Five more days in the life of isolation and quarantine. We cover a lot of ground in this edition. I realize I made a counting error. I get a letter from overseas. We have porch visitors. And, as always, there’s food! Shall we begin?
Day 41: I’ve seen others with different counts for the day of quarantine/isolation we’re on. I’m not sure how we all arrive at different numbers. Maybe some started earlier than us. Anyway, for us, it’s day 40. Unless I miscounted somewhere along the way. I have big feelings about this number. And it’s supposed to rain all day. Hoping I can stay positive and not lose my shiitake with the rest of the family.
I DID miscount. I counted day 35 twice! That’s okay. It’s officially day 41! Maybe it’s good that I didn’t know yesterday was day 40. I still can hardly believe it.
Breakfast and coffee as usual. Phil is working out in the living room.
School went pretty well today. I don’t know what the “secret” is to a good day. Maybe it’s not anything I have any control over. It’s mostly not. My son got through his work before 9 a.m. and then did some coding online. I washed dishes and listened to Office Ladies. And read some more for my judging job. Phil worked on the tub drain, clearing it out, and patched a blow-up cat chair that’s had a leak for months.
We tuned in to The Price is Right again for high schoolers during kids’ week and it was as entertaining as I hoped it would be. More academics after lunch. Sometimes this middle of the day time span feels like a blur and I can’t remember exactly how I spent that time. Maybe it doesn’t matter, but it does kind of bother me. After the second class meeting, I worked on some things I needed to do for the judging job and printed my materials for the next week of my fitness and nutrition program. The kids practiced band. There was a little bit of fighting. And they folded towels. Everything having to do with the checklist went better today.
I talked to our friend David on the phone briefly. Phil came home and I started putting dishes away and working on dinner. Dinner didn’t go exactly as I had hoped. We ran out of parchment paper last week and I forgot to put it on the list for the grocery store. And we’re not making extra trips to the store. So, I used foil instead and the fish stuck to it and one piece didn’t cook so well, but it was mostly edible. We watched a Mr. Bean episode that was hilarious and hinged on a long joke.
Now the kids are doing Just Dance to round out their active time since it’s raining outside. Phil and I made the produce list for the week. He’s looking though cookbooks for a pickled ginger recipe. I picked a new puzzle and I’m considering getting it out and starting it. I also need to stretch and I may take a bath tonight. My muscles are sore from all the ways I’ve been working them this week. New exercises start tomorrow, and I’m kind of excited.
After Just Dance it was chill time. I opened the puzzle and started sorting pieces while listening to more of Andrew Peterson reading book 1 in The Wingfeather Saga. The rest of that video was my cue to put the kids in bed. They went to bed without much fuss. Considering how the day started, I wasn’t sure we would have an okay day. And we did.
I put on the last episode of season 3 of The West Wing while I stretched and rolled out my sore muscles. Then I worked on the cross-stitch project. I ended the night with an episode of Grace and Frankie. This is my balance on nights when Phil has to go to bed early for work–a little drama, a little comedy.
Day 42: I woke at 5:15, a full hour before my alarm goes off. And I felt rested, which is a new feeling for me these days. I drank water, took my medication and grabbed a book. I listened to Pray As You Go and scrolled socials, then read for about 30 minutes. Since I’m starting a new set of workouts today, I decided to take body measurements again. Our scale broke last month, so this is the way I’m tracking progress. Although it’s not really about that for me. I like the way I feel when I’m exercising. It helps my mental state and gives me something to look forward to and check off on these endless days of sameness.
I made coffee. The kids are still sleeping. Our son lost a tooth yesterday. I’m waiting to see if the tooth fairy remembered to pay him a visit. At least there’s a pandemic to blame if he didn’t.
The kids are awake now. I’m about to sneak in to the bedroom and see if the tooth fairy came. Asking my son outright always feels a bit obvious. I need to eat breakfast, too. And now I have a puzzle to work on. It’s Friday, which in some ways is a relief because the school work pressure eases, but in other ways is not because the weekend is no longer the weekend. We can’t go anywhere, and I’m not always good at making our own fun.
It’s night now and the kids are not sleeping. I think it was the chocolate cake for dessert. Or maybe there’s a full moon and I don’t know about it. They’re mostly just talking but it’s loud enough for me to hear it through the wall shared with the living room. I’ve been in there numerous times, and I’m afraid the only thing that’s going to work is turning the light off. Then there will be screaming and I’d really like to sleep tonight.
A recap of the day:
The tooth fairy came as usual.
The day was so-so overall. Because it’s Friday we’re less motivated to keep up with our schedule, I guess. The kids started out doing Just Dance at 8:30 this morning.
They did this for more than 30 minutes without fighting, so I’ll take it. Then they moved on to coding while sitting next to each other at the table. I washed dishes and did some work reading. And I made progress on the puzzle. I purposely picked a smaller one so I could finish it sooner. I’m still not over the last puzzle I did.
My son played a form of Bingo with his classmates as they reviewed time, and he was one of the winners. After his class meeting the kids kept coding online. I put together some lunch for myself and turned on The Price is Right. College kids today, which is not all that different than adults. Still, it’s fun to watch. The kids weren’t as interested but did wander in after they grabbed some lunch.
The afternoon was hit and miss. I folded some laundry and got ready to work out. Daughter went back to academics and I had to take the computer from my son so I could follow along with some of the videos to learn some new exercises. He got bored and I had to keep interrupting. Meanwhile, a friend was expected to stop by to drop off some planters we’d loaned them. We waved through the window because it’s goodbye for now as they’re moving out of state.
I finished my workout and helped my son with his homework a little bit. We were still working on it around 3 o’clock, which is frustrating for a Friday. But he finished most of it. Our daughter had a music lesson with her band teacher, and that was fun to listen in on. I’m looking forward to my kids getting back to regular lessons for their instruments.
I started prepping for dinner: homemade pizza night. I chopped the ingredients for toppings but waited till Phil got home to work on the crust. It’s a no-yeast recipe we’ve been using regularly so it doesn’t take much time. After he got home, I finished the pizza prep while he showered. He finished just in time to help me get it into the oven. We cook it in a large cast-iron pan that’s hard for me to handle.
We watched a new series on Netflix called Absurd Planet. It’s … uh … interesting. The kids enjoyed it, though. The kids took showers and zoned out on screens. I did some work on the puzzle and took a shower. Phil turned the NFL draft on and we watched a little until he had to go to bed. It is 9:40 p.m. as I write and I can still hear the children talking. Lord of Heaven, please let them sleep in.
I’ve watched a couple of episodes of Grace and Frankie and did some online shopping while prepping meal plans for the next week or so. I should have been in bed a while ago. It won’t be long now and I may sleep in tomorrow.
Day 43: Weirdly restless night. I mean, I slept, but it’s not good sleep. But I didn’t really wake up till almost 7, so maybe that’s good? Not sure what time the kids got up but they’re already on screens. I made coffee and took my blood pressure, which was high, so now I’m waiting a few minutes to take it again. Seems like it’s high in the morning but comes down during the day with the medicine’s help. I’m not sure if that’s better than what it was doing before, keeping it consistently low. Stress and dehydration, I feel are contributing factors. Only one of those can I do something about with any consistency. (Drink. More. Water.)
Another Saturday. What shall we do with our day? Daughter has a book club this afternoon. And I have a live yoga session I could attend, which I’m considering. There’s the usual housework. The puzzle. And random cleaning projects I keep putting off. Also, I have reading and writing work I could do. So. Many. Choices. I think that’s one of the hard things about all this unscheduled time. I don’t always know how to spend it. And maybe I don’t need to always know either.
I took the garden plants outside to water them and repotted the gerbera daisies to give them a little more life. We haven’t done the garden yet–too wet and too cold–so digging in the dirt a little bit was good for my soul. The kids had come outside to play as I was finishing up. It was pleasant out so I took my work to the porch and sat down. Not long after I’d settled in, the kids were done biking. After only 15 minutes, they were tired. This is not a good sign. I feel the need to push them a little harder to stay active. I did strongly suggest that they stay outside for a while because it had rained all day yesterday and tomorrow is calling for rain. Daughter brought her book club book outside. Son brought the rest of his breakfast then complained constantly about how it was so boring sitting outside. I gave him a bunch of options for things he could do while outside and he rejected all of them. He did stay outside until 10 a.m., which was the cutoff time I had set, but he wasn’t happy about it. C’est la vie!
I had a snack and worked on the puzzle some. I’m down to all white pieces, the spray from Niagara Falls, so it’s taking a little longer. Then I grabbed some materials and my computer and decided to try to make a cloth mask. I had a no-sew T-shirt pattern that I wanted to try, but it didn’t turn out right. There was too much material left when I was done. So, I tackled the sew version even though I don’t have a sewing machine. It took me a while to figure out, but I’m happy with the result. It’s not pretty or fancy but it works. It was close to 11:30 by then so I got myself some lunch and reminded the children that they, too, should eat lunch. I worked on the puzzle a bit then started gathering things for my live yoga session at 1. The training program I’m part of is offering a series of live sessions in the coming weeks. I have not done yoga really before–one time during a women’s group when I was volunteering with refugees–so I was kind of nervous. It was rough because I’m not familiar with the terminology and I’m not flexible. I think I may need to add some yoga into my workout routines. I gave up before it was over because the Instagram feed quit on me. So, I quit on it and went to my workout for the day. My arms and shoulders are killing me as I transition back to strength training after a month of cardio. I can’t wait to run tomorrow.
I started washing dishes after that so I’d have some things clean for dinner prep. Phil came home while I was doing dishes. We caught up on our days a little bit, then I got to work on dinner because our son was playing a handheld game on the couch and the noise from it was causing some minor insanity in my brain. I retreated to the kitchen to put some distance between myself and the sounds.
Soup and salad dinner night while watching Night at the Museum 2. This one Phil and I hadn’t seen, and the kids laughed as much during this one as they did the first one. A good way to spend the evening. I made a second mask after I was done with dinner. Cross-stitch skills come in handy when you don’t have a sewing machine.
The rest of the fam helped me bring the plants in from the porch. Now we’re killing time till the kids go to bed, which will be early tonight because they were up so late last night and still up early this morning. My son swears he’s not tired and won’t go to sleep right away. I’ll take that bet. This isn’t my first bedtime rodeo.
Phil and I watched Brooklyn-99 and an episode of Poldark.
Day 44: This is the first day that I haven’t tracked the entire day, or anything about it really until it’s already night. Part of that is because we did a screen-free afternoon with the kids and put our devices in the bin as well. Here’s a little bit of how things went today:
I made breakfast and coffee. The kids were on screens all morning. I decided to spend the morning working on a breakfast dish for the rest of the week. I wanted to get that and some dishes washed first thing this morning so that I could go for a run this afternoon. I made the baked oatmeal and got through the dishes, then I got dressed and worked on the puzzle while we waited for church to start. It was live church today. Phil worked out this morning.
Live church started at 10, so Phil and I tuned in. The kids were a little bit out of sorts. We told them our screens were going away after it was over. By the time we took a break for our sermon discussion, the kids were throwing fits about not having screens. They both curled up under blankets on the couches and sulked. Our son actually fell asleep and napped for a little bit.
Things turned around a little as we worked on lunch. Phil and I sat at the table and worked on the puzzle. Then it was time to go for my run. I was waiting for the temperature to warm up since it was going to rain all day. It was raining when I left, but it wasn’t too cold. My plan was three miles, and I did three miles. It took me 40 minutes, which feels like a slow pace but really wasn’t too bad. I’m just really glad to have done the miles. I’m going to keep going with three miles on future runs. The kids were occupying themselves pretty well when I got home. Phil was working on the puzzle.
I showered. Phil got ready to nap. I put some laundry in. The kids were fussing with each other a little bit. Things got a little heated. I yelled. The kids got irritated. There was a rough stretch where our son needed to be escorted to his room and a cup of watercolor water got spilled in the living room. It was the low point of the day. But I rage cleaned the bathroom sink and organized our growing pile of stuff to give away. These two things took not a lot of time but offer me a lot of joy right now.
I worked on the puzzle in the quiet of the house. I finished it before dinner, then worked on making dinner. We let the kids get back on screens around 5 p.m. We did a quick video call with grandparents before doing another video call with our niece to play a game of Uno with her. She fell asleep partway through and we still had a nice visit with the kids’ aunt and uncle. Playing games via video call is something I never considered before this time of our lives, and it’s something I want to continue when it’s all over.
The kids went to bed. Phil and I are watching episodes of The Office, and we realized that this season first aired while Phil and I were recovering from our marriage crisis. So we don’t remember these episodes as well as some of the other ones we’ve watched.
Overall, this day had some ups and downs. But I think we’re going to do the screen-free again next week.
Day 45: The highlight of this day so far–it’s 11:30 now–is the letter I received from my friend in England.
She and I have been pen pals for more than 20 years. We met in the general store of the college I attended for a semester there, working together and learning the trade together. She is one of my best treasures from that magical semester. We only communicate via mail, and I was worried about her and how she’s faring in these trying times. A letter from her was such a lift to my spirits. We also received our postal order–stamps and postcards–today. More mail to send!
I had trouble getting out of bed this morning. I silenced the alarm twice then picked up my phone and scrolled a little before listening to Pray As You Go. Today’s lingering question is what do you need from the Lord to fill your Spirit? The letter from my English friend was part of the answer.
Breakfast and coffee. I planned my week for work (mine) and meetings (the kids’). It’s not a lot of scheduling but it’s necessary for me to find the time I need for my own work and goals. I met with the kids a little after 8 to look at their plans for the day and a little bit for the week. We have band lessons scheduled now, so I want to make sure we don’t forget those. Phil worked out. I researched wireless headphones for my birthday gift from my parents.
While my son worked on his schoolwork, I read for my judging job. Daughter also did schoolwork. Son met with his class as usual. And then it was lunchtime. I didn’t do any housework yet this morning, and I’m not sure why. Wasn’t feeling the need for it immediately. I have the usual dishes to wash and laundry to fold. I have time this afternoon.
Our daughter was able to video chat with her best friend this morning, too, and that improves her mood greatly.
I also spent part of the morning planning my birthday celebration. It’s a terrible time to be having a birthday, but we’re still going to celebrate. We’re ordering fancy takeout from a local restaurant, something we haven’t done at all yet, fancy or not, since the quarantine. And I launched a birthday mission on social media. (You can check it out here if you want.) Just trying to have a little fun when life is not always so much fun.
As I ate lunch, I watched some videos related to today’s workout so I’ll be prepped and ready to go for that. I still can’t believe I ran three miles yesterday. The question now is how high will I go in mileage? I want to run the three miles a few more times before increasing the distance, but I’m just thrilled right now at my body’s ability to recover. Six months ago, I was approaching surgery and spent an entire month in recovery, unsure what my body would be capable of when it was over. Maybe in some ways, we’re all in recovery right now and we’re not sure what’s going to happen on the other side of it. I still want to believe there is good on the other side. But I know it’s hard to keep up that hope.
I forgot to mention yesterday that the mourning doves are back. I left a hanging plant outside overnight and they rediscovered it. Today, they’ve both visited the potential nesting site. I’m guessing we’ll have baby birds later this spring.
Laundry and dishes took up some after lunch time for me. The kids did more of their academic time and our daughter had another Zoom meeting in the afternoon. I read more of my book for judging. Around 1:30 I got ready to work out, which meant I had to ask for my computer back from my son and pop into the background of my daughter’s Zoom meeting to get my workout clothes from the bedroom.
My workout was challenging. I’m building strength again, so I’m trying new workouts and working new muscles and generally enjoying the change of pace. The kids both showered and practiced band while I was finishing up my workout. Not long after I finished my workout, while I was preparing my snack, Phil got home from work. There’s a nice little stretch now before I need to start working on dinner. These are the moments that stretch out and feel like longer than they are. When you’re used to being busy, all the down time can be jarring. It’s like when I was trying to practice yoga on Saturday. My body starts to resist before I can even get started. Rest. Sitting still. These things don’t come easy to me.
I made a beautiful and delicious soup for dinner. We watched Some Good News that left Phil and I in tears. Then Phil switched to some Cubs content. It only made me miss baseball more. Our son went outside to play. Daughter had ice cream. Son had ice cream when he came in. I took a shower. The kids went to screens, and I filed out some more cards to mail to people.
Put the kids to bed. Watched Outlander, followed by the last episode of Season 6 of Grace and Frankie. I colored a picture while I watched my shows.
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