Covid-19 Diaries Week 2

Day 8 March 21 - Brrr compared to yesterday.  The kids bundled up and ventured outdoors, but didn't last long on their attempts.  We watched TV and delivered small treats to the nurses in our neighborhood (left it on the porches - no contact).  We know this time is extra scary and draining for them and we think of them and their families often. Homemade veggie and noddle soup for dinner, peanut butter brownies for dessert.  We're going to gain so much weight during this quarantine.

Day 9 March 22 - The sun's out, but it's brisk.  Craig cleaned the gutters and the girls rode their bikes.  Watched Wonder (again) and School of Rock.  A shelter-in-place order goes into effect for our state tomorrow.  Nothing will really change for the five of us as we have been voluntarily sheltering in place for well over a week.

Day 10 March 23 - Spring break is over, so Craig is now officially working from home.  Today went well, but it could be an outlier... we shall see.  All three kids completed what I had in mind for them for home school (I am not really going closely by what the school sent), everyone got dressed, was fed and enjoyed quite a bit of outdoor time, so I consider this day a win.  On my solitary walk I noticed that the younger kids in our neighborhood are being adorable by leaving chalk messages and drawings in each other's driveways.

Day 11 March 24 - Rocky start this morning and even though things calmed quite a bit, it was still probably the hardest day since the beginning of the quarantine yet.  Despite the crazy, we were very successful with our home school work today, enjoyed pancakes for lunch, and even squeezed in an afternoon movie.

Day 12 March 25 - We're finding a sort of groove with the home school activities balanced against Craig's and my work schedule, but it's been another challenging day.  Emilia keeps asking to go out (to the theater, to a restaurant, to the mall, to the zoo), Ella misses her friends, and Rex is just bored without his daily therapy.  I washed all the bedding today and hung the blankets to dry in the sun.  The beautiful spring weather was the silver lining here - we may be able to clean and pack away our winter coats very soon.

Day 13 March 26 - A glorious spring day in our neck of the woods.  We weren't very productive today, but we made it through.  Our friends and neighbors operate a nearby Chick-Fil-A franchise, so we got our lunch from them today - local readers, Chick-fil-A at Kenwood Town Center is open and delivering orders to the parking lot.  They also have a tent in the parking lot where they are taking orders if you're not ordering through the app - it's like a makeshift drive-through.

Day 14 March 27  - Craig made our weekly grocery run.  Our local store continues to be well stocked with the items we need and we do not feel an urgency to over-buy.  Craig and I decided yesterday that due to our work schedules, Saturday and Sunday will become home school days, so that we can take two weekdays off and focus on our jobs.  So, no home school today, but there will be tomorrow.

Caught red-handed with the Silk carton

This and that from Week 2

*Thankful for the weather that allows us much outdoor time
*Homeland
*Struggling to remember what date and day of the week it is
*Completely overwhelmed by the daily communications received from the kids' schools

I Spy

Every once in a while Ella puts together an I Spy.  It's creative which she loves, but also forces her to work on some more challenging language skills.  If you're easily amused like us during these weeks of quarantine, you may enjoy her work.

Covid-19 Diaries Week 1

I keep reminding Ella this is a historic time that she'll be telling her grand-kids about some day. So, I thought I'd journal a little to help her remember.

Day 1 March 14: The schools in Ohio have been instructed to close.  Our family has postponed the vacation we had booked for spring break.  We're hunkered down on a rainy day with some homemade curry, chess pie, books and movies.

Day 2 March 15: A pretty typical Sunday for us.  Spent some time in the backyard, grilled burgers, watched sitcoms, kids played.  Governor DeWine ordered restaurants and bars closed, except for carry-out, delivery, and drive-through.

Day 3 March 16: Home school activities in the morning, afternoon outdoors on the trampoline, swings and around the campfire (bonus: all the fallen branches were picked up from around our property to feed the fire).  We made grilled cheese sandwiches over the fire to boot. A before and after photo from this day below (the after doesn't really do justice to the mess):

Day 4 March 17: St Patrick's Day and only one of us can claim to have any Irish ancestry.  We still incorporated the day into our home school work.  I am not ashamed to say we listened to The Cranberries to represent something Irish.  We also read W. B. Yeats (about whose work particularly regarding fairy lore I once wrote a lengthy paper in college).  Leftovers for lunch and once the sun came out in the afternoon, we went outside.  The Primary Election scheduled for today was postponed overnight.

Day 5 March 18: The rains have arrived, so that makes things harder.  Got the school work done and just relaxed.  I feel a great need to cook and bake to the point where after dinner last night I made double lemon buttermilk muffins.  Nothing productive ever happens after dinner if you're me in a non-emergency state.

Day 6 March 19: First day of spring, mild but dreary and wet.  Got through the school work, but not feeling motivated for much at all.  Ella and I started reading Home of the Brave and Emilia is doing an amazing job learning to locate countries on a map.  After just one day working on this, she can independently locate six countries, our home city, and the state where her grandma lives. Things tend to be calm until just before dinner and then for some reason the crazy breaks loose until bedtime.

Day 7 March 20: We got a few hours of sunshine today and made good use of them before the temp is forecast to drop 40 degrees.  Craig ventured out for a solo weekly grocery run (store well stocked) and in order to support local small business, we got carry out lunch from our little corner cafe.  Our plan is to do this once or twice a week for local restaurants until the social and physical restrictions are lifted. School work check, provisions check, house not totally falling apart (yet) check.  Ready to binge Homeland now.

This and that from Week 1

*Less laundry because we don't get dressed or fully dressed each day.

*My child who struggles to eat and drink due to (school) anxiety is chowing down like there's no tomorrow.

*So thankful for our backyard when it's not raining.

*A little academic work goes a long way.

*We've made it through without increasing daily tech time so far.

*Mad Men and The Office - enough said.

*168+ hours in quarantine so far.  No one in, only Craig out as necessary.

Happy 11th Birthday, Rex!

Happy birthday to our only son, our middle kiddo, our resident snuggler, head of mischief, connoisseur of fine Italian meats, expert foot stomper, tickle seeker, lover of barber shops, home improvement stores and hiking trails, giggle meister, overcomer, owner of a big and devoted heart, loved in four countries, and the all around best son and big/little brother we could ever have.

We say it all the time

and you know it so well:

we love you without limits,

you are more than enough.

Keep living forward, beautiful boy,

and we'll gratefully come along

for the extraordinary adventure.

Pablo and Frida

For the final day of Art Appreciation Week at school, may I present the grand finale: Pablo and Frida...

(Homeschool) Picture Of The Day

I am not sure that science and interior design always go hand in hand, but clearly our guest bath needed some sprucing up. #homeschoolertotherescue

Sand Tray Therapy

As part of her trauma informed occupational therapy our littlest child has recently been working with sand tray therapy.  It's largely self-directed with minimal guidance from the OT, particularly during the time that the child actively free plays with the desired choices from among the provided items. 

Through this approach, we have already seen our daughter address - essentially on her own - the issue of having two mothers by creating a world in which her two mothers were able to have a long and deep conversation before they began to jointly take care of the miniature figure representing their shared child.  It takes my breath away that my little girl wishes for her first mother and for me to be able to communicate and parent her together.

In another session, our little one buried representations of herself and two other children repeatedly.  Burying is common in sand tray therapy, so her therapist let it unfold organically.  Based on our child's personal history, there are multiple possible interpretations for why she felt buried along with other kids.  Finally after about a dozen cycles of being buried and being brought back to light, our beautiful girl pulled the figurine depicting herself from the sand, looked at me and said, "Mama."  After uttering just this one word she dropped everything into the tray and walked away from an activity she had been engaging in for 45 minutes.  Seemingly, the concept of mama, so simple and yet so incredibly complex, along with my presence had provided the solution and healing she needed in that moment.