Happy Stay at Home Monday!
This is our third Monday of the Illinois stay at home order and honestly we are doing okay! I’ve decided it might be fun to have a log of our days to look back on someday... so, here I am to write about the good and the bad of our Covid-19 lives. Hopefully it will be somewhat interesting :)
I’ve already missed week one and two, but to recap! Week one was supposed to be the kid‘s spring break. This was the very beginning of the pandemic. My parents, sister in law and some great friends had planned to come out to see the Chicago River dyed green and spend the entire day in Chicago partying for St. Patricks Day Weekend (March 14th, also Ben’s Birthday!) Well, we gave my parents the thumbs up that all was well and they drove on out. Turns out the parade ended up getting canceled and a few of our friends and family coudln’t make it out. I have to say though, I am so grateful that my parents were here for the weekend. Moving away from family has been hard. I missed my mom and my dad and the interactions that they have with our kiddos, and now knowing we won’t be able to see anyone for a while, makes that weekend so much more special. They also brought my sweet niece with so that was just an added bonus. Sooo to cut down on the rambling, we had an awesome weekend with our friends and family that made it out. We cut back on the news and just focused on our time together! The last day they were all here though, the restaurant ban went into place and I got nervous about our spring break trip back to Nebraska. At the rate that things were changing, I worried we wouldn’t be able to see the friends and family we wanted to, and then I was concerned that maybe we wouldn’t make it back to Illinois (Ben still had to work & I hated thinking about leaving him). So we made the tough decision to forgo the trip and said goodbye to everyone. There were lots of tears, and still are from day to day but I believe we made the smart decision.
That first week was a little rough though, we celebrated my birthday on Tuesday the 17th. Which was weird, no family (besides us 4). No friends. No presents or cake. Just didn’t feel like it normally does. I hate even writing that, because it makes me sound selfish. Which is how I felt and feel. SO selfish. But, I also want to be honest, it was a tough week but it was also a week that showed me how much my kids love having quality time together. We created a list of chores for the kids in the morning. Collectively we came up with a schedule to make it through our days without saying I’m bored too often (My kids thrive on a schedule). And we crafted, walked, played, sang and danced our way through that first week. It was so fun to see how we could enjoy things even if we couldn’t leave the house!
Week Two brought new challenges and new excitement. The kids’ school still had a weeks worth of snow days to use, so school hadn’t started yet. But, I knew we probably needed to work on a few things to keep up to date. So we worked some math, journaling, phonics, and bible study into our schedule! There’s been a lot of craft time, and activities together and I’ve been so grateful for that. Having been a working mom for my whole motherhood, I’ve always harbored a guilt of not being able to be home and do these fun little crafts and things that stay at home moms have the chances to do. SO, I am defiantly taking advantage of that now. Emma loves it and James takes every chance he can to put a Husker ”N” on every little creative thing he does haha.
We haven’t had the best weather yet, it’s been rainy and cool. But, we make the most of it and get out even if we have to bundle up and grab our umbrellas! Emma, Ben and James went worm hunting this weekend and found about 50 worms so that we can hopefully go fishing next weekend! Getting outside for fresh air and movement is so important right now. Even if we can’t go for a long run or walk, just getting out to enjoy the fresh air helps our mindset so much.
As we look forward to this next week we enter into unchartered waters yet again. The kids are starting to do their class work online. This mom is going to have to put on her patience pants to teach 1st and 3rd grade ;). I will say I’m restocked in the wine department so I should survive haha. The positives right?
Well, I think I have rambled on for long enough. I am hoping to keep a little journal during this time to share how our daily lives are going. It might be fun to show the kids someday and maybe even their kids too. I hope you all are staying safe and sane.
Xoxo,
Kaelyn
(Our classroom for the next week or so.....)