Covid-19

I'm still WAY behind on regular blog posts, but for posterity's sake, I think it's important to take a moment to record what's happening in our crazy world at the moment. 

A month ago, Seattle became one of the first cities in the United States to report a case of Covid-19 or Coronavirus. Our area quickly became a hot spot, with reported virus cases rising quickly, then exponentially. Since then, the virus has spread around the country and the world, bringing with it fear, uncertainty, and major disruptions to "regular life."

Most schools around the country are closed. Aubree's last day of school was March 13. Homes United followed the lead of our local school district, so Bryce hasn't been back to co-op either. The original plan was for school's to open again on April 27, but that it looking less and less likely. 

Our state, like many states in the country, is under a "shelter-in-place" order. We're not supposed to leave our homes except for "essential" activities. Today that order was extended until May 4 - more than a month away. Most businesses are closed. All church services and activities have been cancelled indefinitely.

I think most people feel fairly gobsmacked; none of us have experienced anything like this previously nor anticipated how swiftly our lives could change. The rapid changes are unsettling and stressful. 

In many respects, our family is in a better position than most to handle the current chaos. For starters, we already homeschool most of our kids, so Thane, Graham, and Nellie have been able to continue their education with minimal disruption. We shifted to online school for Homes United, so even Bryce has had some continuation of "normal" instruction (public school's here won't start "real" online education until April 13).

Mark has been able to work from home, so for the moment, our income stream is still steady. We have no debt except our house and an emergency fund, so the financial stresses aren't overwhelming. We are in good health with no major Covid-19 risk factors. We recognize that we are so, so blessed.
Still, this has been really, really hard. Even though we've been homeschooling for a long time, THIS is NOT homeschooling. Quarantine schooling means no more co-ops, classes, sports, field trips, get-togethers, parties, or play-dates. We are not used to staying home all the time.
As part of her bedtime routine, Nellie always wants a story about what we're doing the next day. She hates storytime now, because she, "just wants to GO SOMEWHERE!" Most of us feel similarly. We're not a family of home-bodies (with Mark as the major exception - he's handled all this isolation extremely well).
Aubree misses school. Well, not the school part so much as seeing all her friends. When they first cancelled school, she thought, "Hurrah! Six weeks to spend with small groups of friends!" But that quickly turned to seeing zero friends, and that's been miserable. For being little miss social, she's handled the quarantine surprisingly well. She's not happy about any of it, but she's proven to be very self-motivated and productive. She spends time every day working on Algebra 2 (prepping for next school year), studying for her AP Geography exam, practicing violin, getting a head start on Spanish with Duolingo, filling in gaps in her music theory knowledge, doing home-study seminary, reading stacks of e-books, baking like a maniac, and completing a Washington State History online course. She also borrowed a guitar and is teaching herself to play. Even with all that to keep her busy, she's still bored. Thankfully, she is able to keep in touch with some friends via texting, Facetime, and Zoom.

Bryce doesn't always adjust to changes quickly or easily. This has been a major upheaval, and he's had good days and bad. His Homes United classes have switched to Google Classroom. There's been a big learning curve. He's discovered he works best secluded in the "office" (laundry room) with Mark. Ultimately, I think this experience will help him learn academic skills that will help him when he gets to college and beyond, but it's a lot to process in a short amount of time. He's most sad that he doesn't get to go to his ballroom dance classes, but he also really misses seeing his friends on a regular basis. It's hard when there's "nothing to look forward to."

Thane is arguably our most introverted child, but he's really become quite the social kid this last year. He has a big group of friends that he is so sad not to get to see. He misses FLEET and is sad he doesn't get to play soccer with all his buddies. He also misses going to his weekly art and science classes. He gets angry when he remembers he doesn't get to play with Finley or anyone else. I've doubled down on school work for Thane and Graham, because... what else are we going to do with our time!? The idea is, that when the restrictions (hopefully) lessen in May, we will be pretty much DONE with all our coursework for the year, and free to GO PLAY. Thane is fully on board with this plan. He generally asks if he can do extra work.

Graham is a social butterfly, but it's a very good thing he also loves reading, because that's how he's spending the bulk of his time these days. He's almost finished reading the first three Harry Potter books in the last 4 days. He misses everything too, but has been pretty patient with this whole process.

As I mentioned earlier, Nellie is desperate to get out of the house. She does like having Mark working from home, but isn't great about not bugging him while he's working. When he's around, she knows she'll get to watch more shows and videos. Since we're stuck at home for so long, I broke down and subscribed to Disney+, so she's a happy camper when she gets to watch extra movies. She also gets almost free reign to dress herself (who cares about matching when no one will see you?), so her Covid fashion outfits have been, uh, interesting.

 

As for me, well, this feels like a nightmare. I'm a forward thinking planner/organizer in a situation where NOTHING can be planned ahead. I'm an extreme extrovert, and I can't be around people. I've caught myself thinking things like, "This stay-at-home life is my punishment for all the times I told my kids 'Only boring people get bored.'" Or, "As much as I love reading historical fiction books and admire the courage and perseverance of the characters in the stories, I am realizing that I do NOT enjoy BEING a character in the story!"
I have friends who are loving this forced "pause," and while I totally appreciate their sentiments, I would LOVE to wave a magic wand and immediately solve this crisis so life could go back to "normal." I miss our friends and activities. The only thing that I would keep about this situation is the ability to sleep in till 8 every morning.
Of course, that's not to say there haven't been highlights. Aubree was invited to play her violin (outside) at a nearby nursing home. The residents are all stuck in their rooms. It was a beautiful day, so the seniors opened their windows while Aubree and Greta played three songs, then picked up their music stands and moved to a different location to play three more songs to serenade a different set of windows.

It was a lovely and powerful opportunity to serve. As they were playing in their final area, an older couple walked by to visit their mother (to chat with her through her window). The husband asked if he could sing along to them playing "How Great Thou Art." Talk about a moving moment!

 

We've been able to have church meetings at home. Honestly, I love going to church and would happily return if given half a chance, but it's also been special to have our own sacrament meetings. A couple weeks ago, Katie and her kids joined us. Mark assigned each of our kids a short talk.

 Bryce played the piano for our hymns, and Aubree played a special musical number on the violin.

That Sunday evening, as I was cooking dinner with Katie, I mentioned that I'd lost my sense of smell. I joked, "It's probably a COVID-19 symptom!" Just a few hours later, I wasn't laughing anymore when I read the first (of many) articles indicating that loss of smell is a key symptom of COVID-19. Yikes!
At that point we went into full lock down, not even going out for groceries. The next day I felt tired and had a dry cough, but was feeling better by Tuesday (and my sense of smell also returned that day). If I hadn't been on heightened alert, I probably wouldn't have even noticed feeling "sick." So, maybe I had Covid. Maybe I didn't. It's really hard to tell and nearly impossible to get a test. Almost two weeks later no one else in the family has shown any symptoms.
I can't wait till antibody tests are readily available.
In the meantime, stay safe everyone! We miss you and we hate this locked down life, but we're doing fine(ish).