Pandemic Fatigue setting in

May is almost over, and we are still in quarantine. I was holding out hope for a June 1st start to opening things up again, but it turns out our county is not going to meet some magic number goal to open. We are a long ways from getting to this number, so I am settling in for the long haul. We bought an above ground pool last week, yay! We still have to level the ground, looks like we are going to be try and get this pool up this weekend (and hopefully ready to swim in by next weekend, depending on how quickly we can get the water warmed up). It's nice for the kids to have something to look forward to! We did bend the rules a bit and have the Daveys over on Sunday, we stayed outside. It was so good to see the kids having fun with other kids again. I was all for flattening the curve of this virus, and now I am all for a safe re-opening. I am now wishing I lived in Alberta, which has started opening up sensibly. I guess time will tell if places that opened in May will have a giant second wave! Since King County will be in quarantine until January 2030, we will get a spectator seat to all these people living their lives:-/. Can you tell I am over this whole thing already??

Adam's repetition went through the roof this weekend. His OCD type behavior has been slowly evolving into movements, and this past week it hit high gear. He is moving away a bit from asking for repetition of touches, but now if someone across the room touches a chair, totally separate from him, he does not rest until that person has touched the chair in the exact same way. Chairs and doors are things he has really zeroed in on. He's had a few rough bedtimes recently, too. Saturday was the worst day we had with him in so long I can't remember, it was so discouraging. Thankfully this has tapered off a bit this week, the last few days have been a bit more manageable. I am trying to get in touch with some therapists that specialize in OCD, I'm not really sure how to get him the help he needs. He has another appointment with the medication department at the Autism Center, so we will see if this new doctor will hear us out and has any options for us medication wise. This new thing with him just bossing people around, making them do a literal dance for him is not going to fly in the long term. He just doesn't listen to anyone when he is in this mode - all he can do is focus on getting that need met. It's unreal. Hopefully we can find a professional that wants to take us under their wing and help us figure this out!

We managed to get Nathan on a bike again, and he even went to the bike park with Lynsey and the Daveys kids on Sunday! I was really proud of him, he had really only practiced on our driveway for a few days so far this year. Adam is trying to ride Lynsey's old bike, and is actually a lot more interested than I thought he would be, but he became a bit impossible after the first day. He wanted to be able to stand up on his bike with his feet on the pedals, and would not accept help. I found some training wheels on Amazon that are supposed to work on a 24 inch bike, so Brian needs to see if those will fit on Lynsey's bike. I so hope they do, and he can take more control of his own learning. I do think he would enjoy riding a bike, although I just don't know if he will be able to maintain the motivation to do the kind of pedaling that will be needed to actually ride the bike more than a few feet:-).

What else is new . . . Brian got an espresso machine, so that was exciting! When you are staring down months of working at home, you get to treat yourself to some new things! 

Quarantine Day Gazillion

So yes, I am losing track of time and the days are starting to run together a bit. I realize that one day with some perspective, I will read this and think "Geez it was not even two months at that point!" and future me would be right. It hasn't been that long, but yes it feels long. Adam's repetition has ramped way up the last 2-3 weeks, and is starting to get close to that unbearable stage that it has been in the past. Oh how I hope this is temporary. 

What has happened since my last post . . . we are hanging in there. School has good days and bad days, over all I think it's going okay. Brian now works with Adam in the mornings, not sure if I mentioned that last post. It works pretty well, although getting Adam to focus on school work is quite the chore. His teacher sends these read aloud stories that he records, and we put them on his Kindle and he loves to listen to them. We have had some nice weather which is so helpful for our moods - this past weekend it got up to +30 C! Our stay at home order has been extended until May 31st, which is discouraging for sure. I had to cut Jasper's hair myself because he was just such a hairy beast, he turned out okay but I am so tired of doing these things to him that he hates! I want to just be his momma, not the cutter of the nails that makes him bleed because I suck at it:-(. 

I am weary thinking about how long it will be until we can travel again. I very much want to go to La Crete to see my Mom, and I just don't know when that's going to be possible. I'm looking ahead to a summer spent at home, and I'm currently trying to convince Brian to get an above ground pool set up in our back yard. I emailed the City of Redmond because we back onto a ravine and wanted to make sure there weren't any requirements to consider there, and then I found out that I might need a permit of all things. She is going to look into it further (I guess she was new there) and find out for sure, I hope this doesn't turn into a big headache. Seems a bit over the top to have someone come and inspect my out of the box Costco pool:-/. I have no idea if the kids's camps will work out, and even our own camping trips are in jeopardy. One of them we are planning with 3 other families, so even if camping is allowed, I don't know if they would let us camp with that many other people. The other trip is in BC so who knows what the border situation will be by August. So many questions, not enough answers. 

I had a nice Mother's Day yesterday, so that's a bright spot! It was a gorgeous day weather wise, I did a lot of relaxing and chatting with friends and family. 

Not much else to report. Hopefully next post will be about some things opening up and life getting a bit more back to normal. Fingers crossed. Adam badly needs a haircut!

And the quarantine marches on . . .

Week 5 . . . or 6? I think It's been 5.5 weeks since quarantine started, since the kids and Brian have been home full time. 

The kids are doing amazingly well. Lynsey is video chatting with her best friend pretty much all day long which seems to be helping her isolation, she hasn't complained about not seeing her friends hardly at all. They do their school work together and just generally keep each other company. It seems to be working for her, and while we've had to put a few common sense limitations on it, it hasn't been an issue for the rest of us. 

Adam has been more repetitive of late, it's not at a peak of any kind yet but is ramping up a bit. We just heard that his therapist, who has been off during the quarantine, is leaving ORL. Sad, but we knew it would happen eventually. Therapists come and go, it's the nature of the position. His BCBA and a former supervisor have been coming to do sessions, so he still gets 2 or 3 sessions per week which is good. It's nice to break up his day. His teachers did a parade past our house a few Thursdays back, he claimed to want to go to the backyard but I know he liked seeing everyone. They stayed in their cars so he didn't get much chance to see them, but he knew it was them and he was smiling up a storm after they left. I am the most sad for him losing the rest of this school year, he has such a great teacher and aides. I am optimistic that they will be there next year, so hopefully he can still have one more year with them when this is all over! He has been enjoying walks with Brian in the evenings (which gives me time to practice piano in peace!), although his repetitive behavior has apparently become very disruptive on walks, and not the verbal repetition, either. It took them a half hour to walk one city block the other day because every sidewalk crack required him to do some kind of ritual before he could cross it. He wasn't upset at least, so as long as you have a lot of patience, it's not the absolute worst. I wasn't with him so maybe I shouldn't say that, I think Brian did have a hard time keeping his patience after a while understandably. 

Nathan has had absolutely no issue with this quarantine. He's not going stir crazy, and he has literally only left the property to walk Jasper with Lynsey here and there, and maybe drive with Brian to go get take out once or twice. He seems to be getting what he needs here at home! He was disappointed about our cancelled vacation, so I guess I shouldn't say he's had no issue with it. Any complaints have been connected to the fact that he wishes we could have gone to Phoenix. Me, too, Nathan. Me, too.

This past week was the first week that the kids had an actual school work schedule from their teachers, teaching new material. It went okay. The first day went really well and it made me optimistic, some days following were not as good but it wasn't terrible. Lynsey is managing her own work which is great, and Nathan has been pretty motivated for the most part. He did refuse to record himself singing for music though, and I didn't force him. It's nice to have a week of assignments laid out for him to do a bit every day, I think it will all be okay once we get more into the swing of how to hand things in etc. Brian has started teaching Adam this week. Lynsey was losing steam and just wanting to do her own thing instead of the material that his teachers had given us, and he still doesn't let me do it unfortunately, so Brian it is. I'm still reading Anne Frank in the mornings and most most mornings the kids enjoy it, we have had a few rough starts. All in all, things aren't that bad over here. Yes, it's not ideal, but I don't think anyone can say they are in an ideal situation. 

I have been keeping up with working out, although I am getting tired of running so down to once a week on that. I'm going to try a Les Mills class today, I get free access to their website through my gym so I can mix things up a bit. So far I haven't gained any weight but I'm certainly not losing any weight either. Just gotta keep going! I see so much yard work that needs to be done, and I feel like the house is always dirty, and everyone's hair is getting long - I did cut Nathan's hair the other day! It didn't turn out too badly, if I do say so myself. One side is definitely better than the other. I'm going to have to cut Jasper's hair, too, he is getting a bunch of mats on his chest which he has never had before. I ordered a grooming kit with some different scissors and I'm going to use our clippers, I'm sure he will look ridiculous but I can't have his hair matting up like that. I wonder if he's finally getting his adult coat now at 14 months?? Most Australian Labradoodles transition before one year so I'm not sure what took him so long. 

That is about it for us right now. Still very uncertain about the summer, we are just taking things one day at a time. If things get cancelled, they get cancelled - what can I do about it? There is some peace in knowing that this whole thing it out of my control. I just need to do what is being recommended and we will get through this. One summer without many activities is not going to kill us.

Loss in times of Coronavirus

March wasn't the greatest month, and let's just say April hasn't exactly shown itself to be a great improvement from it's predecessor. The day after my last post, Tuesday the 31st, my dad went into the hospital with a bad cough, low blood pressure, and generally poor health. The next few days were a roller coaster of "maybe he can get better" to "this is your last chance to talk to him, better say good bye". I of course was stuck here so had to settle for video chats, which we were able to have and I'm so grateful, because he passed away that following Thursday evening, surrounded by all the family that lives up north. It was all a very surreal experience, and quite honestly still doesn't feel real since I wasn't even able to go up for the small funeral that they were able to have (thanks Coronavirus). I have been mostly putting it out of my mind since I don't really know what else to do with it, but I am definitely hoping to go up to La Crete as soon as possible. Optimistically I'm hoping for June, but who knows what the travel situation will be like by then. I still can't believe this happened now, at a time when gathering and travel is so limited - grieving without human contact, how unnatural. I am glad that he was surrounded by family and by the sounds of it, it was a very peaceful passing in the end. He was awake a few hours before he passed and we were all able to say good bye, he was completely with it mentally until right at the very end, thank God. Many people don't get that, so I'm grateful for the small mercies we were able to have in this trying time.

My friend Kristy had her 40th birthday the Saturday after my dad passed, and we had planned this backyard gathering where we could celebrate but still basically follow social distancing guidelines. I decided not to cancel it, it was nice to be around friends and celebrate something happy. We all needed some interaction, it was a really fun evening.

The funeral was this past Wednesday, but since I couldn't be there, I planned a video chat "service" for myself, Liz, Dave, and Angie, and opened it up to any Grandkids that wanted to join. So many grand kids were involved, it was so great to be together at least in this small way. I played a few songs on the piano (first time ever playing in front of anyone and in those circumstances, not so sure that was wise as far as performance quality, but it wasn't about that obviously), Liz read the obituary, Julia read a poem she had written and Dave had a message for us. We are all hopeful that we can get together as a family in the summer and have a proper memorial service for him, one that he deserves.

So obviously this has been a difficult few weeks for me, and not just because of the quarantine. The kids are doing okay with all of it, we took last week off as "Spring Break" and started some home schooling again on Monday. There will be actual graded work being handed out starting next Monday, so this is our last week of just flying by the seat of our pants. I'm relieved that some of the burden for lesson planning will be off of me, and I think the kids are ready for more structure as well. Washington Covid cases have been slowing down a lot so I am hopeful that maybe there is at least a partial opening of "life" to look forward to in May, but I just know everything will be so different for a long time yet. I can't help but think that life will never go back to being exactly as it was, I'm sure some of the changes will be positive, but will we always keep our distance from people now? What is going to be the outcome of all this? I hope I read this post in 5 years and can say that we all came through this and became a better society, but who knows.

We did have a small "egg" hunt on Easter Sunday, as the kids weren't willing to forgo all fun because of our circumstances. It was a nice day, we had a nice rib roast dinner as well to signify that this was a day to be celebrated. The weather has been beautiful, what a grace to be given in this time. So strange, we were supposed to be on our Spring Break vacation last week. This was not meant to be at all because even without the quarantine, we would have had to cancel and go up to La Crete for the funeral instead. What strange times we are living in right now. Hopefully my next post will be a bit more upbeat, I can't really make up a happy go lucky feeling right now! This too shall pass.