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.