Day 11 (I think?)

We're on Day 11-ish of social distancing / disease isolation / shelter in place / introvert's paradise.  So - 1/6 Watsons are not at all bothered by the current lack of seeing people we aren't related to.   
I can't lie.  The rest of us are struggling.   
It was announced that there won't be Holy Week / Easter services at St Timothy. 
I get it. 
I truly do. 
Even seven years out, I'm still a healthcare provider at heart.  My license will never lapse.  I worked too freaking hard for it.  That's something you don't lose.  It's a mindset for life. 
I KNOW that our church  population would be at extreme risk gathering. 
Lives are more important than my desire to partake in the sacraments. 
But *knowing* that we won't be able to actively participate in Holy Week, my absolute favorite time of the Liturgical Year, made me sad.  Really sad.  Especially Holy Thursday. 
We're putting our heads together as a parish to see what we can do. 
I'll keep you updated. 
Apparently, our Children's Liturgy from last week got shared with the Archdiocese of Baltimore with a good reception (eeeek!) and I'll be keeping up with it. 
Public schools here are closed until at least April 24 and I can't see church opening before then. 

I'm not complaining. 
I've nothing to complain about. 
We homeschooled before.  Jim is still working.  Our lives have been minimally disrupted.  We're all here.  We're all healthy.  We're safe. 
It's just different.  And scary.  And unknown.     

Today was warm and sunny. 
Opposed to yesterday's cold, wind-blown rain, the weather provided some welcome outdoor time and vitamin D intake. 
I had to make bread yesterday.  We didn't need bread.  .
There was too much togetherness.  Things needed to be punched. 
We get a couple more people and we're over the legal limit! 

#kneadingdoughisbetterthanpunchingpeople

Thankfully the bread came out beautifully. 
It was gone in less than 60 minutes. 
2.  Freaking.  Loaves. 

I thought having 20 pounds of flour in my pantry was enough. 
I was wrong. 

Having heard only horror stories of shopping at Wegmans AND after seeing them out of meat, eggs, butter, pasta, frozen veggies, fresh veggies, bread & a 1 gallon milk limit, I ventured to WalMart a couple days ago.  As much as it pained me, WallyWorld had everything (except toilet paper).  There wasn't even a limit on milk.  I grabbed 3 gallons (less than a week's worth for us) and asked an associate if that was okay.  She let me know emphatically that "They asked me to put up a sign with a limit for milk on it, but we got plenty of milk.  I got four kids.  I know what they eat.  I know there's folk with lots of kids out there.  Honey, you got a lot of kids.  You take all the milk you need and if they give you ANY problems, you send them to ME.  I TOLD THEM!" 
I got out of there with a week's worth of milk, thank goodness. 
I told her I would have hugged her if I could. 
She told me to go home and love on my kids. 
Sometimes people are wonderful. 

Sam made sure we got up early enough on Wednesday to pray with Pope Francis.  

Dance Phase has begun streaming dance classes.  I cannot tell you how much that makes our lives better.  I miss the land in Oklahoma and I MISS MY DANCE PHASE PEOPLE.  

Hopeful

The world has turned inside out. 
People are sick.  Some are really sick.  Some are dying. 
It's all over the news and seems inescapable. 
I'm praying and hoping we can minimize the human and economic toll. 
This is hurting a lot of people in a lot of ways that seemed unimaginable a couple weeks ago.

Compared to how others are suffering, our troubles are so minor. 
We already homeschool - we're used to a bit of social isolation. 
Some days it's awesome and some days a kid falls out of chair while reading poetry. 

You have to go with it. 
We're able to compensate for the lack of dance with extra outdoor / run around / PE time. 
Being cut off from church hurts.  Virtual teachings, meetings and FB lives help.  My appreciation of the sacraments has increased exponentially. 
Hunkering down is the only way to get all this under control. 
We do what we need to do. 
Limiting access to media helps.  I usually end up walking around the neighborhood while the noon White House press briefing is happening and must appear as a crazed lunatic while I'm angrily countering the responses Our Fearless Leader gives. 

Like everybody else, we're doing what we can. 
We're all feeling out of sorts, a bit isolated and more than a little anxious. 
A little grace goes a long way, I think. 

The meat shelves at Wegmans were picked clean on Thursday, as was much of the rest of the store.  

The view at the end of the street.  I find I'm savoring the beauty around me ever-so-much-more.  

Consider yourself warned.  I'm pretty sure the 4th horseman galloped by this morning when Sam got up, got dressed, vacuumed, did his chores, ate and started school ON HIS OWN.  

Awww...they love each other.  Sometimes.  

St Patrick's Day

In keeping with tradition...and because...other than watching the world fall apart...there's not much going on...
Here is our Annual Installation of St Patrick's Day Pictures.  I'm not sure where a couple are...asking for grace on those. 
We've come a long way in 15 years of Feast Days. 

The Covid Isolation

We're already the weird homeschooling people - so not leaving the house for extended periods of time is somewhat more normal for us than it is for most folks. 
That being said, it's still tough not to have dance or Church to mark the passage of days. 
It's only Day 2 of Social Isolation...so we have NOTHING to complain about...but it's going to be an adjustment for us. 
I can only imagine how tough it will be for normal, socialized people. 

It occurred to me as I was walking today that this will be one of THOSE times that we use to mark the passage of years with.  I think if we do a good job isolating ourselves now, it will save a whole lot of lives later.  I also think that a good management strategy will be seen as an overreaction.  But I'm not paid to think about all this...so I'll just go with what the experts say. 
I'm all for overreaction at this point. 
We've got a few weeks of food and curricula for the next semester. 
Let's stay here for as long as we need to in order to minimize this virus. 
We decided to not allow the kids to play with their friends at this point.  I took this video on Friday afternoon and realized there's no such thing as social distancing to the 9 year old crowd.

I also realized that, even though we're in a lower risk group, it's impossible to get these kids to NOT lick doorknobs or windows or cars or anything else that might show up...so we need to just hunker down and wait things out. 

We got "Ticket to Ride" for a Christmas gift. 
So far, it's a hit. 

As are the Baby Yoda shirts.
#becausebabyyoda

I just suggested to Jim that we revert back to Standard Time since we won't need the extra hour of daylight for activities.  He nixed it. 
I think it's brilliant, frankly. 
I might just switch the clocks and see if he notices. 

We're making sure we don't descend into "holiday mode".  That means
-keeping consistent wake up and bed times
-continuing with school on our 8-3:30 timeline
-enforcing the current chore schedule
-dressing up (think classy, you'll be classy - amiright?)
-being vigilant with PE time
-meal planning
-minimizing media / screens during the time we would be at dance

We'll see how it all goes. 

March Week 1

March.   
Beautiful, humbling, exhausting and heartbreaking. 
It's only the 7th. 

The boys, a neighborhood friend and I drove to the Naval Academy on Monday night to pay our respects to the Forney Family.    The boys were in epic form,during the rainy, windy trek to Annapolis, singing Glen Campbell and hurling insults such as "Stew Beef" and "Butt Crack Residue". 
They also probably pushed our passenger,  poor Lexi, to consider a lifetime of celibacy. 
Thankfully, as soon as we passed the entrance onto post at the Academy, the boys got themselves together.  They did great.  They gave Miss Erika a hug.  As Sam told me, "Mom, sometimes you just gotta show up."  That kid is wise. 
The Academy Chapel was overwhelming.  When walking in, it feels as though you can't quite shake off the ghosts of those that have worshiped and mourned there before. 
Strangely enough, that was comforting. 
We were overwhelmed to be civilians in a world that doesn't belong to us and grateful to be able to share in grief. 
We stayed in Walkersville on Tuesday instead of going to the funeral.  Our number of children already places us well above critical mass - so we increased our numbers (chaos is chaos - there's no chaos-er) so parents could attend David's funeral. 

True to Karen form, we ran out of milk.  And bread.  And fresh veggies.  And apples.   And butter.
Fine.  We ran out of everything that I can't order to be mailed on Walmart.com. 
If grocery shopping with five kids doesn't get me time off in purgatory, ain't nothing will. 

Putting Monday and Tuesday in the course of a regular week and it would have been enough.  But there were dentist appointments, dance, optometrists to see, glasses to pick out,  schedules to  figure out, summer events to sign up for, finals to study for, 1st Communion prep to complete, papers to finish, presentations to video, volunteering and Lent activities.  Everything just happened at once. 
I'm a little more than regular-whelmed...but not quite overwhelmed.  Hopefully we can  keep it that way. 
It is more than mind blowing to realize it was a year ago when we drove Route 66 to Flagstaff, AZ to explore. 
Feels like a lifetime. 
Also Caroline was shorter than me then. 

at Sunset Crater in the rain but able to see various stages of ecosystem development

The Grand Canyon.  

Sedona

Petrified Forest

A couple months ago, Ben had to write a letter to someone he admired for school.  He decided to write to Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Just for fun, Ben put in a picture of himself dressed as Hamilton. 
Guess what came back on Thursday?

I thought Ben would fall over. 
HOW.  Freaking.  Awesome.  Is.  This?!?!?!?

In case you wondered what it's like to live here...
This is it.  Every.  Single.  Day.