Yesterday was Easter, which is a special holiday in our house. We have all of our silly traditions on Saturday or Monday (they have Easter Monday here! It's the BEST!) and Sunday is set aside as a day of special worship. A long time ago, Marriner would wake up early on Sunday morning and make paska, a special Ukranian Easter bread, while watching "Special Witnesses of Christ" but that tradition got crowded out as he had various callings that required more work on Easter.
This year, we brought that tradition back a little bit, and watched Special Witnesses of Christ with the family in the morning. Then we all got ready for church. We don't have all our Easter dresses yet - shipping is slow, and so are the sewers. Ok, we put off sewing to paint last week. That's ok, we can take Easter pictures next week :)
One of the counselors in the branch presidency has really done cool things with our branch worship service online. He can get several people on the feed at once, and switch back and forth between the screens. So Ellis was asked to give a talk, and we didn't have to go to anyone's house or anything. Lige gave the prayer, too. Here is a funny story from our our worship service: we were all watching the broadcast on YouTube in one room, while the people who were on camera would go next door to the computer for their turn. As we finished up the opening song, Marriner shouted to Lige, "Are you ready, Lige?" Then Lige came on the screen saying the prayer, and he also walked into the room. What? Turns out, there was like a minute of lag. When Marriner shouted to him, he was in the middle of the prayer. He was so startled, he just ended the prayer and walked over to see what he was supposed to be doing. So we smiled a minute later when we saw him wrap up his prayer quickly on screen. Now we know! :) It was funny to see him in two places at once. During Ellis's talk, Jane got restless and ran around by the camera. Then she came back and sat on Dad's lap. A minute later, Jane suddenly popped up on the screen!
For the past few weeks, we've been uncertain about which language to do the Sacrament in. For our morning home study (a.k.a. Pajama Church) we do English. But as we started doing the sacrament in English, we struggled. We're just used to doing the songs and the prayers in ASL. So yesterday, we just did what came naturally and it all came out in ASL.
What a big change! Two years ago...who would have thought that ASL would have become our language of worship? But Lige hasn't practiced the Sacrament prayer in English - he's learned it in ASL. They don't flip to the prayer in the Book of Mormon or D&C, they pull the video up on their phones. We don't play the piano to sing - we play the music on our phone and sign. That's what we've practiced doing, and it's what we're comfortable doing. At some point my kids are going to have to learn to play and sing with a piano on Sunday, and I doubt it will be a hard transition. But for now, we're just sticking with what's easy and natural.
One thing I enjoyed yesterday was doing my own interpretation of the Sacrament song. Usually, we stick to a translation by a reliable source - a native speaker. But since we're at home, I figured we could do a song we don't usually do, and make our own interpretation for it. And it was fun.
After church, we made our huge dinner, then ate our huge dinner, then put some kids to bed early because they'd been fighting non-stop for the last hour ;) It made for a pleasant evening....hahahah. It was a great Easter. I'm go grateful for the hope that comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
In which a great idea falls flat
One thing we've been putting off as a family is a big stretching ASL challenge. We all know we should do it. We know we need to push ourselves to get off the plateau we're on. But life is so busy and tiring, and we just haven't done it.
But now that we live in the time of "Not having enough time isn't a good excuse any more", especially with no school work this week...well, we have to do it.
Two and a half years ago, we did the hardest thing we've ever done, and turned off our voices for a full day. It was so hard and educational and good for us. We wanted to do something like that again. We've noticed that our little kids don't sign so much as they used to. And to be honest, I don't have a lot of signing opportunities right now, either, and my expressive capabilities are suffering! So, we set a reward for a day without talking and told everyone to turn their voice off when they woke up in the morning.
Well, friends, the day did NOT go well. One of our children fought with us the whole day because he was whispering the whole time he signed, and we kept telling him that wasn't fair, but he doesn't see it that way. One of our children pretty much just hid in her room all day. One of our children couldn't remember that it was signing day unless she had tape on her mouth. One of our children woke up on the wrong side of bed and walked around the house for the first two hours loudly proclaiming, "I'm not going to sign today. This is stupid!" And the last two of my children, we learned, do NOT know as much sign language as we thought. They have great comprehension. We thought they could sign back if they wanted. Turns out, they can't.
In summary, everyone had a rotten day. If our day had been a cartoon, a dark and stormy cloud would have been looming over one house in the neighborhood despite the beautiful and perfect weather. My whole day was spent saying, "Shh!" Everyone else's day was spent shooting mom angry looks.
What went wrong? We had a good prize (which we did NOT get), and we thought we had good buy-in from everyone before the day started. I think it was just that storm cloud that showed up and put everyone in a bad mood. Because we can't really pinpoint a reason why this should have been so bad.
So last night, we called a retreat. At the beginning, we'd talked about trying to go two or three days, but we've put that on hold. Today, I think we're going to convalesce and nurse our wounds by watching movies. And we'll see if we can pull up some energy to work on ASL again towards the end of the week.
But now that we live in the time of "Not having enough time isn't a good excuse any more", especially with no school work this week...well, we have to do it.
Two and a half years ago, we did the hardest thing we've ever done, and turned off our voices for a full day. It was so hard and educational and good for us. We wanted to do something like that again. We've noticed that our little kids don't sign so much as they used to. And to be honest, I don't have a lot of signing opportunities right now, either, and my expressive capabilities are suffering! So, we set a reward for a day without talking and told everyone to turn their voice off when they woke up in the morning.
Well, friends, the day did NOT go well. One of our children fought with us the whole day because he was whispering the whole time he signed, and we kept telling him that wasn't fair, but he doesn't see it that way. One of our children pretty much just hid in her room all day. One of our children couldn't remember that it was signing day unless she had tape on her mouth. One of our children woke up on the wrong side of bed and walked around the house for the first two hours loudly proclaiming, "I'm not going to sign today. This is stupid!" And the last two of my children, we learned, do NOT know as much sign language as we thought. They have great comprehension. We thought they could sign back if they wanted. Turns out, they can't.
In summary, everyone had a rotten day. If our day had been a cartoon, a dark and stormy cloud would have been looming over one house in the neighborhood despite the beautiful and perfect weather. My whole day was spent saying, "Shh!" Everyone else's day was spent shooting mom angry looks.
What went wrong? We had a good prize (which we did NOT get), and we thought we had good buy-in from everyone before the day started. I think it was just that storm cloud that showed up and put everyone in a bad mood. Because we can't really pinpoint a reason why this should have been so bad.
So last night, we called a retreat. At the beginning, we'd talked about trying to go two or three days, but we've put that on hold. Today, I think we're going to convalesce and nurse our wounds by watching movies. And we'll see if we can pull up some energy to work on ASL again towards the end of the week.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Cousin night and visitors
Wednesday is now "Cousin Night" around here. The Merrill cousins all congregate on Zoom and play games. It's loud and crazy, and all I have to do is send emails and provide ice cream for my own kids. Easiest party ever :) I'm so glad my kids get along with their cousins. I think, if we get to have a Merrill Reunion this year, they will really hit the ground running, since they'll actually know who each other are! What do you think - will we be able to travel to Utah by the end of June??
Another fun thing broke up the routine today. Our friends, the Haddocks, went on a walk and came to our house to wave to us. We had a nice yelled conversation with them from the front porch to the sidewalk. The kids struggled to follow the rules to stay inside the house. But they gave in eventually. Yay for us, no germs shared!
Today I took advantage of a low school workload, as the teachers are working on getting students set up for distance learning. I farmed out some of my chores, and surprisingly checked a lot of stuff off my to-do list! I really enjoy being able to be involved with my kids more, but I've noticed that I get way behind on my work. So today was pay-back time. Bwahaha... Actually, the next few weeks are going to be chore-a-lific. And then maybe we'll watch a movie to celebrate. Just kidding!!
Another fun thing broke up the routine today. Our friends, the Haddocks, went on a walk and came to our house to wave to us. We had a nice yelled conversation with them from the front porch to the sidewalk. The kids struggled to follow the rules to stay inside the house. But they gave in eventually. Yay for us, no germs shared!
Today I took advantage of a low school workload, as the teachers are working on getting students set up for distance learning. I farmed out some of my chores, and surprisingly checked a lot of stuff off my to-do list! I really enjoy being able to be involved with my kids more, but I've noticed that I get way behind on my work. So today was pay-back time. Bwahaha... Actually, the next few weeks are going to be chore-a-lific. And then maybe we'll watch a movie to celebrate. Just kidding!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Monday
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!
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 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!!
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