Quarantine Archives (4.22.20)

They say we should be documenting what it’s like living in a pandemic so that one day our children can look back and read about what it was like. I’ve written a few pieces, but for the sake of documenting and having 'historical' archives one day, here’s a look into the Sheaffer life after almost 6 weeks of quarantine. God knows I hope I won’t be writing another one of these in 6 weeks, but only time will tell.

It’s almost overwhelming to write about COVID and its effects, which for our family, are fairly benign. So many factors constantly run like a news ticker at the bottom of our screen:  updates in the news….groceries…death rate… wearing a mask … homeschool plans … work to-do list…. local business…… what nonprofits need help …. Etc, etc, etc.

Because it’s the easiest one to process: homeschool. Kids- I hope when you read this one day, you aren’t going to say “Oh this is when Mom really screwed us up.” I hope that comes later; you know, like your teenage years or something.

 To keep each week a little different, we are doing ‘themes’ that Addie and Bria pick, which so far has consisted of the following highlights:

Week 1: Animals.  Among other normal reading, math, writing, blah blah blah: top hits were classification game, animal tracks, and a food chain game, during which I was consistently the lowest in the chain. Eat Mom! Yay! 

Week 2: Space We did a planet scavenger hunt, tried to create our own solar system until they shockingly got sidetracked with making rocket ships out of recycling for their stuffed animals, and we watched Cosmos as suggested by Uncle Jordan.  Super wicked cool. 

Week 3: Countries This was a fun week, but the main excitement was culture in fashion, made 50 times more awesome by the friends on facebook sharing their traditional cultural wear photos.

Week 4 Easter: I don’t remember much about this except Bria is still confused as to how the Easter Bunny and Jesus are related.

Week 5 Building:  types of tools, types of careers in building and why they are important, fort construction, learned about the Empire State Building

Week 6 Feelings: Best summed up by Addie reading something and yelling “MOM, WHAT DOES C-O-P-I-N-G mean?” Calm down corners were a hit. Made our own Islands of Personality like in Inside Out. Next up is bravery, worrying and gratitude. Hardly relevant.

We are on Schedule Version 4, in which our academic time became much more condensed and I had to let go of maaaany hopes and expectations. Actual Learning Effort is in the morning; then we play outside; then we switch topics before lunch. Afternoons have gone much better as “whatever”and/or creative time. Bria’s preschool and LCS send ideas home daily/weekly, and those are great for when I need help (Thanks teachers!!). The over-achiever in me stresses a little bit every day that we don’t complete every single activity the schools give us. The quarantined-parent-of-3 in me has learned to let it go. Mostly.

We explore in the woods. We walk. We do the usual chalk, bubbles, swing set. We do ‘ninja warrior challenges’ for them in the backyard. We create stuff in the dirt pile/mud corner of our backyard. We bike in the cul de sac. Bria really wants to learn without training wheels but won’t let anyone near her while she tries, and Addie really wants to teach her and has, on multiple occasions, run inside crying because Bria isn’t “learning right.” Addie isn’t exactly wrong, but I guess she’ll eventually learn to let go during all this too?

They beg for Story Online (the dragon one, the monster one, and the hula hoop queen are their favorites). We do Happy Numbers and Epic, but could do better at that whole online learning thing. Sorry, girls.

They’ve done two Home News Network Broadcasts in which they hilariously pick all of their material, and they even somehow convinced Sheaff to participate in 3 lip sync battles with friends, costumes and all.

They are busy anticipating Bria’s birthday, and now that Bria can’t have a purple party, she talks nonstop about doing the slip and slide in our yard. This feels doable.  Most days, Addie often wants to be in charge of Everyone, including outfit choices. She's actually super helpful with Bryce at this point and takes a lot of pride in taking care of him. Bria often just wants to play with her character toys. Bryce often begs us to vacuum and/or point out every toy truck we own. "TRUCK!" 

I thought I was going to go crazy with Kidz Bop songs playing nonstop for “dance parties” before dinner. Then we watched The Greatest Showman, and the girls play 3 songs from that over and over and over and over and over again. I have a complicated relationship with this soundtrack.  One minute, I’m ready to stick a fork in my eye, and the next minute I’m belting out “I AM BRAVE, I AM BRUISED, I AM WHO I’M MEANT TO BE, THIS IS ME!” (oooooo-oh-oh-oh!). Addie did tell me she thinks women with beards are really cool, and that the songs teach us what it’s like to be nervous, but then be really proud of being different. How can I say no to that?! More importantly, how do I get that song out of my head seven hours later???

I have a few more weeks of teaching Senior Sym at U of L. The students are still encouraging and energizing, but teaching – even asynchronously – with kids at home 24/7 is a doozie. All my major thinking usually occurs between 1-2pm or at night, and some nights I just feel like the really burnt kind of toast. I can’t imagine what it’s like for parents who are working full time remotely. I simply don’t know how you manage. One thousand standing ovations; you are super heroes.

Other quarantine highlights have included things like house projects- we installed a basketball hoop, cleaned out our garage, painted half our house, mulched, grew plants from seeds then killed off many of the seedlings (damnit), and powerwashed. We cut Wallie’s nails for the first time ourselves, which apparently really freaks Sheaff out so I had to comfort him through the process as much as Wallie. We are thankful to see how happy Mother Nature is when humans stay home.  We have loved Jimmy Fallon, John Krasinski, Trevor Noah, and we have succumbed to ridiculous shows like Love is Blind and Tiger King. So far, MJ tops the list with “The Last Dance.”

I hope to actually read a book after class is done, but I did write a new children’s book about Bria the Dirtinger! 

I miss a clean house.

I miss me time.

I miss the YMCA.

I miss playdates; I miss my kids running around with their friends.  

I miss our friends.

I miss volunteering and Addie’s first grade. A lot.

I miss big family dinners with all the cousins.

I miss drop off at Peakland and Bria’s stories on the way home about chasing Sampson on the playground.

I miss visits to and from CVille for Sheaff’s parents.

I miss playgrounds.

I miss having 40 people in our house to celebrate something.

I miss being able to pick out our groceries.

I miss strawberry picking.

I miss TCM events and teachers and our PTO nutty crew.

I miss spring trips to the farmhouse.

I miss asking 39081 people to go hiking or Kinderwoods.
I miss last minute dinners with our village.

I miss babygarten, and the smell of books at the library.

I miss hugging people.

I miss going to Home Depot and Lowes.

I miss planning. Adventures, trips, outings, camps, all the things.

These are all first world problems. They are luxuries. They show what a lucky life we had before COVID, and what a lucky life we have now that these are the things I pine for the most. Both Sheaff and I currently are employed. We have a home. We have health insurance and care providers we trust. We are able to pick up groceries. We have a lovely neighborhood to roam and friendly neighbors who wave from their yards. We have Disney Plus which is a forking godsend. I feel guilty for feeling negative about anything when we are really doing just fine overall.

We read the news and it’s scary. This disease spreads so quickly. So many have lost their loved ones. It’s daunting. The protests to re-open states are frustrating; the implications of America’s idiocy are scary, especially in an election year. We all want to get back to life; we all want people to have their jobs back. There are at-risk populations, but you read so many reports of healthy people in their 30’s, healthy children, healthy 50 year olds getting this and not recovering.  I can’t imagine Sheaff, or my girls, or our parents in the hospital and not being with them. The thought of the thousands who haven’t been able to hold their loved ones’ hands when they passed just breaks my heart. It is why we stay home. There is so much information to process daily, both technical and emotional.

One day we’ll look back on this and have all kinds of hindsight. Great insights. We won’t be constantly anticipating with no real answers. We won’t be wondering, stuck in this limbo of health and economy and political muck. We’ll tell our kids what it was like in quarantine and some of it will be true, and some of it will be like we were walking uphill for 5 miles in the snow. You know, barefoot. I’m hoping that my little list of grievances stays in the shallow end, and doesn’t cross into the unfathomable deep loss. I’m hoping America tunes in to the shows that make us laugh and see how much good people give in times of hardness. I’m hoping the world sees the difference we can make when we address a problem, and chooses to take care of our planet the same way we are taking care of our people now. I’m hoping the experts come up with a vaccine, that health providers won’t have to put their lives on the line.  I’m hoping my kids will be in school in the fall, laughing with friends and telling tales of what they did during “the virus.”

You guys know I love Inside Out. The core memories always come to me in parenting – what is forming our kids; what becomes deeply a part of them? I think this time will become a core memory for them. I’m sure it will have the colors of every emotion in it, because lord, that’s the reality. But Adalyn, Bria and Bryce…. when you look back at that bubble of this time, when you look through the gold hues, and the blue shades, and the purple, red and green lights of so many feelings – I hope you see that in that bubble, it was Us. Together.

And goodness knows, if there’s one thing I’m wildly thankful for – it’s that.