Family Activities

All the kids' outside activities have been canceled.  To the previous list of canceled activities we now can add: Horsethief YMCA camp (Grace), Trek (Ethan and Libby), Boise Youth Spectacular (Ethan and Libby), Girl's Camp (Libby), Freshmen Farewell (Libby), swim team (Grace and Sam). Currently all the kids' summer activities are canceled. As all the plans fell like dominoes, we all had our own crisis. 

I had an anxiety attack when they canceled Trek which is still a couple months out. I think my brain finally accepted this is going to be a long-lasting problem, and I just couldn't even breathe. I came home and cried in the hammock. Libby fell apart two days later due to the same feeling of not being in control of her life.  Just a few days later we learned BYS was canceled. Ethan has been joking since early March that he was going to apostatize if BYS was canceled. He took the news fairly well, but then had a meltdown a few days later. Grace is devastated about swim team, while Sam is not so quietly celebrating.  

The last few months have sucked. They have sucked so much. There have been so many tears. There has been so much anxiety. I am strongly considering talking to my doctor about anxiety medication for myself, because I am just as stressed as the kids, but I can legally drug myself. I would get in trouble if I tried to sneak Valium into their applesauce. It has been a hot mess dealing with four stressed out kids sniping at each other all day, every day.

Along with all the snot and tears, there has also been some incredible blessings. For the last two months I have had all my children home. We have spent so much time together, doing things that were difficult to manage around school, after school and church activities, work, and so on. 

We have cooked and baked together. They would bake daily, if allowed, but I'm hoping to not have diabetes by the time we are all allowed to resume our normal lives. Baking has been a necessarily limited activity. 

We all worked together to make an awesome cake, if I do say so myself. We even made it shaped like a true pandemic necessity. It took a couple tries, and it's not perfect, but we were pleased. And it tasted good.

Michael and I have had more time together. We went on a sixteen mile bike ride and ate take out falafel. It was the most perfect date we've went on in a long time. Also, I now want falafel daily.

We continue to watch the monkey. He makes us laugh and insists on spending his awake hours outside. I'm so glad we are still watching him. It makes the girls so happy to take care of and love on him. It is frequently the highlight of their day.

I went on a 13 mile bike ride with this guy. We are trying to get a lot of bike rides in before our planned 90 mile bike ride (over three days) vacation. We are crossing our fingers it does not end up on the chopping block as well.

I have been working in my plot at the community garden. I'm not sure how I'm feeling about the new volunteer management, but I am trying to understand that this is a stressful time for everyone.  Michael felt like an absolute beast when he hauled these two bales of straw the 2.68 miles home from the garden, on his bike. As I biked behind him, I noticed a whole lot of people checking out his caboose. He was well pleased.

Michael and the kids spent several hours at the river, just exploring and skipping rocks.

All this downtime has created opportunities for us to spend time with each other, and meet more people in the neighborhood. Everyone is currently out walking their dog, child, or elderly grandma. Ethan has even found two new teenagers in the neighborhood.

I would not wish this situation upon anyone. It's crappy and stressful and overwhelming. But the time we have been given has been beautiful. I feel like the entire nation has been very slowly rebooted. I hope I can learn the lessons this reset has given me, and remember them going forward.