Quarantine Musings 2.5 Weeks In

Well, here we are - 2 and a half weeks into this whole home schooling/quarantine thing. The novelty has worn off. Class isn't starting perfectly on time anymore. Sometimes, what is on the schedule is not what is being done. BUT we are still going! The kids, especially Lynsey, are not as motivated as they were at the beginning, but we are managing to keep some kind of schedule of events, albeit not perfectly. Adam has been doing a short amount of work every morning with Lynsey (I gave up trying to get him to let me do it) and most days he cooperates. Today was the first day he really didn't want to settle down and do the work, I had to threaten to do it myself and he did eventually get to work. I have been reading the Diary of Anne Frank to the kids and I think they are enjoying it. I am enjoying it (well, not sure "enjoying" is the right word, but I am finding it very interesting - and sad). A friend of mine pointed us to this guy on YouTube that is doing live science classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and while we have only watched 2 so far, I can safely say this will be a regular part of our routine! Both kids are enjoying them, and there is always a very simple experiment to do with the kids afterwards. Before we discovered this guy, Science class had devolved into watching nature shows on BBC Earth, so I'm glad we found him haha. Nathan has decided he wants to learn guitar, so I got him a kids guitar a week and a half ago and he's been quite diligent in learning with me! It's time to get him some actual lessons, now that I've given him some time to completely lose interest and he hasn't. I hope he runs with it, how cool if he could learn and become really good at it!

What else is there to say . . . I have been leaving the house only to go running and walk the dog, apart from a trip to the grocery store about once a week. I went to Costco about a week and a half ago, which was an experience. They are having people line up outside (6 feet apart of course, must maintain that social distancing!) and letting small amounts of people in at a time so there are only about 50 people in the store. The shopping itself isn't too bad since the store is empty, but it's such an eerie experience. I feel super aware of everyone around me, making sure I don't accidentally get too close to someone else, people must always know that you are doing your level best to completely avoid them. When I'm out running I do wave to people as I pass them, but I feel like in the grocery store the thing to do is to get as far away as possible and not make eye contact. It's all so strange. I don't know how long we would have to be in this mode before it would start to feel "normal" but it looks like we will be here for another month at least. 

I guess that's it for now! Stay safe, stay home and try not to make anyone mad by getting too close to them if you do have to go out!

Is this our life now? Kroeker quarantine musings

I feel silly even describing what has happened since my last blog post, because of course there is not a person in the world that isn't currently living the nightmare that is COVID-19. No explanation is needed, everyone knows. However, I realize that this too shall pass (even if it doesn't seem like it will!) and there is going to come a time many years from now when we will look back on this time and only have blurry memories of what it was like. So I thought I should try and chronicle what the last 10 days have been like, for our family at least!

I just looked back on my last blog post, and I actually talked about things that didn't have anything to do with Coronovirus. That can no more the case. Every aspect of life is now affected by this virus. Schools closed last Wednesday, announced just after school let out that day. Not surprising. Professional sports leagues got put on pause, big events cancelled or postponed (no March Madness?? What??). At first it all seemed surreal, but I think by now the shock is starting to wear off and it's just coming across as "Life is cancelled". Nathan was excited to start LaCrosse and was able to get one practice in before that was cancelled. Lynsey had been looking forward to her Equestrian lessons in March, and got one lesson in before the last 2 got cancelled. Adam has been looking forward to our Spring Break trip to Phoenix, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas (as we all were!) and just yesterday we made the difficult decision to cancel that. Not even sure if we will have to option to go by the time it rolls around in early April, but our Las Vegas hotel actually cancelled on us so we decided it was time to pull the trigger. 

We are not as negatively affected as many people. I am a stay at home mom and completely capable of giving the kids some kind of schooling here at home. Brian is working from home and getting paid his full salary. The small disappointments we are experiencing as a family are just that, small disappointments and nothing we won't be able to recover from. But you would have to have been living under a rock and continue to do so to not be worried about what kind of world is on the other side of this. I can't even fathom what the far reaching consequences are going to be of shutting down businesses, travel, all activities outside of the home for weeks, possibly months. The amount of people that just lost their income . . . what is going to happen to everyone?? This is all outside of the actual virus sweeping through and causing hospitals to become overloaded, never mind all the people that sadly won't recover. I am trying to just do what I can and not let myself get too heavy with what is happening and/or going to happen. Time will tell.

Has anything positive come out of this? Well the kids were quite excited to start home schooling! Nathan is pumped to learn about things that are well outside the 2nd grade curriculum  - he is learning all the 80's methods of doing math, in particular fractions (and it's making sense to him I will add, pat on my back lol!). I picked up a packet from Adam's teacher yesterday so we can start doing some school with Adam, too. This morning actually went really well, although he did not want me to do any of the teaching. Hopefully he will become more flexible on this, as Lynsey needs to concentrate on her own work and not just sitting with Adam! We are starting with very low demands and I'll see how we can grow them over the coming days. I definitely have less free time than I did before, but so far I'm sort of enjoying the experience (with exceptions throughout the day of course!). I realize we are only a week in and it's going to feel like a really long time before this is all over, but I do think we can do this. I am taking this opportunity to teach the kids about Canadian geography and history, and we are going to study The Diary of Anne Frank starting next week. It's a chance for me to teach the kids things that I believe are important, and not just from an America-centric point of view! So yes, things aren't all bad. We are trying to make the most of this situation - what else is there to do? This is going to go on for at least 5 more weeks, possibly longer, so we are buckling up! We will see how positive my next blog post is!

You know who isn't at all upset about this whole thing. Jasper. He has people home 24/7. Most days he is getting walked at least twice. He hasn't had to be alone for well over a week and probably won't have to be for several more weeks. He is thinking this whole quarantine thing isn't so bad!

No one under 8 in this house anymore, and Corona-who?

It appears that March of 2020 is going to go down in history as Corona-month here in the Seattle area. The COVID-19 virus is currently working it's way through the Seattle area, and let's just say it is not business as usual! School hasn't been cancelled in our district (yet) but I suspect it may happen this week. There haven't been any confirmed cases in our district at this point but there was some in the district north of us and they are now closed. Big events around the Seattle area are being cancelled or postponed, even our church services were cancelled today! I had a mild cold last week and had to be very careful not to cough in public, who knows what kind of stoning I would receive for trying to live my life out in the world with a mild cold:-/. People are losing their collective minds and stocking up on toilet paper and water (??), I am just trying to keep things business as usual as much as possible. I have been much more conscious of washing my hands properly and often and reminding the kids to do the same, although I am positive that Adam doesn't do a great job of this. Somehow he has superhuman immunity and never gets sick, thankfully. I am hoping this will blow over in the next week or so, but who even knows! It's a bit unprecedented this reaction from around the world, I don't really know where it will go from here. Wish us all luck over here in the Seattle area!

Life has been going on, and we've had a few events of late. Nathan had his first Science Fair which was fun. And then there was this little matter of our baby turning 8 years old last Friday! We didn't do much on the day of, he had 3 friends over on the following Sunday for some cake and home laser tag. It was a fun time! Earlier that Sunday I went to a doggy birthday party (definitely not one I threw myself, my human kids barely get parties lol!). Jasper's litter mate Drew was obviously turning 1 at the same time as Jasper, and his owner had a birthday party for him at an indoor play park so we joined for a bit. At least Jasper got to ride on someone else's coat tails and have a little celebration lol! His actual birthday was on March 4th and we didn't do anything for it, although I think we did give him a steak bone that day which is a huge treat for him, so we'll call that his birthday present:-).

Nathan started Lacrosse today, so we will see how he likes it! Lynsey is playing school basketball again, she's a point guard this year. She has improved a lot since last year, but it has become abundantly clear to me that if we want her to make even Junior Varsity next year, she is going to have to play on a club team. I think she likes volleyball more so we might invest in that one instead. It's unfortunate that the coaching isn't good enough at these lower levels to get you to the next level, unless you are a complete natural at a sport you have to be playing outside of school. It's just so different from how it was for me. I am glad that she seems to be figuring out what she likes so we can actually invest in trying to get her skills up in a particular sport (other than horse riding, which is her very favorite but we are definitely trying to diversify her interests!).

Adam has been starting to change his repetitive behavior at times to be asking for certain touches instead of verbal repeating. This is not an improvement, and we are trying to nip it in the bud. It was bad for a few days this past week, but it seems to have gone down again, so maybe it was just a blip. He might have been experimenting with a different compulsion to see if it met his needs but decided it wasn't working for him. His verbal repetitiveness has been much better the last few months, it's hard to imagine life in a really high state when it's been this manageable for so long. I know it could come back at any time, so we are just enjoying the break! He's such a sweetie<3 .="" p="">