visit and help?” She stayed for three full weeks helping get the kids set up on totally virtual school. Without her there I wouldn’t have been able to be there for Isla setting up all her zoom calls and helping to navigate through the confusing sea of Canvas, Istation, Dreambox, Dyslexia assessments and just normal day to day homework.
I really don’t think it’s possible to explain how much her gift meant to us.
Also, we all just really enjoyed the extended visit with her.
The daily treats from Sonic weren’t too bad either!
Like many others sitting at home, we tackled some long overdue home renovation projects and acquired a new family member…
Camp Improvements
Kitchen Flooring
Fireplace
Entryway Chandelier
Holden’s Bedroom Floors at the Lake
Forrest the Beardie
He’s grown quite a bit since these early days, but more on that later.
All the Other Stuff
“Shut Down Again, Damn Virus…”
After a trip to the lake we realized that the Circuit of the Americas (the Formula 1 racetrack in Austin) was holding a food drive for Covid right around the time we would be passing it to head back home to Katy. It seemed like fate as we had just started getting into Formula 1 due to a reality show we binged on Netflix…. Driving around the track very slowly was super exciting and hard to fathom how the professionals race it at the speed that they do.
After a while Isla decided she was sick of Camp Covid and wanted to switch to a different camp. We agreed that with protocols in place she would go to the Camp that we had lined up for her earlier in the year - Camp Allen.
This was Isla’s first experience with Summer Camp, and to say she was nervous would be an understatement. Heck, we were all a little nervous!
In the end she made it to Thursday before coming back home with some pretty terrible allergies. We even got her a covid test to be sure, but it turns out my babies just not really much of an outdoorsy gal.
Holden started most days out on the swing when the weather was still somewhat bearable without getting into the pool. What happened the rest of the day was always a toss up….
I can say with certainty he definitely kept everyday interesting, and all of us smiling.
Holden hit a pretty big milestone at Camp Covid. For years he had been holding his bowel movements to the point that they were painful and difficult to pass. With the help of Nana we decided that we were going to get past this stage no matter what. After a couple weeks it finally happened. I had promised him some cupcakes, and as soon as he was done I whisked him away in the car to go get a half dozen of whatever flavors he wanted.
…still shirtless.
Its was a truly crazy year…. But it seemed like everywhere we looked there was something to smile about.
Be it a reminder that we were all in this together, or a pug in a wig…
…some of our favorite pizza enjoyed curbside with a Texas favorite…
…or the giant box of industrial size toilet paper that shows up just when we were about to start panicking.
When we really stopped to look around, the forced slow down felt like a gift. It became a chance to enjoy the life we’ve built together.
As much fun as we all had at camp, all good things must come to an end, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t happy about school starting.
Back to School
We may have even gone out to dinner to celebrate the occasion…
I know that we are a long way from “normal” , but as things start to become the “new normal” I’ll forever be grateful for this wild and crazy year, and all the memories that I made with my people.
Now can we go visit the rest of our people?!?!