Life on stay-at-home is feeling more and more like our new normal every day. We are slowly settling into a bit more of a rhythm with school days. The drastic changes in the guidelines and news and the way world runs have slowed and settled too. We are getting used to limiting our shopping and errands. Crossing the street on walks to stay away from our neighbors is feeling more routine. Case counts and death tolls are, sadly, feeling more normal too.
This week's new recommendation has been for everyone to wear face coverings when in public spaces. So in place of any "real" news, my Facebook feed has been full of patterns and examples of hand sewn or "no-sew" cloth masks. I'm finding the masks to be very off-putting right now-- and oh I HATE wearing one myself! -- but I'm sure within the week this too will feel normal. The demand for masks seems to have brought an uptick in my Norwex business, as one can make a nominally effective mask from our Window Cloths, and Norwex will be producing personal use masks starting sometime this month... So, silver linings???
By our third week of at home learning we have *almost* figured out how to run our days. Large-format, hour-by-hour family schedule has been replaced by a personalized "to do" list for each kid and an overall list of goals for a morning session and an afternoon session of learning. I check each kid's Google Classroom before they get up and spend some time making all the lists over coffee. Sounds idyllic and relazing but man is it ever overwhelming to try to manage the 15-some difference classrooms with assignments posted in all different ways with all different deadlines and formats and levels of rigor... And seventh grade workload is intense! The boy continues to try to find ways that work for him to manage it. Today went fairly well. He requested to start his day with free time to let him wake up. Today, he self-selected to get some schoolwork done by about 11am and set up to meet friends online at 4 to give himself time to get done after lunch. He took charge of his own day successfully and had probably his best mood and attitude of the past 3 weeks...Nat works on his courses in the morning while I coerce children into eating and starting some sort of work. We walk to get lunch at Boulevard, and do chores after. I do my office hours in the afternoon while kids finish their schoolwork lists and Nat does all sorts of stuff around the house. We all relax or go outdoors or both til dinner. I'd had all these plans for wholesome engagement with the hundreds of games, toys and art activities in our home... but most days by3pm that feels like far too much trouble and we all just veg out on our respective screens. I've been getting in a 5K a day for I think 6 days now? Sometimes midday, sometimes evening. Right now in our lives, this loose schedule feels like its working. I still have a constantly evolving ambitious to-do list for deep cleaning and various projects to transform our home... but my online teaching is taking a lot of time and energy well beyond the scheduled "office hours" and getting the kids to stop dawdling and do a modicum of their work takes up the rest of the time. So the ambitions may need to be adjusted a bit to fit with reality.
Euclid Beach, April 2nd
This photo sums up much of what it is like to live with my children .
Barefoot in the surf in April! He did regret his life choices with frozen toes before we left.
Just because we can't go inside the Museum... we can still enjoy one of our favorite places.
We did significant alterations to the scheduled tour because it felt like a lot of driving to see the Ashtabula Lighthouse, which was one you can't even walk up to... So we decided to only go as far as Fairport Harbor... but then we missed our turn. Twice. So Mentor Headlands it was. In our quest to get close to the lighthouse, we ventured to the Nature Preserve instead of the usual beach. And it was like heading into another world.
National Campfire night, Saturday night.
Ok, maybe not NATIONAL but certainly Cleveland Heights. The air in our neighborhood smelled of a bonfire and we could hear at least 3 campfire gatherings around us. After posting our campfire pictures, we learned that friends all around the area had been sitting at fires of their own. Kind of like we were together, but not really.
Sunday April 5. The CDC recommends face coverings. Let the draping of Window Cloths commence. Also it was gray and cold and so we stayed home for a change. We are so stinking bad at this "shelter in place" stuff.
Lakeview Cemetery, Monday April 6
See what I mean? The sun comes out and we can't be stopped. Contrary to what you see in these photos, it was fairly challenging to social distance there at Daffodil Hill. Surreal to see all these joyful family units traipsing among the flowers, so idyllic... yet staying apart with this undercurrent of suspicion and tension... friendly smiles with apologetic eyes...
This one is that tall, though.
Forecasted storms are only now materializing this evening... After one of our more productive home/school days, the on-and-off drizzle cleared, the sun came out, and we had our first patio dining of the season. A midday run, lots of productive work with students and lesson creation, moderate cleaning and some time to relax, finished off with a Hiram Happy hour tonight...
Grateful for good days in the midst of it all.
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