Coronavirus

Y'all, this is crazy. Our world has been turned upside down. Our lives have been disrupted, our routines have been interrupted, our homes have become our safe haven.

Today is Day 11 of the North Carolina quarantine. 

We've been asked to stay home if travel isn't necessary. Most non-essential jobs have closed their doors and sent workers home. My own mom filed for unemployment for the first time in her life as her job is closed for a minimum of 6 weeks. 

We're being asked to stay 6 feet away from people. We're not allowed to have gatherings larger than 50, just reduced from 100. Churches are CLOSED! We haven't been to church in 2 weeks now. We're streaming online with what feels like the rest of the free world. 

We're able to get groceries, when they're available, but all restaurants are closed to eat-in options. It's drive through, drive-up, and curb side service right now. 

The craziness over groceries is really ridiculous. There's no toilet paper to be found. Riddle me this...why does a respiratory disease need you to buy 100 rolls of toilet paper? I know....in case we're called to "Shelter in Place" and not leave our homes. I get it, it's scary. But please....only take your share!

As Cindy Monroe says, just take your share of the potatoes.

On March 13, 2020 all schools in NC were closed. Teacher friends, and teachers across the country, have been scrambling to find ways to provide learning opportunities for kids at home. Moms and Dads have now become defacto homeschool teachers. Millions of kids are now home every day instead of in a secure, safe place like school. Districts are handing out lunches like crazy, offering online learning, sharing ideas that have worked for others. The Education community has TRULY come together to show everyone how amazing teachers really are. You want digital learning? Done. You want packets for home learning? Done. You want to reach out to parents by any means necessary? Done. Seriously y'all. If the educational community can do this when all the Red Tape is gone, just think about how awesome education would truly be if the "suits" got out of the way and let teachers do their thing.

For us, as a homeschooling family, you may think this doesn't change much. But I assure you it does. Our normal day usually includes an outing of some kind. We have field trips too, places we enjoy visiting and we LOVE Chick-fil-A with friends something fierce. Our co-op days are our most favorite. That's when our homeschool friends meet for joint classes and fun. We learn, eat, play, and laugh together. It also gives Mom some time to talk to people other than her children. Phew!

So here on day 11 we're still doing our school time as usual. We've done math, spelling, science, history, Bible, and music. They've watched a few episodes of their favorite shows and visited with a neighbor. I'm currently typing while listening to them fuss about the fort they're trying to build in their rooms...the big kids that is. Littlest is trying my patience by NOT napping but instead is hopping and jumping around in there. *Sigh*

They're tired of each other. Shoot, they're tired of me. They're probably even tired of their own selves. Middle is really good at entertaining herself and is really enjoying creating DIY arts and crafts for her dolls. She's found a YouTube channel that shows people playing with dolls and all the small things they've made for them. She's trying to recreate some of that. She also really enjoys coloring, drawing, painting, and puzzles. She's pretty easy to entertain.

Oldest is hard. He comes up with ideas he wants to try or build or make. Often those things are dangerous, could potentially hurt others, or are really obnoxious. He's good with video games for a bit but we're not huge on those around here anyway. He does not love reading like the Middle. She could read for HOURS! So Oldest is the hardest to occupy.

Littlest is so much fun, and so easy. She just enjoys us being home and together. She can play with anything and have fun. She loves movies, loves to sing and dance. She's almost always wearing a costume, dress-up dress, fancy dress, princess dress, etc. She is such a joy to have around and we all adore her. God's plan is so perfect...he knew we needed her even when we were sure we didn't need another baby.

So we're home. We're occupied for the most part. Hubby is still working every day. Healthcare doesn't stop. Especially not in the middle of a health crisis. His patients still need to be seen and some need the visit to be checked on. We worry about him having NO immune system for himself. We worry about him being in contact with someone who's infected and is asymptomatic. It takes 14 days to sometimes even show a symptom. That's a LONG time! We just pray every day. We pray he doesn't bring it home to use. We pray he doesn't share with his parents who are older and compromised. We pray he doesn't get infected himself as his body has no way to fight back. 

We pray.

We pray every day for us, for our families, for our friends. We pray for you. We pray for everyone to be safe and protected. 

I know it's been a while since I've posted and I haven't been keeping up. But life happens, ya know. I want to try to write things down during this time. I'm sure someone will want to look back and remember how it all went down. And it's not like we're out running around busy or anything. HA!