Quarantine Week 3

Our third week of the quarantine has begun. Please enjoy some random flower and kid pictures because I have nothing else.

Week 1 was the hardest. Brutal even. The whole homeschooling / distance learning thing is much harder than I imagined. And Oliver's first week was the worst, when the teachers went way overboard with the amount of work that was required. The kid literally had 9 hour days! To balance that with a full time job, entertaining and homeschooling a bored (and slightly neglected) 3 year old... it was too much. Luckily week 2 was a more reasonable 5-6 hours of work a day for Oliver - still a lot, but survivable. Matt is certainly enjoying the extra screen time.

Homeschooling is hard. Currently there's minimal instruction from the teachers and it falls on the parents to teach them. There are videos and Google Meetup morning meetings, but it's more for socialization and story time than learning. Which is totally OKAY because all of that is really important too - the kids need the comfort of seeing each other and their teachers. But at the same time, I'm suddenly faced with relearning geometry because I totally forgot what quadrilaterals and vertices are and how to calculate angles. I have learned that I am not a good teacher and I do not posses enough patience to do so. (It's been mainly on me to keep things going during the day, Mike works for an essential business in NJ. He's still working full time away from the house, wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and washing his hands a million times a day).

I know this is hard for everyone. Lonely and frustrating for everyone. Stressful for everyone. As the situation worsens, the fear and anxiety grows. I'm worried, we are all worried about our loved ones.  I'm sharing our experiences in solidarity and commiseration. This is hard and that's okay. This too shall pass eventually.

I've written and rewritten this post like 10 times. I don't really know what to say, but I feel like I should check in with the world?  My head is full of to-do's. Things I want to do once homeschooling and working at the same time become less overwhelming. When a trip to the grocery store for food isn't a daunting task. Once I get the house cleaned up a little bit better because with everyone home all the time, it's a constant disaster zone.

Anyone else feel like they are extremely bored and yet overwhelmingly busy at the same time?

I'm doing the same things everyone else is doing. Trying to stay sane. I'm diffusing essential oils around the clock. Stress baking. Rage cleaning. Podcasts and Netflix. Facetime and Zoom are our only connections to the rest of the world. The only escape from the house is walking the dog. We play games, spend time outside in the backyard. Gardening outside and over-loving my houseplants for stress relief. Taking photos of flowers as they come up. Doing a little yard work. Reading and drawing. I've been learning about herbal remedies and herbs I can grow in my own garden, and other alternative wellness things that have been fascinating. 

My new dahlia bulbs arrived (!) and I'm so excited to plant them, but it's too early. I'm fantasizing about a little greenhouse next to the garage where I could pot bulbs up early and start more seeds for a head start on the season.  (+ Somewhere I could hide from the kids on a rainy day...) Mike wants to finish the drainage project now that the ground has warmed up and the temperatures are consistently warmer. I want him to finish the drainage project and finish off the stone pile in the driveway so I can get some mulch delivered!

This would also be a good time to finish updating Oliver's bedroom. We started last summer and then stopped when things got busy, and it would be great to finish it while we're all together. I took pictures of Matt's room with his toddler bed and I really need to edit those and get them up. Maybe this week?