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.