CVSD: Day 10

There is a meme floating around the internet comparing what people thought of homeschool moms before the Great Social Distancing Movement of Covid-19 to what people think of homeschool moms now that everyone has been forced into the homeschool life.

In one version, the preconception is that homeschool mothers were puritanical women who are now seen as super heroes. I have to be honest and say that I'm in my third year of homeschooling and I don't know anyone who is this level of puritanical, and I fully believe that all involved parents are super heroes.

Last year I met a public school teacher who told me she could never teach her own kids at home because she couldn't handle being home all the time. Well, I want to set the record straight: I love teaching my kids BUT being home all the time is the pits! Last week was the most I have ever been home in my whole life (other than for sickness).

A normal week for our family would have social interaction with other people including (at a minimum) going to the Y and being with friends for at least two hours on Monday and Tuesday. There would be a group hike or field trip on Wednesday and then meeting up with friends at church for several hours. It would mean a drop-off co-op at the YMCA on Thursday for most of the day. Then our Classical Conversations co-op that lasts almost all day on Friday. Not to mention several hours of playing outside with neighborhood kids every day and our standing Thursday afternoon playdate with a family in another neighborhood when they all get home from school. As homeschoolers our family intentionally crosses paths with hundreds of people each week. And now, like the rest of you, in a blink of an eye, it's all gone. And it's been hard.

Whatever notion you have about homeschoolers, it probably isn't exactly true. Especially not based on everyone's current reality. I can give advice and suggestions based on what we are used to, and life is probably a bit easier for us in a lot of ways; but like you we are dealing with having to prepare more meals, having to clean more often, husbands who are working from home in our spaces, kids that are bored, kids (and mamas) who miss their friends, and kids who are eating all of the snacks by the end of Monday.

Homeschoolers aren't some kind of special parent with super powers. We are like you. Parents who care about out kids and are doing the best we can considering the circumstances. Much love to everyone during these trying times!

CVSD: Day 9

I don't know about you guys, but these days I am not getting the best sleep. Poor sleep means a cranky mommy/wife, which isn't good for anyone.

If I'm being honest, today wasn't a great day. I don't like writing that because overall my life is good. Compared to my siblings and so many others who work at hospitals, I am barely inconvenienced. But even so, I think we all have bad days, and today was one for me.

I am one of those people who is a mixture of extroverted and introverted. Meaning I need to be with people and do my best processing out loud, but I also need larges doses of time by myself. And while I have had plenty of time with my family (almost 24/7 for the last seven days), our conversations have revolved almost completely around school/kid stuff or coronavirus updates/Daniel's work. I guess I've just hit my max on these topics and needed some time alone. And by alone I don't mean absentmindedly surfing my phone and reading all of the CV updates.

After dinner I saw that my great aunt had shared a video on FB of a group of women singing "Down to the River" as a virtual choir. Different locations but together. It's beautiful to hear their voices all blend and to read where they are all from.

As I watched the video I felt a sudden urge to take a walk. It was almost dark and cold and rainy, but I just needed to go. So I left Daniel and the kids to work on a crane they are building out of K'nex and I walked down to Green Gorge (a trail close to our house). As I walked, the lines "I went down to the river to pray" kept repeating in my head like an anthem.

The creek at Green Gorge was swollen with water. The trail was mostly a puddle. As I walked my frustrations eased. As I repeated the lines to the song, the words fell away and a prayer came instead. I pulled the hood of my rain jacket off my head and let the water trickle down my face. It was just what I needed. I came home soaked, but feeling like I was in a much better place. Sometimes you just need to go down to the river to pray.

CVSD: Day 8

Many of the groceries stores in our area are having an early opening for people in high-risk categories for Covid-19, specifically the elderly. It is heartwarming to see our community (and others across our country) pulling together in ways like this.

We decided I should venture out to get our next round of groceries today, so I headed to Walmart as soon as I had coffee made. It has been six days since I have left our neighborhood. It was a little strange to be back among people, albeit strangers.

Everyone was polite, giving space as necessary. A couple of times I found myself facing another costumer in a grocery aisle and we both turned and went the opposite direction instead of passing shoulder-to-shoulder. I read a funny meme that said, "We used to cough to cover our farts, now we fart to cover our coughs." A cough definitely gets you a stink eye these days.

Since we are at home and eating every meal, I had a full list of items that needed replenishing. The store was fairly well stocked with printed signs indicating that you were only to take one or two of some things (like bread and milk). The only aisle I saw that was truly depleted was the pasta and rice aisle. All that was left was a top shelf of lasagna noodles. I guess we aren't to the point of making lasagna from scratch yet! There were also no frozen waffles. My boys will be bummed, but we have plenty of other fresh food to eat.

I did self-checkout, even with a cart-full of food. It took forever, but we are trying to limit contact with people afterall. When I got home, I carried the groceries down to the front door where Daniel took everything out of bags and had the boys carry each item to the kitchen to put away. Then I threw away all the plastic bags and went straight to take a shower. This may be overkill, but we are trying not to take extra chances with the outside world –– how strange is all of this?

I can tell that I haven't been around other people much. I have been much shorter with my boys. Daniel has been on the phone non-stop all week, with very little time to talk with us. So even though he's home, he's not really here (i.e. no adult conversation). I did manage a 30-minute workout after lunch, that helped my mood but I miss talking with my friends in real life.

Today was a gorgeous day. No rain and warmer temps. The sunshine felt so good, but it also brings concerns of storms. We are in tornado season now. I find myself checking the weather app, not just for where we live, but for where my parents and other family members live as well.

CVSD: Day 7

The lack of group exercise is starting to wear on me. I miss my workout groups and the endorphins I get several times a week at the Y. Tomorrow I need to get serious about finding workouts I can do at home that will keep me engaged.

The boys and I have been spending a lot of time outside. Mostly riding bikes at the park (them) and walking (me). We've told them they can't touch the playground equipment. We are opting to allow them interact with a couple of neighbor friends, though we are continually stressing that they need to stay six-feet apart. This leads to me flailing my arms from across the park and shouting things like, "Six feet!" and "Remember your social distancing!" or "I said SOCIAL DISTANCING!" These are strange times indeed.

We know quite a few people in our neighborhood, but more people seem to be at home right now, I find myself crossing paths with families I've never met before. We also check in daily with our elderly neighbors next door. Isaac has progressed to trying all kinds of tricks on his bicycle and I think he's going to give Mr. Wayne a heart attack.

Someone on Facebook suggested sharing about your day and describing your kids as co-workers. My share for that post was, "My coworker keeps yelling, 'Done!' from the bathroom and expects me to come help him."

My weekly Wednesday Bible Study group hopped on Zoom tonight. It was so good to see so many faces I love. I hope to give them all a big hug when this is over. We shared prayer requests, talked about the chapters in Proverbs that we have been reading and then just shared what's going on in our day-to-day lives. Have I mentioned I'm thankful for technology?

Other things I'm pondering...
Are Emergen-C packets really just expensive servings of Tang?

CVSD: Day 6

Daniel started telecommuting today. He spent about 10 hours on the phone in meetings. He's camped at the kitchen table, so the kids and I did our best to stay in our Lego room/school room area and outside as much as possible.

Listening to Daniel's conference calls through a shut door gave me a migraine. Or maybe the headache was due to the lack of exercise. This is something I need to remedy. Walks have been good but are not quite the same as my usual Boot Camp class.

Flowers are starting to pop up in our yard. We are all prone to allergies, which is worrisome since the coronavirus has some of the same symptoms as allergies. Nonetheless, the kids are playing outside as much as possible. Which I love, but it also means we have a lot of muddy laundry and shoes. I may need to start hosing them off outside to cut down on the level of mud going into my washer.

Before bed Daniel and I had a talk about how we are feeling, what we think is going to happen. Daniel is the type of person who over prepares for everything. I tend to under prepare. It's hard to know what we should be doing, but we are at least trying to get on the same page.

I came across this graph that showed how social distancing by 50% can drop the spread of this virus significantly. If you can distance by 75% it is a huge reduction. Our family has definitely isolated ourselves from more than 75% of the people we normally interact with (no workouts at the Y, no church, no grocery shopping since Friday, no co-op, no preschool). I miss my friends and family, but am so thankful for texting and social media right now.

CVSD: Day 5

Since we already homeschool I feel fairly prepared for our week. A few things will be different though: we typically go to the Y for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, and we rely heavily on library books for our schooling (neither are a big deal in the grand scheme of things). We may have to do some things differently in the weeks to come but I don't see that being a problem.

We followed our normal school routine until noon and then decided to go for a hike. We invited a neighbor's son to join us (his mom had a big project to finish up today). We completed our hike and then Jack and his friend were able to play outside for several hours. It was chilly but they stuck it out most of the afternoon, playing and riding bikes. They ran out of things to do outside (and probably needed a break from each other) after five hours.

While out hiking and walking in the neighborhood we ran into two families I had never met before. We kept a reasonable distance as we chatted. While there is a lot to be worried about, it is also nice to have time to chat in the street with someone new and check on people who are out walking their dogs.

This afternoon there was an update that instead of a two-week hiatus, the public schools will be out until April 13th. A lot of people are expecting school to be out for the rest of the school year. I know lots of working parents who are trying to wrap their heads around being home with their kiddos all day long for the foreseeable future. It is definitely a learning curve with good days and bad days, no matter how seasoned you are at this homeschool thing.

I need to stop looking at Facebook and the news. While there were lots of sweet posts of people helping each other, and pictures of kids doing school at home, there is also a lot of heaviness and concern about the unknown and what is to come. What countries are shutting down their borders? Will we? Will citywide lockdowns be implemented? How bad is it really going to get? A week from now, what will this all look like. Italy is in dire straights right now and we are wondering if that will be us soon...

At least we have toilet paper.

CVSD: Day 4

Daniel got an email this morning from his boss saying that his department will have a staff meeting tomorrow. On site. !$#*?! His company is a government agency, don't they realize we are all supposed to be practicing social distancing? It's hard not to be frustrated by this.

We are starting to tentatively adjust to all being together. I know it is just Sunday, but our routines are already off with church being cancelled at the building. It is going to take a bit of time to get used to family dynamics of being together (if Daniel's work does finally let them work from home). We just need to remind ourselves that it will be like our camping trips when we are together 24/7. We got this!

We had a live televised worship service for church this morning, but it wasn't quite the same as being in person with our church family. For one thing we were all in pajamas and there was coffee and hot chocolate. No matter, the message was good: Love our neighbors. And also the reminder of, "what then can separate us from the love of Christ? Neither trouble nor hardship nor the coronavirus..." (paraphrase of Rom 8:35).

After lunch Daniel checked with our elderly neighbors to see if they needed anything and to let them know we are available if they do have any needs. We are also thinking about others ways we can fill needs in our community, while continuing to practice social distancing. I checked in with my small groups from church via text after worship service, trying to encourage one another during a time when we are all so unsure about so many things.

It rained all morning but cleared up after lunch. Daniel went to run a couple of necessary errands and I let the boys play outside with a friend. One of my good friends asked if I could go for a walk. The fresh air and sharing our concerns about the upcoming weeks was good for my soul.

The boys played outside for most of the afternoon before coming back around 5pm. I think they finally reached their play-together quota when it comes to outside play (they are seriously missing playing Minecraft and other inside games together). After supper two of Daniel's friends dropped by. While we are distancing ourselves from others, true isolation may prove difficult.

I know many families who are gearing up for their first day of imposed homeschool starting tomorrow. I am cheering them all on from the sidelines. My best advice is to make your kids go outside or do jumping jacks when things get out of hand. Or hide in the pantry and eat chocolate. Both work wonders.

I read somewhere that the coronavirus is just three degrees of separation away from each of us. I experienced that reality last night. A friend texted out a prayer request: she has a neighbor who owns a small company in North Georgia where a woman in her 30s (and her husband) both tested positive for coronavirus (after testing positive for the flu and pneumonia). She is currently in ICU at Emory. Her husband is also in ICU but doing better than her. They had not traveled at all and probably picked up the virus from a crowded place. It was all over Facebook this morning. Three. Degrees. of. Separation.

The birds don't seem to know there is a pandemic happening. They just keep singing that it is spring.