Well, this is getting more somber. My sister called and said that one of her husband's teammates at work passed away from coronavirus. We were sad for them, and also a little hit by the closeness of it. He wasn't old or frail, just like the high school teacher in our county who passed away. We feel more of a desire to do what we can to stop this spread.
The state government announced a stay-at-home order starting at 8pm tonight. It was a lovely day, and we wanted to go on a hike or do something before it was too late. We threw out (figuratively) our homework. Lige was planning a field trip for Thursday to go on a hike and cook dinner on the camp stove, and he wanted to do that. We looked around for something we could cook on a camp stove with no preparation and found some pulled pork in the freezer. We threw that and a loaf of bread in a bag. Toss in some side dishes and some plates. Jump in the car. Run back for water and the fuel canister for the camp stove. (Phew!!) We drove to Prince William National Forest to try some hiking there. Unfortunately, my GPS couldn't handle us taking the I-95 express lanes, so we had to pull over and fix the map....then the map took us to the RV campground, not the hiking entrance...and we got to the forest much later than we wanted to be eating. And we pulled up to the entrance to find about a million people parked on the road. We would have just gone home or something, except we were hungry and we had to cook lunch on the camp stove before we could eat! We drove around and looked for somewhere to picnic, but it was all crowded or closed. Finally, we found a park that said it was closed except for trail use. We uh, "hiked" to a pavilion and had lunch. If a ranger had challenged us, we would have told the whole sob story and begged to be able to eat, because we were all alone and we just needed a place to eat!
We planned to hike after lunch, but it took us so long to find a place, and Jane kept tripping and skinning her knee, and we just gave up and "hiked" back to the car. So much for our adventures in NoVa.
But on the way home, we were very clever and stopped at the grocery store in VA. Since MD had issued the stay at home order, we were sure the grocery stores would be a mad house. I was shocked that Aldi in Dumfries, VA was insane, too! I left the kids in the car while I went in. THe line was half an hour long after I got my stuff, so they chilled in the car a LONG time. I bought chocolate to reward. They earned it. They didn't fight at all. Aldi had limits on how much of all sorts of things you could buy, including a limit of 2 milk. I knew that if I got 4 gallons of milk, I could avoid the store for a whole week. So I went to the front and begged. And the checker reluctantly let it go. But when I got out to the parking lot, the kids were helping me load the groceries, and somehow, having 4 gallons of milk kept coming up loudly. "Shhhh, don't talk about the milk!" I'd whisper. Then the loud response, "Why can't we talk about having 4 gallons of milk, Mom?" Gah! I was afraid I was going to start a riot. But we didn't, and we got home with our contraband in safety :)
When we got home, we learned that Virginia had issued a stay-at-home order about an hour after Maryland had, so that's why the grocery store there was packed. It was a great idea we had, too bad the governor didn't cooperate :)
We had another interesting development this week. As you know, the last two weeks have been school at home, with the teachers still giving work. Our kids have been doing very well on their home school schedule. This week, I expected the teachers to pick up right where they left off, and school to continue much the same. I was wrong! The school is planning to use this week to get grades entered from the last few weeks, and deliver chromebooks to kids who need them. In other words, "get your ducks in a row" week. Next week is spring break. Why we want spring break, I don't know. But I guess the teachers still want a break. Then the week after that, we're starting school up again. So we have an unexpected 2-week lull now. We had to re-do the whole schedule! Here's what we came up with this morning, and we'll see how it goes:
9-11am: Stuff with the family. Service or chores or house projects, or whatever. (Cough...deep cleaning...) Today, we went and picked up litter at the school, because I wanted to get out of the house.
11-3pm: Do your individual stuff, whatever homework you still have or things you want to work on. You can watch some of the cool stuff being posted online. You can practice the piano or violin more (nudge, nudge). You can play. Whatever.
3pm: EXERCISE!
4pm: Free time! aka computer time :)
We'll see if we're still friends at the end of spring break :) Ha ha.
Oh, I forgot to tell about church this week! A family with young kids hosted it, and it was a different and fun flavor. We sang primary songs. We had stories from the Friend. And some wonderful talks for the grown-ups. But it was really fun for the little kids to have a less-boring church service :) The only annoying thing was that the broadcast was shut down again by YouTube. We're quite confident now that the music is what's triggering it. The family hosting it switched over to Facebook to finish up. But seriously, the Bots in charge of YouTube right now are trigger happy. We're planning a family concert this week, and we practiced last week with YouTube live. We were shut down when Lillian and Lige played a duet. I mean, I'm glad they sound so professional, but umm....
In the evening, we had a testimony meeting. Since it was fast sunday, we thought it would be nice to give people a chance to share their feelings. Especially with so much going on. We invited Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Rosie and Uncle Curtis, and Aunt Nicole. It was so great! I wish we could do testimony meetings like that all the time!
Well, my time to write is up. Better get back to work!
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
In which I give up on trying to remember what day it is...
Yeah, so much for counting days. What's new around here?
We decided to get social tonight. My kids were a little lukewarm on the idea, but I helped them think of some friends they could invite, and we set up a Zoom party. They've got 3 friends playing Psyche with them, and they seem to be having fun doing something. We'll have to ask them after they're done if it's more fun to play a game together or to just call and talk to someone on the phone. But it's good for them to see someone other than their siblings.
My big struggle of the day is feeling bad for my friends in the Philippines. I think I told you about this a few days ago. They are on lockdown - more strict than ours - but since they don't have internet in most homes, they don't have school of any sort. They're just in the 1 bedroom house with no yard with their kids and no internet all day. Gosh, it sounds tough!
So we thought it would be fun to mail them a game to play! I wrote to my friends and got their addresses. Then I went to Amazon to order, and nothing was available to ship to the Philippines. After some investigation, I figured out...there's no postal service right now. Nothing can be delivered.
I was so disappointed! I already told my friends I wanted to send them something, now we were all going to be disappointed. I literally spent all day trying to figure out a way to get something to them.
Anyone who knows me knows how much I struggle with the inequality between our lives. Why is it fair that I live in a big house with lots of nice stuff, a nice yard, fabulous internet, wonderful schools, beautiful roads and no giant scary cockroaches and spiders? (Ok, fine, they have mangoes and coconuts...which cancels out the cockroaches and spiders.) I'm no smarter, better or more righteous than they are. There's no reason that I should get an easier life than they do. And yet, every day, when I make choices that are ridiculously normal to the people around me, there's a part in the back of my brain that recognizes how morbidly extravagant that is compared to my friends who are just trying to get by. And I have no power to change the situation. But every once in a while, I try to overcome the difficulties of sending things halfway around the world, and at least help out someone stuck in their house for a month with no internet. So I do feel really bad that my effort was foiled.
Anyway, sa mga kaibigan sa Manila, mahal ko kayo. I'm sorry mahirap ang buhay ngayon.
As I was messaging some friends today, one of my friends was online, and we ended up chatting for a bit by video. It was so fun! But seriously, weird to be talking to someone out loud in Tagalog. Whenever I got a word that I struggled with, guess what - my hands started drawing what I was trying to say. That didn't do any good. I used to use all the words that you use in Tagalog when you don't know the word you want. I've lost the habit, and have put in hand gestures in that part of my brain. So after I got done with the phone call, I mentally practiced saying "kuwan" and "mag-ano" - I'll be ready next time. Grabe, I need more Tagalog practice!
On to less brooding thoughts, it rained yesterday for the first time since we've been stuck at home. This interrupted our exercise plans. So instead of going to play tennis, we stayed inside and did Just Dance on YouTube. I enjoyed myself, but SOME of my kids have a B.A. (Bad Attitude) about dancing. I should have made them go out and play basketball if they didn't want to be in with us. Today was lovely weather, but I realized we couldn't all go to play tennis. We have 4 rackets, and the other kids go play on the playground. But since Jane had a fever, we can't play on the playground. So I stayed home and did Just Dance with the two little kids while the 4 older kids went and played tennis (without touching ANYTHING.) It worked.
For FHE last night, we had some lemons that we made into lemonade. The idea was that life had handed us something unexpected and somewhat less desirable than some other options...but with some work, we could still make something nice with it. And I'll tell you what - fresh lemonade tastes better. Somewhat ironically, we also had Baked Alaska for dessert - Lillian had been working for several days to make one, and it didn't make any sense to put it off. So we had lemonade and Baked Alaska. And it was fabulous :) We did note that with all this staying at home, we generate a LOT more dishes. Not only because everyone is home, but because if you don't have anything else to do, you might as well do some baking! Fortunately, we're exercising, so we have some room for those extra calories!!
We decided to get social tonight. My kids were a little lukewarm on the idea, but I helped them think of some friends they could invite, and we set up a Zoom party. They've got 3 friends playing Psyche with them, and they seem to be having fun doing something. We'll have to ask them after they're done if it's more fun to play a game together or to just call and talk to someone on the phone. But it's good for them to see someone other than their siblings.
My big struggle of the day is feeling bad for my friends in the Philippines. I think I told you about this a few days ago. They are on lockdown - more strict than ours - but since they don't have internet in most homes, they don't have school of any sort. They're just in the 1 bedroom house with no yard with their kids and no internet all day. Gosh, it sounds tough!
So we thought it would be fun to mail them a game to play! I wrote to my friends and got their addresses. Then I went to Amazon to order, and nothing was available to ship to the Philippines. After some investigation, I figured out...there's no postal service right now. Nothing can be delivered.
I was so disappointed! I already told my friends I wanted to send them something, now we were all going to be disappointed. I literally spent all day trying to figure out a way to get something to them.
Anyone who knows me knows how much I struggle with the inequality between our lives. Why is it fair that I live in a big house with lots of nice stuff, a nice yard, fabulous internet, wonderful schools, beautiful roads and no giant scary cockroaches and spiders? (Ok, fine, they have mangoes and coconuts...which cancels out the cockroaches and spiders.) I'm no smarter, better or more righteous than they are. There's no reason that I should get an easier life than they do. And yet, every day, when I make choices that are ridiculously normal to the people around me, there's a part in the back of my brain that recognizes how morbidly extravagant that is compared to my friends who are just trying to get by. And I have no power to change the situation. But every once in a while, I try to overcome the difficulties of sending things halfway around the world, and at least help out someone stuck in their house for a month with no internet. So I do feel really bad that my effort was foiled.
Anyway, sa mga kaibigan sa Manila, mahal ko kayo. I'm sorry mahirap ang buhay ngayon.
As I was messaging some friends today, one of my friends was online, and we ended up chatting for a bit by video. It was so fun! But seriously, weird to be talking to someone out loud in Tagalog. Whenever I got a word that I struggled with, guess what - my hands started drawing what I was trying to say. That didn't do any good. I used to use all the words that you use in Tagalog when you don't know the word you want. I've lost the habit, and have put in hand gestures in that part of my brain. So after I got done with the phone call, I mentally practiced saying "kuwan" and "mag-ano" - I'll be ready next time. Grabe, I need more Tagalog practice!
On to less brooding thoughts, it rained yesterday for the first time since we've been stuck at home. This interrupted our exercise plans. So instead of going to play tennis, we stayed inside and did Just Dance on YouTube. I enjoyed myself, but SOME of my kids have a B.A. (Bad Attitude) about dancing. I should have made them go out and play basketball if they didn't want to be in with us. Today was lovely weather, but I realized we couldn't all go to play tennis. We have 4 rackets, and the other kids go play on the playground. But since Jane had a fever, we can't play on the playground. So I stayed home and did Just Dance with the two little kids while the 4 older kids went and played tennis (without touching ANYTHING.) It worked.
For FHE last night, we had some lemons that we made into lemonade. The idea was that life had handed us something unexpected and somewhat less desirable than some other options...but with some work, we could still make something nice with it. And I'll tell you what - fresh lemonade tastes better. Somewhat ironically, we also had Baked Alaska for dessert - Lillian had been working for several days to make one, and it didn't make any sense to put it off. So we had lemonade and Baked Alaska. And it was fabulous :) We did note that with all this staying at home, we generate a LOT more dishes. Not only because everyone is home, but because if you don't have anything else to do, you might as well do some baking! Fortunately, we're exercising, so we have some room for those extra calories!!
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Day 8: A plot twist...
Yesterday afternoon, Jane woke up from her nap with a fever! Yikes!
My first reaction was...anger. We've been home and avoiding everyone for a week, and someone STILL gets sick?!? Now that just ain't fair.
But once I cooled off :) :) ..... We remind ourselves that this is probably NOT coronavirus. We don't need to worry. But, since we can't get a test....(frustration starts to rise at how ridiculous that is...then shove it aside again with a few calming breaths...) we'll just have to assume we're contagious and full-on quarantine for 2 weeks.
So we called our neighbor and let her know one of the kids was sick, and we couldn't go jump on the tramp with them any more. We looked at our food supplies to make sure we were good for a couple weeks. We didn't sign up to volunteer at our church food distribution for needy people on Saturday. We ended thoughts of going to visit any friends we wanted to reach out to. And we even ended thoughts of going for walks in the park or playing tennis.
I've realized that I have a few stress-soothing go-to's:
- Eating
- Buying something
- Set up something fun with a friend.
Since I don't want to get fat, or poor, and I can't get together with any friends right now, this is a great opportunity to develop some new stress-reduction strategies :) I'm glad we started exercising. Even though my legs are STILL SORE!
Ok, actually, we're thinking of buying something to help us feel better :) We're thinking of subscribing to a Zoom pro membership, so we can become virtual-party central :)
That would help me feel better! :)
Today is Saturday. We decided to give the kids a day off from structure and just let them do whatever they want. They're loving having a day off. Which is a really funny thing to stay from people who barely remember what day of the week it is.
But before they got the day off, we had to clean the house - it gets messier when 8 people spend all day here, instead of 3. And then we did our first ever house disinfecting. We mixed bleach and water in a spray bottle according to the CDC recipe. We sprayed every surface we could think of, waited 10 minutes, then everyone went around and wiped them off. It wasn't too bad. One does always wonder if it does any good - nothing looks different! - but we're trying to do our part around here.
Jane was already starting to act better by bed time last night, and when I checked her before I went to bed at 10, she didn't have a fever any more. That was the stinkin' fastest fever I ever saw! She woke up very chipper today. And I'm not so glum about being quarantined for 2 weeks. I'll call Jane's dr. on Monday and make sure she doesn't need a test or anything. But otherwise, we'll just move forward with our virtual lives!
Marriner and I had a fun date night last night - we went on a virtual tour of the Brittish Museum, thanks to someone who made a list of museums with online tours and posted it on FB at the beginning of the shutdown. It was pretty fun. Then we "walked" around the Musee D'Orsay for a bit. They have some nice art. :)
A friend from Manila asked me how I was doing yesterday. I told her how we were doing well, and the kids were staying busy with school work. In the Philippines, they don't yet have internet in most homes, so they are in the same boat as we are, but WITHOUT INTERNET. Just think on that one for a minute. What a blessing that we have internet.
Friday, March 20, 2020
COVID-19 Day 6-7: Behavior challenges
I think the honeymoon is over, the kids are (very understandably) having a little less fun than they were before. It's Friday morning. The weather is beautiful.They would really rather not be stuck inside doing school work or having structure.
Yesterday, we told the kids they needed to do their weekly chore (cleaning a bathroom, mopping a floor, cleaning the car...they all have an assignment.) At the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and dirty from playing basketball, gaga, and jumping on the neighbor's trampoline...but interestingly, nobody'd found time to do their chore. Hmm... Today, a lot of other little means of pushing the limits are going on. My kids all think I'm mean. I think there's no way they act like this at school.
Yes. Very predictable. But still, it has to be passed with every transition. Or, we could just not pass it and give in to chaos and unhealthy living...but somehow, that's just not my style :)
The Met Opera is streaming broadcasts that you used to have to pay $15 to watch in a theater. They put it up at 7:30, and it's there until 3:30 the next day. For some reason, last night I decided to start La Traviata, which is (ack) 3 hours long. It's 11:30am and I'm halfway through now...not sure I'm going to make it. Lillian and Ellis are enjoying the show, but understandably find the genre a little...weird... It's an acquired taste. The plot holes are tough to swallow. Oh well. :) Next week, they're showing all Wagner, and ain't nobody got time for that much opera, so at least I don't have to worry about getting sucked into any more for a while. But if Tosca or Marriage of Figaro comes up the week after that, we might be in trouble.
And there's a Josh Groban concert on FB today at 4pm, and Brad Paisley was yesterday, and....I guess lots of people without kids have free time to stop and enjoy this stuff, but I'm just missing it all. Which is exactly how life is. You just take the opportunities you can fit in your time, and let the others pass.
We made Marriner a cute little sign to put on our bedroom door (his office is in there) that says "on the phone" so that we won't barge in and interrupt his conversations. He laughed when we gave it to him, but it's been useful - he's on the phone a lot right now! Who would have guessed?
I decided Sam needs more than 30 min of school a day, for his sanity and mine. So we looked at a bunch of the opportunities he has available right now and picked some for him to work on. He picked art (Lunchtime doodles with Mo Willems), typing (Dance Mat typing games) and computer programming (Khan academy). It's been a better day for him so far.
But I did have one exciting thing happen! I got a voucher from the airline for our canceled trip to Paris for the price of the ticket, so I hope we can reschedule our trip! If my parents don't go back to France, maybe we can visit my sister in London? Or maybe we'll all still be stuck in our homes until school starts...but I'm not going there, so for now, I'll just dream of seeing Europe!!
Yesterday, we told the kids they needed to do their weekly chore (cleaning a bathroom, mopping a floor, cleaning the car...they all have an assignment.) At the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and dirty from playing basketball, gaga, and jumping on the neighbor's trampoline...but interestingly, nobody'd found time to do their chore. Hmm... Today, a lot of other little means of pushing the limits are going on. My kids all think I'm mean. I think there's no way they act like this at school.
Yes. Very predictable. But still, it has to be passed with every transition. Or, we could just not pass it and give in to chaos and unhealthy living...but somehow, that's just not my style :)
The Met Opera is streaming broadcasts that you used to have to pay $15 to watch in a theater. They put it up at 7:30, and it's there until 3:30 the next day. For some reason, last night I decided to start La Traviata, which is (ack) 3 hours long. It's 11:30am and I'm halfway through now...not sure I'm going to make it. Lillian and Ellis are enjoying the show, but understandably find the genre a little...weird... It's an acquired taste. The plot holes are tough to swallow. Oh well. :) Next week, they're showing all Wagner, and ain't nobody got time for that much opera, so at least I don't have to worry about getting sucked into any more for a while. But if Tosca or Marriage of Figaro comes up the week after that, we might be in trouble.
And there's a Josh Groban concert on FB today at 4pm, and Brad Paisley was yesterday, and....I guess lots of people without kids have free time to stop and enjoy this stuff, but I'm just missing it all. Which is exactly how life is. You just take the opportunities you can fit in your time, and let the others pass.
We made Marriner a cute little sign to put on our bedroom door (his office is in there) that says "on the phone" so that we won't barge in and interrupt his conversations. He laughed when we gave it to him, but it's been useful - he's on the phone a lot right now! Who would have guessed?
I decided Sam needs more than 30 min of school a day, for his sanity and mine. So we looked at a bunch of the opportunities he has available right now and picked some for him to work on. He picked art (Lunchtime doodles with Mo Willems), typing (Dance Mat typing games) and computer programming (Khan academy). It's been a better day for him so far.
But I did have one exciting thing happen! I got a voucher from the airline for our canceled trip to Paris for the price of the ticket, so I hope we can reschedule our trip! If my parents don't go back to France, maybe we can visit my sister in London? Or maybe we'll all still be stuck in our homes until school starts...but I'm not going there, so for now, I'll just dream of seeing Europe!!
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
COVID_19 Day 5: Oh yeah, I need to do things, too...
Today was Marriner's first day home from the office, but he did have to go up to work anyway - someone in the lab left his laptop charger, and Marriner is on the short list of people who can still get into the office, because he had an experiment running at the time of shut-down. So he went and got his friend's charger for him. Then he Fed-ex'd it to him over night for $8, instead of 3-day, which was $35. FedEx is weird.
Kids still put in a full day of work at home, but some of them are starting to get through their work for the week, and I think we'll have some more down time toward the weekend. I've spent most of the week helping everyone else get the things they need taken care of, and sometime this evening I realized that I was spending a lot of time of Facebook because, you know, that's the easiest thing to do when you might get interrupted any moment. And there are a lot of funny jokes right now, and even a lot of good ideas... But, it's time to get off Facebook and get some work done! So I went out and worked in the garden. Got one whole flower bed cut back and ready for the spring. Also took some skin off the back of my thumb, and now I have a bandaid there, which makes it hard to wash hands a lot. Stupid virus.
After gardening, we went to the school yard and played kickball for our exercise time. We played with one person pitching and everyone else rotating to kick. If you weren't kicking, you were in the outfield. A funny play was after Jane and Sam had drifted off to the playground, my turn to kick came up with loaded bases...and there was nobody in the field except Martha, who was pitching. It looked like a guaranteed home run. But Lige stopped on 3rd base and kept me from running in until Martha had the ball back, so I only got a tripple. Well played, Lige. :)
Sam is still having a blast playing chess with Grandpa. We invited an uncle who is quarantined to play with us, but claimed he was no good at chess. He doesn't know what he's missing :)
After dinner, we watched funny spoof videos with the kids. There are a lot of them right now! Then we did some karaoke before the Branch youth activity.
Yes! We had a Branch youth activity! We found a game you can play online together, coupled with a Zoom meeting to be able to talk to one another. They had a fun time, though the end was mired in technical difficulties. But yay for creative solutions to social distancing difficulties!
Kids still put in a full day of work at home, but some of them are starting to get through their work for the week, and I think we'll have some more down time toward the weekend. I've spent most of the week helping everyone else get the things they need taken care of, and sometime this evening I realized that I was spending a lot of time of Facebook because, you know, that's the easiest thing to do when you might get interrupted any moment. And there are a lot of funny jokes right now, and even a lot of good ideas... But, it's time to get off Facebook and get some work done! So I went out and worked in the garden. Got one whole flower bed cut back and ready for the spring. Also took some skin off the back of my thumb, and now I have a bandaid there, which makes it hard to wash hands a lot. Stupid virus.
After gardening, we went to the school yard and played kickball for our exercise time. We played with one person pitching and everyone else rotating to kick. If you weren't kicking, you were in the outfield. A funny play was after Jane and Sam had drifted off to the playground, my turn to kick came up with loaded bases...and there was nobody in the field except Martha, who was pitching. It looked like a guaranteed home run. But Lige stopped on 3rd base and kept me from running in until Martha had the ball back, so I only got a tripple. Well played, Lige. :)
Sam is still having a blast playing chess with Grandpa. We invited an uncle who is quarantined to play with us, but claimed he was no good at chess. He doesn't know what he's missing :)
After dinner, we watched funny spoof videos with the kids. There are a lot of them right now! Then we did some karaoke before the Branch youth activity.
Yes! We had a Branch youth activity! We found a game you can play online together, coupled with a Zoom meeting to be able to talk to one another. They had a fun time, though the end was mired in technical difficulties. But yay for creative solutions to social distancing difficulties!
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
COVID-19 Day 4: I'm sore!
Something I love about our new lifestyle: time to be active and exercise!
And...now I'm sore :)
But, despite my discomfort, I rode my bike to the grocery store. At the beginning of the situation, I thought, "The weather is so lovely. This would be a great time to try to go car-free for a bit!" Marriner suggested that I reset the odometer today and see how few miles I drive in the next two week. So I did. When Marriner called from work that he was getting kicked out and the lab was shutting down, I pushed the odometer as I took off to pick him up. He drove the car yesterday, in case he needed to bring all his work-remotely stuff home, but they said they weren't going to shut the lab down, so he biked today. And guess what - they called his op-too-much-ism. So I drove up to bring him and all his work junk home. (He calls them "samples", but they look like scrap metal to me...ha ha).
Going to the store was like entering the war zone. We'd heard it was crazy out there, but it's almost a week since the announcement that everything was shutting down, and I sorta thought things would be back in stock by now. Nope. I got about half the things on my list. And no potatoes. I'd heard that from someone else, but I wanted to make mashed potatoes, darn. I'd made a menu for the week before I left, and about half the things on the menu are missing items. I was a little shocked that even a well-prepared girl like me is having to adapt to the situation. We might actually be living off our food storage to some degree here! So, tomorrow I'll go change my menu to have fewer fresh veggies and more storage items. Oh, and add cabbage - they had lots of cabbage, and it was on sale, too. And I like cabbage! Alas for the rest of my family...
School is keeping the kids busy, except Sam. They're all staying busy the full 4 hours we have scheduled. But at 2pm, Sam has a date with his grandpa to play chess every day, and some of the kids are less productive during that time. They have a hard time letting him make bad decisions :) Grandpa just got back from Europe and is in quarantine for 14 days, so we're glad he has time to hang out with Sam, even if it's not ideal circumstances.
As more and more of the country shuts down, more and more people are doing things virtually to reduce isolation. I'm starting to feel bad that we're not going to be able to do all of them! Here are some of my favorite things I've seen lately:
And...now I'm sore :)
But, despite my discomfort, I rode my bike to the grocery store. At the beginning of the situation, I thought, "The weather is so lovely. This would be a great time to try to go car-free for a bit!" Marriner suggested that I reset the odometer today and see how few miles I drive in the next two week. So I did. When Marriner called from work that he was getting kicked out and the lab was shutting down, I pushed the odometer as I took off to pick him up. He drove the car yesterday, in case he needed to bring all his work-remotely stuff home, but they said they weren't going to shut the lab down, so he biked today. And guess what - they called his op-too-much-ism. So I drove up to bring him and all his work junk home. (He calls them "samples", but they look like scrap metal to me...ha ha).
Going to the store was like entering the war zone. We'd heard it was crazy out there, but it's almost a week since the announcement that everything was shutting down, and I sorta thought things would be back in stock by now. Nope. I got about half the things on my list. And no potatoes. I'd heard that from someone else, but I wanted to make mashed potatoes, darn. I'd made a menu for the week before I left, and about half the things on the menu are missing items. I was a little shocked that even a well-prepared girl like me is having to adapt to the situation. We might actually be living off our food storage to some degree here! So, tomorrow I'll go change my menu to have fewer fresh veggies and more storage items. Oh, and add cabbage - they had lots of cabbage, and it was on sale, too. And I like cabbage! Alas for the rest of my family...
School is keeping the kids busy, except Sam. They're all staying busy the full 4 hours we have scheduled. But at 2pm, Sam has a date with his grandpa to play chess every day, and some of the kids are less productive during that time. They have a hard time letting him make bad decisions :) Grandpa just got back from Europe and is in quarantine for 14 days, so we're glad he has time to hang out with Sam, even if it's not ideal circumstances.
As more and more of the country shuts down, more and more people are doing things virtually to reduce isolation. I'm starting to feel bad that we're not going to be able to do all of them! Here are some of my favorite things I've seen lately:
- The Deaf community is posting #operationASLstorytime videos for kids.
- Mo Willems (who wrote my favorite kids book, "Nanette's Baguette", is doing a "Lunch Doodle with Mo Willems" video every day.
- A local meteorologist is doing weather lessons for kids every day.
- Someone posted a list of museums that have free virtual tours you can take.
- The guy who does the voice for Olaf is reading a kids story every night
I mean, we could stay busy with all this stuff, except we have to do school work, too. Yup, day 2 of homeschool, and even homeschooling gets in the way of my lifestyle. Lame. :)
COVID-19 Day 3: The start of home school :)
Today, we made a temporary schedule. I'm sure as things settle down, we'll tweak it, but here's our plan for the next little bit:
6am - anyone who wants to can go jogging with Dad. This is what you can do when you don't have Seminary!!
7am - breakfast, piano practice, clean room, etc. You know, all the stuff you're supposed to do before school
9am - some time to work on personal goals or do some service
10 - 3 - School work with lunch in the middle.
3pm - Exercise! This is literally the part of the day we're all most excited about. Go play tennis, basketball, or something active as a family.
4pm - down time
5pm - get ready for dinner, clean the house
Sam took about 30 minutes to finish all his school work for the day. He did about 10x more reading than he normally does, because that's what you do when you finish your school work early :) Bwahahah.... Everyone else kept pretty busy throughout the whole day. We'll see if that lasts all week long or not.
My favorite part of the new schedule is the way we are exercising. That's something that's been squeezed out of our lives, but now that you can't do anything else, you might as well be healthy! It's great!
Marriner's lab hasn't closed, they've just encouraged everyone to telework as much as possible. Marriner loves it - he can go in and do his experiments without seeing or being interrupted by anyone. He's trying to get as much experimentation done as he can before the lab may decide to actually close, then he can stay home and write papers.
Ok, back to normal life! See ya later!
6am - anyone who wants to can go jogging with Dad. This is what you can do when you don't have Seminary!!
7am - breakfast, piano practice, clean room, etc. You know, all the stuff you're supposed to do before school
9am - some time to work on personal goals or do some service
10 - 3 - School work with lunch in the middle.
3pm - Exercise! This is literally the part of the day we're all most excited about. Go play tennis, basketball, or something active as a family.
4pm - down time
5pm - get ready for dinner, clean the house
Sam took about 30 minutes to finish all his school work for the day. He did about 10x more reading than he normally does, because that's what you do when you finish your school work early :) Bwahahah.... Everyone else kept pretty busy throughout the whole day. We'll see if that lasts all week long or not.
My favorite part of the new schedule is the way we are exercising. That's something that's been squeezed out of our lives, but now that you can't do anything else, you might as well be healthy! It's great!
Marriner's lab hasn't closed, they've just encouraged everyone to telework as much as possible. Marriner loves it - he can go in and do his experiments without seeing or being interrupted by anyone. He's trying to get as much experimentation done as he can before the lab may decide to actually close, then he can stay home and write papers.
Ok, back to normal life! See ya later!
Monday, March 16, 2020
COVID-19 day 2: Home church
We're not too bothered by the idea of having church at home. We do it every time we get sick. But this was a bit of a different situation. There are a lot of people in the branch whose family are far away, aren't members of the church, or don't even know ASL. So we had a virtual worship service (aka Sacrament meeting without the sacrament) and then a virtual Come Follow Me discussion (aka Sunday School without the teacher.) The worship service included our scheduled stake speaker, Sister Peterson from the stake Primary. She called from her home, and Marriner signed to the webcam on Youtube live. Then Brother Wardle talked about the sacrament, and why you should keep that as a focus of your sabbath, plus how to do it at home. Lige did a demonstration of what the sacrament would look like in our house - Ikea cups, bottle of water, and a slice of bread on an Ikea plate. Then Brother Scott reviewed council from our prophet and local leaders on the situation. It was a very nice meeting. Lige voiced the talks for the stake speaker to hear and did a FABULOUS job. This kid is getting really good!
Before church, while Marriner and his counselors were downstairs troubleshooting technology, I tried getting the kids ready to change gears from silly to reverent. So we all sat on a bench in our living room and pretended to drive to church. I thought the kids would think this was fabulous, but it turns out that the kids were really bothered by us driving to church without their shoes on. I didn't want them to put on shoes so they didn't put them all over our chairs downstairs. But it turns out that shoes are a really important part of Sunday for some of my kids. And of course, they couldn't find their Sunday shoes. SERIOUSLY GUYS. We had church at home, and we were still late (well, not late, but not early...) because we couldn't find our church shoes. Right as the service was starting, one of my kids was being a dork still, and I threatened, "If you want to go to church today, you'd better sit your bottom down RIGHT NOW." Marriner waved at me - the broadcast had already started, and everyone got to hear that part. Ha.
I taught a Primary class about being unshakeable in our faith. We went outside and tried shaking various items in our yard - big trees, little trees, cars, the shed, etc. The same person who was being a booger before sacrament meeting was still being a booger, so we didn't get as much of an explanation of HOW you make your faith unshakeable, but hey, the kids will remember the lesson, anyway.
After "church", we decided to enjoy the fabulous weather and went for a walk to see blooming trees in the neighborhood. Do you know how many years it's been since we've been able to do that? Marriner is ALWAYS busy on Sunday afternoons. He still had a busy evening, but the flexibility was lovely.
So far, enjoying the family time and the break from the hectic schedule.
COVID-19 Day 1: Pi Day
Thursday, everything in our normal life was canceled. School was shut down for at least 2 weeks. Church was canceled until further notice. We spent the day watching one thing after another announce cancellation or closure. It caused a little disappointment, as the things you've been working and preparing for (county science fair, interfaith concert, trip to Paris...) are all shut down, but of course, we know that it's what needs to be done. And, I went to the library on Wednesday and stocked up, so we're ready to batten down. :)
When all church and scout meetings were cancelled, I'd already bought the things for Lige's Eagle Court of Honor that was scheduled for Friday. So instead of making pie on Friday, I went to the school and helped with the book fair. Saturday, we needed to use up all those pie crusts I'd bought :)
Since we couldn't get together with our friends and eat pie, we decided to take the pie to them. All 5 of the older kids made a pie themselves. Lige made walnut, Ellis made strawberry rhubarb, Lillian tried a pina colada pie that turned out quite nicely despite some scramble for ingredients. (You all know what the grocery stores look like right now...) Sam made banana cream, and Martha made a chocolate cream pie. I felt a little swelling of pride that 5 of my kids can cook enough to make a pie (as long as we have pre-made pie crusts...) Good thing I taught the little kids to make pudding! :)
After we made and chilled the pies, we set out to bring pie to the downtrodden people of the world (everyone qualified.) After making a long list of who we wanted to take pie to, and realizing that we couldn't do that, we let each kid pick a person to bring pie. Lige picked a house of single people on his ministering list. Ellis picked a widow on her ministering list. Lillian picked a friend from school, who unfortunately wasn't home. Martha picked a friend from church. Marriner snuck in someone he ministers to. And Sam picked a friend from school. We drove around, carried 5 pies up to the door and let them choose which one they wanted a slice of. Then we donned gloves, served the pie, chatted a few minutes, and took off. It was very fun, but alas, at dinner time we were somewhere in the middle of Northern Virginia, and so we had to buy pizza (pie) for dinner. Alas. The first pie to disappear was....what do you guess?...Martha's chocolate cream pie! That one was popular with the little kids and picky eaters :) But as for which pie was the best....well, that's a 5-way tie. So pie day was a fabulously fun time around here, and we're glad that even though we can't get together in groups, we can still visit people and have fun.
Sunday we extended the festivities with leftover pie. After we finished home church, Sam declared, "And now it's time for PIE-mary!" I mean, who can argue with that?? And we ate the quiche that we planned to have for dinner Saturday, but ran out of time for :)
When all church and scout meetings were cancelled, I'd already bought the things for Lige's Eagle Court of Honor that was scheduled for Friday. So instead of making pie on Friday, I went to the school and helped with the book fair. Saturday, we needed to use up all those pie crusts I'd bought :)
Since we couldn't get together with our friends and eat pie, we decided to take the pie to them. All 5 of the older kids made a pie themselves. Lige made walnut, Ellis made strawberry rhubarb, Lillian tried a pina colada pie that turned out quite nicely despite some scramble for ingredients. (You all know what the grocery stores look like right now...) Sam made banana cream, and Martha made a chocolate cream pie. I felt a little swelling of pride that 5 of my kids can cook enough to make a pie (as long as we have pre-made pie crusts...) Good thing I taught the little kids to make pudding! :)
After we made and chilled the pies, we set out to bring pie to the downtrodden people of the world (everyone qualified.) After making a long list of who we wanted to take pie to, and realizing that we couldn't do that, we let each kid pick a person to bring pie. Lige picked a house of single people on his ministering list. Ellis picked a widow on her ministering list. Lillian picked a friend from school, who unfortunately wasn't home. Martha picked a friend from church. Marriner snuck in someone he ministers to. And Sam picked a friend from school. We drove around, carried 5 pies up to the door and let them choose which one they wanted a slice of. Then we donned gloves, served the pie, chatted a few minutes, and took off. It was very fun, but alas, at dinner time we were somewhere in the middle of Northern Virginia, and so we had to buy pizza (pie) for dinner. Alas. The first pie to disappear was....what do you guess?...Martha's chocolate cream pie! That one was popular with the little kids and picky eaters :) But as for which pie was the best....well, that's a 5-way tie. So pie day was a fabulously fun time around here, and we're glad that even though we can't get together in groups, we can still visit people and have fun.
Sunday we extended the festivities with leftover pie. After we finished home church, Sam declared, "And now it's time for PIE-mary!" I mean, who can argue with that?? And we ate the quiche that we planned to have for dinner Saturday, but ran out of time for :)
While all the kids and moms were making pie, Marriner was busy trying to put together plans for a virtual church service. He got to grapple with all sorts of technology he'd never worked with before, but finally decided they would have all the speakers come to our house and broadcast YouTube live. It's amazing how figuring out stuff like that can take the whole day.
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