Well, before I get into an update on life on the inside, here are some pics from back when things were 'normal.'
These were from two weekends ago now, I believe. Sort of a long story, but the short version is Dana and Clara went to Zorbaz for pizza and then on to Detroit Mountain for some snow tubing. Clara had a blast, of course, and it was such a beautiful day for it.
Last Friday Brynn and I met my parents for dinner and then went bowling while Dana and Clara headed to Dead Lake to help with cabin reno. We had a great time at The Bowler.
Saturday Brynn was surprised to find that she was going to be helping her friend celebrate her birthday with an overnight swim party at the Holiday Inn. Annabelle's stepmom said they swam for seven hours on Saturday!
Clara was a good helper at the cabin.
Brynn's strange tricks.
Clara drew a spider crawling up an orange tree. :-)
I wrote out our plan for Brynn, but also for myself as I kept forgetting where each of us was supposed to be every day. Ha. I had already taken the day off on Thursday as it would have been Brynn's spring break. I had made some appointments that we could get done since she had the day off, but all those ended up being canceled.
Of course there has been much commentary on social media and I know some moms put together schedules for their kids. We did not because the girls have been doing really well all week keeping busy either playing together or with chores I've asked them to do. Brynn did a great job holding down the fort the mornings that Dana and I were at work.
Instead of a schedule, we came up with ideas of things they wanted to do to stay busy..which also included the chores side of things.
They attempted a scavenger hunt outside when Dana was home with them on Tuesday afternoon, but it appeared tough going since the weather hasn't necessarily been too spring-like.
As area restaurants closed around us (though most are still offering delivery or take-out), I did find one establishment still offering dine-in, and right in my neighborhood too!
On Thursday it was nice to have the whole day off to just focus on the girls and stuff around the house, rather than juggling work and being home with the girls, though I am very grateful that I have the option to work from home right now.
I was treated to a puppet show after lunch.
Clara was interested to know how the garbage and recycling gets dumped into the trucks.
I have waffled all week between stocking up on groceries and not being the person hoarding food and buying more than our share. So, I felt kind of bad baking on Thursday and using up ingredients, but our grocery store has managed to keep things pretty well stocked so far. So, we made chocolate chip banana muffins and chocolate chip cookies.
Brynn's doll hairstyling service business that she came up with.
Take-out pizza Friday night.
Clara and I went for a walk after dinner and it was pretty chilly. She was playing around on some rocks on the landscaping feature in Briarwood when she got some snow on her sock. We were ready to head for home by that time anyhow and were trying to get back as quickly as possible since she was crying and upset that her ankle got cold from the snow. I was carrying Clara part of the way back while still trying to keep up a fast pace when she says, "can't you run any faster?!" Well, probably, if I wasn't also lugging an extra 35 lbs besides!
Clara has been in Heaven to stay at home and play with Brynn. Liker her mama, she is a homebody. But, both girls have been missing their friends. They were both able to video chat with some friends today one of whom included my sister's niece, Prairie Joy.
Clara was video chatting on SnapChat with her bestie, Adria. They found some freaky filters. This one totally creeped me out.
They thought this TP one was a riot.
We've been receiving updates from Brynn's school along with watching the updates from Governor Burgum. Brynn has a lot of questions about what distance learning is going to look like. She's heard from a couple of her teachers now and her fantastic principal has sent some updates as well. Brynn will have one more week (this coming week) of 'extended spring break,' as we're basically calling it here and then their alternative schooling will commence on April 1st. We don't know the details yet since we know the educators are still sorting everything out, but it's looking like they'll be doing a lot of e-learning through video with their personal learning devices. Brynn is planning to set up at her desk in her room. We don't know how long they'll be doing schooling this way or if they'll ever make it back to the school building to finish out the year.
Both girls have been handling everything really well and not been upset or scared. We've been trying to give Brynn as much information as we've been learning so she feels informed. And we're so thankful for the school staff and how they're working hard to figure all this out and keep us updated at the same time. We learned today that the middle schoolers at Brynn's school will have an opportunity to go into the school on Tuesday to gather any materials they need. Brynn already has her personal learning device here at home and all her supplies, so she has opted to hang back from going into the school and anticipates that she'll still be able to collect the few things she has in her locker at some later point before summer break.
Dana and I will decide tomorrow what our schedules will look like for this next week, but we will keep Clara home at least this week as well. She wanted to work on some kindergarten workbooks that I had gotten for her a while back, so she was busy with that tonight.
We have been trying to stay home as much as possible, aside from getting groceries and household items (thankfully we were already good on toilet paper when all this started!) and going in to our offices. Tuesday was the last group fitness class that I attended before Courts Plus closed to the public. :-( It was such somber class and at that time it was already limited to only 10 people so that we could keep proper distance from one another. I thrive on a routine, so I definitely miss that part, but getting up to exercise at 5:30 AM every day with the same group of amazing women has made such a difference for me to keep getting up at the butt crack of dawn and show up to sweat it out, only still half awake.
The girls were also disappointed that they won't be going to gymnastics or swimming lessons and Brynn was to start archery this next week as well. We'll be tuning in from our couch for church at 9:30 tomorrow morning. So, for who knows how long, just like everyone else, this is our new normal.
But, as I try to do in less-than-ideal situations, I'm looking to find the positive in all of this mess. I already don't mind being at home all the time, so that part is working out pretty well for me. I feel like this will give me a better opportunity to plow through my decluttering project - I got through a few more areas on my list this week already!
And because sometimes you just need a good laugh when things seem bad, I am sharing my fav memes that I've seen so far.
I'm raising my hand on this one. Ha.
I've thought this about Clara for years actually! She eats all day long on the weekends and I wonder how they keep her fed at school all day! It's probably pretty boring at our house compared to school, so I figure that is my answer. :-)
We keep saying how it's nearly impossible to keep up with all the information as there are constantly more news developments and updates. Good ole Billy Mays really sums that up here.
I hope everyone is staying safe and is able to find some peace of mind during this time of uncertainty. We are praying that this will all be over soon and we will come out the other side, not only unscathed, but in a better place.
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