Anna did have a slight hiccup that week with a painful elbow that had been going on for several weeks...since she has a history of the fracture last year, I took her in to see our friends at the orthopedic urgent care who took X-rays and said that there was no fracture this time - thank goodness! This was the other elbow from the formerly broken one, but I felt so bad about ignoring her a year ago that I wanted to get it checked out. Friday was the first (and last...see below) fish fry, which was a huge success! Anna even missed dance class to attend. Erin and I enjoyed some volunteer work at Brown Bag Ministry in Apex that Saturday, and we had a busy weekend with church activities and Science Olympiad meetings.
The following week was fairly routine at the beginning of the week with school, activities, book club, meetings, work, dog life, etc...until the situation surrounding the worldwide Coronavirus (COVID-19) started to escalate in the US. The kids had school on Thursday that week, then left for an already-planned 4-day weekend. It was announced on Friday that our school and all the others in the area/state/country (?) would be closed through March 27th, and we were to come to school on Tuesday to collect all of their books and supplies to begin virtual learning at home starting Thursday the 19th. Oh, boy! Sadly, the Science Olympiad tournament for the 28th was canceled as of the 12th, which was probably the most upsetting for many of us.
So, we had a fairly quiet weekend at home but were still able to leave the house for the Y, church, a hike, and a dinner out to 42nd Street Oyster Bar for the parents. The girls also had their last dance classes on the 13th. Monday was my last day to go to the Y before it was closed, and Bob got the official order to begin working from home. We ladies took Finley on a few fun hikes, visited school to get their stuff on Tuesday, and had friend Caroline over on Tuesday afternoon while her mom had a medical procedure. We got the girls' homeschool stations set up, and (thanks to Bob) got all necessary software/hardware ready for online schooling.
Places started closing right and left, and ultimately a "stay at home order" was issued statewide around the 28th-30th, depending on which county you're in. We are supposed to stay at home except for essential activities like picking up groceries, urgent doctor visits, etc. Restaurants can only deliver food or offer takeout, and people cannot gather in groups of more than 10 people or something like that...more recently, they are saying only immediate family should be less than 6 feet from each other. I’m guessing the new word in the dictionary for 2020 will be the correct buzz word, “social distancing”.
So, we spent the rest of the month at home adjusting to this crazy new situation. School has been going well so far. I am really impressed by the level of dedication from the teachers in getting this totally new method of teaching up and running, essentially overnight. Anna's teachers are not giving as much work as Erin's, and Anna is usually finished with her work in 2-3 hours. Erin's teachers are doing virtual lectures, plus online tests, projects, assignments, etc. They are basically covering everything as if they were still in school. She is busy about 6-7 hours most days. I think Erin secretly likes it though, now that she's got the routine down and is more familiar with the software. There are no masses, and we have live-streamed Sunday mass at home the last two weekends.
Erin has had two virtual piano lessons via Zoom, and everything else has basically halted. Thanks to Bob's Peloton subscription, I have been able to work out at home, and Erin has enjoyed a few video ballet classes. Anna has really been missing her friends and has been trying to talk and video chat with them as much as possible. Sadly, our trip to Aruba this month was canceled, but we have it rescheduled for late July (yay!). Bob and church friends Jeff and Danny have started up a free dinner service through StMM that's connected to some other area churches to help people who may be out of work during this time. The first weekend was a big success!
As far as the actual situation at large, I really cannot say what is going on because (a) we try not to have the news on too much because it upsets the kids, and (b) who knows what to believe from what's on tv or the internet anyway. We don't know anyone personally at this point who has "tested positive" for the virus, and most reports that I accidentally see sound like numbers are very low at this point around here. Larger cities seem to be affected more. It really isn't too bad for us - weather has been good and we are enjoying not being so busy all of the time. Who knows how we will feel if this continues until May 15th as currently stated! Below are pictures of a few of the things we have been doing during the downtime. There has been a lot of yard work, reading, puzzles, games, TV, and dog walks. We are trying to make the most of it and hope it's all over very soon!
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