March in the Days of Pandemic

It's been a weird month of feeling like an unseen enemy was slowly approaching.  March began with me already taking precautions because of COVID-19.  I started avoiding public transportation, skipping out on public places with lots of tourists, and I made some extra visits to the grocery store.  I felt a lot of relief when Macron announced schools would be closing because it felt like we all had permission to take this seriously now.  

We already work and school from home so not A LOT has changed for us.  We already have routines in place that serve us well.  There is the added challenge that we are now all ALWAYS here, but I think we've all been cooperative about stopping our Internet use so K.J. can have virtual work meetings and record podcasts.  He climbs the wooden ladder to the attic when he needs to work without interruption.  Normally, he's out of the house working about three days a week, and I can feel the difference of having him here every day.  He and James now spend time every day in the garden throwing a football, and he frequently washes dishes.

I am so thankful we have Noreen's beautiful garden!  Being quarantined would be so much harder without it.  

So we are continuing our rhythm of life, as we wait and pray for those whose lives have been upended and those who are working so hard to help.  James opens the living room windows every night at 8 p.m. to applaud the health workers with several others on our street.  The clapping begins, and one neighbor starts playing music loudly so it spills into the street.  A few moments later all is eerily quiet once more as we retreat back into our homes.

March 1 - Sunday Night Gaming

March 2 - My Favorite Pea and Leek Soup

March 3 - P.E. in the Park

March 4 - Daffodils and a Walk with a Friend

March 5 - The trees will be full of new leaves by the time I walk there again.

March 6 - The returning leaves on the willow tree is my favorite part of spring.

March 7 - Our town's houses have bright and happy shutters.

March 8 - Sunday Night Tower

March 9 - Neighborhood Cherry Blossoms

March 10 - Ella painted a book cover on canvas as a birthday present for a friend.

March 11 - Picnic with the Tate Family

March 13 - Started a Corona-Family Read Aloud

March 14 - a Jell-O Pudding Pie for Pi Day

March 15 - Daisies

March 16 - A Spring Break Morning

March 17 - Walk through Town before the Lockdown

March 18 - Afternoon Tea with Noreen

March 19 - School-Reading and Fort-Building

March 20 - Sweetest Robin outside My Window

March 21 - I walked 1.8 miles in circles around the garden on this day.

March 22 - The New Sunday Sermon Set-Up

March 23 - We're spending A LOT of time noticing the life outside our windows.

March 24 - E and I love the sun shining through the willow.

March 25 - A Bird that is Not a Robin!

March 26 - Read-Aloud in the Sun

March 27 - Bedtime Selfies

March 28 - Virtual Literary Society

March 29 - Gingerbread Spice Oatmeal

March 30 - Why am I the only one in my family who loves queso?

March 31 - Virtual Home Group

May the Lord bless and keep you all.

Our Daily Bread

There are many different ways people are experiencing quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  One of my experiences that is happy and meaningful to me is having a truly thankful heart for daily food.  

In an effort to stay inside as much as possible, I've spent a lot more time in the kitchen, taking stock of what items need to be used first and making sure we actually eat our leftovers instead of letting them grow mold in the refrigerator.  This reminds me of something I saw on Pinterest once.  I have gone way past the time I would usually go before going to the grocery store to re-stock.  Like many of you, I usually go shopping when we're out of people's favorite things, not when we're genuinely out of food.  

trying out some new canned goods

I am amazed every day when I manage to produce three more meals for my family.  My freezer and pantry feel like the jar that kept producing oil for the widow in 2 Kings 4.  My cupboards are barer than they've ever been, and each night when I bring my plate of food to the table, I say, "Thank you God for this food," and feel grateful in a way I've never felt before now.

Spring Break, Pandemic Style

Today is quiet and cloudy.  K.J. is working on his short story in the attic, E is in her room listening to music and drawing and painting, and J is following in his father's footsteps of writing a book while listening to music with his earbuds in.  This is followed by episodes of Leave it to Beaver.

Many parents are taking up the homeschooling mantle today, but I'm laying it down this week.  E and I had plans to leave for a girls' trip in the south of England today to celebrate the milestone birthday of one of her friends.  To ease the pain of cancelling our trip I told the kids this week could be spring break.  Instead of showing my daughter Jane Austen's house this week, I'm reading her words instead.

Social media tells me there are lines outside grocery stories in Paris, and I'm grateful I shopped earlier.  I get my Little House on the Prairie feeling planning out ways to make our milk lasts as long as possible.  I'm feeling hyper-aware of social contact as we try to be a good friend and neighbor to Noreen while also protecting her health.  

Yesterday afternoon K.J. and I had a little Bible study with her.  I brought over my Baptist Hymnal, and we had the sweetest time singing Jesus, Lover of My Soul, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, In the Garden, No Not One, and Rejoice, the Lord is King.  I'll never forget it (and to make sure I don't, I'm writing it down here).  After Jesus, Lover of My Soul, N turned to us joyfully and said, "That's a good funeral song, in'it?"  

It lifted my worries just to sing, "Jesus knows all about our struggles; he will guide 'til the day is done:  There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus:  no, not one!  no, not one!"  I've missed the hymns I grew up singing.

I'm not allowing myself to check headlines again until the French president addresses the nation again tonight.  

What words are giving you hope in the midst of this crisis?

The Best Way to Make Sure Your Kids Entertain Themselves

Coronavirus Captivity is upon us all, and it lends itself to journal-style writing, which I intended to do more of this month.  I could tell at the end of February these "social-distancing" measures were needed to stop rampant spread, and it honestly just feels like a relief to have the government here announce increasing measures.  One big decision saves me from having to continue making a thousand small decisions about whether or not I should take public transportation or go to a highly-trafficked place.  I have close contact with a nearly 94-year-old, so I need to keep away from exposure if I can.

No More Train Rides for Awhile

I've seen a lot of people asking questions about what to do with their kids while they're home.  My best advice is to make an agenda like you're a homeschooling parent, and as soon as you have a plan of activities ready for the day, you'll find your kids magically playing together without fighting, using their imaginations and their time constructively.  Back out of the room slowly, and leave them alone.  

But seriously, I don't know how many times that phenomenon happened to me.  As surely as I didn't have anything planned there would be much fighting and sighing about how bored they were.  As soon as I felt prepared for the day they didn't need my input.  

Blast from the Past, when they created a Quiet Corner

Other ideas include:

• Legoes - If you have a big collection it's fun to look online for different ideas of things you can build besides the original use.  Sometimes my kids like taking things apart and rebuilding them or repairing big things that have lost pieces along the way.
• Art for Kids Hub is fantastic!
• YouTube in general has so much great content.  We really love watching Crash Course.    I'd give the caveat that content might not always be appropriate for younger viewers.
• Blanket Forts - Letting them make a giant blanket fort often leads to a lot of creative play or reading inside.  Kids love making cozy secret spaces.
• Baking - Someone on Instagram reminded me it was Pi day today, so that's as good a reason as any to get in the kitchen.  One thing we used to do each Friday in England was to have "Cafe School."  This meant we baked something and made hot chocolate and did our history lesson or read aloud around the table with treats.
• Reading Aloud - Letting kids color, play with stickers or other small toys while you read something funny aloud can be really fun.  Now that E's older she's been working on a cross-stitching project during read-alouds.  My brother-in-law reads But, I Still Had Feet to all the cousins at Christmas time, and they roar with laughter.
• Going for a walk or neighborhood bike ride burns off energy.  
• Watercoloring - Throw out the plastic tablecloth, and let them at it.
• Quiet Time - The best benefit of having structured time in the morning is everyone is usually more willing to have quiet reading or movie time in the afternoon, and you can have a break, too.
• A Backyard Picnic - If the weather is nice, it makes lunchtime more fun.

I hope everyone stays well and happy at home as you love your family and love your neighbor.  Stay safe out there.

Thomas Jefferson visited our town.

Yesterday we woke up to the sun shining through our living room window, and it didn't rain for the entire day!  Sun and no rain is something to take advantage of so I made the kids come for a walk with me to and around the park.  I silenced any complaints about my choice of morning P.E. with tales of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test and how I had to stand in a line of kids waiting to see how many pull-ups I could do.  Answer:  0.  

It's about a half mile's walk from our house to the Parc de Marly, a grand and magnificent park with the remaining foundation of a chateau.  I recently learned in reading John Adams that Thomas Jefferson rode through the park (with another man's wife he was briefly infatuated with), which sheds more light on the plaque outside one of the entrances.  I found some internet speculation that Jefferson modeled some of the designs for the University of Virginia after the layout of the Marly Park.  

Jefferson was definitely a friend of France until the very end, defending the lengths the French Revolution went to against the warnings of his friend, John Adams, that the will of the people can do much evil when the will of the people is unrestrained, one reason Adams was such a proponent of putting checks and balances into the United States government.  Jefferson also turned out to be a really disloyal friend to Adams in the end, actively speaking against him behind his back when they returned to the U.S.  I'm not finished with the book yet, but I don't think Adams ever called him out on it; he seemed to be a class act.

I may have read some negative things about Thomas Jefferson recently, but there is one thing we have in common, whether it be for good or ill time will tell.

Nearly a Decade of Blogging: A List, A Recipe, A Quote

At the end of this month it will be ten years since I started recording our lives in this internet space.  I had a 3-year-old daughter and a 5-month old son.  Just writing that sentence makes that time feel so long ago!  So much indeed has changed in 10 years.  My teenager was three!

My kiddoes and my brother in my second blog post

I woke up every morning and wrote about the previous day journal-style.  Writing things down helped me know my own thoughts before the swirl of childcare began, and I'm so happy I have a record of those years, because now of course, they've disappeared.  I think I might try writing with the same kind of rhythm this month in honor of the way I wrote 10 years ago and with the knowledge that this season of life will also disappear, and in another decade I'll have a 23-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old son, learning to take on the world on their own.  

So what did I do yesterday?  

• I did an indoor walking/jogging in place workout DVD because it was raining.
• I helped J and E with their respective grammar lessons, labeling all the parts of speech.  As with learning anything else, the only way to finally learn how to find direct objects and subordinating conjunctions is to dissect sentences daily.  I'm finally starting to remember.
• I learned more about how the periodic table is organized with Ella.  I'll probably wait to tell her about the time a friend and I burned our Chemistry notes at the end of the year, because it was the hardest class we'd ever taken.  I was 17 and dramatic, I guess.  (I should probably continue to remember my own teenage drama as I try to parent through my daughter's.)
• I spent a good amount of time at the grocery store stocking up on food so I can avoid going to the store as COVID-19 starts to spread.  It felt like preparing for a siege against an invisible enemy.  
• I made the Barefoot Contessa's Fresh Pea Soup.  I love it so much.  It's scrumptious.

• I took soup to Noreen and let her dogs climb in my lap and chatted about the royal family, what it was like meeting the queen and the big uproar when Edward VIII abdicated the throne.  
• I washed a lot of dishes and washed my hands a lot.  
• I kissed my husband.  

It was a good day.