I have wanted to journal our days in quarantine as much as possible, and now, about ten days in, I have finally started. Procrastination is one of my finest faults, lol. I saw this idea somewhere and wanted to move forward with it because I truly think we will look back on this as a historic event, the first of its kind, and it will be neat to remember how we handled it and how it impacted our lives. I also think it will be an interesting narrative of this situation for my kids to read when they are older. I am not confident they will actually remember this since they are so young.

Anyways, I guess I have to sum up last week. I think overall it went well. It was a novel situation (no pun intended) and we enjoyed most of our time together. I quickly discovered the kids (and I) did much better if we were on a schedule. TJ discovered he needed to go into the office to work (instead of the kitchen table) and I discovered virtual happy hours are pretty awesome.

Ideally, if it wasn’t raining, I started the day with a five mile jog. I have found a nice peaceful route and the distance is perfect to calm anxiety and get me energized for the day.

The kids start their day by doing chores, practicing the piano, getting dressed, and brushing their teeth. Then, if its nice, they immediately have outside time – a family run, or playing in the backyard. That helps them feel better. After that we do either an hour of electronics or an hour of school time.

I will be honest, school is literally nothing more than doing the worksheets their teachers have given them, working on a biography project that was supposed to be due, journaling, or just reading. I may start going beyond that, but for Anthony especially it is hard to sit for that hour and do makeshift school. Oh, and Luna gets zero school. She is three. She will come out of this just fine.

After school is lunch, then usually free time which is anything BUT electronics. Puzzles, reading, playing outside, baking, crafts, etc. Then its usually “practice” with Daddy. Gemma chooses soccer and Anthony baseball. Then dinner, more electronics (sorry, that is the way it is) television or movie and bed time.

We have tried to do some special things. We hiked Stony Creek over the weekend, that was fun but now they are telling us no hiking because too many people are doing that. We have done A LOT of baking – we baked brownies, coconut flour banana bread, crumb cake, cookies, etc. I have tried cooking a little more, I just hate cooking though so its kind of hard. I did make enchiladas, those were delicious.

There have been many virtual happy hours and “coffee” time. That helps me. I am one hundred percent an extrovert, and this time helps me feel a little more normal.

Today we did a craft – where the kids painted their hands and feet and we made bunnies and carrots. I hate crafting, so this will likely not be a reguarl thing. I thought I would do a lot more “organizing” of stuff, but its hard with the kids here all day to really do anything. We have been working on a 1000 piece Spongebob puzzle that helps occupy us, and the kids have new books to read.

Overall, some of this slower pace and connecting as a family has been nice. But man, I think the kids are dying to get back out their and see their friends. Gemma more so than Anthony. Luna has no idea what is gong on and is fine. Let me tell you though, if it rains, all bets are off. It’s horrible. Not being able to go outside seems to really tank our family into a pit of despair.

We are starting to run out of groceries again, but TJ does not want anyone to go out. However, we have a hard time here without eggs, milk and fruit so someone is going to have to go.

As for the specifics of today, we are sleeping in a little – for Luna and Anthony that’s 7:00 a.m. I got everyone breakfast – oatmeal for the older two, frozen chocolate chip pancakes for Lu. She’s obsessed with these frozen mini chocolate chip pancakes – and the grocery stores were all sold out of them for awhile. Luckily, last time TJ went he got four boxes so now we are good!

After that, I went for my run, exactly five miles. When I got back, I ate, did some laundry, cleaned up and showered. The kids had free time (but no electronics) and they decided to paint, play in Gemma’s room, and then watch an episode of Loud House. They also had to get dressed and do their morning chores/practice the piano. Shockingly Gemma and Anthony put dishes away, cleaned their bathroom sink and put their clean clothes away without fighting, which NEVER happens.

We saw some friends from six feet away who were riding bikes past our house and got to say hi, but then Anthony discovered a cigarette butt in the yard, touched it with his foot, and I made him take his socks off and wash his hands. He cried, because I’m sure it’s scary when your mom is like, “for the love of god don’t you know not to touch litter!!!!!”

I got dish towels and Luna’s bubble bath from Amazon yesterday so since it had been 24 hours I opened that up (after disinfecting the box and then everything inside) – the dish towels are to help with the overuse of paper towels in our house – since there seems there are no paper towels anywhere. I threw those in the wash along with Anthony’s tainted socks on the disinfect cycle in the washing machine.

We then went for a family jog (minus TJ). TJ has been super busy at work and locks himself in our office all day. The kids HATE this, except Luna who goes in the jogging stroller, but I am worried they aren’t getting enough physical activity and it’s a good way to get Anthony’s excess energy out. We do a one mile run around the neighborhood. When we got home they wanted to ride bikes and scooters around the nieghborhood so we did that.

Then it was already time for lunch. Anthony said he’s getting so sick of sandwich’s – that kid would buy every day at school but only eats like three things at home. He had a peanut butter sandwich, balogna (on the side) and applesauce. Gemma had Mac ‘n cheese and carrots. Luna literally eats the same thing all the time (pasta with Alfredo sauce, chicken nuggets, and tomatoes). I had leftover chicken burrito bowls from last night. Tj didn’t emerge from the office. 

I let them have electronic hour after lunch. I cleaned up, and read books to Luna. After that we did school, which is Gemma doing the last worksheet she got from her teacher, and educational app, and reading a biography on Rachel Carson. Anthony does three pages from a workbook and was particularly sour today – it was a struggle the WHOLE time. I made him journal for ten minutes and her just wrote “I hate school” 25 times spelling hate wrong each time.

After that it’s a blur. We spent some time doing our 1000 piece puzzle, which we have almost finished! Anthony really likes puzzles and told me, “it’s exciting when we almost finish, but also sad because I know it will be over.” The kids were outside a lot. We did our craft. They had another electronic time, Anthony read, we made gluten free cheddar bay biscuits and had those and steak in the grill with salad for dinner. It was delicious. 

TJ finally crawled out of his office around 6, and played some game with the kids outside until it was dark. I promised them ice cream sundaes and a sleepover in the basement. 

It’s weird, on the nice days, it’s like a weird staycation – and I know I am so lucky we have our health . I try to make sure we do some fun things with the kids to keep their minds off their uncertainty and anxiety. It’s oddly relaxing and slow. We eat a lot. These are the changes. I continue to try and enjoy the positives and the time spent together as a family.

I hope to update this a little more later.