DAY 18

There has been a meme going around Facebook that reads "For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay." That was totally me today. I could not figure out what day it was. I looked at my calendar a couple of times, but since I wasn't sure what yesterday was either it did not help. I finally had the sense to look at my phone for the date and got my bearings. I have a feeling this is going to be an ongoing issue. With no appointments or outside activities to anchor me in time I fear that I will be sucked onto a vortex of time and space, never finding my way back to reality.

I spent several hours today making more face masks, trying out a couple of different patterns. I heard that JoAnn Fabrics was donating materials for making the masks. I tried ordering some things online for curbside pickup, then tried calling the store but had no luck with either so I'm still wading through my stash. I won't run out of fabric any time soon, but I will need more elastic. I'll try again tomorrow to place an order. Now that the CDC is considering asking us all to cover our faces in public I expect that many people will be digging out their long forgotten sewing machines and giving it a go.

Countless times over the years I have heard these age old words from my kids or grand kids - "I'm bored." I tell them "Only boring people get bored. You are not a boring person, so find something to do." I see a lot of creativity going on in the world right now to fight the boredom. One of those things is Hearts of Hope, a Facebook page that encourages us to put hearts in our windows and to go on a walk or car ride scavenger hunt to see how many hearts we can find.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/822636184897888/  Kids are also putting teddy bears in their windows for others to search for. We decorated our windows today. Tomorrow I think we will take one of those rides to nowhere and see how many hearts and bears we can find. My husband decided to put his own spin on the teddy bear thing. Keep your eyes out for his contribution if you are out and about. He calls it The Love Monkey. I made it for him years ago and he keeps it next to the bed on his side. He has also taken it on fishing trips. I'm sure his fishing buddies are totally cool with it.

DAY 17

I went to Kroger early this morning. I anticipated the store to be busy as I have heard reports of people lining up waiting to get in. I arrived at 7:30 and there were plenty of empty parking spaces so I took that as a good sign. When I walked in a young man asked me if I wanted a large or small cart and he cleaned the handle for me. Just inside the store a man was handing out toilet paper to anyone who needed it. One package of four per person. I took one for my aunt and cousin.

My list was pretty short, I just needed a few things and I had a list that my aunt texted to me. I found a decent selection of fresh produce, and everything else that we needed. I made a few impulse buys and left as quickly as I could. I was afraid that I would burst into tears before I got out of there. At least half of the people shopping were wearing masks. That and the general somber mood were enough to just about push me over the edge. I have been on the verge of tears for days anyway. I feel like we are living in a dystopian novel, right up there with The Handmaids Tale.

I recall hearing of a Russian diplomat who visited the United States and he was amazed at the abundant selection of food in the grocery stores. We have been spoiled for our entire lives, taking so much for granted. Now we are witnessing what is normal for people in many parts of the world. One bonus though, I filled up my car with gas at the Kroger station and paid $1.349 a gallon using my Kroger card points. Unbelievable!

When I got home Miss Nine was up, fed and ready to rock and roll. We spent some time in her classroom a.k.a. her bedroom. We read a Scholastic story about roller coasters, played a game that involved trying to engineer a roller coaster and then played some math games. Scholastic has some really cool things to offer kids right now at age appropriate levels. Check them out at https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-tools/articles/resources/scholastic-learn-at-home--free-resources-for-school-closures.html#

A couple of days ago we made some ornaments out of air dry clay. We used cookie cutters to make Easter shapes and hearts. Today they were ready for paint so that's what we did after lunch. We were quite happy with the results. We are going to hang them up along with our other spring decorations.

I took a nap while Miss Nine the Queen of Organizing shopped online at Ikea and The Container Store. When I woke up she had a whole list of things that she deemed necessary for the smooth running of our home. Mostly her room. She spent the rest of the day plotting how she is going to earn enough money to buy some of these items. I am sure she will think of something. She has operated several money making businesses already. A couple of years ago she raised about $600 for cancer research by selling two gallons of lemonade in front of our house.

I received a toilet paper delivery late in the afternoon. I've been buying from Who Gives A Crap for years. https://us.whogivesacrap.org/ It is bamboo toilet paper and they donate 50% of their earnings to build toilet facilities for those in need. I give a crap. I hope you do, too.

DAY 16

Sorry. Day 16 was cancelled due to lack of interest. My interest, not yours I hope. Here is a picture of our dog to cheer you up.

Seriously, I had to make some very difficult decisions regarding social distancing. People were not happy. Threats were made. I am emotionally exhausted by all that has to be navigated right now. Besides, it is Sunday and I decided to lay around and watch stupid shit on the internet.

More tomorrow.

DAY 15

It was very quiet here today. Miss Nine spent the day with her dad, giving me my first long stretch of alone time in two weeks. In the morning I set up a Zoom meeting with some dear friends. We laughed and cried and talked for an hour. It was wonderful to see their faces and to share our fears and tears, love and support. We will be doing this on a weekly basis. What an amazing thing the internet can be! It's a little less painful to be isolated when we can use tools like this to connect. https://zoom.us/

After hearing from the governor yesterday that school would likely not open again this year I decided to spend the day organizing my home school resources. I am making weekly lesson plans, aimed at keeping up with what she was working on at school. None of us have a clue what is going to happen when school does resume. I am thinking that possibly they will go back in the summer to finish out the year. In the meantime, she is going to finish 4th grade at home.

I organized my bookmarks into folders by subject. I made an Excel spreadsheet to chart our plans each day. I dug some binders out of storage to keep our finished work in. I want to be able to demonstrate to the administrators that she actually did this work. I heard that the governor indicated that work at home would not count. I know from my previous experience as a home school mom that it can and will count. I think that most parents sincerely want their kids to get an education. They are not going to say that they did the work if they did not. However, it is a good idea to keep records.

In home school there is no need to kill trees by doing endless worksheets. Because of this it can be challenging to keep track of what is actually being learned. I found years ago if I documented every day what we did - games we played, art projects, field trips, books read, etc. that I felt confident that we were doing well. A long day in home school is about three hours. There is a lot of time taken up in a traditional classroom with crowd control and other distractions that are not an issue in home school. I hope I don't have trouble with crowd control in a classroom of one!

DAY 14

We are all grieving. Grieving the loss of everything that was normal a few weeks ago. Grieving the uncertain future. Let's please be kind to ourselves and each other. There are many lessons to be learned from this. Be open to the lessons.

There is a whole lot of misinformation going around on the internet. Desperate people trying desperately to make sense of all of this. People, please don't rely on social media to provide you with information that you need to make healthy decisions for yourself and your family. It is so important to have accurate information in order to remain calm and to help our children through the next few months. I rely on the World Health Organization, The Centers for Disease Control, National Public Radio, and my own common sense (what little I might have). Today I found some great resources on the WHO website. Here is a link to some posters you can print out and use when talking to your kids about the virus.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/healthy-parenting

And some myth busters: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters

We have a chalkboard in our kitchen that we write different quotes, messages, etc. For months it has had our family rules written on it:

RESPECT YOURSELF
RESPECT OTHERS 

Now we have added:

WASH YOUR HANDS

DAY 13

I don't watch the news. I never really have. I skim through the New York Times every morning online. I listen to NPR on the radio in my car. Otherwise, I figure if something is really important I will hear about it from someone, eventually. This practice, or non-practice has served me well over the years. If I could turn on the t.v. and find a news station that offered mostly uplifting news I might watch, but as far as I know there is nothing like that out on the airwaves. It's mostly depressing, doom and gloom, the sky is falling news. I don't need that in my brain. I don't think that this is denial or ignorance is bliss mentality. It is a way for me to maintain good mental health in a sometimes mentally unhealthy world. Especially now.

I did hear some good news from my husband today. I knew that a stimulus package was in the works by our government, but had not paid attention to the details. I guess that we can expect a big deposit to our bank account in the next few weeks. My husband wants to take his to the casino and try and double his money. He says this every time he gets a chunk of money. I had to remind him that the casinos are closed. In reality all he has ever taken to a casino was $20 on two separate occasions. He lost it all at blackjack in a very short time while I stretched my $20 out on the quarter slot machines until I got bored and took my last $5 and we left. You can see who is the money manager in this family.

This morning Miss Nine and I took a walk around the neighborhood. We chalk bombed the sidewalks with fun, uplifting messages. On one corner she left a piece of chalk with the message "take this and write some more."  I hope someone picked it up and had some fun. I got a few texts later in the day from folks who were pretty sure they knew who the graffiti artists were. The messages were a big hit.

Miss Nine is not the only one getting an education here at Clinton Street Academy. Today I learned about Zoom, an online meeting application. Evidently I have been way out of the loop because I discovered that people I know have been using it for years. Miss Nines teacher set up a Zoom meeting between herself and her class. They are going to have another meet up today. It is amazing to me how many ways there are to deal with this social isolation!

Jumping rope and hopscotch were the order of the day for phys ed. I'm glad that the weather is getting a little nicer. It would be so much harder to navigate this in the middle of winter. I arranged the furniture on our back deck and cleaned up the yard a little. It felt so good to be outside working, like a normal spring day. It started to sprinkle lightly while I was out working, but I didn't care. We are made of mostly water anyway.

DAY 12

I don't know about the rest of you all, but I am running out of enthusiasm for this project. I have tried very hard to keep looking on the bright side. I try finding joy in spending so much time with my family, but I am an introvert at heart. I need long periods of solitude to maintain my sanity and serenity. In this isolation it is difficult to find ways to give myself that quiet time. I think I need to take some long walks by myself. Which addresses another problem I am having.

We are very well stocked with food. On a normal day we have a pantry and freezer full of food. Now we are overflowing with canned goods and frozen pizzas. With no place to go I find myself eating more than I need to. I have gained five pounds over the last two weeks. I try to stress eat celery sticks, but eventually turn to the more comforting peanut butter and banana sandwich or chocolate cupcake. Those cupcakes were amazing but we won't be making them again anytime soon. Too big a temptation! So, walking seems like a good idea right about now. I will be alone, and out of reach of the refrigerator.

Our school teachers and administrators have provided us with some wonderful resources to keep the kids busy and engaged during this stressful time. When I home schooled my kids in the early nineties there was no internet, and not a lot available for those of us who were teaching at home. We had to develop our own lesson plans, unit studies and field trips. I knew very few people who were also homeschooling, whereas today we all know of families who are making this choice. It's wonderful to see the many ways that a home school family can create an educational experience to suit their children.

We have to keep telling ourselves that this, too, shall pass. Our kids will go back to school. We have no way of knowing how long it will be or how the requirements for days attended will be affected. If we can just read and write something every day, and do math activities like cooking or playing games our children will be fine. I think we just have to imagine that we are on a chilly, lonely version of summer vacation. My little chick loves playing school, so it is easy to work with her. Not every child, nor every parent, is suited to homeschooling. I hope that no parent out there feels like they have to suddenly become a teacher, especially when we are all so stressed out already. Our children's mental health, and ours, is so much more important than their grades. Keeping that in mind, I relaxed a little about the playground equipment today.

There are still things to celebrate - my new granddaughter arrived this evening! At 8:13 p.m. Miss Olivia was born after ONE PUSH! Sadly, I could not be at the hospital, but we received lots of pictures and text messages. Mom, dad and baby are all well and will be going home after twenty four hours. I am hoping that we will be able to meet her in person very soon.

DAY 11

We went out for a walk after breakfast. The streets were eerily quiet, like on an early Sunday morning. We went several blocks and ended up near a park. Miss Nine wanted to play at the park, but I was reluctant to let her play on the equipment. This is the worst part of all of this for me. I have to try and be reasonably calm and collected for her, while navigating these possibly irrational fears. When a threat is literally invisible I feel like I have to suspect that every surface might be infected. My rational self tells me that there are only a handful of cases in our county. My irrational self says that maybe the child of one of those cases just left this playground. I guess next time I will take sanitizing wipes to deal with the handrails. I am not normally a paranoid person, so I hate to admit that I am thinking like this.

Next we decided to write letters to people that we can't visit. Miss Nine wrote to two neighbor kids who moved to Georgia a few months ago. We have missed them, and I know that they miss our neighborhood. I wrote to my friend Nancy who is home with grandchildren just like I am. Hers are really little and I imagine that she is having a hard time keeping them busy. I wrote to two more friends who are much older than I am. I worry about their health and how they are navigating this crisis. When I was young and lived in another state for a few years with no telephone I wrote letters quite often. I wrote to my family and friends once a week and looked forward to finding a letter from one of them in my mailbox. I saved every one of those letters and still have them in a box in my basement. Letter writing has become sort of a lost art. We dash off quick emails and hit send. I don't imagine anyone prints their emails and saves them, tied with a different color ribbon for each friend or family member. Sad.

My sister in law has been giving us Yum boxes. She gets one in the mail every month. They are filled with candy and other snacks from a different country each month. The choices are sometimes really tasty, other times not so much. She brought one over the other day from Brazil. Miss Nine and I opened it up and tried a few things. The boxes also contain a booklet with information about the country of the month. We learned some interesting things about Brazil. Did you know that Brazil is named after a tree? Or that in the city of Laguna dolphins help fishermen catch fish? There was a quiz about different aspects of life in Brazil. We answered about half of them correctly. Lucky guesses for the most part.

I received an email from Miss Nines teacher with more resources and encouragement. She is setting up something online (Zoom) where she can connect with the kids. I haven't checked it out yet but it sounds kind of like Facetime.

We went for another walk late in the afternoon. This time we took a fanny grabber (that's what my dad called it) and some plastic bags. We picked up trash around the neighborhood and came home with a bagful. We saw a neighbor who was cleaning out his garage and putting stuff by the road. Some good stuff! Coincidentally this was the father of the two kids that Miss Nine wrote to this morning. They are getting ready to close on the sale of their house here in Michigan and he came up to finish cleaning it out. We had a nice chat, from a safe distance, and then I went home and got my car so I could load up some of the good stuff he was getting rid of. Now ask me, did I worry about what germs might be on that stuff? A little, though I did put it all in the basement and wash my hands thoroughly when I was done.

DAY 10

This is Peyton again today my mamaw thought  I should write about the super heroes that are helping.

I think the heroes are the mail man, grocery store workers,and doctors. And teachers.The mail man helps cause he can give letters to people at the hospital and others. Grocery store workers because they are cheeking stuff out for you to have a lot of food and toilet paper. Doctors cause they are testing people and give out masks. Teachers cause they are giving out things to do.
My mamaw is making masks for hospitals and they will help. make sore you are during something to help.

Our elementary school has been sending encouraging emails with links to activities to keep the kids busy. It is officially Home School Spirit Week. Today is Super Hero Day. Miss Nine decided to dress like a teacher. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up, and this is how she dresses on every career day that they have at school. She could not bring herself to actually get dressed, so today she is a Home School teacher. I shouldn't toot my own horn, but home school teachers really are heroes. Classroom teachers are Super Heroes! When I home schooled my older kids years ago I developed a whole new respect for classroom teachers. Especially the ones who do it all without self medicating. Some days dealing with three kids was enough to make me a danger to myself or others. I can't imagine the self control it takes to navigate a herd of twenty-five or thirty.

And about those minimum wage workers who are keeping us fed, if they do not deserve a living wage after what they have endured through this, I don't know who does. I went to Kroger early yesterday morning, and a young girl was in the lobby with a spray bottle of sanitizer and a roll of paper towel. She cleaned the handle of every cart as customers came in to shop. My niece works at Kroger and she has put up with long hours, angry customers, and more over the last couple of weeks. These folks are Super Heroes.

Doctors, nurses, emergency personnel all deserve a medal for navigating this unprecedented fiasco. Politicians who can't find their own ass with their own two hand, they deserve to be voted out of office with no lifetime pension. Just sayin'.

Today Miss Nine worked on Everyday Math for half an hour. She did some more jar painting and watched animal videos. She face timed with her bff and we read some more of Little House in the Big Woods. She cleaned her room and organized her clothes.

Organizing is a great stress reliever, if you don't already know it. Organizing has become my drug of choice. When things are out of control, you control what you can. I cleaned out my bathroom cabinets and drawers first thing this morning. When I heard that Governor Whitmer had ordered us to stay at home for at least three weeks I started working on my bedroom. My house is likely to be super clean and organized when this is over.

Keep calm and organize your silverware drawer. It's almost better than a glass of wine.

DAY 9

"Each day had it's own proper work. Ma used to say:
Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday"
~ Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Sunday - a day of rest. When did we forget that? When I was a child, growing up in this same small town, everything was closed on Sunday. Everything except one drug store and one gas station. And of course the churches. During the week most stores closed at 5:00. they stayed open until 9:00 on Friday because that was when everyone got paid. Sunday was a day to go to church, have big family dinners, and generally relax. I'm not sure how relaxing it was for my mother and grandmothers. they still had to cook those big dinners and clean up after.

My great grandparents lived in Stockbridge. We drove over there most Sundays, my brother and I bouncing around in the back seat singing Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go. Over and over and over until my mother told us to stop or she was going to smack somebody. When we finally got there we ran wild in the woods with our cousins, played in the barn and chased the chickens until we were called in for dinner. Not very restful I guess, but a welcome change from schoolwork.

So, how did we go from that to this crazy, busy life that we live today? Perhaps the universe is trying to remind us - be a human being, not a human doing. Stay home with your family. Connect with each other in new ways. Be kind and generous with your neighbors. I am listening.

Today we did a lot of reading, worked on jigsaw puzzles and napped. I am quite addicted to jigsaw puzzles anyway. I do several over the winter to pass the time during the long, cold evenings. I am not much of a t.v. watcher so these are a great alternative, and I am convinced that they keep my aging brain active. I think I may need more puzzles before this is over.

I went out late in the day to pick up something that had been offered on Livingston Freecycle. In the post the woman assured potential takers that she would put it in the driveway and we would not have to see her. I was passing my son in laws house on the way back and I knew that one of my grandsons was with him. I called to see if he could come out to the driveway for a chat. He did and we had a long conversation about the state of the world, his new dog, and his baby sister or brother who is due literally tomorrow. When my daughter delivers we will not be allowed at the hospital. I wanted to get out of the car and give him a big hug, but we settled for blowing a kiss from ten feet and called it good.

I f*cking hate this.

DAY 8

Today began with phys ed. This involved going out into the driveway and jumping up and down on some bubble wrap that came in a box with my meditation bolster. I can't imagine why the folks who packed the thing thought that it needed any padding. After all, it is just a big fat pad all by itself. Whatever, Miss Nine enjoyed it immensely.

After she wore out the bubble wrap we decided to bake cupcakes. This was quite a challenge as I had very little white flour. I had cassava, almond, coconut and whole wheat flour. It took some research to find a recipe that did not require ingredients that I did not have on hand. We settled on whole wheat chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. We made a batch of twenty four cupcakes. I didn't think that we needed that many cupcakes so we packaged some up and delivered them around the neighborhood. We have a pastry chef living next door. She works at M Street bakery and sends over really awesome baked goods every once in a while. I was hoping her mother would answer when we knocked, but no, it was the resident baker. I can't hope to compete with her. I told her I didn't want any comments about the appearance of our cupcakes. They don't look like much but they are delicious. She thanked us.

Miss Nine was intent on working on her bullet journal and insisted that we needed a few craft supplies. This is hard to believe if you have ever seen my craft room. I got online and placed an order with Michaels. They now offer curbside pickup. When my order was ready I drove to Brighton and called the store to let them know that I had arrived. The clerk told me to pull up in front and pop my trunk. A woman came out with my purchases in a bag, wearing gloves and a mask. She put them in the back of my car and off I went. It is truly amazing how quickly businesses have adapted to accommodate their customers.

I heard from my oldest daughter that some hospitals were asking for people to make face masks and donate them. She sent me a link to a pattern and directions to make them out of cotton fabric and elastic. As I said, I have a large inventory of supplies which happily includes yards and yards of fabric and elastic. Before the end of the day I had thirty six masks ready to deliver. While I was working I thought about stories I've heard of women rolling bandages during the Civil War and both World War I and II. It was very satisfying to join the generations of women before who did what needed to be done in hard times. I told Miss Nine a story I heard about Mr. Rogers mother. When he was a little boy she told him that when there is a crisis to always look for the helpers. Wise little Miss Nine said "Don't just look for the helpers, be a helper." I agreed with her wholeheartedly.

DAY 7

For years I said that I would love to stay home for days with nowhere to go. Be careful what you pray for...

Today was quite productive, actually. Miss Nine has been watching YouTube videos on a number of things, mostly crafting and organizing. She was up bright and early with big ideas. She wanted to make a "bullet journal", and if you want to know exactly what that is you will have to look it up because I am still not clear about it. All I really know is that it is a journal to help you organize your thoughts. Which is a journal, right? Where does the bullet part come in? Anyway, she gathered supplies and insisted that we do this in the fort we made on the third floor.

While she was creating her bullet journal, I read the first two chapters of Little House in the Big Woods to her. This is Laura  Ingalls Wilder's first book in the series. The first chapter is all about preparing for winter. The family must store enough food to feed themselves. Their pig, who has been running wild eating acorns and such, is brought home to fatten him up. Pa hunts for other animals and they are butchered, salted and stored in the attic. The hog is killed and smoked. Vegetables are stored in the attic and the family is snug and secure for the season. This all seemed very relevant in light of what we are experiencing right now.

I read the whole Little House series to my youngest daughter when she was a second grade homeschooler. That was our social studies program for the year. We read the books and did activities that Laura and her family did in the stories. We preserved food, learned about Native Americans, made a rag doll, and many more fun and interesting things. These books are a wonderful look at early American life and contain many lessons on being prepared and self sufficient.

Next she wanted to paint a couple of mason jars to use as pencil holders. We gathered the paints, brushes and jars and she had at it. The finished product is quite adorable.

When we finished crafting and reading we did our chores and went out into the world. We have been in the process of moving our business, Total Pool, to a new location. Since we are seasonal we don't have customers coming in right now, which is great because we have a lot of stuff to reorganize in our new building. While I worked in my office, Miss Nine did some math activities on her Chromebook.

On our way home we stopped at the gas station on the corner near our house to get some rootbeer for College Boy. There were two customers outside pumping gas, both wearing masks. The clerk in the store had a bandanna around her face. This was the first time we have seen anyone wearing masks. Miss Nine asked about it and I told her that we would likely see more of it.

After quiet time, a.k.a. my nap time, we watched a live stream from the Cincinnati Zoo about lions. The zoo is highlighting a different animal every day with their Home Safari. The videos and activities relating to the videos are fun and educational.
http://cincinnatizoo.org/home-safari-resources/ We highly recommend them!

After dinner and more reading time we ended the day with three of us being very silly on my bed. This mainly involved me watching my husband and Miss Nine being silly, which is an every day occurrence on a normal day anyway.

I will leave you with some home schooling words of wisdom shared by my 7th grade English teacher. A wonderful woman who exemplifies a great teacher. We love you Mrs. Murphy!

DAY 6

I am getting so bored that I actually shaved my legs this morning. For the first time in months. I was in the shower and I thought, hmm, I've got nowhere to go, no hurry to get out of the shower. I might as well shave my legs. If there was anything else I could have done while I was in there I would have. Cause you know, now it's one of the only places I can be alone. This social isolation is an introverts dream, except that I have several people here with me. One of them is my constant companion.

I made the mistake of looking at my stock portfolio online. I won't be doing that again. I don't want to be the home school mom who is fired for drinking on the job. I'll just ignore it and remind myself that  haven't really lost a sh*t ton of money unless I panic and SELL, SELL, SELL. If I had been thinking clearly six weeks ago I might have done that instead of focusing on buying extra tuna fish and peanut butter every time I went to the grocery store.

Miss Nine face-timed with her bff a couple of times today. That seemed to relieve some of their despair over not being able to play together. Girls can talk for hours over the funniest things. I heard them discussing the ways that their parents embarrass them. I wanted to tell them that we will up our game when they become teenagers.

We made a trip out to do a porch pickup of some books that were offered up on Freecycle. When I was a kid my mom and grandma used to take us for a drive on Sunday afternoons. No destination, just a drive, We might stop somewhere, or just circle around and come home. There were no seat belts, so my brother and I would be all over the back seat, on the floor, up in the back window, hanging out the side windows. Gas is cheap, we might have to try out some drives to nowhere just to get out and relieve the monotony.

Miss Nine did some painting and some math, and read a book. I am going to start reading the Little House on the Prairie series to her. Those girls lived in some serious social isolation. It might give us some perspective on our situation. In one of the books Laura tells about the whole family coming down with some horrible sickness in the middle of nowhere. I am not sure where they picked up this bug. Pa must have brought it home with him on a random trip to town for supplies.

My husband set up another tent in the yard yesterday with the intention of camping out. The temperature was going up into the sixties overnight. College boy did not care to join them. He is happily self isolating in his room chatting with friends online. I had no desire to sleep outside at this point either. The two of them lit the grill and cooked a steak. They ate dinner out in the garage because it was raining by that time. At bedtime the plan fell apart due to continuing rain and they slept inside. Our backyard is starting to look like a campground. Maybe I will start renting those tents out by the hour to other parents who just need to get away from it all.

DAY 5

hi it is Peyton I will be starting the blog again

today I would like to talk about why I can not see my bff

I can not see her cause her mom works at a old people home. It is stupid so I am hunting for a place to rent. It is fun. shout out to my bff. #miss you. So I am really bored and if this is for the rest of the school year I am going go crazy and flip out. bye

Trying to stick to a schedule is not working well.  A two or three hour school day is sufficient, then you have a whole bunch of time to fill before you can put them to bed and have a minute to yourself. I am reminding myself that the whole world is our classroom. I should have remembered this from when I home schooled my older kids many years ago.

We went for a walk to the post office, partly to get out of the house and exercise, partly because I actually needed to mail a letter and putting it in my mailbox with the flag up seemed too easy. We saw several other people out walking. The coffee shop and Dairy Queen were open, but not much else. I took pictures of signs posted in doorways announcing store closings. The girls asked why I was doing this and I explained that we were witnessing history and it is important to document the things we see, hear and feel. I let them know that in 50 or 100 years their grandchildren will be reading about the things that are happening right now, and we are a part of it. I encouraged them to write every day and to save their journals.

The post office was open for business, but we used the outside mailbox. There is a funeral home across the street from the post office, which got me wondering how people will handle a funeral if a loved one dies during this time. I imagine many memorial services being postponed until a later date. We are invited to a wedding in May and I began to wonder if this will affect that in any way. I suspect that the ripples traveling out into the future will be felt for a very long time.

When we came home we decided to set up a tent in the back yard so the girls could play outside in the fresh air. They had fun setting it up, but in the end they did not have a chance to play together for long. I am so saddened by the ways that this isolation is affecting children. They do not fully understand our reasons for the social distancing. How can they when many adults do not? While we were out walking the girls picked up a real estate magazine and started looking at houses. After her friend left, Miss Nine began looking online for apartments to rent. She found one in Flint for $400 a month. I can only imagine the neighborhood. I advised her that she would also have to pay for utilities, food, and many other things. This did not faze her. She began to calculate what she thought that would cost. She informed me that she could live on $60 worth of groceries a month. I'd like to see that!

At bedtime Miss Nine told me that we all have to realize that a global crisis in happening and do everything we can to help each other through it. She is a wise little soul.

DAY 4

Hi my name is Peyton  and my Mamaw thought that I should do the blog today.

People think this is the end of the world. But it is no where close to what I think is the end of the world. I think the the world will end if trump is are president for a year again. No joking I think the world will end when we all die or when all of the world is shut down we will run out of stuff.

HERE ARE 5 WAY TO HELP THE COMMUNITY

*cough in to sleeve
*use tissue
*DO NOT SHARE
*wash your hands
*do not get stuff you don't need

Miss Nine Year Old has a lot of opinions and big ideas. It is a challenge to keep up with her. We have been struggling along with a ten year old, very slow laptop for her schoolwork. I went to Best Buy today and bought her a Chromebook. It is so much faster and totally suited to what she needs. She was over the top excited when she saw it.

Occasionally she prints a neighborhood newsletter called Peyton's New and Tips. After blogging today she typed up a new one, listing all of the things you should do at this time. Here it is in a nutshell:

For covid-19 

• Wash your hands
• Cough into your sleeve
• Use tissue
• Do not touch your face
• Do not get stuff you don’t need  

She immediately went to pass them around to the neighbors. I am sure that they will be happy to have this important information.

I have long thought about ordering groceries online, but have never done it. Today I placed an order with Meijer Thrifty Acres. I wanted to find out how the process worked.  I scheduled a time for pickup between 2:00 and 3:00. At promptly 2:00 I got a text from a young man who was doing my shopping. He asked if I wanted to add anything to my order, what time I planned to arrive for pickup and what I would be driving. He later texted me saying that a couple of the things I ordered were out of stock. No, it was not toilet paper. When I pulled up in front of Meijer, there he was with my bags in a cart. He loaded them in the car for me and we had a little chat about the craziness going on in the store. He said that early in the morning several pallets of toilet paper were put out in an aisle, never even made it to the shelves. Shoppers were loading up with their limit of five packages, some couples split up so that they could get ten packages. He told me that he had seen posts online where people were selling t.p.for $50 a package. It never ceases to amaze me what people will do out of fear and greed. I thanked him and went on my way. It cost me about $5 to have him shop and bring my groceries to the car. For $10 he would have brought them to my door! I think I am a convert to this way of shopping, social distancing or not! 

DAY 3

Miss Nine Year Old got up this morning ready to follow our plan. After showers and breakfast we took our dog for a walk to the park. On the way home we saw a man approaching us a block or so away. He crossed the street and continued to walk in our direction. We greeted each other with a good morning as we passed. I could not help but wonder if he crossed in the name of "social distancing". It will be interesting to see how often these types of things occur over the next few weeks and months.

We spent the day doing crafts, reading, math and social studies. We did yoga with a mom and her son via Facebook from the local yoga studio.
https://www.facebook.com/soulshineyogahowell/
We watched cute animals live on webcam at the Cinncinatti Zoo.
https://www.facebook.com/cincinnatizoo/
At one point I threatened to throw away the schedule because she was adamant that we follow it to the T. I explained that we could be flexible. She finally relaxed a little to allow for changes in the plan. I was so happy when afternoon quiet time came.

My son works in the restaurant industry in Boston. I heard yesterday that all bars and restaurants in Massachusetts were closing down. I contacted my son to ask how he is doing with this. He assured me that he will be fine. He has a cushion of savings and there would be a meeting at work today to discuss unemployment issues. Today I heard that all bars and restaurants in Michigan are closing as well. We are living in strange times for sure.

After dinner we took a drive to Baskin Robbins to see if we could get some ice cream. Downtown Howell was fairly deserted. Coffee shops and restaurants dark, no cars parked along Grand River. Signs in Baskin Robbins asked that there be no more than five customers in the store at one time, and that we keep a distance of six feet from one another. My husband insisted on getting right up next to me. He is like that. We did get our ice cream and came home to watch a movie. A family comedy was good medicine before bed.

Stay well, and stay calm.

More tomorrow

Our Daily Schedule

DAY 2

I took college boy to urgent care this morning. He has influenza B. He is pretty miserable and is quarantined to his room. That is nothing new for him because he self quarantines on a regular basis anyway. He is miserable. I am sure he would feel better if he had Covid-19.

We live across the street from our local library. We spend a lot of time there, checking out books, reading magazines, attending the many interesting events that they offer. I am almost more disturbed by them closing than I am about the schools! It would be great to be able to send Miss Nine Year Old over for an hour or so over the next few weeks.

However, we have a Little Free Library in front of our house.
https://www.facebook.com/peytonslittlefreelibrary/?ref=bookmarks
We set it up several years ago. Our first library, built from an old kitchen cabinet, started to fall apart after a couple of years. We made a new one out of an old dorm sized refrigerator, and this thing will last forever! There is a fair amount of foot traffic on our street, and many visitors to our library. We have a bench next to it in the yard for folks to rest and relax while they choose a book. It has been so much fun to see how many people stop and take or leave a book. We generally have far too many books to fit in the Little Library, so we keep a supply in the front entry way for restocking. We are actually starting to run low on books for the first time since we set it up. Please stop by with donations if you have them. You can leave them on the porch if there is no room in the library.

The Little Library also offers Book Buddies, little stuffed animals that children (or adults) can take with them. These are very popular! We used to find them for a quarter at the Salvation Army, but lately they don't seem to have them. We would welcome any donations of stuffies (think beanie baby size) if you have them.

Just this morning a couple stopped by and perused our selection of books. Miss Nine and I went out onto the porch and had a nice chat with them. After they left we went out to restock. It is fully loaded and ready for visitors. If you are having withdrawal symptoms because you can't access the public library, stop by for a visit. Here is a link to other Little Free Libraries if you would like to find one in your area. https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/

We will be wiping down all surfaces regularly for your safety and ours.

DAY 1

Thursday evening I got a text from my 20 year old who was away at school near Kalamazoo. He was sick. Sore throat, cough, feeling crummy. I encouraged him to go to health services and get checked out. He said he would go in the morning. I worried that he may have the corona virus, covid-19, as there were several confirmed cases in the state.

I got the robo-call at 12:41 a.m. on the morning of Friday, March 13, 2020. Friday the 13th. Governor Whitmer issued an order for all K-12 schools in Michigan to close beginning Monday March 16. For three weeks. Our school district made the decision to close schools effective immediately.

Now, my first question was, why did I need to be awakened out of a sound sleep at 12:41 a.m.? It's not like I could do anything about it in the middle of the night. I did not go back to sleep for hours. I laid in bed thinking of all the ramifications of this. What was I going to do with a nine year old for three weeks while we isolated ourselves at home? Would the tech school close? Was I going to have to pack up a kid who had just started three weeks ago and bring him home?  Mostly I fretted about all of the ways that this would interfere with my valuable peace and quiet.

In the morning I talked to the college boy again. He went to health services. He had no fever. That's about all the information he got from them. Then he texted me later and said that the school was closing. Everyone had to go home AND TAKE ALL OF THEIR STUFF WITH THEM! Now we had to drive an hour and a half, pack up him and his stuff, and bring him home.

As the day wore on I heard reports of the library closing, meetings cancelled, toilet paper and hand sanitizer shortages, and more. For weeks I had read updates on the virus and how it was spreading. I bought extra groceries on every trip to the store, anticipating what might happen when it reached the United States. I am glad that I made those preparations because when I went to Meijer for a few things it was like the zombie apocalypse. Dazed people pushing grocery carts full of whatever they could find on the mostly empty shelves. I asked the cashier how she was holding up and I thought she was going to cry. She said she was nervous because she has asthma and she was sure if she got the virus it would kill her.

 I conferred with a neighbor who also has a nine year old, wondering how she planned to survive this unprecedented cluster-fork. Her plan was prayer, and then no clue whatsoever. I am guessing that parents all over the state were feeling the same confusion that we were.

Our family made the decision to isolate ourselves as much as possible to protect everyone in our community. We have friends, neighbors and family members with underlying conditions that put them at greater risk. As difficult as it would be, we felt it was the responsible thing to do. I was wiped out by the end of the day.

This morning I decided that we could not treat this as one very long snow day. We would have to be creative if we were going to get through this with all of our senses intact. I knew if I did not hatch a plan I would lose my mind.

I put on my homeschooling mom cape and created Camp Covid-19. I bookmarked links to some great online resources, made a fort on the third floor out of a clothesline, sheets and clothespins, and made a schedule for us to follow every day. The nine year old budding schoolteacher was ecstatic over the whole idea. She would not wait until Monday to begin this adventure. She worked her way through several lessons online, made her own schedule of activities for every day, including chores (bonus!) that she would do. She invited me into the fort for reading time before bed.

Maybe this won't be so bad after all.