The Muench Bunch

Day 16 The sun is shinning and the birds are chirping so loud in the backyard. 57 degrees and no wind, feels amazing. I took a walk down the gravel road with the dogs. I finished my painting around the door frames as I listened to church podcasts. So many good ones right now and easy to access on my phone. Jayden was frumpy all day with the realization that she may be stuck home for another 30 days. She wants to go back to OK, so bad. Jacob and Jayden went to Ames to get groceries, and to look at a motorcycle Jake wanted to purchase. Just a few short days ago, Jake sold his Honda 4 wheeler. With the money, he wanted to buy  a motorcycle. He met a seller in a parking lot in Ames, the owner took it for a spin to show Jake and he bought himself a bike. Jake was all smiles and excitement. He unloaded it out of the back of his truck and couldnt wait to take it out. It seemed so tall and big to me. They really scare me and Jake goes so fast on it.  Here are some thoughts on my mind t

What an amazing day, the sun was shinning and the weather warm and perfect. I had to make a couple trips to town to get paint and supplies for our carpenter. We finally got someone here to do some work and install a new door. It has only taken me a year of calling people to get someone to come. I had two new doors installed in the garage and had to do some painting around them. It was very relaxing and great weather to be out working. I rode horses with Jayden out along the creek and we even took our horses down in the water for a drink. I also took a bike ride with Jacob. Days like this I am so thankful to live where I do. I know some are having to stay inside in an apartment in the city in isolation. I cannot imagine. President Trump announced that we are to continue the 6 foot social distancing until the end of April. That also includes staying home and away from one another as much as possible. It was supposed to be until April 13, right after Easter. In fact, Trump had high hopes

1 month ago today, the first case of COVID 19 was confirmed in the US. Today there are over 130,000. Mark was watching a show this evening estimating up to 200,000 will die from this. New York is what they are calling the epicenter with the highest number of cases. Hospitals are swamped. They interviewed a doctor who explained how a patient will come into urgent care walking and talking and in a matter of hours they are intubated and in ICU. It is really frightening. Blake, Ali, and the kids wanted to come to the house today, and I wanted them to come too. Mark and I talked it over and decided to play it safe and have them stay put. It was sad and I felt bad. I havent seen the kids in awhile and I know it will be much longer before we will see them again. I think this thing will continue to get worse before it can get better. Today we watched church from our living room. We rode all 6 horses in the afternoon, got all of them out, brushed them all, rode them all, and roped the dummy.

I haven't checked the numbers in a few days and today I looked it up. Numbers are rising and the US is now over 97,000 cases. As we try to carry on as normal as possible in our lives with all things shut down, today we celebrated Karen's birthday. We have been cautious with our parents. The older and elderly are the most susceptible with this virus. Apparently it doesnt even affect children. We certainly don't want to get the virus and be a carrier without even knowing it and spread something to our parents. We have been cautious. Karen and Orrie felt confortable about coming to our house, so we had dinner and cake. Jayden made the most amazing cake ever!! She baked a yellow cake using two round cakes. She watched a you tube video that taught her as she went. She leveled the round cakes and filled the middle with frosting. She made her own powdered sugar adding crushed strawberries and a little strawberry jelly. It was the best frosting and the combination with cake was m

3/27/20 Mark wanted to take me out on a date. I gave him a strange look and wondered how that would work with the world in quarantine when no restaurants were open. We went to Jefferson, got a few groceries at Hy-Vee, then went to a BBQ restaurant, ordered take out, and drove to Spring Lake. It was a rainy drizzly night, but we still sat at the park near the lake and ate our meal and chatted. In times like this, that date was an outing, and special. I am thankful we have each other and can still spend time together. As parents you have to carve out time just for the two of you without distractions. The grocery store didn't feel too unusual. I have heard so many stories of the extremes some places are going to. Jayden got Chinese food earlier and the restaurant had the entire front desk and counter draped in bio hazard covers, with a tiny space open for the cash register. Jake went to Casey's one day to find red tape on the floor where you have to stand while paying. When you s

Random thoughts about COVID I wonder what they will call the generation of baby boomers that will be born in about 9 months, the COVID boomers? There are many parents out there that haven't had to parent, haven't had to discipline, teach, feed, and train their children and are now home 24/7 with kids. Parents are used to leaving for work and sending their kids to school or day care. Now many are home with their kids all day. Now they get to really be parents. It will be wake up call for them, and some are trying to homeschool for the first time. I fear for broken homes with chaos, abuse, lack of food, and mental illnesses. I am sure their will be a rise in alcohol, drugs, and suicides. Marriages will either become stronger, and for some, divorce.  So many will lose jobs, lose income, and lose many things because of this. The virus itself won't be near as damaging as all the things that will happen as a result of the time in isolation. If we shut ourselves in our homes, how

We had morning school then took the truck to Boone. It was interesting to walk into the local Auto dealer's office to find 6 office employees without masks or any sign of COVID precautions. They were not social distancing and life felt normal. Just a few blocks away in another store, they are wearing masks, gloves, and have sheets of plastic covering the counter and cash register. It is so strange. I prefer to carry on my life as normal and not feel like some highly contagious alien walking into a research lab. I saw posts online where people were painting their windows for Easter. My mom had Alivia paint her front window and I thought it turned out great. I taped up our window and had each of the kids paint a color. I thought it turned out nice too. It is suggested that gatherings are less than 10 people. Well, we are still going to hold our arena ropings as long as our locals want to keep coming. I think everyone was so happy we were still having them. It gets people out and g

Our day started with school in the morning, sanding base boards in the afternoon at the fancy house again. Jayden and I watched some afternoon shows and took it easy. She sleeps a lot since coming home. I think she has taken a nap everyday since she has been back. Mark took Luke with him to physical therapy. Jake worked on his car at Nate's again. Many are taking the isolation so serisou and won't leave there homes for any reason. People are ordering groceries online and having the delivered to their car. Some even wipe down every grocery item with clorox bleach wipes and rebaggage items into their own ziploc bags. I really don't feel it is all that necessary. If you are smart about it, wash your hands and don't get in someones face if they are coughing and seezing, I really don't feel it is as serious as they make it out to be. It was upper 50's with sunshine so we were outside later in the day. I took a walk with Jayden and Jake. Jake cleaned out his chicken

After morning school, Jayden and I ran some errands. It was nice to get out and go to town. After a week home, I missed my trips to Ames. Jayden and I noticed as we drove into town, we saw people walking dogs, riding bikes and 4 wheelers, playing catch, raking, and we even saw people fishing at a pond. It was great to see people outside enjoying the great outdoors. It wasnt even that warm, upper 40's, but with everything shut down, it's drawing people outside. I have always found it so sad on a beautiful day not to see people outside. Kids are usually indoors playing video games or watching movies. In Ames, I had to pick up a prescription and took advantage of shopping and cruised through the whole store. Jayden had Grammer's shopping list and I had mine. The store was dark, quiet, and almost empty. Only a few shoppers here and there. It was kind of eerie and I sure didn't like it. You can sure tell people are fearful. We went through Chik Fil A drive thru and splurged

Jayden and I made brunch, she fixed egg and bacon on English muffin sandwiches, and I made ebelskivers. Aunt Alice used to make the danish ebelskivers and I recently acquired one of her pans. She made them for the kids when they would stay at her house. Jayden told me she would put apple butter in them and roll them in cinnamon and sugar after they were done. I tried my best to make them like Alice.I thought they were yummy! We watched two church services from our living room. One was Cornerstone church and the other Stonebridge. The good thing about church in your living room, you can sit, lay, or do yoga while listening. I did yoga. I have not listened to the news for 3 days now. I look up one update a day on my phone for COVID updates, then forget it. It keeps me from becoming fearful and anxious. I have been in a pretty good mood, considering all that is happening. Mark and Jayden rode horses in the arena. Today was only 37 degrees. I saw this photo on FB and thought it was a jo

 In the morning Linda, Libby, Maggie, and the Ferrari girls, along with Cheryl H and Grammer met at the shop to make chocolate candies. The candies will be for Jossie's wedding. We all gathered to make the candies without much worry of the coronavirus. Jossie already has had to postpone one shower and fears other will be cancelled too. This could even affect her wedding day in June. She is hopeful, but very concerned. We made so many candies, steers, flowers, and the most favorite chocolate pecan turtles. We made several hundred. We had our 3rd roping practice of the week, this time using only the hot heels. When all are gathered, we have right around 10 ropers. I rode Ace and did a little roping at a trot. I seem to catch the same every time, always the right horn. Mark and Jayden rope really well. It will be fun someday if they can team rope together. I think that would be a dream come true for Mark. Rylie spent the day at our house. The boys were supposed to go look at a dirt

I decided to take each day to call one friend. Phone calls have become rare with social media. People text, snapchat, email, and send FB messengers. Phone calls aren't very common, but I sure enjoy talking and hearing my friends voice. So, for the future of COVID isolation, I will stay in touch with friends. I need that social interaction and I want to use that time to uplift and be encouraging to a friend. We had morning school and lunch. Jake went to work on his Oldsmobile with the mechanic. He was on cloud nine with excitement. By the end of the day, the whole engine was out of his car. As they worked on the car and assessed all that needed repairs, it was decided he needed of an engine. Jake was just enjoying working in the shop with "the guys", Nate and Butters. Luke, Jayden and I worked more on the fancy house, sanding over base boards. In the afternoon, Jayden and I did some painting. We each came up with an idea and painted our canvas. I have always found paint

I have decided to call Monday March 16th day 1 of social distancing. That is the day when the announcement was made to no longer be out in groups larger than 10. "Social distancing" is a new word, a foreign word we have never used or heard. It means to keep your distance when socializing. The recommendation is not to get closer than 6 feet of those around you. Crazy right?!? Today is Thursday, day 4. We haven't really been isolated at all and I dread when we really are. Last night we had roping practice in our arena. We also had the cousins Jaynie and Rylie come hang out with our kids. I told them they were welcome to come as often as they like and stay as long as they like. Luke was still at Wade's and his family went to Des Moines. We are not social distancing or staying home and it feels good. At the same time so many are hiding out in their homes scared to death to leave. The latest  announcement was ISU, UNI, and U of I have decided to go to online classes for

A week ago I had planned a girls outing with Jaydem, the Grandma's and myself. We would get hair done, nails done, lunch , and shop. With the virus, things are changing everyday. Jayden and I decided we would go and get our haircuts, lunch, groceries and head home. We arrived at the mall to find it was closed, they had moved to later and shorter hours. Some stores were closed indefinitely. Our hair salon was open, so we went and got a hair cuts... we were the only two clients. Next it was time for lunch, we made a couple phone calls because we heard rumors of restaurants not allowing dining. Sure enough, the restaurants have gone to all carry out or drive through only.  We got carry out from El Azteca and had to sit in the car to eat it. We certainly were social distancing. Next we went to Fareway and bought some groceries. We didn't have too many troubles there, most things were available. The toilet paper isle was empty and rumor is as soon as it is stocked, it's wiped ou

Where to begin! Each day there are new updates, new restrictions, and new cases. Fear, anxiety, panic, hysteria. These are some of the words that describe the general public. I am not there yet, and hope I do not get to that point. It doesn't seem a threat or a concern because we are not in a high risk area of the virus and I dont think getting the virus will be too serious. What I do worry about is getting it or having it without knowing and spreading it to my parents, our parents, the older folks. For some reason, the virus does not affect children or the younger, only the older and elderly. They are the ones who have to be the most careful. For that reason, we are all taking pre-cautions. On Sunday we were asked to attend Stratford church to support Pastor Jim Mead, who was back and voted in. Mark's parents and sisters and families all attended. I had heard that morning that Cornerstone church had cancelled their church service. That was a big surprise to me. Stonebridge w

Jayden took Wes to compete in her first spring college rodeo. The plan was to take Wes to Fort Scott for the rodeo, then head home to Iowa for Spring Break. The rodeo would break up the long trip home. Overnight changes were made because of the Coronavirus. Jayden learned of the 3 week break, one week spring break, 2 weeks online classes. That changed her plan and after she competed, she drove back to Fort Scott all alone, driving late in the night, in the dark, and on county roads in the middle of nowhere. I hate when she does that and I spend most of the night praying and trying not to be a worrier. First she drove 5 hours with a giant truck and trailer and horse rolling in close to 11PM and sleeping in a cold trailer. She couldn't get the heat to work. Luke and I had were originally going to drive out to watch and stay with her in the trailer. We decided not to last minute.  Friday morning she was up in slack with Wes. She said the alley was dark going in and many horses had tr

I think each day we will be seeing more breaking news with this virus. It is media overreacting, is it political, is it a conspiracy, or it it really such an awful virus all this is totally necessary? Only time will tell. It has officially impacted our lives reaching close to home. On Wed, we got the email that Jake's Spring Break trip to Pine Ridge reservation was cancelled. The kids planned to leave early Sunday morning to spend a week on the reservation. The kids do service projects each day, have a teen night meal and activities with the natives, and stay on site. All travel in and out has been banned onto the reservation. Jake was really looking farward to going and said it was one of the highlights of his year last year. The kids had gone through training and were prepared. We had gotten his things ready to pack his bags. It was something he was really excited about. Here are the latest happenings. 1)  Drake, University of Iowa, and Iowa state University have moved to onli

The coronavirus has come into our homeland and it has become real. The virus is spreading and making its way across the country. It is affecting all, it affects, male or female, all races, the rich and poor, all countries, all ages, all people. If you are young, you may get it and never know as there are no symptoms in children or those younger. It is the eldery, immune deficient, and unhealthy that it hits hardest. It's here in Iowa, somewhere around 7 confirmed cases. Countries that have had it for a few weeks are taking serious precautions and I feel this is what is to come for us. Events, concerts, sports competitions, and even schools are cancelling, closed, and shut down. People are supposed to stay in and stay home.  Spring break is next week. People travel, that is a fact. That just sounds like more sharing and spreading of germs. There are rumors and talk that college's may close and go to online classes only. That is mind blowing! A college in Grinell, Iowa has alrea

Right after Christmas while everyone was still on break, we started riding and roping as often as we could. It was nice to rope while Jayden was still back on break. She got to enjoy it for a couple weeks before heading south. We lined up weekly and sometimes bi-weekly ropings all winter into spring until planting. We had a neighbor bring a dozen steers and invited a few of our roping freinds. occasionaly we roped the hot heels. Nick and his son Harry would rope, CJ, Tucker, and sometimes Cash and Tony. It was a nice size group and good people to be around. Luke was the number one chute helper. He liked to run the cattle through the alley and into the chutes. He was such a hand, he even leveled the ground by hand with a rake. We also had Latte who came out for every roping. The one and only cat that will ride on the back of your saddle if you let him. Jake helped once in awhile and would help warm up Tex for Mark.  

Luke and I seem to have frequent disagreements and arguments. He is strong willed about his matter of fact ways and doesn't like to be told no. Mark rarely ever tells him no. Luke has never eaten very good at all. He doesn't eat much in the way of fruits and vegetables, ever. He is great at pulling out a snack such as potato chips about an hour before lunch or a meal. He eats very little at meal time. Because we are out and about so much, he feels it is standard routine to stop at a convince store anytime he wants to get a soda or chocolate milk along with a donut, cookie, pizza slice, or candy. He learned this from his father, who does stop at a convenient store whenever out and about. Because I often tell him no, I am the bad guy. I am the mean mom and he frumps. I have explained many times to the kids that when we eat at a restaurant, it is best to order water. One reason, soda is just full of sugar and unhealthy, and two, restaurants over charge for a soda, $2.50 to $3.00.

I first heard about the Corona virus in China the end of January. There was a virus that hit China hard and was spreading and causing deaths. China was on lock down. We saw people wearing masks when we flew to Cozumel. We heard about a cruise ship with thousands of passengers that were being quarantined for weeks because of it. It had not been in the US yet. Then a few cases were reported that were tied to travelers. They were quarantined and closely watched. Then a few cases in Washington that had no contact or travel so it was starting to spread in the community. Each day the reports get a little more concerning and a little closer to home. ISU and Uof I and I am sure more will follow,  are pulling students home from study abroad international programs. Today the reports came that there were cases now in California. Today I got an email from the high school,  planning and preparing for future changes. I am sure it is a matter of time before it spreads further. There is much discussio

In Feb we celebrated Ali's birthday and took her out to eat at Second Street Emporium in Webster City. The Emporium has been family owned for many years and I have enjoyed a few special occasions there. Ali ordered big and had lots to eat. They brought her a cake and sang too.   March 2,Wade and I had a birthday dinner at Hickory Park with Mom and Dad and our families. We had the usual free ice cream treats and serenading. My parents gave me money to buy a new outfit in Florida! On my birthday Jake surprised me with a homeade card. It was so touching it made me cry. He is a very thoughtful and a considerate young man. He made, decorated, added a photo, and wrote the sweetest message. I will cherish it.  Jayden called to wish me happy birthday and posted a few photos and kind words on social media, very common for her generation. Luke, picked out a card with the help of dad and handed it to me. He gave it to me two days after  my birthday without the envelope and did not sign it.

Jake has really grown a lot this year. He has changed, deeper voice, taller, and more muscular. Last fall he started lifting dumbbells in his room at night. He has figured out several ways to use those weights to do different forms of lifting. He also takes Krav class with me and has really gotten muscular, or as some would say, "buff". On top of all that, the kid eats like two grown men. He can out eat his own dad. His metabolism is through the roof right now and he seems to be eating all the time. At 5'9 and 153lbs, he is in great shape and eats and eats. We can go to a restaurant and he eats every bit of his food and an hour or two later he is hungry for more. He is eating us out of the house!