Now back to our regularly scheduled programing -- how our family of four is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation in Columbus, Ohio.
Thursday, April 2
As I wrote about last week, today is Atticus's fifth birthday. He was obviously excited, but got increasingly bummed as the day got closer. No party, and he can't even play with friends! But there is one good thing about school from home -- the flexibility. The kids agreed to start school about 90 minutes early (we usually begin at 9 a.m.) so we could end early and play more in the afternoon.
Friday, April 3
Paul not only is still going to the office for more than half of his hours, but he's working longer hours than ever. Yesterday he worked the full day at home -- a rare occurrence -- from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Took a break to watch Atticus open presents, cook supper and work on a personal project. Then he worked without break from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. And then left home before 6:30 a.m. this morning. It's a stressful time, but it's hard to complain.
Another Friday that the block decided to eat on their porches if we could. It was almost like normal.
Saturday, April 4
Paul worked another six hours today. Meanwhile I loaded the kids up in the car for the first time in three weeks, primarily to drop off some fabric I had that a friend is turning into face masks.
Tuesday, April 7
Dr. Acton used the term "tolerance for ambiguity" in Ohio's daily news conference. That's a good phrase for this whole distancing effort. (And maybe for life with small children in general!) In other news, Edith has learned to be a pretty good Frisbee player lately. We also want the kids to learn to ride bikes without training wheels, which seems to be as good a goal as any nowadays.
Paul is still working long hours -- worked at home on Sunday, went into the office extremely early yesterday and today.
Wednesday, April 8
A very exciting day -- BOTH kids learned to ride a bike this afternoon! I think I'll write a separate blog post about this, so look for it soon. This would have been quite an accomplishment in any case, but it feels even better to have done it during this time of isolation. It really feels like we really took advantage of this time together to learn a life skill. I feel good, and the kids are as proud of themselves as we are of them.
Friday, April 10
I remembered to get an extra dozen eggs when I was last at the grocery store, and the kids spent some 90 minutes dyeing and decorating them. Some things never change.
Saturday, April 11
Paul tried out a homemade no-sew mask for the first time when he picked up some take-out for supper. A little hard to breathe in, he said. I'll try mine out when I get groceries, probably at the end of the week.
Sunday, April 12
It was going to be an nontraditional Easter anyway, so we went all in. Instead of ham and potatoes, Paul make chicken tikka masala and some flatbread, and I baked a rose water tea cake. I preferred the meal to the traditional holiday foods anyway.
That evening we watched a stage version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" on TV, and evidently something about the pandemic is getting through to the kids. One of the first things Atticus said of the performers? "They're spreading germs."
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