Crisis Management

Tomorrow marks two weeks into this brave new world of living inside our house all the time. Here are my thoughts so far, in no particular order:

• I'm a confusing combination of extrovert and homebody, so I'm happy staying in, but I miss people. 
• I really wish we could spend more time outside. The park/walking trail that we visited last week is now locked down, so that's out. We tried to play outside our house but found at least a dozen peanut shells around our home. There weren't any around our neighbor's homes. It's been going on since shortly after we moved here, but never so many at once. For a long time I wanted to think maybe it was someone snacking while working on the grounds crew (but they haven't been here in months) or a squirrel (but that would be a very particular rodent to only choose our house). Whatever the reason, we can't play outside. 
• I wish we had a yard.
• We have eaten very well. Bryan and I both like to cook and we've jumped right in to making use of time to prepare meals. And we're being extra diligent about eating all the leftovers.
• We go through a lot of food.
• I learned how to make Tartar Sauce this week.
• And coleslaw.
• And hoagie rolls.
• Our regular weekly shopping trips look like we're hoarding. Bryan got groceries yesterday and overheard another pair of shoppers judging the abundance of items in his cart. He turned to them and said, "I have seven people in my house, this is just a regular shopping trip." They scoffed and walked away.
• This whole thing is pretty scary.
• Our school district will officially begin distance learning on Monday. Thankfully they're not requiring daily teleconferencing meetings for each child (imagine a class full of Kindergartners on a video conference), but instead will post daily assignments to be completed by the students that day. We'll see how that goes.
• Peter is going stir-crazy at the lack of socialization. He really wants access to online gaming all day long so he can talk to his friends. He'll have to make do with what I think is a generous hour and a half. Yeah, he's an extrovert too.
• I asked Cooper if he wanted to video chat with his good friend from church and school. He said, "No, I'm okay." He is not an extrovert.
• Phoebe has a daily check-in with her class where they type messages to each other on a Google Doc. I think it's the highlight of her day. She's also an extrovert.
• I'm not sure if Sophie is an introvert or an extrovert, but I do know that she's loud. So loud. 
• Topher really, really, really loves having all the kids and Bryan home.
• I love it too.

Lunch Selfies

Advanced Reading or My Brother's Kindle

Quarantine Week One: The Words

Last week went exceptionally well. We had a good balance of school and work and play and family time. We can't really play outside (I'll explain that in a later post), which has been hard, but opening the windows has helped.

Many states canceled school last week and had the kids jump right into online learning as their teachers were scrambling to set it up. The state of Pennsylvania just canceled school without sending home required work. Based on what the superintendent of our school district has said (that every child in the district needs access to a screen and the internet) and what's happening with the spread of COVID-19, it appears that our time at home will extend beyond the original two weeks. That means our teachers are spending these two weeks getting ready to move their classrooms to online formats. But for now, we don't have that in place. So while the rest of the country complains about being suddenly thrown into homeschooling, we could take the two weeks as time off.

We aren't.

I mentioned last week that we put a loose schedule in place. We also setup some ground rules for each weekday (chores and school) and we chose to make Saturday (fun breakfast, more chores) and Sunday (church at home, attempt at resting) feel different from the rest of the week. Here are the ground rules:

• get dressed everyday, no pajama days
• open all the blinds in the house and let in whatever sunlight we can
• the kitchen is only open during certain times of the day, no all-day grazing
• we study the scriptures as a family as soon as breakfast ends
• everyone does chores
• everyone does school
• everyone exercises
• each of the three big kids has a thirty minute turn taking care of/playing with Topher in the afternoon so I can make dinner

Depending on who you are these either sound restrictive or lax, but they were just right for us. These rules meant that by 3pm each day all the kids had their charts done and were eligible to play video games. Peter and Phoebe are good at getting stuff done when they want to, but Cooper and Sophie really struggle. This plan helped them a lot, which means Cooper and Sophie love the schedule while Peter and Phoebe are not fans.

School consisted of Khan Academy, Prodigy, First In Math, Scratch, Starfall, PBS Kids, piano, reading lessons for Sophie (a review), worksheets that her teacher emailed, and lots of reading. My mild obsession with having educational materials on hand has really paid off this week. I guess I'm still a homeschooler at heart.

We did have rough spots. 

I am now on the clock and working with at least one child all the time from about 7am to 9pm, depending on when kids wake up and if Peter goes to bed on-time, so I'm very worn out. I've eked out time for my personal scripture study, but beyond that my usual reading has taken a major hit. Plus, I am an extrovert and, while I do love the extra family time, I need other people too. This means I've been on Facebook waaaaaaaay too much after bedtime. It's not real social interaction, but it's something. I've texted with several friends and family members, checking in to see how they are, and we've started using the app Marco Polo to connect with people. That helps too, but it's still tough.

Overall though, it was a good first week.

Quarantine Week One: The Pictures

Somewhere Under the Rainbow

Sophie's kindergarten teacher had all the kids (and their families) create and turn in leprechaun traps more than a week before St. Patrick's Day. With the schools all closed this week, that means that Sophie's trap is still at school. It also means that I didn't need to dash her hopes of catching a leprechaun at home (because I just didn't have the energy for that kind of magic this week) because we didn't have her trap. I did get a few pictures before she turned it in.

Books, Brothers, Bedtime

Green Day

We had a great St. Patrick's Day at home yesterday. It included wearing green,

eating green oatmeal for lunch (because I didn't get up in time to make it for breakfast),

and enjoying potato soup, sauteed cabbage, and Irish soda bread for dinner.

Have I mentioned that cooking for people is my love language?

To Guide Us In These Latter-days

Because church is canceled, we had a lovely, very spiritual Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School/Primary lesson on Sunday in our home. Peter prepared the Sacrament, Bryan blessed it, Cooper passed it. They were all so careful and reverent. My heart swelled with joy watching them each serve our family in those ways.

The girls all played a roll as well. Sophie gave our opening prayer, Phoebe shared the third Article of Faith, and I taught the lesson. Peter and Cooper also shared their testimonies of specific topics and everyone participated in the lesson. Topher wanted to share as well, so he stood at the front of the room while Cooper spoke. 

We had planned to take an hour for all of it, but we ended up going closer to an hour and a half, only stopping because Topher needed to take a nap. When I finished my lesson I asked if the kids could feel the Spirit in our home. His presence was strong.

In all of this chaos and uncertainty, I keep going back to a few important points. We've been prepared for this for years. For as long as I can remember the leaders of the Church have counseled us to have food storage on hand in case of an emergency. I have dedicated space in my basement for that food. Additionally, we've been practicing home-centered church for over a year now, ever since President Nelson announced that we needed to realign how we worshiped. Our current experience might have been much more overwhelming if we hadn't already been having several small church lessons each week as a family.

I have a testimony that we have a living Prophet on the earth today. He is inspired. Our family is much more prepared for this pandemic than we might otherwise have been because we listened to and followed his counsel.

It Will Be Okay

Remember when I wrote about not having any snow days? I lamented that I could really use a break and that an unexpected day off would be welcome.

Be careful what you wish for.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the world everything is canceled. Church will be held at home until further notice. The kids have the next two weeks off from school. There's no dance this week. Bryan will work from home until the end of April.

I think all of these cancellations are very wise. If we can do anything to slow the spread of the illness, then we should do it. And I'm certainly not complaining about having everyone at home. But there has been a heightened sense of anxiety at our house. We always have an undercurrent of anxiety, but this has kicked it up a notch. We've had lots of talks about what's happening and what we can do to help. The kids aren't complaining about being stuck inside, though I am really wishing we had a backyard right now.

We are safe. We have a fully stocked pantry and supply room. We have a daily schedule worked out. We're ready to do school and church at home, and that's good because we may be here for the duration. Aside from a case of the common cold, we are healthy. It will be okay. It's still scary, but it will be okay.