*Real time post
We are starting our 6th week of being Safer at Home. Last Thursday we learned that our state has called off school for the rest of the year. T didn't care at all. In fact, she likes it better at home than at school. She struggles with friends and home feels safe for her. When M learned the news he cried loudly. He didn't want to eat or be comforted. Eventually he wanted to FaceTime someone and when his cousin wasn't available he FaceTimed Brandon's cousin (a very kind college aged young man) and they talked for about 30 minutes. This really helped M a lot. After the talk and some snacks and a funny movie (Uncle Buck taped off TV on VHS) he was feeling much better. He still gets very emotional when we talk with him about it or when we talk about COVID-19 in front of him. The kids still have 7 weeks left of school (if you count this week). We learned today of a pathway to the new normal for our state and we are hoping this leaves the door open for summer school. My kids love summer school so much. Besides the big school news, our state's Safer at Home order was extended for an additional month. We are not sure if that will be lessened by this new pathway or made longer if we do not hit benchmarks.
In non Coronavirus news, many things have happened around here. Landscapers were in the yard today grading the soil in prep for planting grass! It will be so awesome to have a yard again! The kids went on a field trip with Brandon over to church. They were able to ride the elevator for the first time. Super exciting for them! It is cool that some church projects are able to continue even in this season.
On the home front we have been doing lots of baking. Today both kids were baking at the same time, one cookies and one banana bread. It was not relaxing in any way. I would say both kids spilled almost every ingredient they added and one egg ended up on clothing, step stool and the floor. They were doing the measuring so the recipes taste a bit different than typical, but still very good.
We completed another 1000 piece puzzle and we hung the platform swing back up in the basement. Both of these things took up much time in the last week.
Yesterday we were reading the "Say What?" funny things the kids said from the blog books and it caused me to remember books of funny things that kids say. We got one out last night and the kids loved hearing the kid quotes so much. It was good to laugh so hard that you can't read the words. Such joy!
There were more special moments too, but the photos posts will come soon as I am getting ever so close to "real time" in my actual blogging!
A couple of nights ago I was turning off lights in the basement at bedtime. I turned off the light over the puzzle table and thought about getting that table when we just had baby M and dreaming of puzzling at it. I turned off another night and saw all the educational posters on the wall and thought about my dream of homeschooling years ago. Coronavirus has allowed our family to do two things that I had always dreamed about. No, this doesn't mean that homeschooling will continue long term. It does mean that I am getting to try something I once dreamed of. After thinking about those to things I started thinking of more and more things that started in this season. Our family has consistent daily Bible and prayer times which is a dream fulfilled for sure. The kids are helping with chores each day and have totally taken over cleaning the litter and feeding the cats! We are playing more games as a family than ever before. I am getting to introduce my kids to some of my favorite childhood movies. We are baking together and trying new recipes that I pinned years ago. I can't leave out the mail order Rx's... they are so awesome! I also have many "walking partners" who I talk on the phone with while I walk. It is fun to walk in different states at the same time. Tomorrow I will walk with someone different for the 5th day in a row! This is an incredibly rambling list of blessings large and small that have come out of this season (so far)! So, even though this is without a doubt a HARD season for our world and for our family... there are abounding blessings.
Through this season I have been praying much about contentment. I do feel like my prayers are being answered and I feel a great sense of peace in the midst of the minute by minute chaos in our home.
I saw something interesting online about the caregivers vs. non caregivers in this season. Those who are not caring for the old, the sick, or the young in this season are taking up dozens of new hobbies and completing endless house projects and spring cleaning... those who are care giving have less time away from those they are caring for that ever before and can only dream of a hobby. I can see where each camp might be envious of the other. My days pass quickly and they are never dull or boring!
I am going to wrap this post up with some weekly stats. I started this post three hours ago and the number of cases actually went up significantly since then so I better get this posted or these stats will be super outdated! There are 2,481,035 cases in the world, 784,599 cases in the US, 4517 cases in the our state, 80 in our county, and the good news is still just 6 in our community. There have been 28,103 new cases and almost 2000 deaths in the last 24 hours. Based on my stats from last Monday night, in the last week there were 556,356 more cases in the world and 197,658 more cases in the US.
I am so glad to be keeping track of these stats and I am hoping that we will eventually see these numbers slowing down quite a bit.
More photo blogs coming tomorrow (or today depending on when you see this post)!
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