Hello! Sorry I've been away for so long.
What a weird time! My school district made attendance Friday voluntary a little over a week ago, and communication was kind of terrible, and then they closed Monday through Wednesday, but before we even got our heads wrapped around that, we were closed through April 13th.
Are we distance learning? Who knows? Not right now. I am working from home, but doing what? Also who knows? I mean, I am contacting families, finding out what their technology capabilities are so we can eventually do distance learning, and sometimes adding enrichment stuff on the Google classroom.
It is deeply strange not to see my students, and also to have it be so sudden without any chance to say goodbye and leave them with a few reassuring words. It is entirely probable that prom is cancelled, and perhaps graduation as well. I think IB exams are cancelled (although I don't know how public that is yet, so I'm not telling kids).
As far as home, are we homeschooling? Uh, a little? Not that much, to be honest. It is pretty hard to simultaneously do my working from home and run preschool and sixth grade, while also making breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And frankly my 11 year old is PISSED about everything all the time, so me asking her to go do work of almost any kind is met with a "no." And what am I gonna do, ground her? We're all grounded already.
There are pros, too. I've gotten the garage cleaned, made some yummy treats, organized the games cabinet, played with pony beads... We've watched several movies as a family, which we rarely do.
I've been running in the morning instead of going to the gym, which is different and interesting. It's been a little cold, and my joints kind of ache, but it's nice to try something new, sort of.
Ánt and I have been watching some shows together -- What We Do in the Shadows and Sex Education -- and between that, the school, the work, the baking and cleaning, and whatever else, I've have not a single moment to myself. I've started barricading the door (okay, just opening a drawer so you can't open the door) when I go potty just so that L doesn't throw the door open and go, "Mom, Mom, Mom... Can I tell you something? The Pokemon who are poison type can use vine whip attack."
Even if I put on headphones to listen to an audiobook, unless both kids are on screens, I get interrupted every few seconds. (I am literally being asked about Pokemon right now, as I type. I am ignoring it.)
What about our national crisis itself? A little worrying, to be honest. My parents, in-laws, stepdad, and brother-in-law are all in high risk groups. We're really trying to stay home and help "flatten the curve" of how fast the virus spreads, but I admit that our kids and the neighbor kids are having a hard time with the distance, and we've gone to a couple different grocery stores to try to get essentials. While we have everything we really need, if the hoarding continues, we're going to be eating a lot of farro instead of rice, that sort of thing.
Both Ánt and I have had illnesses with a cough -- hers with no fever and mine with one. I took a course of antibiotics, which does seem to have made me feel better, so my doctor was probably right that I had an upper respiratory infection. But who knows, you know? It does sound like some people get a mild or even asymptomatic version and pass it on to others without knowing. I hope I haven't done so.
At the moment, while we are hearing about deaths from COVID 19, it hasn't affected anyone we know personally. But the scale of it sounds like eventually we will. So while staying at home is a bit aggravating (especially for an extravert like me), we know it's for the best, and we're really trying to follow best practices.
A's birthday is on Wednesday, so I'm going to bake a cake, and the neighbors promised to bake a cake and eat it across the street from us, so we'll all have cake at the same time. I also have some friends sending her cards and artwork, so hopefully it will be special even though it will be necessarily small.
Okay, all for now. Hope I don't sound petty or petulant to complain. They say if you stay at home, you are personally preventing hundreds or even thousands of deaths, so the fact that I'm almost out of flour to bake with and the kids are arguing over whose Haagen Dasz it is seems small in comparison.