Quarantine, Week 1 (March 14-March 20)

During second week of March, the Coronavirus went from being an abstract threat in China (and then Italy) to something that was going to be a huge problem here. On Wednesday night (March 11) after the NBA announced that they were cancelling the rest of their season, I had a disagreement with my co-troop leader about cancelling our Girl Scout meeting on Thursday. Ultimately I cancelled (really irritating her!), though I still sent the kids to school on Friday. I just had a sick feeling that Friday would be the last normal day in a very long time. And by the time school ended, the superintendent had cancelled school for two weeks (as of now, it's cancelled through May 4th). And the cancellations  and postponements kept coming. March Madness, the Boston Marathon, the Kentucky Derby, the Summer Olympics. It felt very surreal.

I think our first week home was such a shock, I don't think anyone fully understood the magnitude of what was happening. Especially school being cancelled. Missing two or three DAYS for snow used to feel like a big deal, but now we were looking at weeks and weeks of no school. It was hard to fathom what kind on lasting effects that would have. In hindsight, I realize I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to figure everything out right away. There is tons and tons of info out there about homeschooling, and lots of creators and artists producing content to keep the kids busy and calm, so I'm grateful for that. But, it's just a lot to process.


Our first goal was to come up with a schedule. This was an actually an awesome first pass. Our day still looks a lot like this.



Bob had to get used his new coworkers. Glad my office "conference room" is finally getting used for work.



Before things got too bad we wanted to get our Girl Scouts cookies mailed off to the USS Harry Truman, where Bob's cousin Jack is stationed.



Audrey's dance class this week was via a video that her teacher made.



Maddy is the least fazed by all this. Her BFF is with her. She's getting more sleep and more time to read. She's pretty content.



We try to get out for a long walk most afternoons.







After our walk comes my favorite part of the day. Popcorn, and Doodling with Mo Willems. (Sadly, he only lasted three weeks before he stopped making episodes and we were so heartbroken. But we found another artist to draw with everyday, Jarrett Krosoczka. He's awesome in his own way, but I think we call still miss Mo.)



I've gotten out my old cross-stitch project. I'll post a quarantine before and after. (Cross-stitch stiches seems like as good a way as any to measure the length of a global pandemic.)



(This is the image I'm working from.)



We've walked to the tide pool many many times. I feel grateful to live in such a beautiful place.





That was our first week.