So here we are again, week number 9 of quarantine. Believe it or not, I’m enjoying working from home. My commute is awesome, I get to wear whatever, mainly jeans, and best of all, I get to be with my daughter for longer hours in the day and play and study with her. I could get used to this!

I had a wonderful mother’s day weekend. I got to relax and be with those I love. We played pokemonGo and had a nice bunch.

This Monday morning I got up early and helped my husband with some of his exercises. His back has been hurting him, so I help him with his stretching. Then I got myself a workout. For my workout, I was wearing a Suffolk County Community College shirt from back in the day when I used to run Cross Country. The shirt still fits! It’s a little old and falling apart at the sleeves, but it’s a good reminder of what I am capable of doing. Back then, we used to run for hours. Now, I’m on the treadmill for 45 minutes and out of breath lol.

So, more changes for me at my job. The person whom I was training for over a month is no longer going to be working with me. So, now I am part of the IT department and working on two extranet sites all by myself. What if I’m sick or need a vacation day you ask? My boss said that that’s ok, we’ll work through it. All we have to do is just plan it out and it will be fine. The boss also said to let her know if I get overwhelmed to let her know.
No way jose! I just barely made it, there’s no way I will be inundated with my new job….I hope! Please God don’t let me screw this one up. It looks like they are ok with letting everyone go, please don’t let it be me this go around…I’m going to go have a bottle of wine for dinner!

So this was my dinner.

Kidding, this was my dinner. Spaghetti with vegetables and orange chicken. Delicious with a glass of white wine. Thank you grandma for making a delicious meal!

It’s now Tuesday and it has been the longest week yet. With my old boss being let go and now my coworker being taken to a different department and me working on the sites by myself I am feeling lucky. Lucky, that I still have a job and that I am the only person who knows how to work on two sites together. They are not difficult, but they sure are time consuming.
Today I have a conference call with my daughter’s teachers to see about her goals and how she is doing in school. I think she is doing just fine. She is now starting to read and her math skills are impeccable. We need to get her to start writing more and doing better punctuation. But for a her age, she is doing fantastic. And her teachers say so as well. My baby is going into the 1st grade!

Watching the news and 195 died yesterday due to the covid-19 virus in NY state. It’s up from the day before but we are significantly down in deaths. So they say. I think we are 195 too many in deaths from this terrible virus.

It’s Wednesday and what can I say about my Wednesday…what a disaster. I woke up before the roosters and helped my husband out with his stretches. Then got to the laptop and got some work done, since I had a last minute launch and many items to post on the site. I took a break and did a workout and took a quick shower only to get back to my bedroom/office to continue with my launch. This was the good part of my day. The bad part was the launch of the product. Nothing worked on the site. I didn’t have access to the backend systems and needed IT intervention. Wait, I’m IT now…so I needed help from my IT co-workers to help out. Then the other backend system did not connect properly and I needed to ask another set of IT people to take a look and make sure everything was aligned. This all took three hours to figure out, turns out I did not get to launch the product on my site. There is an overnight replication and that is all, we can’t do anything about that. We need to let it take its course. But wait, IT was able to negotiate the overnight replication to happen during the day. So then the item did launch hours and hours later.
Right after my quick lunch I find out there is another product launching tomorrow….surprise! Time to scramble again to get everything up on the website. But I’m keeping my cool…for now!
During all of this craziness, I wasn’t able to get into the conference call for my daughter this morning. I turned on the laptop and let her ride it out. With Grandmas supervision of course. I can’t let a little one to her own devices. I left the door to my bedroom/office open so I could work and hear the teacher at the same time. But, who am I kidding, I can’t listen to two conversations at the same time. That was a waste! Thank God Grandma was there, she was able to let me know what happened during the call. So, the little ones to do a show and tell to the teachers. They need to have an object and describe it to the teacher so they can guess what it is. This ought to be fun for the parents to prepare.

So its 6pm and guess what I’m still doing…yes, working. I need to post a lot more items on the site. There are not enough hours in the day to get it all done. I had a quick dinner with the family and back to the laptop I go. I worked until 8PM and then I called it a night. I put my laundry away and watched a show on Netlix for an hour. I have been watching “Impostors” on Netflix for the last month or two. I only watch it when I do my workout, otherwise I don’t have time to watch any shows. Between work and my little one, who has time for anything?
Anyway, back to the show, I really liked season one. It was exiting and fast paced. All of the suspence was great. Season 2 slowed down a bit in the beginning and it became a little boring and then it picked up again and I was getting really exited again. Only to find out, there is no Season 3. They cancelled the show. Now I have to find another show to watch as I am doing my workout. What do you think I should watch?

Thursday is a little bit more of the same as Wednesday, woke up early to help out my husband. And then I went back to bed and read a book for my next class. I will be taking a class for “Scrum” its part of the project management agile process. As for work, I had another last minute product launch for both extranet sites and I have to scramble to place the product and its contents on the sites. Also, there are two conference calls this morning for my little one. It’s 11AM and I feel like a clown juggling many balls. I feel like I am going to burn out soon.

Watching the news and learned that the number of hospitalizations and intubations is down. New cases is a little bit up today but overall it is down. Unfortunately, 166 people have passed due to the covid-19 virus. The virus keeps on spreading and people keep on dying. We continue to be stuck at home and continue to be scared of this virus. At least I am.

After lunch was more work, then, I hit a wall. By 3:30, I couldn’t do it anymore. I drank an energy drink, took a break, put on the radio and I kept on feeling like I had burned out for the day.

Its now 7PM and I have just finished work for the day. I feel so burnt. I hope I have the energy tomorrow to get up and do what I need to do. For now, I am going continue to read my book for my class that is starting next week. This is going to be my first online course. The class is on Thursdays from 6pm to 10pm for 3 weeks. It is going to be jam packed with information. If work keeps up like this plus a course, I’m surely to burn out more often. So I studied until bed time.

It’s Friday and I got my workout in. I am thankful that we have a treadmill that I can have a workout in. I spoke to some of my coworkers and learned there were more people who were let go. This is a scary time for business.

It is a nice day out today and I have my windows in my bedroom/office open. And we are having our grass thatched this afternoon. It smells like fresh cut grass. Just like how spring should be. I love the spring, all of the trees are flowering the flowers blooming. It’s not too hot, not too cold. It is just perfect for me. I went outside and played with my little one for a little while during my lunch hour. It was absolutely gorgeous. The weekend is to be just as beautiful. I can’t wait to get out there and get gardening.

This weekend we are reaching out to a shopper who is willing to go out and do our shopping for us at BJs. We gave the nice man our list and he is willing to out there and risk his life for us. We are very grateful for this.

Meanwhile my husband is making delicious home made bread for the week and I will be teaching my daughter some of her school work after breakfast. It’s going to be a busy Saturday.

In the afternoon we passed by riverside and saw these beautiful sights.

Shortly after this pretty view it started to snow as there was a snow squall. The sky started getting gray and then there was snow on May 9th on Long Island of all things crazy in 2020. There was also a lot of snow in Main as a friend of mine showed us some pictures on facebook.

Our new favorite song is by Tyga x Curtis Roach “Bored in The House.” It has a lot of cursing but it makes its point about us being in quarantine. It has a fun beat and fun lyrics and we sing it when it comes on.

It’s Sunday and it’s Mother’s day and I am inundated with messages on my phone wishing me a happy day. Having a small amount of good friends who care is a fantastic thing.

I would have loved to be outside right now planting flowers. But with this quarantine I am very limited to what kind of flowers to plant. Also, today is a cold day. It is 40 degrees outside and not a good day to plant flowers, nor to be outside at all.

For brunch, we have an elaborate breakfast of eggs, bacon, cheese and our beloved coffee.

Later, we passed by a secret entrance in Moriches, Long Island and saw these beautiful trees and benches to sit in. I think these are cherry blossom trees and I love them. Including the park benches. It is a beautiful sight for a beautiful Mother’s day! I can’t get enough of this vision. I hope that my gates to heaven look like this. A path with a row of beautiful trees with benches to relax in.

Overall my day was a beautiful day with my family in quarantine. We played #pokemongo and caught a lot of shiny characters. This weekend, we were to go away but instead we stayed home and played our beloved game.

While I reflect on the day, I am grateful for my mother and all that she has done for us. She was alone for many years raising us kids while my father was overseas working to make money for the family. I am also grateful for my mother-in-law. She is a great person and we are lucky to have her with us. She takes care of our little one while we are at work and now she has stepped up and is also helping us with teaching our daughter how to read and do her math homework. We are both at work during the day and are not able to do it ourselves, she has been sitting with the munchkin and has been teaching her all of these things. Thank you mother-in-law!

Happy Mother’s day to all of the strong lovely ladies out there.

I can’t believe it’s been 8 weeks since I was last in the office. I miss my chair, it was comfortable and it had a fantastic lumbar support. And, I truly miss my routine of going to the gym in the mornings and getting to listen to my audiobooks during my commute. Granted, I don’t miss the commute, but I also don’t get in as much reading/listening as I would like. Being at home has made me busier than ever. Also, who can read when there is a little one running around needing your attention?!
Today is about 67 degrees and its warm and the windows in my bedroom/office are open for some much needed fresh air in the room.

Total number of hospitalizations today is down in NY State. New cases are also declining to about 700. Number of deaths; 226 people have passed away due to the covid-19 virus yesterday in our state. Much better, but still scary.

During my lunch hour, we went outside to get some fresh air. My little one loved the flowers that I planted over the weekend. She loved them so much, that she took them right out of the ground, roots and all, and gave them grandma. Grandma said we can plant them right by her playground so she could have pretty flowers to look at when she is on her slide.

In the evening we passed by the park. Stayed inside the car of course and noticed a notice to the public to keep everyone separated. I thought it was interesting how the notice states the obvious and people were still not practicing much social distancing. Check out the notice in the picture below.

This was our dinner. Porch chops and sausage made in the BBQ and ziti pasta with spinach.

It’s Tuesday and I go outside early in the morning to fill up the leaf blower with gasoline. At first I couldn’t figure out how to open the contraption. I tried by turning it left then right, to no avail. I gave up! Then, I got back inside the house and turned to my trusty youtube and searched for how to open a gas can, and voila! A tutorial. Turns out I was doing it all wrong. I needed to click a button in order for the liquid to flow out of the can. So I did that, very sloppily by the way, got gas all over my hands, but I got it done and filled up the gas tank. I did this early this morning because, my mother-in-law is willing to go out there and blow some of the leaves from the backyard. I am so grateful for that. It is a lot of work as we have a lot of property and since she is willing to push all of those leaves out of the way, more power to her…thank you mother-in-law!

I was up early enough that I got a short but nice workout in and took a nice hot shower with a cool rinse. The cool water was refreshing and by the way, it is great for your hair. It makes it not break so much and makes it shiny. After that, its work, work, work including meeting after meeting.

During lunch, I went outside with my little one while my mother-in-law was taking care of the leaves. I took care of clearing out the sticks that were in the front yard so we can cut the grass. I tried to get the little one to help out with removing the sticks. She picked up one and poked me with it then put it down in the flower bed. So I had to pick that one up anyway and put it in the stick pile. I then removed all of the sticks from the front yard so the grass can be cut. Meanwhile, the little one saw a butterfly and ran after it. So much for her helping me lol.

It’s Wednesday and it is cold out today. I’m wearing a sweatshirt and jeans to keep out the cold. Today we are going to tackle more of the leaves outside in the backyard. We have the leaf blower and all of the tools ready to push all of the leaves out of the way and place them in a nice pile all the way in the back of the yard.

Today’s total hospitalization rate is down. There are 600 new cases of covid-19 in the state of NY. Number of deaths today is 232. That’s how many families are suffering today in NY state.

The day was filled with meetings and a tremendous amounts of emails back and forth with my coworkers. Needless to say, a lot of work today. The day outside is crummy, I’m feeling crummy, its all crummy today lol.

This was our dinner. Chicken with mushrooms, jasmine rice and sting beans.

It’s Thursday and what a hell of a day. Hospitalization is 8,600 its a significant drop and that is good news. 231 number of deaths yesterday. Number of firings, at least 4 that I know of from my company. It is a scary time for all of us. I’m hoping that I am not next. What a stressful day it has been for me. During my lunch hour I was shaking, but went outside anyway to be with my little one for a little while. She made me laugh talking about Sonic the hedgehog and his buddy Tails. These characters are her favorite things in the world right now. I told her a little bit of what was going on at my job and she told me that all she wanted to do was to cheer me up…such a sweet soul!
By the end of the day I still have a job and that makes me grateful!

In the evening we went to Riverside and saw the sunset. Pretty gazebo by the water.

This was our dinner. Turkey meatballs and pasta shells.

It’s Friday, I get a workout in and a nice warm shower to relax my bones.
So, today I have a new boss. We meet in the morning over the internet and go over what we do on a daily basis. Then back to a ton of work.

Listening to the news and the total number of hospitalizations is 8,196 and its down from yesterday as well as intubations. These are down too! But, 216 New Yorkers passed away yesterday. They talk about a second wave and a mutation of covid-19. So much anxiety and stress!

During the afternoon, after work of course, I have a new boss, I’m not going to wonder around at this time…always at my desk except for lunch time. Anyway, after work we passed by the park and I noticed how pretty it is by the pond at Kalers Ponk Park. Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure.

This was our dinner; steak with fried rice and black beans.

My Saturday started off with getting ready to go outside and clean out the playground. We cleared out a lot of leaves and my husband tackled the area that of the playground that was broken by a tree branch. Once all of that was completed we then tackled the vegetable garden. We got to half of the vegetable garden and we were beat tired. So the rest of the family went inside and I stayed out to finish weed wacking the front yard.

Sure, it looks empty now, but in a few weeks we will start to see some sunflowers popping out and the azalea bush turn into an orange poof. I will share pictures once they are coming up from the ground.

Sunday was much of the same, I got up early, made coffee and got outside. I planted a lot of seeds that I’ve had in the closet for a long time. I have white lilies, clematis, wild flowers, sunflowers and mint. I’ve also planted basil and then transplanted some of the purple flowers that I have around one of our trees as ground cover for one of the large flowerbeds in the front yard. These purple flowers do well in the shade and come back year after year they are perfect for what I’m looking for.

We then went for a drive. We passed by the park, which was packed and then passed by the river bank and that was even more packed. There were some people with masks and a lot without. No worries for us as we say in the car the entire time.

We then passed by a church in Mattituck, LI and noticed a beautiful statue with children kneeling. We went in for a closer look and low and behold, it is of our lady of Fatima. She showed up to the three children in my Portugal. I just saw a coming attraction for a movie of the same name coming to threaters.

At a round about in the middle of town I saw our flag that is near a hospital. It is at half mast but flying proudly. The streets are empty but the parks are full. I encourage everyone to continue to stay home until this pandemic is over.

Today I woke up filled with energy. I’m hoping this feeling lasts all day long.
I got up early as I could smell the bread machine going and the coffee brewing. I got a nice long workout in and then took a nice long hot shower. It was so early that I even had time to blow dry my hair. I made my bed and not the just the, “pulling of the ears” as my mom used to call it. But, I also placed the decorative pillows on it. Maybe I’m all sorts of energized because I had such a great weekend. I was able to do a lot of gardening on Saturday and on Sunday I took a certification test and am now certified in Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt. Feel free to read about adventure in my Quarantine Weekend blog it if you wish.
The rest of today was work, work, work, work, work! Can’t get away from the conference calls and all of the postings that I need to do for my web site. And so, I put my head into it and got to work.

This was our dinner. Rice, black beans and chicken with mushrooms made in a white sauce. The white sauce was made with heavy cream, paprika, olive oil and mushrooms.

Tuesday is more conference calls, five all together and more work, work, work! During my break, I got to go outside with my little one and we played on the swing set and looked at the flowers that I had planted over the weekend. They have’t bloomed yet, these are the Day Lilies that will bloom in the summer. On the other side of the flower bed are the Lilly of the Valley flowers that bloom in late spring. My goal is to always have something blooming in the yard at all seasons of the year. So far, I have not succeeded. As the deer get to my flowers and the field mice get to the roots of the plants. Everything in the yard must be so tasty!

Wednesday is a pj kind of day. It is gloomy and rainy outside and these pjs are warm and comfy! The morning if filled with meetings and more meeting. My pjs consist of wearing a decent long sleeve shirt that is somewhat appropriate for work. It’s a thermos type of shirt. Actually it is a band shirt for the 70’s band “The Who,” that I got a long time ago at Target. Hopefully the boss is ok with this type of dress as well as my daughters teachers’. My daughter and her teachers had a few conference calls today. They first one was only about attendance and sharing. The second was more for learning. My love dove looks cute today with her pig tails and I’m looking OK with my hair in a headband and my band shirt.

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During the teacher conference today we had a one on one and we went over numbers and site words. My munchkin did fantastic! She knew all of the numbers and practically almost all of the site words. High fives all around.

Watched the news and learned the hospitalizations are up for covid-19 and the death rate was 330 for yesterday in NY state. It looks like we’re making progress but we are still not out of the woods.
I’m feeling a little down today so I went to Pinterest, and to cheer myself up, I typed “You’ve Got This” and I saw the following: “This is your reminder that you can handle whatever this week throws at you.” This made me look at life in a different light and it made me happy. Then realized that no everyone is going to like what you do and how you do it. So I will keep calm and do what I need to do to make me content. Everyone has their own way of thinking and doing things. That doesn’t mean they also need to do what I do or think how I think. It would be a very boring world if that was the case.

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306 lives lost in NY State on Thursday, April 30th of 2020. Over four thousand people were tested yesterday and were considered positive to have covid-19. However, 114 have come home from the hospital in Suffolk County. But 22 have died yesterday. 1,177 people have died so far in Suffolk County, Long Island during this pandemic. A lot of them nurses, doctors, law enforcement officers and many others. My thoughts and prayers are with all of their families and friends. Hearing all of this, it’s no wonder I am feeling depressed and anxietal.

Today is another day of conference calls and a ton of work. The day is again rainy, gloomy and cold. The good thing about today, however, is that I was able to teach my little one how to use the laptop touchpad. She did a small homework assignment were she had to click on a word and drag and drop it to its rightful place and she was able to use both her little hands and move the item while clicking on the touchpad. Her little mind worked fast and she learned how to do it right away. Now all I need to do is get her to memorize the alphabet on the keyboard and we’re in business.
Later in the day, I received a shipment from Simple Good. I ordered a face serum called, Anti Wrinkle Face Serum | Zero Waste Self Care, as a gift for myself for Mother’s day and for…somebody else too, but…shhhh, its a secret, just in case she reads this blog, I don’t want to ruin the surprise.
The store sells all kinds of natural products and they have free shipping if your purchase comes out over a certain amount. According to their website, they “carefully curate goods that are sustainable, zero or low waste, ethical, eco friendly, vegan and organic.” Also, this is my dear friend’s sisters’ site. I have known this friend, Sara, since I was 9 years old. She is a dear friend, which of course I will make a purchase and also, I love to help small businesses. I will let you know how I like this serum and if it is indeed anti wrinkle.

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Today was also a day of goodness, where my long time friend from Portugal sent me a song with the subject of longing. Through the iterwebs of course lol. It’s a really nice song, sang in Portuguese. Click on the link above, if you’d like to give it a listen, it’ll bring you to the youtube page.
Angela and I have been best friends since we were about 5 years old. I used to go to her house every day when we were little. I remember she had a big barbie doll house that her mom made for her by hand. She put wood to screw gun and made the house. Very talented! We used to play with her toys all the time. I remember she also used to have a cute little dog named, Lassie, that I loved to play with as well. After a few years in our lovely Portugal, she left for Germany and I left for the big old USA. We were fast friends back then and we have been friends ever since. Over all of these years, we have always kept in touch! When I visit, she is always the first one to be visited. As the years pass I miss my friend more and more. But at least we have technology and we get to keep in touch that way.

Later in the evening, this was our dinner. Corned beef and cabbage with baked potatoes.

Its Friday and I have been up since 4AM in order to somehow get an order from Shipt. They go to Best Market to purchase groceries and the fruits and vegetables are much tastier from there not to mention more reasonably priced. I was finally able to get a delivery date for tonight. I am so happy about this you can’t even imagine. I’m going to get strawberries and corn and milk. So great full this type of service exists. We don’t need to go out there into the wild and pick up essentials. Those workers are much braver than I am that’s for sure. We reward them kindly as they deserve it.

In the evening we have a nutritious meal of collard greens, couscous and hamburger with cheese. We skipped the bread this time. Also, we don’t have any hamburger bread as it goes bad too quickly and we don’t like to freeze it. It’s just not the same, so we opt out. No biggie, we have veggies instead.

I’m glad we had a hearty meal because Saturday and Sunday are going to be beautiful days outside and we have a lot of work to do in the garden, flower beds and grass. Wish us luck, our backs will need it.

My weekend consisted of gardening, studying, more studying and test taking.

I had to weed wack this weekend. My yard is starting to look unruly, much like everyones hair now during quarantine lock down. So on Saturday, I charged up the batteries to the week wacker and got to work. One battery lasted me for one and a half of the front yard flower beds. The other battery was charging. It was taking a long time so I decided to transplant some of the plants that I already have in the yard while the charger did its thing.
I had a wild rose bush in the back yard so I dug it up and transplanted that one into the front yard by the trellis that my husband made for me years ago. The trellis look like little windows on the side of the house. I designed them, simple design, and he made them. He is very talented! They were created for climbing roses which I planted and they only bloomed once or twice. Then most of them died. My thumb is not as green as I’d like it to be.
My mom was really good at transplanting flowers and bushes. She once took a little piece of a rose bush and turned it into a beautiful large rose bush that was in front of our house. It smelled fantastic. I’ll share, if I can find a picture. She is now too elderly and too tired to take care of a garden. So I’d like to take on her footsteps and have a nice flower garden myself at my own home.

One of the annoying things about living in God’s county near a lot of woods, is that there are also a lot of critters that live here too. There are a lot of deer over by me and they like all sorts of things like flowers, plants and our vegetables. Home Depot had tulip bulbs for sale and the box stated that they are anti deer. Well! Not Long Island deer! These guys like the tulips just as much as they like apples. They ate all of my tulips. Along with deer, there are field mice in the property. And garden snakes, I dislike snakes. They scare the life out of me. Just writing about them is giving me the goose bums. I also give a nice and loud scream when I see one. Even if its when I’m on the ride on lawn mower. I know, they don’t do anything and they are more scared of me than I of them, but I don’t know, there is something about them that scares the bejesus out of me. Anyway, the field mice finished off my tulips as they ate all of the bulbs. This is why we can’t have nice things! No the sakes do not eat these mice, they only eat bugs. However, the hawks, they eat both snakes and mice. Go hawks!
So, since I can’t have nice flowers, I’ve learned to have hardier things in my flower beds. We have Lilly of the Valey, which grows like a weed, orange Day Lilies, that also grow like weeds and Hostas. Oh, the new leafy green Hosta’s, the deer love them so much. I can barely have a nice Hosta bed without teeth marks.

So, I planted some of the Lilly of the Valley flowers and Day Lilies on the side of the house where the gas line is. Hopefully the deer won’t have a feast on these as these are more mature plants and aren’t so tasty. Also, I hope these multiply in the coming years so I won’t have to mulch that side of the house. We have a lot of property and just the front yard takes over 5yards of mulch. It’s a lot of work. My plan is to have the side of the house filled with plants so mulching won’t be necessary.

By the weeping willow in the front yard, I have a couple of Hosta’s that I would love if they could grow around the tree. That was the initial plan, however, the darn deer had other plans. They ripped them right out of the ground and left me with only two or three plants. This time around they won’t be so lucky. I took some of the mature Day Lilies and planted them around the tree. The deer do not like these so hopefully these will grow without a hitch.

By the time I did all of this the battery for the weed wacker was still not charged, so I called it a day. I will need to do the weeding on Sunday, if it’s not raining. I went in, took a nice cool shower than played pokemonGo. It was Abra community day and I got a few shiny pokemon! All right from my couch.

It’s Sunday and it is raining and cold. We received our shipment from Amazon for groceries and we are outside cleaning everything with wipes and bleach. We can not be too careful when it comes to the corona virus.
We have lunch, and, I then study for my Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification in the afternoon. I look online and there is a White Belt certification that I can take for free. I take the test for the White Belt and I pass it. I am so happy that I post it on all of my social media pages. I truly did not think I would pass it just like that. I have recently taken the course right before the corona virus hit us hard. Actually, come to think of it, we had our last class online because the college closed due to covid-19. This was my first online course. It was very strange, new and kinda cool, to have the class online. I didn’t have to commute for an hour to the college and we were able to ask questions right on the app. The only thing missing was the energy that other students give the classroom. It felt like I was in the space age. All technologically like! In the future, I may take more online courses.
But I digress. On this rainy day, I continued to study my notes and read articles online about the Yellow Belt for Lean Six Sigma. And then decided to see what it would be like to take the test for the certification. These are my findings: the test will only cost $79 dollars, covid-19 sale I think. That is better that the $500 it usually costs. I read some more and realized the system allows to take the test for three tries for up to a year. I figured, what the hell, let me sign up.
I studied some more, then took a break and had a shot of energy and happy feelings and positivity. I was on facebook and twitter and a lot of my friends and family gave me kudos for passing the test and being certified for the White Belt. I took a leap of faith, said F*ck it! And did it. I took the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt test.
It’s a 50 question, three hour, timed test all about Lean Six Sigma. Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. That is all I need to know and what it entails. I answered all of the 50 questions, took a bathroom, drink and social media break. I then went back to the test and went over all of the questions again. Changed a few answers and then, pushed complete.

Well, hell, what do you know, I did fantastic on the test and passed it. All on the first try. Who knew I would do so good? Not me LOL! Check out my certificate.

Now I’m celebrating! I give my family hugs and have coffee with some LornaDoone cookies. These things are hot commodities during quarantine! That is whey they are extra special.
These shortbread cookies are my favorite. I gave them up for lent this year. I actually gave up all sweets and these cookies included. I am now enjoying these with my other favorite…coffee!

Overall great weekend. It was a lot of work doing the gardening and all of that studying, but everything payed off.

It’s Monday, March 20th and all I want to do is sleep in this morning. I wish I could start work at 10AM so I could sleep in and be all sorts of refreshed for work. Instead, 8AM it is, with a conference call for the little one at 9AM then another conference for work at 10AM till noon. The conferences do not stop.
Today, however, I am feeling thankful. I give thanks that I am healthy, my family is healthy, and that I am able to work from home. Both my husband and myself have jobs to go to, and a paycheck at the end of the week. We have food to eat, a home with heat, and electricity. I am also thankful that my daughter has toys to play with and that we have the internet. Thank goodness for the internet! I have a job, we are entertained, we learn from videos and stay connected via video conferencing.
I am also thankful for our essential workers. Hospital workers, Grocery store workers, Police and Fire Fighters, Mail delivery people, my husband and his company for doing road construction. And, everyone else busting their hump during this pandemic.
I noticed, at the Bible Church in Center Moriches, Long Island, a sign for people to write their notes to those essential Emergency Personnel and Medical Professionals. Some people wrote their thank yous on the sign. I’m thinking, the rest of us don’t want to touch the sign nor the maker provided, in case someone who has the virus also touched it. One can never be too careful.

Tuesday was to be my work out day, instead I slept in. I still got up extra early and got in a nice cool shower, but no workout. Today, it is extra cold in the house as the day is dreary and rainy. Everything is quiet and all I can hear is the rain falling. So I put on my fuzzy sweater and get to work.

I’m loving facebook right now. I have gotten in touch with a dear friend, Andreia, that I went to elementary school with in Portugal and haven’t talked to her in a long time. I felt all of the warm fuzzy feelings inside to know all is well with her and her family. I’ve also sent a happy birthday to my cousin Paulo, as he is Switzerland, I think, at this time. I miss my cousins and my friends very much. I used to play with them when I was a child and haven’t seen them in many years.

During my lunch hour, my internet went down… How convenient for the boss. So I decided to go ahead and clean up some of the basement. We had cans of beans and water all over the place. We got them delivered through the mail. Thank you UPS people. And when they arrived we had to clean them with bleach and were placed on the other side of the basement so they would dry and have the corona virus begone from the products before placing them on our pantry area of the basement. My little one came down and wanted to help, but then she just started playing with her toys. That’s OK, I’d rather her play than pick up heavy boxes of beans, anyway. Now its all neat and we can find what we need to make for diner. Correction, my mother-in-law can now find what she need to make our dinners. She is a very good cook and she is the other chef in the house besides my husband. Yesterday, we had swordfish in a tomato type of sauce and jasmine rice, it was delicious. Tonight, we are having spaghetti with chunks of meat. As saw blocks of meat, short ribs I think, defrosting in the fridge. I’m sure it will also be delicious. I’ll start sharing my dinners.
As for me, I will eat almost anything, I just don’t like liver types and lamb. I don’t know what it is about lamb, but I do not like its aftertaste. However, if its cooked in rice or anything else. I will eat the rice but leave the meat. I know, I’m weird!
Later in the day, my baby girl came to hang out with me while I was working. All was good until she started asking a lot of questions about what I was doing, why was it raining, where do thunderstorms come from and why do we get them. Why am I still working, why am I working from home. Why do I work from this computer and not the other computer, why do I have a mouse that lights up, why am I wearing this sweater, why is that sweater that orange color, “its not Halloween mommy!” Why are you wearing shoes in your bedroom, why are you sitting on that chair. And so on and so on. Meanwhile my night stand drawer has been riffled through and all of its contents are either on the floor, on the bed or on top of the nightstand. Did a tornado just pass through my bedroom/office?! Good thing she’s so rotten cute!

Tuesday evening we went for a drive and it had been hailing in Long Beach, Long Island earlier in the day and it was coming East, over to us. This is what the sky looked like on our way to Riverhead, LI. Check out that thick cloud before it stated to hail.

Tonight’s dinner was short-ribs with spaghetti. Some parmigiana cheese on top. Yum! Check out this plate…Delicious!

Its now Wednesday and I had to get up early and get on a conference call for a new product launch at Canon. If you’re interested the new EOS RP RF24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM Lens Kit has launched today. My daughter was also on her conference call with her teacher and classmates. She shared with the class today and read out of her book to the class. She read the first page out of the book Try a Little Kindness: A Guide to Being Better by Henry Cole. It’s a really cute book that teaches kids to say thank you and please and to be kind to others. Since I was on my own conference call I missed it, sadly. Hopefully, I will be there for the next one.

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It is a cool but beautiful day outside. I’d like to share a tree with beautiful flowers that I found in a park located in East Moriches, LI. I’ve been told that this is a magnolia tree.

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Whats for dinner tonight? Chicken, mashed potatoes and some collard greens.

It’s Thursday, I have nothing to report. It’s all about the multiple conference calls and work and more work. Watching the news and 438 lives were lost yesterday in NY state due to the covid-19 virus. And so this awful pandemic continues.
Trying another order with Shipt and Amazon, both do not have times for me to order them. We are not in dire need of groceries but I would like some fruit.

In the evening, we went for our drive and I saw a very pretty garden by a church in Riverhead, LI. It had really pretty tulips around a tree and a nice statue next to the church.

And some more tulips.

This was dinner. Turkey meatballs and pasta with, of course, parmigiana cheese on top. This is why I get a little upset when I don’t get a workout in. After this pandemic I will need to give back to the economy by buying bigger clothing.

Friday came too fast. Everything has been so busy that I have no idea how the week flew by so fast. As time is flying and after my baby’s conference call with her teacher, the fire alarm started chirping. We had to figure out which one was chirping and replace that battery. Turns out, I had to replace all of the batteries to all of the fire alarms. I had to get the step ladder we have in the house for the ones in the hall and the bedrooms. The one in the living room is on a high ceiling, so I had to go to the garage, in the rain, to get the taller ladder. Meanwhile, I am missing my own conference call for work. As I was replacing the batteries we noticed there is one missing. I had to get down the ladder and get online and place an order for it. So now, my bedroom/office’s alarm keeps chirping. Is this going to be like this the entire day or even worse, days. So annoying! I’m probably going out on a whim and take the batteries out of every one of them until the replacement battery arrives. Ugggg!

Listened to the news and as of today there are, in NY State, 14,200 total hospitalizations, 1,300 new infections, and 422 lives lost yesterday due to corona virus. The number of deaths are dropping but it’s still awful news. Just learned that droplets of this virus can hang in the air for 3 hours. Holy sh*t, nobody cough!

In the afternoon we took our drive and saw a pretty house in Center Moriches, LI. I noticed that at night all of the windows have candle lights on them. I love these old houses in town. They are really pretty and very old. I must have been born in the wrong century.

We also passed by the outlets and it was absolutely deserted. It was chilling to see the parking lot empty and no people around doing their shopping. It has become a time capsule with the same advertisements for Valentines day way back in late January, early February. This isn’t the first time we’ve driven by the outlets during this pandemic. But it continues to be chilling.

Or dinner was your typical, we’re too tired to cook, Friday night dinner. Here is something quick that was made. Some fish sticks, couscous, vegetables and a tartar sauce made with mayo and relish and some other stuff that my husband whipped up. If you haven’t read my other blogs, he is the chef of the family. My mother-in-law as well. As for me, I bake, cookies and cakes. They are the stovetop people, I am the oven girl.

For our quarantine days we have learned how to make bread from scratch. This is how we make Honey Whole Wheat Bread.

My husband and mother-in-law have watched youtube videos and learned how to make yeast. We have placed orders for yeast from the local stores but they are all sold out. So we decided to take the old school rout and make our own. All it takes is a little bit of whole wheat flour and distilled water. Feed the mixture for five days by adding more flour and water and then it is ready for baking purposes.
Notice the bubbles in the picture below. These bubbles indicate that it is ready for use.

We put the ingredients together of flour, water, honey and yeast and place them in the bread making machine. Once ready, we take it out and massage it with some flour lol.

It then goes back into the bread maker for a few hours and then, voila, bread.

If you’re interested, here is the recipe. We make the 2 pound type from the recipe book and it turns out like the picture above. This recipe came with the bread making machine. It is perfect for a family of four.

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It is a cool and windy but beautiful day outside. The sun is shinning and the flowers are blooming.
I’d like to share a tree with beautiful flowers as well as an old early 1900’s house located in East Moriches, Long Island.

This was Sunday afternoon on main street during quarantine. This street is always so busy even during the week. On this day, March, 19, 2020 at 3 in the afternoon, the street is almost deserted. There is one car parked in front of the pizzeria and a few cars on the road including mine. It is very strange to see such a place so lonely.

On this quarantine Saturday we are having a great big brunch with eggs, bacon and toast.

On Sunday, we play #pokemonGo from home. It is insence day and we are playing from the couch. As for me, I am still in my jammies playing the game till the late afternoon.