Seven Things to Fill Our Time

We have had a lot more downtime with the stay-at-home order. I have struggled to keep myself and the kids busy and engaged. Here is photographic evidence of ways we have been filling our time.

Activity #1 : Michael has been working on all our bikes. Several needed complete re-hauls and we had to buy several off Craigslist, due to the crazy growth of kids. He has spent a lot of time using his new bike stand and tools to get everyone bikes adventure-ready.

Activity #2 : In direct relation to activity #1, we have been riding bikes and scooters, a lot. 

Just a few days ago Grace was riding her scooter very fast down the road when something (a rock, twig, oxygen?) completely stopped the forward momentum of her scooter. Unfortunately, her body did not stop. She went right over the top of the scooter and managed to break her fall with her face. She was in a lot of pain, and Sam was panicking. Thankfully we were all together, so I asked Ethan to take Sam home. I deal better with one hysterical child at a time. Ethan willingly hauled Sam on home. Michael and I got Grace to spit out her mouth full of dirt and rinse her mouth. We were fairly certain her injuries were superficial so we loaded her on Michael's bike and took her home to wash her up. The washing process created as much screaming as the the initial fall.

Activity #3 :  We have also not been putting our bikes away. This is not a fight I am currently winning, so I've given up. At least they are riding.

I filled up the gas tank, in our only vehicle, a week ago. The needle is currently sitting on FULL. With all activities canceled we have barely been driving, so I guess that is a small blessing.

Activity #4 : We have been attempting to complete the assignments sent home by the Boise School District. The ones from this week are just ideas to keep your brain engaged. Next week the kids will start working on actual course work. Because of the complete weirdness of the situation whatever work students do can only help their grades. The school will not penalize students if they do not complete any work during this last quarter. I, as their mother, make no such promise.

Homework example -

This is Libby's life story. **I was born. I loved baths. When I was 4 my little sister was born. She was fat. When I was almost 4 I met my BFF. We were cute!"

**Corona. A virus called corona ruined my life and now I can't see my friends. About the author: I am going to be a Sophomore at Borah High School. I love my friends and I miss them. I think you should know that I think this assignment is stupid, especially 'cause it won't even be graded.

So, yeah, public school at home is going about as expected.

Activity #5 :

Ethan has been busy building a computer desk for his petite room. It took a couple attempts, but he was well pleased with the results. He can fit everything he needs to do his school work on his little desk, just in time for him to work on his public school classes.

Everything he needs stores neatly inside.

Then it closes up onto the wall. He is hoping to eventually do some sort of Boise skyline cut out on it, but currently it is just raw wood. It is completely functional, he built it himself, and it only cost about $30. It is a definite win.  If anyone wants to help him decorate it, I'm sure he would welcome it.

Activity #6 : Libby has been busy spreading cheer. She gave a "Corona Starter Pack" to her friend, Izzy. Then Izzy gave one to Libby. Then Libby and Izzy made three more boxes and delivered them to their friends. It's hard on the social people to be in this situation, but she is trying her best to stay connected and engaged.

Activity #7 : Sam has been reading. He has read through most of the Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson, etc.) books in the house. He finished those and then started reading the blog books I finally got printed.

The blog books were my project that took way longer then they should have. Multiple calls to tech support (Michael), numerous times having to restart the process, an entire afternoon at the computer, and then taking out a second mortgage, I finally got six years worth of blog posts printed in three books! With the printing of one more book, I will finally be caught up!

We don't know how long we will be asked to stay home, but we are trying to make the best of this unique situation. We are trying to stay healthy, and more importantly, keep the at-risk population safe. I keep reminding myself that "this too shall pass". Soon I may even start believing it.

Drama Queen

Things we have lost or have been closed/canceled in the last 2.5 weeks: Our Broadway play get-away, my job, Ethan's job, Libby's job, the YMCA, city playgrounds, the dog parks, school, choir concerts, student council elections, Ethan's lifeguard training, gymnastics, hanging out with friends for all children, seminary, tennis, National Junior Honor Society banquet, choir tour, church, church activities, job interviews, Everyday Leadership, track, tech Tuesday, the library...

Libby made a commemorative cake.

Things we still have: Michael's job(!), our health, our family, our home, lots of food (no hoarding!), toilet paper, a Wii stuck on the Wii Fit game (it suffered a fall several days into this new adventure), Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, internet, phone calls with friends, and lots of other stuff I'm too lazy to list.

It's been a weird few weeks. Most things are canceled and closed and we are supposed to stay at home. The upside is we've managed a lot of little home repairs that are constantly ignored, the kids haven't murdered each other, and we are getting lots and lots and lots and lots of family time. It's also nice to not be running all over town like a crazed chicken, which is the natural state of things.

So life is weird and then it got weirder. Last night as I was making dinner the whole house started shaking. At first I thought the washing machine was off-balance, but the shaking got bigger and lasted longer. It took us all a hot second to realize it was an earthquake. Libby started crying and asking, "What do I do, what do I do?" Ethan placed himself in front of the huge bookcase to catch it in case it fell. Sam was just wandering around. Grace stayed in her bed watching a show with headphones, almost oblivious. Michael went outside. I gathered the children away from things that might fall (giant bookcase) and herded them toward an interior wall. By the time I got them all there the shaking was over.  We shouted to the equally bemused neighbors and decided it was in fact an actual earthquake, in Idaho, during a pandemic. I might just crawl into bed until 2021. This year is too dramatic for me. I feel like 2020 is that girl in college who says, "I just want a relationship with no drama!" and then sets about creating drama in all her relationships. That is 2020. This year is a drama queen. There is no reasoning with her. We just have to wait it out and then never speak of it again. This is the year-that-must-not-be-named.

Possibly Exposed

Friday my niece contacted me to tell me that she was being tested for COVID-19. As we had watched her baby on Monday, we felt it wise to self-quarantine. In hopes of maintaining some order and keeping the kids motivated, I presented a plan. I just wanted to keep their brains and bodies fairly engaged so we all didn't go stir crazy.

Strangely enough they are all currently on board. Hurray!

Michael had to go into work, but he also did some work from home. In the play fort. Because it was quieter. Note the 15 minutes music practice on the bribe chart. At one point a kid was playing the piano, another the ukulele, and another was using the Wii for exercise, all in the living room. All way louder than was necessary. Not all ideas are perfect.

Grace figured out how to video chat with friends. The laundry room was slightly quieter than the rest of the house.

The boys played Minecraft. Well, mainly Ethan played and Sam watched.

They played a lot of Wii. I was not happy when we were gifted a gaming console. We did not need another electronic toy. I have changed my mind. I love you Kim!! Oh how the mighty have fallen.

They've all been practicing music. Loudly. Volume control is not a natural talent.

Ethan and Libby are both almost completely caught up on homework. Saints be praised. Ethan is finally on track to finish his online math class. That is a minor miracle, as he had started the process to drop it a week and a half ago.

We also helped Aunt Amy paint her house. The kids were genuinely excited to go paint. We are a little stir crazy.

Or a lot stir crazy.

Today, right before we went to paint, we found out my niece tested negative! Hooray! The kids could maybe venture out of the house and yard! We could see a few people if we didn't make a big group and practiced social distancing. The world was our oyster.

Then we came home to discover the Governor had just issued a shelter in place order for the next three weeks. Which means we are back to being quarantined. For three weeks. I hope we all survive.

Instead of Broadway

Our touring Broadway production got canceled. We then tried to find an AirBnB in McCall, Sun Valley, Salt Lake, anywhere. We found an amazing one in Salt Lake and decided we could still go away for the weekend. Then the owner of the AirBnB emailed to state they could not take our reservation as his daughter had gone into labor, he was watching his 6 grandchildren, and his wife had the flu. As the apartment was in his basement, he could not host us. With a deep sigh, we changed our plans again.

We ended up at Wahooz with the two older kids. It was loud, filled with lots of kids, kinda fun, and very expensive. It would have been a lot cheaper if we had remember we have two nieces that work there that could have gotten us half price tickets, which we were reminded of by one of the nieces working. It was not a smooth weekend for us.

We did enjoy ourselves, though. Bowling was okay.

But the go-carts is what our kids were there for.

They waited in line lots of times.

So they could go zooming around and around.

This was their happy place.

So happy.

I personally enjoyed laser tag. Shooting my family brought me joy. 

We left after a few hours and went to dinner at Olive Garden, which my kids had never been to. They were pretty stoked for the linen napkins and unlimited bread sticks. It entertained me they enjoyed it, as I've always considered it a chain restaurant with a pretty bland menu. I'm glad we finally took them, but I don't need to go back.

After hanging out around the mall and Ross for a bit we headed back to Wahooz. They wanted to drive the go-carts in the dark! And they did. And it was fun.

They did the pukey ride, we did go-carts.  I shot them a lot at laser tag. Wahooz is much more entertaining after dark, I don't quite know why, but it was. We stayed until they closed, grabbed ice cream at McDonald's and headed home.

It probably wasn't as fun as our original plan, but it wasn't bad. It was nice to spend some time with just the teenagers. It's also a good thing we went when we did. Wahooz shut down just a few days later to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Corona is a Bully

Months ago we tried to get tickets to "Hamilton" (Ethan's favorite musical). We failed. A few weeks later tickets for "Dear Evan Hansen" (Libby's favorite musical) went up for sale. Michael logged into the virtual ticket line, waited six hours, and just managed to get four tickets to the show. None of the seats were together, it was really expensive, and it was in Salt Lake City. Despite all of these things, we booked tickets and happily made plans to attend. We enlisted my adult nieces to stay with Grace and Sam. We made arrangements to crash on a friends floor the night before the play. I squirreled away a wad of money to visit IKEA. I washed and vacuumed the car. Libby bought road trip snacks. Laundry was washed so it could be easily pack. We were to leave in less than 24 hours, and all was in readiness. We were to leave Friday at noon.

Thursday I got off work and got a call from my friend Whitney, the owner of the floor we were going to crash on. She was wondering if our play was still scheduled, as the mayor had just banned large gatherings. We were still hopeful, but guarded. Two hours later Michael checked the venues facebook page and discovered our play (and many others) were canceled, and then he quickly received an email promising us a refund. Within the same hour we got an email saying that all church and church activities were canceled until further notice. The news also reported that the Boise mayor has asked for no gatherings over 250 people until further notice. No play, no trip, no church, no nothing. Plans of months fell apart in a couple of hours.

We have a weekend babysitter but no place to go. Do we still go to Salt Lake and hit IKEA? Do we stay home and save the money? Do we try finding a more local place on short notice? I just don't even know. I have dissapointed teens. I have diasspointed younger kids who were greatly looking forward to hanging out with their older cousins. I have a dissapointed self who was looking forward to IKEA. Michael is the only way not horribly dissapointed, and that is because preparing for the Corona virus is making his job pretty demanding right now.

A uncommon cold is wreaking havoc! I truly understand why organizations are taking the precautions they are. Precautions were ignored in Italy, and the country is struggling with a epidemic, and don't have the resources to treat it. If we can slow the spread of the virus, our infrastructure can handle the illness. Our country cannot handle it, though, if we all get sick at once. I understand all this. I truly do. That doesn't change how I feel though. I think Covid-19 is a big bully. He threatens, and threatens, and threatens. And we don't really have any choice. We have to roll over and do what he says, or he might just kill our grandparents. He's a jerk. And he's made me very grumpy, and I (along with billions of others, I'm sure) feel powerless.

*Update* -- More things that are closed/canceled: Boston Marathon (my brother was due to run), Robie Creek race, flights, Disneyland, cruises.
All the German foreign exchange students at Borah were sent home. The other exchange students are on pins and needles about their future plans. The school district is announcing school plans later today.
The grocery stores have been emptied of cleaning supplies, paper goods, bread, and canned goods. Strangely, the one I was in still had fully stocked chip and cookie aisles.