Day 16 - Frogs Love Rain

Pelting hail out the window

Tuesday March 31, 2020

Status report:
WA State* Confirmed COVID-19 cases: ????+ (+?)
WA State* Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: ????+ (+?)
**data has not been updated in WA state. They claim their data reporting can't handle the new amount of data

US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 189,000 (+25000)

US Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 3900 (+900)

General updates...we are hearing news that there are states who have declared that school will all be distance learning for the rest of the year. We haven't heard that from our state yet, but I expect we likely will. Prisons are starting to see outbreaks and there is a lot of talk about releasing prisoners and/or locking down facilities. The death toll keeps climbing. I have more friends with loved ones who are battling corona. An old church friend's grandparents are both hospitalized with corona. Another friend's 40-year-old cousin has been unconscious in the ICU for days with COVID-19. It's here. 

Rain Rain Go AWAY

It has been raining for a lot of days. A lot. Every time I check my 10 day forecast, all of the days say rain. It's making us all a little bit crazy. But if it makes people stay home, then it's worth it. 

This morning for math time, the big kids and I played the boardgame Villainous. One of our new favorites. It's got all sorts of logic and problem solving, so it legit counts as math. 

Then, a miracle! The sun came out! I had everyone grab their shoes and coats and pants and whatever they needed to go for a family walk. By the time we got everyone ready and outside...it was pouring again. Phooey. So we walked anyway. It POURED on us for a good half a block, and then the sun came out again. We were soaked, but had a fun walk in the sun. Betty splashed and sploshed through all of the puddles. And the frogs were all singing in the neighborhood. Apparently, they really like rain. 

Sisters in the rain

Running through the puddles

We came home and for school project time, we watched a couple of documentaries on poison dart frogs for Edgar's project. I was sooooo tired. Had a tough time keeping my eyes open.

But. On to art time!

We tried another McHarper Manor tutorial, this time on making little clay creatures. It was ok. I think that I like painting and drawing a lot more than sculpting. But Sabrina loved it. (=
(hm. no photos. there was a turtle. a narwhale. a bunny. a dragon. And Betty's. Looked like a pancake)

We ended our day with a family board game night. We played Oregon Trail. Everyone died. It was depressing. It was too real. 

yup.

Day 15 - Back to (Home) School

Sabrina is really good at Watch Your Mouth

Monday March 30, 2020

Status report:
WA State* Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 4896+ (+?)
WA State* Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 195+ (+?)

US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 164,000 (+26000)

US Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 3000 (+500)

*Note: WA State is having trouble with their data reporting. They do not have updates on numbers at this time. But we can assume they are still climbing rapidly.

School Daze

This was supposed to be the start of our Spring Break, but we lost track of time and had our Spring Break last week. So, today it was back to the books.

After watching all. the. TV. last week, the kids were actually getting pretty bored and were really excited to get back to school work.

For Math time, we played Watch Your Mouth. This time Alex joined in. I thought I would hate this game, but it actually just cracks me up. 

Watch Your Mouth!

Oh yeah. 
And we went a little crazy with our hair. Because, who the heck cares? It'll be grown out by the time we go back out in public! So, Alex went super purple. Brina bleached her tips. And I got a little streak of light purple. We've been working on it for a while now (I think Alex ended up with 3 bleaching sessions and 2 dying sessions). 

Turns out, we're not the only ones with this idea. Apparently hair dye is the next thing flying off the shelves! But luckily, Alex is a hipster, and he bought his products the Saturday before we officially went on lockdown at our house. 

Lunchtime Doodles

So, we love Mo Willems (Piggie and Elephant books, Don't let the Pigeon...). Mo is doing a fun lunchtime doodles series during the quarantine. We finally got around to trying one today. It was so fun! Our doodles don't look like much, but the tutorial was super fun to watch. 

Mo told us to doodle something with a lot of legs. We did. 

Pigeon. Jen, Edgar, and Sabrina

 

We finished up our day with another Disney+ family movie. Tonight's movie was brought to you by 13-year-old Jennie and her 12- and 11-year old brothers: Camp Nowhere with Christopher Lloyd. It was just as awesome as I remembered.

Today was a good day!

Day 14 - Worldwide Day of Fasting

Early Spring, 1820

Sunday March 29, 2020

Status report:WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 4896 (+556)
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 195 (+6)

US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 142,000 (+26000)

US Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 2500 (+600)

Things got real for Trump today. He saw that his old neighborhood in Queens (NY) was parking refrigerator trucks outside of the hospital to store the bodies. Because they ran out of room. Maybe that was the reason he stopped trying to convince the country it would be a good idea to go back to work and school by Easter. Instead, he called for another 30 days of social distancing. 

**This is the first day that I know someone with COVID-19. It is an acquaintance I talked to on the phone today that I know from church. They seemed very reluctant to even say that they had tested positive, but did say that they were starting to recover after being incredibly sick. 

World-wide day of Fasting

In our church, we fast regularly once a month. We go without for for 2 meals/24 hours-ish, pray with a purpose, and give extra offerings to the church that are earmarked to be used to help the needy. 

This month, our church president Russell M. Nelson invited everyone of any faith to join together in fasting for relief from COVID-19. 

It was a powerful experience. Our big kids joined us. We felt our faith strengthened. This is going to be a hard thing. For everyone in the world. But we are hopeful that people will remember God and will strengthen their desire to do good. 

Conference Prep 2020

We are also getting excited and getting prepared for our upcoming worldwide General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Usually, conference is held in Salt Lake City, Utah. There is a huge choir (the Tabernacle Choir sings at many sessions), many speakers, their spouses, officers and leaders of the church, and members from all over gather in the Conference Center and on Temple Square to hear the words of Apostles and Prophets. 

Not this year! With COVID-19, only the speakers will attend. It will be broadcast live digitally. The choir is pre-recorded. 

And it promises to be unique in other ways. Last October, our prophet told us that this would be a special and unique conference, unlike any other (he's not wrong!). But the other reason is because we are celebrating 200 years since Joseph Smith, just a boy, prayed for his soul in the woods. God and Jesus Christ appeared and spoke to him. This event was the catalyst for the restoration of the gospel. 

Our prophet invited us to immerse ourselves in the restoration, to study the first vision, and to ask ourselves how our lives have been changed by this event. It has been an awesome 6 months as we have tried to follow his council. Now, in the last few days before conference, here are a few resources we have used or are going to use while we prepare: 

1. Here's a really fun conference packet full of coloring pages, activity pages, and journaling pages. It's free to print at home. 

2. This is a 3 1/2 minute video on the first vision. It's done by a YouTube channel I found recently called Latter-day Kids and is super cute. 

They also have one that introduces kids to each of the apostles. I found it to be a little slow/long for my taste. But I like the idea:

3. Conference Bingo

Here's a free printable. Although, we like to make our own on a big poster board. We add silly things and serious things (a pilot story, an exciting announcement, a primary song, the restoration, etc.) In our family, we get a fun treat when we get a bingo, and if we get a black out (over all of the conference sessions), then we have an ice cream sundae party.

4. I've never done this, but apparently this is a Fantasy General Conference. I think it would be fun to do with extended family. Here's a free printable.

5.  Paint your own Sacred Grove.

I did a fun watercolor this week (see top of the post). And I think the kids and I are going to do an acrylic painting this week. I found this tutorial for painting your own sacred grove. It's pretty long (about an hour), but fun! 

I have LOVED listening to The First Vision--a Joseph Smith Papers Podcast. My favorite episode was 3: "I Retired to the Woods" about the sensory experience Joseph would have had in early spring. It talks about the sights (blossoms, animals), sounds, smells, etc. that Joseph would have experienced that morning. But all of the episodes are really great. 

Days 7 - 13 - Lazy Days

Saturday March 28, 2020
Status report:
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 4340 (+2517 since last week)

WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 189 (+95 since last week)

US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 116,000 (+92000 since last week)

US Confirmed COVI-19 deaths: 1900 (+1600 since last week)

Monday- WA gets a stay at home order
Hospitals are running low on Personal Protection Equipment (masks, gloves, shields, gowns, etc.)
New York's outbreak has exploded
The US is now leading the world in number of reported cases
Testing in the US is still very limited. Only those who are very vulnerable and have severe symptoms are tested. Oh, and rich or powerful people. The rest of us just have to guess.

Less than daily blog...

Well, look at that. I didn't blog daily. I didn't blog at all last week. Rather than try to go back and write about each day, I'll just blog about this past week in general. 

I thought that this week was Spring Break. On Monday my kids went out to see if the Breakfast Bus was going to still bring food, and we were surprised to learn that 1) Spring Break is next week and 2) Due to the WA state governor initiating the Stay Home / Stay Healthy order, Monday was the last day of the Breakfast Bus. (Bummer! We were really enjoying the breakfast bus stopping at our house! We can still go pick up food at the school, but we haven't done that this week). 

Anyway, we decided that it totally doesn't matter when Spring Break is, so we had Spring Break last week. 

What does that even mean? What does Spring Break even look like when you are quarantined? We decided that for us, Spring Break meant lots and lots of TV and video games, no "have to do" projects or worksheets, and mom gets to sleep in. (Yay!)

7 Things That Went Great This Week

1- Betty is learning to play independently. This often involves giant messes. It's a trade off--having to play with her every moment and give her all my attention OR let her play by herself and trash the house. . But she's cute, so that helps. 

We're playing a lot of princess, doctor, and babies these days.

2- My storage bins and lazy susans arrived, and everything fit exactly as planned. I love it when that happens! Here's hoping this plan will help us be able to see and reach the stuff in the pantry. 

My deep pantry--now with pull out bins.

These are industrial bins, designed to hold things like metal pipes. So hopefully they will hold up well to heavy cans and jars.

2 Lazy Susans. Each fits 2 dozen cans. 

3. We watched a lot of TV. Edgar and Sabrina discovered and binged Gravity Falls on Disney+. Betty found a new show on Prime called Jessie and Nessie. The only problem is there are only 5 episodes. So, you know, she's watched them each about 2549 times.

Alex and I are watching the Marvel movies. We just watched Infinity Wars. Man, that was depressing. Edgar is watching them too, but he's behind us (so that we can screen which ones are okay. If we decide it's not appropriate for him, we show him a YouTube Iron Man in 5 Minutes sort of thing). Edgar just finished Thor Ragnarok. I really liked that one.

And as a family we watched Flight of the Navigator, the Shaggy Dog, and Candleshoe. All were awesome.

4. Lots of reading. Both my big kids are really into the Wings of Fire books (a series about dragons). So we bit the bullet and ordered the first 10 books on Scholastic. They came this week and the kids are devouring them.

I put down my fun kid series (Charley Bones), and now I'm catching up on some Michael Connelly books. I guess I needed more adrenaline in my life? Alex just read Edgar Allen Poe's The Red Death. Because, pandemic.

5. SABRINA RODE HER BIKE! Woohoo! And I didn't get a photo. Sad. But she did it. She took up Alex's challenge and won her first 2 out of 3 races against him. And she crashed hard and landed on her rear. But she did it! She and Alex went and got Dairy Queen and had a fun date (drive-thru).

6. We had a garage social distancing picnic with the Grandparents. It was raining, so our picnic plans were in danger. But Grandma had the brilliant idea to picnic in the garage! I insisted on bringing our own table and chairs and setting up half in and half out the garage, and the folks set up way back in the garage. We enjoyed chatting and the kids gave air hugs. 

Garage Picnic! Note, the Grandparents are at least 6 feet away from us.

Air Hugs!

7. We reached out and chatted with some loved ones. I finally got Marco Polo and the kids and I had fun sending video messages to cousins and aunties and Grandma Vickie. Yay for technology! 

4 Things That Were Hard This Week 

1. I had a super awful royal headache on Thursday. I hid in our library and read my book in dim light with the door closed. I started and finished a book that day. It was really nice to just hide and be alone a bit. Not that I was alone all day. Betty and I are pretty attached, so she popped in and out and played pretty quietly in the library. She played that she was a librarian. She set up suggested books in the window sills and kept suggesting books for me to read. She didn't understand why I would just read the SAME book ALL DAY. Grown ups are boring. 

2. We got new training wheels and a new helmet for Betty so she could ride her bike too. It was hard. She was so excited about it, but when it came down to riding, she struggled. She wasn't pedaling and felt really nervous. She finally declared, "This is too difficult!" and wouldn't ride anymore. We're apparently really bad at teaching kids to ride their bikes. We are just now finally bribing our 9- and 10-year-olds into riding. We were hoping to do better with Betty. We'll see. 
3. Betty was really really really missing people this week. She misses her Utah family. She misses her preschool friends. She misses her Auntie Dani and Uncle Todd and yesterday she was very upset because she was missing her Uncle Karl. She had me take this picture of her the other night and send a text to her preschool friends to tell them she was missing them. There were some big tears. 

Sad Betty is missing all of her people

4. We continue to have kiddos climbing in bed with us in the middle of the night with random fears or worries. We are having fun days, but we are all super-aware of what's happening in the world. 

Day 6 - Every Rose has its Thorn

She laid down in a bed of roses. Oops. 

Saturday March 20, 2020
Status report:
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 1793 (+269)WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 94 (+11)

US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 24000 (+4700)

US Confirmed COVI-19 deaths: 300 (+50)

5 states have issued stay at home orders, but not WA yet. (Even though I believe we still have the highest number of deaths in our state). Tax deadlines are postponed until July 15. The government is working on some sort of stimulus package. But, as usual, they are fighting across political lines. I'm not following it to closely. I'll just wait and see what plan they settle upon. The church announced today that they are sending missionaries back to their home nations. Those who can will be reassigned within their country. But many will just have to end their missions early. It's a crazy time.

This article gave me some hope this morning. It's a well researched article that suggests if we were to have a very strict quarantine for a few weeks, that this would buy us time to shore up our medical supplies, facilities, and testing. If we had widespread testing and tracing, we could quarantine just those who are vulnerable, and those who test positive (or come in contact with someone who tests positive). And everyone else could go back to a semi-normal life. This would help prevent millions of deaths until we can get a vaccination distributed in the next 18 months-ish. . I'm convinced. But I'm not in charge of anything but my house. So, we'll see. 

Saturday Service Project

We did our part to stay healthy by sleeping in this morning. It was a sacrifice, but I managed.

We wanted to reach out and help Grandma and Grandpa a bit today, so we went over and did some yard work (and waved to them through the window). It was a beautiful day and we were having a lovely time. Until Betty fell into the rose bush. Oops. It was totally my fault too. I was trying to help push her gloves on, and I accidentally pushed her right into the bush. It was kind of awful.

Poor thing. 10 minutes later her skin was all puffy and awful looking from the toxins in the thorns. I'll spare you that photo.

So the girls and I headed back home to snuggle down and rest.

The boys came home and rode their bikes in the sun (yay!)

And we ended our day with a family game of Colt Express. It's a totally fun (but slightly complicated) game that we got for Christmas from my brother Peter's family. If you are a big gaming family, definitely check this one out!

Day 5 - Picnic with Grandparents

Keeping 6 ft. away from the Grandparents. 

Friday March 20, 2020
Status report:

WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 1524 (+148)
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 83 (+9)
US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 19300 (+5100)

US Confirmed COVI-19 deaths: 250 (+63)

More states have issued stay at home orders. I think New York, California, and Illinois are all on order to stay at home except for essential needs (groceries, emergency medical care, work that can't be done at home). Not enough yet though. The US Canadian and Mexican borders have both been mutually restricted to only the most urgent border crossings. But people aren't staying home. The spring break beaches in Florida, etc. are full of people. 

Friday Fun Day

We have planned on Fun Fridays every week. No expectations of math or project work. Instead, we will do art, watch a documentary, or play a game. Today we watched The Crimson Wing on Disney+. Now Betty wants to play a game all the time where she's a baby flamingo that hatches out of her egg and stretches up tall and takes her first step. And then she goes back into her egg to do it all over again. (After that point in the documentary, some baby flamingos get eaten by predators. So she doesn't seem to want to go past baby's first steps in her game)

In general, we aren't too bothered by social distancing. We have enjoyed it. We are apparently a family of introverts. But we sure have missed our Grandma and Grandpa that live just 5 mins. away. So today they came over for a social distancing picnic!

We set up a quarantine picnic table for them that was a good 6 feet away from our family table outside. We got to chat, the kids showed off their art work and Betty danced around them. But we kept everyone back. We blew kisses and did air hugs. It was tough for the kids to not snuggle their grandparents, but so good to just see them. And it was such a great sunny day.

Sabrina shows off her Origami to the quarantine table

For dinner, we decided to support local businesses and order pizza from Juliano's. They have ridiculously yummy pizza with like 4 or 5 xs the normal amount of toppings. Definitely fork pizza. Yum.

The Hurricane. Alex's favorite pizza.

We finished up the night by snuggling up to a couple of episodes of The Kindness Diaries.
I binged this show with my dad last month when I stayed with him in Utah. It is such a powerful show. It has changed how I think about life. Really. I think about this show and it's lessons often. Being kind has always been really important to me, and this show is all about kindness. Check it out. It's great for the whole family. You can catch season 1 on Prime Video and Season 2 on BYUtv or Netflix.



#gobekind

Day 4 - Contours

My day: organizing this mess

Thursday March 19, 2020
Status report:

WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 1376 (+189)
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 74 (+8)
US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 14200 (+6503)

US Confirmed COVI-19 deaths: 187 (+46)

Not a ton of updates today. Things are progressing. California has issued a shelter-in-place mandate. Washington state governor says he's not ready to do that. yet.

School day

Today was just more of the same. Another good day. I was preoccupied today with our pantry.

Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it is ingrained in me to have a good food and emergency supply. And we were doing a fairly good job of that before we moved a year ago. But, in preparation to move, we stopped buying a lot of groceries and ate our food storage, so we wouldn't have to move it. So, that's fine, but that means we weren't as prepared as we could have been.

I didn't panic-buy groceries. But when I shopped last weekend, I did get a little more canned food / baking supplies than usual. And then I had grocery bags all over the floor because my pantry was full (and a mess).

So today I spent time unloading, organizing, and planning a solution for our pantry/food storage.



It's still a mess. But it's an organized mess! I bought some industrial bins to place in our deep (over 2 ft.) pantry shelves. They will hopefully act like a drawer so that we can get to the stuff in the back of the closet. And a double layer lazy susan for some canned food.

The kids did good work. We did another art tutorial. This one was by Carson Ellis, the amazing illustrator of The Wildwood series (and the wife of the author/musician Colin Meloy).

Contour drawings. A guitar pedal. A stuffed fire pillow. A Nintendo Switch. 

Betty's sharpie art. "Pikachus" 

This challenge was to do a contour drawing in sharpie--no erasing or going back to fix anything. This was an awesome activity to challenge anxiety and perfectionism--something that Edgar and I both have to fight. Betty was just thrilled to get permission to use a "mommy-daddy marker."

Basically, the kids played outside most of the day, then watched a little tv. I messed with the pantry and Amazon searches.

It was a good day. A sunny day. We'll take it.

Day 3 - Sloths and a Bike Race

Wednesday 3/18/2020

Status report:

WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 1187 (+175)
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 66 (+14)
US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 7697 (+1397)

US Confirmed COVI-19 deaths: 141 (+33)

Today I woke up to multiple texts on my phone at 7 am (I know, that's not very early, but if I can't sleep in because life is cancelled, then what's the point?). The texts were from my Utah family members comparing notes on their 5.7 earthquake that morning! My family all felt it, but it wasn't bad enough to cause any of them any damage. It did knock Angel Moroni's trumpet out of his arms though! (On the SLC Temple).

I also woke up to Trump calling COVID-19 "the Chinese Virus." Of course he did. I shouldn't expect him to be a decent human being. His track record should have predicted this.

Here's my facebook post with my thoughts on the matter:

I also read today that 1) if we do not quarantine until there is a vaccine, it is likely that 2.2 million Americans will die over the space of 3 months; and that 2) the minimum time needed to test and distribute the vaccine is 18 months.

Our school day
Today was a good day.

For our morning school work today, we played a board game. The kids chose Watch Yo' Mouth. It was hilarious.

She as really good at this game.

She had no idea what we were doing, but she was a good sport.

Betty didn't get the point of the game, but she did spontaneously sing her current favorite primary song: Book of Mormon Stories. I'll try to upload the video later.

The kids did their morning work without complaint. They are really enjoying their math worksheets and their project. Betty found some "very important work" to do as well.



For our art project today, we did another McHarper Manor tutorial. This one was an acrylic painting on canvas of a sloth. So fun!

Betty wasn't interested in being in the picture, but hers is the abstract yellow painting

Then for our afternoon PE, Alex challenged the big kids to a bike race. The backstory: neither of my big kids can ride without training wheels yet. They are both afraid and embarrassed. It's been a big source of contention / anxiety at our house. The stakes: Alex told them that he would ride down our gently sloped street at an easy pace. If they could beat him to the bottom 2 out of 3 times, he would take them to Dairy Queen (drive thru) and order them any meal and any dessert they wanted.

Sabrina said, "no thanks." But Edgar was up for it. And he did it! After a first wobbly ride, he pushed himself and won race 2 and 3! Yay Edgar! Betty had fun riding around too.

Success!

Take THAT therapy! (His therapist has been trying for months to get him onto a bike).

Day 2 - Cast off Day and Darby O'Gill

Darby O'Gill and the King Brian Conners, King of the Leprechauns

Tuesday 3/17/2020

Status report:

WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 1012 (+108)
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 52 (+4)
US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 6300 (+1800)

US Confirmed COVI-19 deaths: 108 (+20)

The virus is taking off in New York. California is now on lock down. France and Italy are both on lockdown. With West Virginia announcing a case, now all 50 states have had positive COVID-19 tests. Oregon extended their school closure to be 6 weeks like we are here in Washington. Some schools around the country are talking about officially ending the school year.

First Corona Home school Day

We started our schedule today. It's pretty simple:

Wake Up (get dressed, breakfast, morning chores)
Morning Recess (family walk, trampoline, family Yoga)
Morning School Work
     30 mins Math (board games, worksheets, computer math game)
     30 mins Project time
     10 mins Write in your Journal

LUNCH

Afternoon Recess
Mom's Choice (movie or art project)
Afternoon Chores (basically, tidy up whatever is bugging mom most)
Free Time (kids can watch tv or play outside or whatev)

DINNER
Family time or Free time (depending on what we need)

And we're off to a great start! Betty and I had an important appointment, so Edgar and Sabrina were on their own with their school work. They did awesome! They are both researching their choice of subjects for their project. Sabrina chose Sea horses and Edgar chose Poison Dart Frogs. It's going to be fun.

Oh, but first, we had to pick up breakfast and lunch! Our school district is doing a very clever thing. The elementary buses are all still running. But instead of picking kids up, they are dropping off a sack lunch and breakfast to any kid 18 and under. It's been really fun actually to get up and walk down to pick up their food. And it helps stretch our groceries so we can avoid extra store trips. It's great. Here's Edgar and Sabrina in their St. Paddy's Day green, going to get food:




Today was also CAST OFF DAY!

Betty has been SO excited to get her cast off.



Our afternoon was pretty chill. We enjoyed our Disney+ and watched Luck of the Irish while Sabrina and Betty made Ninjabread men. Why? Because I'm organizing our pantry, and we found a box we never made at Christmas. That's why.



We ended the day with Corned Beef and Cabbage and Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It wasn't quite as disturbing as I remembered it. But I can see why it creeped me out. Crept? Creept? Creeped? It disturbed me. But now it looks so campy that I don't think it bothered my kids at all. But then, they are watching Lord of the Rings with us. So I guess a little banshee is nothing compared with a Nazgul. 

Day 1 - Sunshine and Art Tutorials

Sunshine and snugly siblings!

Monday 3/16/2020Status report:

WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 904
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 48?
US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 4500

US Confirmed COVI-19 deaths: 88
Today Trump stopped claiming the virus was a hoax, and recommended that people avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. More states closed schools, bars, restaurants.

No Corona-School day
Today was technically supposed to be a day off of regular school, so we didn't start our official school stuff, but just had a fun day.

Mr. Rogers is often quoted during hard times, because he was an amazing example of loving kindness. And so, like Mr. Rogers advises, I am looking for the helpers. And there are a lot. One of the awesome things coming from this global crisis is the people and businesses offering free products online. There is a Cincinnati art studio, McHarper Manor, that is offering free daily art tutorials on Facebook Live. It is so fun!

We have decided to take a break from our kiddo's mental health therapy, and this was definitely a good therapy time for all of us. We're a pretty art/music/reading-centric family. So any excuse to do more art together is welcomed!

Here's today's animal watercolors:



Today had good weather, fun art, and snugly TV watching. It was a good day.

Day 0 - Worshiping in PJs

Sabrina (9) snoozing through church. Betty (3) smashing snuggling her.

We are still early days here in the US with COVID-19. We are not technically in quarantine, but are isolating ourselves. We are currently healthy and don't know anyone who is sick. But, it seems like this is going to be an epic time in our family's life. Good and bad. So, here we go. A daily-ish blog. You can read it if you want. But really, I just want to document this time in our lives and this seems like a good way to do that.

Sunday 3/15/2020
Status report:

WA State Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 772
WA State Confirmed COVID-19 deaths: 49
US Confirmed COVID-19 cases: 3000

In general in the US, it seems that some people are panicking and stock piling TP (?!?), cleaning supplies, and dry goods. Some people are following social distancing guidelines. And some still think this is all being blown out of proportion and that the closures are ridiculous. Some are taking advantage of the panic to jump on cheap cruises and flights, take their kids to the movies, etc.

After reading some research-backed articles like this one, our family has decided to jump into some drastic social distancing practices. I am convinced that it will take some pretty harsh changes to really make a difference.

Our schools here in Washington state are closed until at least April 27. Our church has shut down all worship gatherings and activities. As of today, our governor is closing bars, entertainment venues, and restaurants except for drive-thru/pick-up/delivery.

And we are joining in the cause to slow the spread and flatten the curve by washing our hands, staying home as much as possible, washing our hands, limiting store trips, washing our hands, and avoiding play groups and parks. And washing our hands.

The weekend:

We spent our Saturday getting ready to hunker down. The library announced they would close after regular Saturday hours for a while, so we went to the library and stocked up on books, audio books, and dvds. (Then washed our hands).

We dropped by Fred Meyer to grab a few things we needed. It was surprisingly not that busy. After the reports I had heard of scarcity, crowds, and long lines, I expected it to be awful. But it was just fine. There were definitely signs that earlier that day had been swamped though.

The TP aisle was empty, so they filled it with potato chips. I don't know that those would work...

Then we grabbed some pizza and pie to celebrate Pi day! We also dropped off a pie to the in-laws. They are in their 80s and are our top reason for social distancing. We love them. We want to keep them safe. So we might go mow their lawn and talk to them through the screen door, but these kids aren't getting any grandma hugs for a while.

And that was it. Home to wash our hands and put away groceries.

Sunday was pretty chill. I slept until noon. It was glorious.

Church at home was pretty disorganized. We have plans for assignments and activities in the future, but today we were just doing what we could on the fly. They can't all be zingers.

I dressed up in a skirt, but everyone else was in comfy clothes. Actually, the girls dressed up as "fancy ladies" in dresses, hats, and glitter. It was awesome. But Sabrina won't let me post the photo. And she quickly changed back into pjs. What can I say? She's in that uncertain spot between childhood and pre-teens.

We sang hymns, prayed, and caught up on some scripture videos. It was snugly and fun. But maybe a little too snugly, as Miss Sabrina fell asleep.

I think that the best part of our weekend was watching this video from our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.

I love that we live in a day when a living prophet can respond to current events and speak to us, telling us the things that God would have us know NOW. Today. It's really wonderful.

His message of peace, hope, and love was just what we needed. We are doing our best to make the most of our time at home (we have some fun plans for art, school projects, and fun), while at the same time looking for ways to help others.

It's going to be memorable for sure.