Pandemic COVID-19: Day 1

We have discussed several times how much the kids are really living in a true moment(s) of history. Now that we are officially off school and the current situation is dynamically changing I thought it might be interesting to document how we spend our days.

Two months ago the Corona Virus was a China problem. Last month it was an Italy problem. Today, it is our problem. I have never let the kids watch as much news as they are now. We also recently introduced them to the topic of the stock market. It is certainly an interesting time be trying to grasp the concept of that and explain things that I have to first research (circuit breakers!).

We received the call from the school last Friday that school would be suspended until March 30. Spring break was scheduled for the week of the 23rd so really just one week off school...for now anyway. I am not sure anyone believes that they will go back to school on the 31st, but time will tell. We are very fortunate that our school has an E-learning process in place. It's intended use was of course for snow days, but I guess we found a use for it here too. The ISBE has actually now declared these few weeks "acts of God" meaning that schools aren't required to make up the days away from school and no grades can be taken during this time. I haven't necessarily shared all of that information with the kids. As far as they know they are to get up and do their E-learning packets - so we will just stick with that for the time being. The reality of having the kids home for an extended period of time (pretty sure our spring break will be in IL, not FL) is truly a blessing for our family and full of lots of opportunities to do things we might not normally have the time to do.

So here is how Day 1 went...and I should mention many of my friends made up schedules with their kids so they had a plan to follow throughout the day. I wasn't quite ready for that much structure, but we will be shifting towards that "plan" sooner rather than later!

We were all out of bed by 7:00 am. The kids started on the school work immediately. I situated myself with my cup of coffee and sat between them at the kitchen table and waited...and then it started. "mom, I need help" , "mom what does this mean?", "mom!". I am confident that they do not ask this many questions at school, but I am soooo available! I may not have my coffee quite so close to them tomorrow.

If it looks dark, that's because it still is dark outside!!

After an hour we transitioned into showers and breakfast. We left the house at 9:15 to take Ima and Pops to the airport. Yes, it sounds crazy but they had left the RV in FL and had flown home for a few engagements, all of which were cancelled, naturally. After dropping them off I decided to run a few errands. I mean life still goes on right? I think I was the only person with school aged children with me. The exact conversation in the car before entering Target was: "I will open all doors. Don't touch a thing. Put your hands in your pockets. Walk with me and we keep our social distancing bubble together. If I walk to the left, you walk to the left...got it follow me like a ducks following their mama" Grant's response: "Can I be the duck that wanders off and gets lost?" Ummm. no, son, just no. I manage to get my item at Target returned and pick up hand lotion because all of the hand washing is pretty hard on the hands. And no they still do not have sanitizer. We get back in the car and I pass out wipes so we can all disinfect and remind the children to be quiet in the next store. There was something really funny about the monogrammed hair brushes at Target - I have no idea what! Next stop was Kohl's for a quick Amazon return. Kohl's, we know why you put the return in the back corner of the store, but seriously for today's environment a little kiosk up front would be nice. We quickly return the item and then as we are walking down the last aisle Grant just can't help himself...he zigs when I zagged and I see it and Elizabeth is calling him out on it and all I can think is "how can this child not follow the simplest of instructions!" Ok, he is plenty capable of following directions...he just doesn't want to. He just has to see how far he can push. Last stop, post office...the kids stay in the car. There really weren't a lot of people out - although everyone at Target was buying toilet paper - so I guess we are just supposed to stay home.

Someone made a schedule...

We come home and I decide that some physical exercise is a good idea so I pick kid yoga. Not a good idea. Well, maybe it could have been but "draw a rainbow with your fingertips" and "twinkle your fingers like stars" was apparently a little to childish for them. So Grant whined through the whole thing and he will later be turning in a report on the benefits of yoga. Elizabeth was of course laser focused and shining like a jewel and giving Grant dirty looks. I decided we will rotate and take turn picking the physical exercise from here on out.

Meanwhile, during this juvenile yoga session I am missing the text from my dad saying that the nation is going to be in lock down and we need to stock up on food NOW. I panic as I look at really ripe bananas on the counter and contemplate going to the store. I refused to give in to the panic and tell the kids to get out of the car, they will have to learn to eat something other than bananas and then we learn that the text is a hoax. I then realize that I had forgotten laundry in the washer, the dishwasher wasn't emptied and we had 45 minutes to eat lunch and prepare for our online art class at 1:00 and our home safari at 2:00. I enlist the kids to help with the dishes, we start lunch and one of them says "I am not really hungry" to which I replied "I am certain you do not get to choose what time you eat lunch Monday through Friday so you will be eating now!"

We get logged on just in time for our art show. A lady from Paducah who is just trying to help us all pass the time and what topic does she choose? Faces. Faces!! It is only one of the most complicated things to draw, but sure she will teach all ages to draw faces - just stick with her, it will be great! I will just let the pictures speak for themselves. Some tried harder than others. And in case you are wondering or ever need velum paper- just use some cooking spray on plain white paper and voila - velum! Well perfect, we wrapped up art time ten minutes before the home safari started, compliments of the Cincinnati Zoo. It was really fun and we learned a lot about hippos.

"She said the more lashes you add the more realistic the eye will look," said Elizabeth.

Ok so we have made it to 3:30 and the news conference starts and travel is not shut down but we are instructed to be in gatherings of less than 10 and discretionary travel and in case we haven't heard it before it was said a couple more times about flattening the curve. Oh yeah and meanwhile the stock market - 3rd worst day in history. The first was last week.

At this point I am done with organized activities and am forever grateful for cousins available to FaceTime. I might or might not have had a glass of wine in my hand when Brandon walked in the door. We ate leftovers for dinner...which we never do (for lunch maybe, but never dinner) but it is important not to waste food or to be wasteful in general. The kids begged us to get in the hot tub and they shared with Brandon all of the hippo facts they learned...apparently at some point I nodded off during the home safari because they shared some facts that were new to me!

Anyway, we survived Day 1. Tomorrow Elizabeth is going to the horse barn to work and she is really excited about picking up sticks for someone else!