We are all in this together

We’re all in this together.

Uncertainty. Hope. Stress. Fear. Love. Panic. Anxiety. Take a deep breath….

It’s been about a year since I’ve written anything on my blog. I’m wondering who’s out there listening? Warning…I am not a writer, but the artist in my just wants to create and share.  I know we are all going through this, some a little more gracefully then others.  I’m just doing the best I can to survive.

My feelings are literally changing by the minute. One minute I’m relieved that I can keep my babies home from school to keep them safe, the next minute I’m freaked out because they’ve announced that school may not be returning until May or maybe even the fall. I’m not sure what to believe anymore. There are countless text messages getting ping ponged back and forth from “a reliable source.” I’m seeing the death rates go up, yet still I see people out on the streets after California Governor told us to stay home.

My new reality… Home schooling my kids till the end of the school year….Can I really do this? I have always had so much respect for mothers who homeschool. As of last week, because of the coronavirus pandemic, schools have closed, and I’ve became one of them. Ben (12), and Ava (9), are excited about the new schedule we created together. I have to remind myself that we are healthy, we have food in the fridge, a home we can hide out in, lessons from their amazing school, and of course, each other. Ben, my social butterfly, misses his friends. He misses the social part of school like playing basketball, lunchtime, etc. Thank goodness for PS4 where I can hear him laughing with them, FaceTime, and texting. Ava on the other hand, has been asking me to homeschool her for as long as I can remember. She’s my introvert. She’s the one who NEEDS school for the social aspect of it. Sure she misses her friends, but she’s been pretty happy the last week. She loves being able to hole herself up in her room reading, secluding herself to her “art room” to paint, or just dancing around the house in her pjs. She’s happy. I’m happy they have each other, and I do love the time they are forced together. If you think about it, it’s like they are each other’s only friend with forced down time…It’s been only one week since we quarantined our little family, and I’m trying to not lose my mind (reason why I’m writing this at 4am).

Here’s the schedule we put together. I’m so thankful for all the resources out there to help me with this:

7-9    Breakfast, brush teeth, exercise
9-12  Schoolwork, exercise, and music
12-2  Lunch, Exercise, chores, downtime, go outside
2-4    Finish schoolwork
4-5    Exercise, go outside

I put exercise in there quite a bit, right? My kids do much better if they get those wiggles out. Our dog Toby loves that we can all go for a walk together. Also, I leave it open for change. I told my kids that I wasn’t going to wake them up at 7. They wake up when they wake up. Ava did ask me “Then what’s the point of a schedule?” My response was, they need a little structure, but let’s enjoy having the option to sleep in if we need it (especially because her and I LOVE to sleep).

Here’s what our first week in quarantine looked like.  Excuse my messy house.  It’s not easy keeping the house clean while having them home all day.

We’re all in this together. Good luck friends.