Beauty in the Mundane- Volume 2

This week has been miserable. Southern Oregon is basically one giant forest fire--there are currently 5 major fires burning, which totals about 40,000 acres. At this point, I don't think any fire is more than 15% contained. Most of the fires are one county over, and while that county has declared a state of emergency, our house is relatively removed from the actual fires. That doesn't mean that it is removed from the smoke.

The whole valley looks like this. For real. It is awful. The smoke is so thick that the helicopters used in fighting the forest fires can't even take off. The air quality in all of the cities in Southern Oregon has been deemed as reaching dangerous and unhealthy levels. Eve driving to the grocery store yesterday was miserable, and even when we got there, the inside of the store was nearly as smokey as the outside. Even now that we've been home for almost 24 hours, it still feels like there's a thin layer of smoke even inside our house. I can't imagine what the firefighters on the front lines are dealing with. Or what people who work outside for a living are dealing with--I've been thinking about them near constantly, because while I know things are hard and uncomfortable for us, it's even worse for them. I'm so thankful for all they do. 

Needless to say, basically everyone has been home-bound. Inside. All day. Every day. No parks, no library, no trips to Target just to browse. We're all going a bit stir crazy. So yesterday, in need of something different, I made a small fort in the living room. Lizzy was thrilled. (Poor ISO setting on that last one, but I love it all the same)