Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Where or where to start?!?
Coronavirus, COVID19, quarantine.
I feel like we are living history right now. And we, as a family, thought it’d be fun and
interesting to document, journal, write down our thoughts. Perhaps someday our kids and grandkids will
be reading this as they study the world wide crisis, craziness that was the
year 2020. I’ve asked Ryan, Abby, and
Chloe to write down their thoughts too.
I’d like to combine it all into some sort of Shutterfly book for us to
look back on in time.
I guess I should start with how we got here? We went on a cruise for our February
break. Shortly before that, we first
heard of the corona virus. At the time,
I didn’t even know what it was, and there were a few jokes about hoping we make
it back. But it felt sort of like when
you go to Mexico and you tell people not to drink the water. Our cruise was great! No issues at all. Now Chloe and I both did get a little sick
the very first night back on land. We
thought it was just getting our land legs back; Coleson and I both were wobbly
and woozy and the world kept rocking.
But by the time we went to bed, my throat was pretty sore. Chloe woke up in the night crying about her
throat as well. Hers was better the next
day, but I kept the winter time yuck feeling [cough, sinus, a swollen lymphoid
in my neck, but only the occasional sore throat, never a fever]. Was it corona? Honestly, I doubt it, but we’ll never know
for sure I suppose. I do remember
telling Coleson and a few others that there was no way I’d go to a doctor right
about now anyways – how am I going to explain that I just got home from a
cruise and I don’t feel good?! Those
early days of the virus, back in February, it was like the plaque or something. The cases were coming in very slowly and thus
they were each making news individually.
I’m still not sure how privacy and HIPPA laws weren’t violated, but the
last thing I would have wanted was the news reporting that I had the case and
painting a scarlet letter on my door!
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Well, I didn’t make it very far on yesterday’s writing! The kiddos are doing Digital Learning
Days. And they’re not kidding! The teachers are keeping them busy, which
all-in-all I think I’m grateful for. But
some days are pretty rough. And they
can’t do the assignments well on ipads and tablets, so that leaves somebody
needing my laptop. I had these quaint
little visions going into this of our morning routine- kiddos doing school
work, me being able to keep up on bill paying, budgeting, emails, extras like
this journal typing. But alas, our days
don’t look like that. Tears [yes,
tears], meltdowns, not-so-great-grades.
But we’re adjusting and we’re getting there. Ryan is doing awesome!! I am so thankful right now for his
self-motivated, type A, get it done, first-born, crazy smart self. He’s all set up in his room and he gets it
done and he gets straight As still.
Downstairs, the girls and I are having to work together – they need a
lot of assistance. And yesterday we had
to have a talk about showing Mommy everything before you hit the blue submit
button. Case in point – our Abby has the
smarts, but doesn’t always slow down and have patience, so she got a 50 on math
grade. But when I re-did it with her, on
paper, she absolutely knew all the stuff.
I felt so bad for her [the 50 prompted her tears and it was all I could
do not to cry with her]. But we’re all
learning, we’re all adjusting – teachers too – and we’re getting there and
we’re figuring it out. I am so proud of
my kids, their teachers, our schools, our community for the resilience they’ve
shown. We jumped right on into
this! They’ve done one or two
assignments here and there as homework digital learning assignments, and
ironically I suppose, they were supposed to be out of school this coming
Tuesday, the 24th, for the primary elections and a test run of the
Digital Learning Days [DLD]. Cherokee
county has been working on this platform for two years now – since they missed
eight or ten days or something like that for snow. They ended up taking away our February break
that year [although I’d guess about half the kids still skipped, I know we
skipped out on two days for already made plans]. But anyways, all that to say, we’ll adjust
and we’ll get a new normal, but until then I don’t know that I’ll be able to
write as much as I’d like in between being teacher and sharing my laptop with
my students :)
And speaking of students, down they are for breakfast …
8:05am. Chloe starts her school days
with live chats with Mrs. Shakespeare at 9am which I love!!! She has been so awesome about keeping in
touch and doing interactive activities with her students. I knew she was great, but she’s totally
showing it during this week of turmoil.
Hopefully more later today …
Monday, March 23, 2020
Finding time and energy to type is harder then I thought it
would be. We’ve ordered a third
Chromebook, but it won’t be here for another week or so. Perhaps that will help. Then each kiddo will have a dedicated
Chromebook, and I’ll have my laptop back :)
I don’t even know where to begin! It’s like a dream. It is soooo crazy. I can’t even fathom how we got where we are
in the world. We’re not on total
lockdown yet, but heading that way perhaps.
With the exception of a hike the first day, the kids haven’t gone out
since they got home from school Friday ten days ago. They are still playing in the neighborhood,
but I’m not sure if that’s okay or how long it will last. I know some neighbors are upset that they are
still getting together and aren’t self- quarantined. At this point, Coleson and I figure that
since it’s the same few kids and they aren’t going anywhere or interacting with
other kids from the “outside” that it’s probably not an issue. There shouldn’t be new germs or risks at this
point, right? But no one really knows or
understands, so a lot of the kids aren’t allowed to play. We’ve changed the rules quite a bit of course
– no one is allowed in anyone else’s house, period. If you need a bathroom break or glass of
water, you go home. No knocking on other
people’s doors; if they’re outside in the driveway, you can ask to play. Although we have been telling the kids, as we
know about them, the families that are self-quarantined so they know not to ask
them. Really, it’s only the Esterlings
and Mahers that my kids are still playing with.
And recently we’ve added Maddux to our mix. This has been great for Abby. Ryan has all the boys of course, and Chloe
has Mari. But Abby doesn’t really have
anyone local. She did get to facetime
with Taylor on Saturday though, yay!
Maddux has been so sweet. He and
Abby played ALL day long yesterday. Even
the kids that can’t play, can usually bike ride. Safer distance, not touching the same
basketball, that sort of thing. We had
some awesome bike parades going on yesterday.
We will have the best bike-riding, soccer-ball-juggling,
basketball-playing kids ever when this is over.
Silver linings!! Abby and Maddux
played soccer in our driveway together, basketball in Maddux’s driveway, and
even down by the creek that goes along his backyard. I love dirty kids!! [well dirt dirt, not germ dirt!]. At the end of the day, everybody has to strip
down, put their clothes straight into the washer, and head for the
showers.
Last night, we had Las Palmas!! The two big “themes” if you will have been –
stay home and support local. I’m not
sure which it is. They kinda go against
each other. As I mentioned above, the
kids don’t go out, no need for that.
I’ve been out twice now and Coleson once. Same thing – sanitizer baths, handwashing,
shirt changing. On Friday I went to
Kroger and grabbed as much as I could.
We’re definitely missing fresh fruits.
I did buy extra though and froze grapes and bananas. After Kroger, I drove through Dunkin’ Donuts
and Chickfila. The dining rooms aren’t
open, but drive-thrus are. Restaurants
without drive-thrus, like Your Pie and Catch 22, have started doing order-ahead
with curbside service. Yesterday I went
out specifically to pick up our Las Palmas order; it was soooo good! Support local!! I can’t even think about the possibility of
Las Palmas not surviving these times of economic chaos :) We love that place. We’ve celebrated so many milestones and
birthdays and victories there over the 13 plus years we’ve lived in
Canton.
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