Today we had less fighting, so that kind of does feel like growing up!
I cleaned corners on countertops I’d forgotten existed. We watched the neighbors continue to groom our yard. We read. We watched TV. We changed the world.
Okay, we didn’t really change the world. But we did watch Elton John’s living room concert. I was bummed he didn’t really sing, so thankfully YouTube has a plethora of videos.
After the concert, we sang together in the living room in our own home. And by sang together, I mean Ben chose the songs. Oldest child listened along. Youngest child complained of boredom. And me? Oh, you better believe I belted it out along with Elton, Freddie, David, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Fab Four.
I forget how powerful a good song can be.
Last night, as my husband got ready for work (he’s essential but part time right now), he turned on Phantom of the Opera.
I think the survivability odds of this isolation period dramatically increase with more music, so moving forward, we will be playing music every day.
Will I cry a lot?
Yes.
Yes, I will.
I am so powerfully moved by music that even the most basic songs come out with tears. I sing along until I choke up and my voice cracks.
I’m not sure if it’s the emotion of the music, the world around me, or that I’m just far too sensitive, but I do know that music which makes me cry leaves me also feeling cleansed and refreshed.
Plus, when I cry, the kids give me lots of hugs. That’s pretty cool.
I feel like we need a party. Maybe a good quincañera? I mean, it’s a world wide, multicultural event we are experiencing, so a Mexican coming of age party sounds really exciting to me.
Plus, the food would be amazing.
I was woken this morning by a phone call from my person. She’s having to balance two toddlers, a husband, two dogs, a job from home, and maintain her own sanity. She doesn’t think she’s winning, but they’re alive and she’s a freaking rock star, so I’d say she’s winning pretty hard core today. Her day got rougher, so I sent her a lot of love. When we all earn our freedom, I can’t wait to hug her.
I’d barely finished our phone conversation when I looked out my kitchen window. The dogs had started barking, so I was curious. My dad was in the street! He’d gone for a bike ride on this beautiful spring day, and decided to swing by and say hello! I haven’t seen him in 13 days, so I was SUPER excited. I almost jumped out of my skin!
He gave me a hard time for being out in my bare feet, but it was so totally worth it to see my dad!
It was refreshing to have a chance to catch up.
I’m really not sure how the kids are still alive. They were at each other’s throats so intensely that I thought it might take a flame thrower to separate them. I was afraid for my own life.
They did come out of it in one piece, but as is tradition on a Saturday, they did almost nothing at all productive.
One kid showered.
We even braided her hair!
I learned today that if we let our hedges get enough out of control, the neighbors will offer to clip them for us!
They spent a couple of hours clipping back our diseased shrubs, which I thought was fitting for a nurse who has taken the next week off. Swapping one disease for another. (Don’t judge her, she’s an AMAZING pediatric nurse, and thankfully the pediatric department has been very slow with the clinic being more careful and more families staying home).
The best part was when her dogs decided to help!
The two of them together chewed up a stick.
The same one.
Some siblings can get along!
My furbabies have been busily singing along to fire sirens, and telling stories to the entire neighborhood.
They have a lot to say.
I took my daily walk, this time without my children (it was so freeing!!) I listened to my book, and tried not to freeze in the headwind. I could hear my dogs from several blocks away.
I guess the bright side is that they’re very protective.
They sound vicious, but they’re so sweet and really harmless…
This one might be part wolf though…
It’s a good thing he can’t read this blog. He’d be so embarrassed.
Today was a pretty good day. I’m hoping for another warm one tomorrow, and with all this walking, my audiobooks, and my Weight Watchers, I can come out of this quarantine period with the ability to shop for a new wardrobe.
I have too many old lady clothes as it is…
Or maybe I just need to stop calling clean pajamas daytime clothes…
I stopped writing out the numbers, you’ll notice. That’s because I’m too lazy to write them out.
No, it’s actually because in professional writing, you spell out numbers under 10, and then use the numbers for anything higher than that. Though I suspect it was laziness that led to that tradition…
We had an epic meltdown over counting coins today, but after a frantic and misspelled email to her teacher, claiming she didn’t know how to use Moby Max, she miraculously recovered and completed several more lessons mostly on her own!
I’d like to take credit for that, but I think if I do, it’s more like when your computer won’t work and you call IT, but by the time someone shows up, it works again. I’d emailed her teacher as well to explain that we had it under control, she just maybe needed some confidence boosting.
I’m not sure if teacher ever emailed kiddo back because she turned into a rock star. Go figure …
We realized today, also, that our oldest is the most unfortunate human in the house. She’s an extrovert in a house full of introverts during a quarantine. No wonder the poor babe is losing her mind. She missed a Google Hangout with her class because my anxiety kicked in and I forgot to check the clock. Oops.
We’ve now added teddy bears to our window so they can keep watch over the neighborhood, and also to participate in the great Bear Hunt.
We are winning at showing beauty through our front window.
Good thing they can’t see inside!
Laundry is the only task that’s caught up-ish, but I’m about to give up entirely on the rest of the house.
I committed a mortal sin and turned off the thermostat. And didn’t tell anyone about it.
Thankfully, my husband is far too reliant on me to murder me for this transgression. Instead, he reset the thermostat so it won’t kick in until it’s a bit colder. Lucky me!
I’ve had a lot of really great feedback on my art lately, so that’s going to be my focus for the next few days, to try to paint more and share more love and beauty with the world.
It’s hard some days …
I like to find some complexity in an image too… Black canvas is my favorite right now.
I did learn one very important lesson last night …
Do not order take out when your tummy is grumbling. It’s very expensive.
I also could start a career as a dream interpreter…
I dreamt last night that I went to work for Pizza Hut. My first shift, they made me take every table. I was confused, and didn’t really know the menu very well. Worse yet, I didn’t have a code to place the orders into the computer.
I asked everyone to please help me get a code so I could ring in the orders, but nobody would.
They just kept making me take the tables, they’d ring in the order for me, and then I’d move on to the next task.
When it was time to start cashing out the patrons, I cannot find a single person to help me.
Somehow, the tickets get cashed out, and when my shift is over, I realize that I’ve done all the work, and everyone else claimed my tips.
I’ve been a waitress. I know how hard a shift can be, especially when you’re new.
I know this dream was my way of telling myself to back off a bit, and stop trying to do and be everything for everyone.
But I do feel like I’m doing everything for everyone all the time.
I sit down to enjoy my own lunch, after making sure everyone else has theirs, but then someone needs something… Or I want to sit and watch a show, and everyone gets louder. I need to make a phone call, and need to solve some major kid drama…
The worst thing about quarantine as a parent is that there is nothing truly isolated about this isolation.
It’s hard to find time for self care in all this. It’s my responsibility to hold the world together for everyone around me.
It’s not, really, but as Mom, I feel like it is.
So yesterday, I painted a window. It felt so good, a small victory!
And as my children drift off to sleep, two weeks into this insanity, I’m counting blessings.
We walked over a mile tonight, soaking in the sunshine and listening to the birds sing. We laughed and shared our dreams. I was reminded that my beautiful youngest child is kind of psycho! She has weird dreams. She makes up weird stories, and she has an imagination that could rival the world’s greatest writers …
The BEST thing about this quarantine is finding the time to be creative with my kids, to love them wholly, and to be present in their lives.
The day started beautifully. Well, aside from the fact that nobody ever cares when Mama is sleeping. TV is turned up, piano music needs practicing, computers need deconstructing …
Small child has big plans for her future, though, so that’s pretty cool:
“Dada, so you know what I’m going to be when I grow up?
A superhero.
I’m going to be a tech girl…”
And that’s how Jodi Whittacker day started!
Small child found an old, small laptop of ours and wants to fix it. She’s pretty sure $7 at the hardware store will fix it.
I think we are going to have to get this kid her own computer!!
She was so proud of herself all day, so that made up for the reading struggle earlier this week. Reading isn’t her strength, but she sure as heck has a lot of others!
Oldest child had her fair share of ups and downs today. She read a lot, and is working on creating a book trailer for the book she’s reading.
She’s even writing a script.
I really want to tell her that book trailers are super short.
But she wants to hold auditions for the four of us to decide who gets what part in the book trailer.
Honestly, Dad and I are barely still alive, and our acting chops are seriously rusty.
She got a few things picked up off her floor… And put a sheet on the bed. So I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.
I painted the dining room window. Oldest was heartbroken that I didn’t let them help, but honestly, it was a project I needed to do for myself. Also, I really didn’t want to risk the potential disaster spilled paint would come with. Wood window sills aren’t very easy to get acrylic paint off, and I didn’t want to risk it.
Ignore the cop car. Just the neighbor.
I swear.
The girls are also actively preparing for next year’s Stars of Tomorrow talent show. They created spontaneous ribbon dance routines to Train songs. I enjoyed watching them, AND it doubled as our PE time today!
They’re exhausting, but such beautiful souls.
I might be able to sell them to a circus by the time this isolation is over… After all, they are dancers, choreographers, actors, script writers, and computer engineers.
They’re incredible!
I really don’t know what day of the week it is at this point. Pretty sure I showered this week. Maybe twice even.
I did make a massive roaster of chili, which could feed an army, but I’m selfish and do not plan to share.
Not sharing that, but more importantly, I’m not sharing the 6 pounds of crack chicken in the crock pot.
I’m not a hoarder, just well prepared.
It’s always been my habit to cook in large batches and then freeze a bunch of it. With the COVID-19 restrictions on grocery purchases, we are getting as much as we can without causing trouble for anyone else, and then staying focused on continued isolation.
We are most definitely NOT going to starve to death. That’s a pretty big win!
I now have a bottle of apple brandy, so that’s also nice. After another day of insanity, I think I might actually sleep tonight!
We are all still alive, though in various stages of insanity.
Ben cleaned the basement. All of it. Laundry too… He did an excellent job, and I think he should be permanently banished there. Don’t tell him I said that. I would miss him though.
I have one child who wishes she was a maid. Even wants to be called “maid.” And the other child? She throws epic fits claiming that she’s treated unfairly like Cinderella… Their efforts are equally reflected.
Smallest child did some chores. No school work. She’s been so afraid to do any more because she had a really rough online lesson the other day and doesn’t feel like she can do any more. But tomorrow we will try again.
Oldest child did some chores, but then fell asleep around 4pm and has been sleeping ever since. It’s now 8:30.
Just when I think we are all getting over the crud, it feels like it circles back around.
So we ordered dinner tonight. Contact free delivery is quite unusual. Call, order, pay, add a tip without knowing what service will be like, wait for the doorbell, pick your food off the porch, transfer to clean dinnerware, toss takeout containers, wash hands for 45 minutes, consume said meal…
It was so nice to not have to cook. I wish we could do delivery for every meal.
Though the 45 minute hand washing might be a bit obnoxious.
I suppose it would be easier if I could get to the grocery store, but with the constant run down feeling, and the high risk of catching coronavirus right now, it’s just not worth it.
I’ll have to call and find out how to order grocery delivery this weekend. I’ve never done that before, so I guess it’s a new adventure!
After talking with some friends today, I’m realizing that we all have it pretty scary and rough right now. The uncertainty is overwhelming and unnerving.
My town, though, in the heart of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wyoming, has come together like you wouldn’t believe. Everyone is working hard to keep small businesses open, and trying desperately to avoid layoffs. It isn’t always working though, and people I love will be hurting from this very soon…
So for today, I’m grateful that my babies are here, healthy, and strong. I’m grateful for delivery. I’m grateful for being able to work from home. And I’m grateful that my very own basement dweller is here more hours in the week. I miss him when he’s working full time.
Surviving COVID-19 and all its economic, emotional, social, and medical impacts will change every single one of us. I just hope it finds us more compassionate.
More specifically, I love that good steaks are often on sale for Valentine’s Day…
Tonight, we dug some T-bones out of the freezer and devoured them. It felt like a gourmet dinner!
I’m also feeling like I kind of missed out on naming my Quarantine Logs with something clever.
For example, today would be Day Matt Smith
Yesterday, Day David Tennant
Tomorrow, Day Peter Capaldi
Though this cleverness would quickly run out and I’d have to add in daleks and The Master, and Cybermen, and Weeping Angels, but a significant number of my readers would not know what I was talking about.
Also, the number logic kind of ends after Jodi Whittacker. And even then, the logic is iffy…
But today, we did precious little academically. We are all so tired, and I think there’s a level of depression setting in. So the kids played outside, we did some Zumba in the living room, kites attempted to fly, and then we went for a mile walk. So it isn’t like we are just being lazy…
Just not particularly academically focused.
Though we did watch the Red Pandas at the Cincinnati Zoo, and a bit of a British documentary on Wild China.
We saw Ben for a bit, evidence that he does exist and is alive. We were grateful for that. But mostly because he came upstairs with two clean loads of laundry. That was the best part.
For anyone who heard some children singing silly songs very loudly and off key down the streets tonight, you’re welcome. We will gladly serenade you again on our nightly walks.
But tomorrow we will probably stay home. It’s supposed to rain.
Pretty sure that the pull of sleep had a rock solid grip on small child and myself this morning. It hurt to wake up today.
Waking up was made more bearable though by Ben’s absolutely amazing, award-winning (ok, not yet, but they should be) hash browns.
School this morning started for Natalie with a culinary lesson, omelettes and hash browns to die for. We sometimes forget that Ben is a really great breakfast cook.
If I could, I’d eat potatoes all the time.
Children played in the yard again today, and were surprisingly understanding when told they couldn’t have a playdate. They kept the dogs entertained, made deviled eggs all on their own, and even listened to audiobooks without being told!
I’m thinking this quarantine should have happened a long time ago!
We did art again today, watercolor paper with oil pastels, and then we posted them in a Facebook group which will hopefully share the pictures with folks in the local nursing homes, since they can’t have any visitors.
Whatever food was left on the dining room table was just devoured by a furball who shamefully waltzed to the back door when his name was called.
I firmly believe I’d be a millionaire if it wasn’t for all the food wasted in this house…
Maybe even a billionaire.
But at this rate, we will never actually know.
And considering the dog just ate eggs, I think he’s initiating a banishment to the back yard for 24 hours…
I’m really enjoying this time with the kids, even though I’d like to leave the house. I’d like to see some friends. I’d really like to go out for dinner and let someone else do ALL the work…
Friends are 100% welcome to come park a chair on my front lawn and chat through the windows. It’s the best workaround I can think of.
What a day this was! It was full of emotions, and tears, and yelling, and laughter, but ended with a whole lot of love.
Oldest child wanted to follow the new schedule today, even though it was Sunday, so of course I said yes.
She and her sister cleaned up the garbage in the back yard, which was excellent because it wasn’t our garbage… Somehow our yard is a magnet for other people’s old dog toys, fabric, plastic, and other random items.
Not really sure how that happens, but it’s getting old.
I’d rather have an extra week of quarantine than keep finding neighbor’s trash in our yard.
We painted, and cooked, and pretended that technology didn’t exist for much of the day. It was beautiful. We also have the most delicious cupcakes and a home made pizza!
We finished our dinner while watching Clue, which the girls absolutely loved!
What a fantastic day this was. And while I know the world around us has slowed to a debilitating halt, and businesses are suffering, and families are without work, I’m also incredibly grateful for this time with the girls.
It’s the first time in years that we’ve had the time together AND I’ve had the energy, and it’s beautiful.
Tonight, though, I had a real taste of what the teenage years are going to bring. Oldest child, while only ten, has the ferocity of a seventeen year old.
We had a disagreement, where she claimed she’s treated like Cinderella, and said she wouldn’t do anything ever again except breathe …
But then, after some brief letters to each other, we resolved things, made home made popcorn, and settled in to watch Little Women together.
I’m writing this now with a beautiful little red headed firecracker asleep on my lap.
It’s good to know that even at the end of a roller coaster day, my babies need me. I need them, too.
Social distancing. This is directly counter to our nature.
Hi, my name is Katie, this is my brother Wally, and we are surviving this quarantine as well.
The humans spent a long time apart, I’m not sure why Dad was in the basement and Mom was upstairs, but he must have done something really bad like eating a library book or maybe some laundry.
The largest of the tiny humans spent time with us in the basement, too, but I think she was barking a lot. That’s usually why I get in trouble.
I wish Mom understood that I’m just trying to reach out to my community as they pass by. There are so many of us in the neighborhood, and we have so much to catch up on every day.
We have two neighbors, Wesley and Frank, who really like to talk. They live in different yards. I think, sometimes, that Frank just really likes to hear his own voice.
Sometimes Mom mutters about it when she makes me come inside.
It’s been a really long time since we’ve seen any other humans, and while I usually prefer to just climb up in Dad’s lap, I kind of miss new people. My nose feels really lonely some days.
Wally is really lonely. He loves everyone, no matter how they smell. It’s really hard for him to not have new people around. Even Mom’s old humans don’t come visit anymore.
They say this is because of a virus, and I got scared for a bit, but Mom promised the small people that us dogs can’t catch this virus, so I feel much better. Mom takes good care of us, even if she won’t let me eat Wally’s food.
In my defense, he gets distracted really easily, and I’m an emotional eater.
Mom seems frustrated sometimes, but I think that’s because the small humans don’t give her much space, and Mom is more of an adult social. She loves kids, but she wishes there were grown ups around too.
She really misses Dad when he’s stuck in the basement. Maybe he shouldn’t eat the books.
We don’t know how long this will last, but we do know that even banished to the basement, Dad is home a lot more now and that makes me very happy. He’s my favorite person in the whole world.
Overall, I think us dogs are doing quite well in this human quarantine. I will continue to check in with the neighbors regularly, and I’ll keep guarding the house from the strange lady who keeps leaving bags on the porch. Mom says it’s school food for the tiny humans. I wonder what school tastes like?
Might update again later, Mom is still sleeping and left her phone unlocked. That’ll teach her.
I win today. After a tricky start to the game, I finally beat oldest child at Monopoly.
She was so focused on the railroads, I kind of tricked her so I could have Park Place.
Now, she’s a bright kid. Really bright. So I made sure I told her why I was selling my three railroads to her for an exorbitant amount of money… She knew I wanted that monopoly. And she allowed it to happen.
I think the most clever thing of all was that the motive behind her purchase was to keep the game going just a bit longer, but really to let me win, too. She was just so happy we were playing together!
Later, small child climbed into bed with gum.
“where did you get gum?”
“under the couch”
“oh good God”
“what? It was still in the wrapper…. Okay, I just swallowed it”
If anyone is surviving COVID-19, it’s this child.
We aren’t sure about that child, though she’s really quite bright also. Just unusual. Highly entertaining!
We also created a schedule for the coming week. Turns out, chaos isn’t good for us…
I showed it to small child and her eyes wide, she exclaimed, “you mean we get a schedule like I’ve been asking for?!”
Yeah, kiddo… You can have a schedule.
Oldest was so excited, she pointed out there was school work she hadn’t finished yet and she wondered if we could start the schedule tomorrow!
I feel like I’m really winning this right now!
I say this now, but I give it about three days before it completely crumbles…
…and along with it, all my dreams of winning Mother of the Year.
Though I hear those are often made of popsicle sticks and glue, so maybe I don’t need one.
I did get a lot of hugs today, so that was great.
Yes, quarantine hugs from my mini-mes who are carrying the same germs as me.
No hugs for anyone else.
Husband is still not quite well, but we’ve released him from his banishment. Figured the germs are circulating in the house anyway…
Plus, our survival really does depend on me having a copilot through this adventure.
I must say, though, I’m quite impressed by the successes we have had so far.
Everyone is still alive. We are rocking this quarantine!
Corona Can't Keep Me Down 