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!
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