Corona Diary II

It's hard to believe that we are on Week 6 of the shutdown.  Every now and then, I'll get reminders of what life would have looked like in an alternate universe without COVID-19.  I didn't have the heart to remove the calendar reminders from Jack's aborted baseball season, so I get twice-a-week notifications of games we should be playing.  Facebook memories shows me photos of things we were doing this time last year, that we presumably would have done this year if only...

Today is the first day of May, and we would have been winding down our regular baseball season and gearing up for playoffs.  Without the traditional markers of time, it feel surreal that so much should have happened already.  There was a big overnight field trip that Violet's class was supposed to have taken a couple of weeks ago.  I worked very hard all school year to make it happen, and it didn't.  The day passed without any fanfare at all.  Easter was more subdued, but our lovely next door neighbor hid eggs in several families' yards so that the kids could have a sweet surprise.  The weather turned warm last week, so the kids were able to jump in the pool.  They've gone to the beach several times this week, including in the evenings to see and swim in the bioluminescent ocean waves.  This is something that we would never have been able to do if school were in session as usual, so we are taking our wins where we can get them.

Our typical day starts with the kids completing any school work they have.  Jack has Zoom class meetings on Monday and Tuesday mornings.  Violet has them every day at 10 and 1:30.  They take care of any schoolwork they are given.  They walk the dog daily, usually in the window between Violet's two Zoom classes.  Violet attends virtual taekwondo classes 2-4 times a week, and Jack has Mandarin tutoring with a teacher in China twice a week.  Jack is generally more physically active than Violet, so he will go outside and shoot hoops or hit a baseball off a tee in our driveway.  Violet seems to have more schoolwork than Jack does, which I find a little weird, but it keeps her busy.  (Or maybe she's just slower at completing her work - or both.)

I finally broke down and bought a proper television, my first in 25 years.  I'd been watching the same CRT that I bought used from an old boyfriend in 1995.  The kids and I are watching Netflix and Amazon Prime shows together, and it's fun that they are old enough to get most of the jokes.  Jack is in an Amazing Race pool with elementary school friends, and the finale is tonight.  It's been a lot of fun.  We read a lot.  I maxed out my library limit before the city libraries shut down their physical locations but have mostly blown through the material we borrowed.  I've been borrowing e-books from the county library.  It's not quite as good as holding a real book in my hands, but it's still cool that we have this option.  (I've read 28 books in 2020 so far.)  Jack tends to be more restless than Violet and I are.  He always wants to play board games with us, but I find Violet and I have less patience for that.  We appease him every now and then though.  It would be nice if we could come up with a fun family project to work on (still researching that - he is not into jigsaw puzzles).  And we're all cooking a lot more.  The kids have baked several desserts, and I've cooked many vegan recipes.  This quarantine has made me a more adventurous cook, but my tastes differ from my children's, so we all tend to mostly eat what we cook for ourselves.

We miss our friends and our activities, and we are so saddened to see how this situation has affected our local community.  Violet has attended the same dance studio since she was 3.  Her dance teacher made the heartbreaking decision to end her lease and close forever.  Violet cried when I told her.  Our favorite super-close breakfast diner also announced they were shutting down effective yesterday.  While we are so lucky to not personally know anyone who has been ill with COVID-19, we grieve the loss of these small local businesses that were woven into the fabric of our lives here.

We remember how very blessed we are, though, everyday.  This situation has confirmed to me what I already knew: I have awesome kids.  Sure, every now and then, tempers flare and we have our squabbles.  But they usually do their work right away without (too much) grumbling.  Both kids could be better at time management and need to be prodded more than I like to do their chores, but getting them to complete their school and housework is not the struggle that I hear so many parents describe.  In fact, today I was pleasantly surprised when Jack folded all the laundry (which is not even his normal chore) without my asking.  The kids do bicker occasionally, but it isn't the constant quarreling that other frustrated parents post about on social meeting and is certainly better than I remember with my sister growing up.  My children like each other and me, they are self-sufficient, and we are all making the best of this.