Passover/Easter Weekend

Normally, during Easter time, we are celebrating Passover with our family and also look forward to a mega egg hunt that my mom puts on for the boys. Not this year. It was really sad to not all be together at Kathy and Bob's house and to miss our big Sedar.

We did jump on a zoom call with Aunt Marilyn, Jared and Tati, Carol, Sharon and Jimmy and Jake to wish them all a happy Passover that evening but no sedar for us.

On Saturday Eli came downstairs and told me he could not wait to see what I had planned for Easter. 

I had NOTHING planned. I mean, I was thinking I would just hide some eggs in the front yard.

I told him I didnt have anything planned and he said "I know you are lying, I cant wait to see what it is!"

I said to him, tell me what you think is happening so I can make sure I dont completely disapoint you!

He described a huge sign that I would have up in the living room for when he came downstairs with a fun clue telling him where some huge scavenger hunt started, lots of fun prizes and a huge scavenger hunt. 

M'kay. 

I made sure to tell him to lower his expectations. Like, way lower them.

So I immedately hit Pinterest for some easy ideas and found some scavenher hunt hints that I could print out and I threw together a pretty good scavenger hunt. Not gonna lie, I was pretty impressed with myself!

As soon as everyone was awake we set them on their way! Half the clues were inside and the other half were out int he front yard. It ended with a little basket of goodies and confetti eggs. It ended up being a super fun morning. 

The best clue though, was one that said "You might feel like you are beginning to tire, keep going, the next clue is something that can put out a fire."

It took them a little while to figure this one out...It was in Blaine's pocket! And so cute when they figured it out and all ran up to him to find it. 

We topped off the weekend with a fun cookie decorating kit from Haleys Cakes and Cookies. For a housefull of Jews, we sure celebrated Easter in quarantine right-ha!

April 2020

I stole this from FaceBook....but it was too good to not share....and we never want to forget what we are currently going through, it feels like a dream most of the time....

Just so I NEVER forget..... April 2020

We are confined to our homes.
Gas price a mile from home was $1.90...
School cancelled - yes cancelled
Self-distancing measures on the rise.
Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.
Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.
Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.
Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
Entire sports seasons cancelled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.
No masses, churches are closed.
No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.
Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.
Children's outdoor play parks are closed.
We are to distance from each other.
Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.
Shelves are bare.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
Fines are established for breaking the rules.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
Press conferences daily from the President. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
Government incentives to stay home.
Barely anyone on the roads.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

We have so much!

Be thankful. Be grateful.
Be kind to each other - love one another - support everyone.

We are all one! ❤️

Day Whatever of Social Distancing

Today was a hard day. Its been the hardest yet.

We heard from the Superintendent that school was closed indefinately. It has been raining for two days straight now. I have been wearing pajamas for three weeks now. There are so many unknowns. "Real" homeschooling starts Monday. I am exhausted from the monotony. The fear of people I love getting sick. The dishes, and messy house. The bombardment of the news of Covid19. So much togetherness. The lack of schedule. So many unknowns and so many worries about my family.

Today was my parents anniversary. We did not want the day to come and go without doing anything sicne we had to cancel our dinner. So we planned a really fun "Friends Parade" with their friends. We asked them to drive by and hang a sign out the window, or yell or hang out the window and say hi! We got there early, and got the porch set up with posters the boys decorated and some streamers!

 I was so sad to not be able to just hang out with them all day, or celebrate with our normal Sunday dinners, or have our celebratory dinner we planned...or HUG them. I just want to hug them.

We definately made lemonade out of lemons but it was still sad that this is where we are right now. On top of that, my Dad started a new medication that has really not been a good fit for him. It was really hard seeing him not acting like himself today. Thankfully we know what it is and are taking him off the medication starting tomorrow, but it really was so very difficult. Today was hard. I came home and had my first meltdown.

The bright side is that all their friends showed up to wish them a happy anniversary and it was so great! I think everyone was itching to get out of the house, and honestly, having this to look forward to got me through the morning when I looked at the clock and it was only 8:45....I swear it felt like it should have at least been noon by then! It was so fun to see everyone drive by and see all the love they have for my parents!

New Normal

Keeping up with posts has proved to be very difficult for me as of late. It is so important to me to keep this up for myself and for my kids to hopefully look back on one day. So many things have changed and are important for me to write about that it almost feels too overwhelming because I do not know where to start.
We are in the midst of the Covid 19/Cornoa Virus Pandemic. I have so many over whelming feelings right now that I am not sure I am ready to put down on paper. Just a few things to say at the moment. We are doing our best to continue to live as normal as possible, keeping the conversation about school being cancelled, people becoming sick and the abrupt change in our normal schedule as light as possible. The boys have caught me tearing up at times and dont quite understand why I am so emotional right now. Sometimes I dont know the exact reason. So many reason. The unknown. How long will this last? How are my kids really feeling. The loss of our normal. Baseball. Soccer. Seeing friends and family. Fear of getting sick. Homeschooling. The Store. The Store....my Dad.....how stressed he must be feeling, how is he really doing. How will we recover from this. How will the store fare from this? All of this.

The Friday before Spring Break is when it started to feel real, when we knew this was really starting to happen. We decided we wanted to spend that evening with family outside. We did not know what was going to happen in the near future. At this point, the news was just telling us to be careful, wash our hands, and that we could not be in big groups (250 people or more). We all met up at Ethans house for pizza and playing in the backyard.

And then what a week we had. I am sitting here in the midst of week two of "homeschooling." This is not normal. While this week has been stressful and exhausting, it is not lost on me on how lucky we are. My family is healthy, we live in an amazing neighborhood and have a beautiful yard that has provided a daily reprive from the chaos inside, and we have enough food to last us a month. At a time when so many are struggling, I have counted my blessings daily.
And like many of the posts I have seen circulating on social media, there is a part of me that feels gratitude for the forced pause in life.  Work, working out, all the sports and practices, the homework, and journals and volunteering, the appointments..blah blah blah. It is exhausting. I was exhausted, the kids were exhausted. To wake up every day and have absolutely no where to go. Nothing to do. No one to see. It is weird, but oddly exciting and comforting.  And not just because I can wear my pajamas all day!
There has truly been a beauty in slowing down to enjoy simple activities that we usually dont have time for--baking, taking walks, playing in the sprinklers, watching shows together, eating at the same time, family ping pong tournament, cleaning out toys and drawers, just hanging out together with absolutely no other obligations.

As for homeschooling, if you can even call it that, we have actually had some fun and the boys have jumped in. Instead of watching them stress about taking the STAAR test, they have been able to focus on reading books that interest them, choosing things to research and write about that they love, picking math games that are fun and hopefully productive at the same time. My favorite activity they came up with is drawing and writing comics! We have implemented a Connect, Create, Contribute plan into our day where the boys have to find a time to connect with a friend or family member, create something (legos, paint, drawing, Kinetic sand...whatever they want) and contribute something to the household (vacuum, unloading the dishwasher, dusting, cleaning windows, whatever needs to be done).

This is not to say that it has not been hard. Having three kids in theree different grades, keeping up with Zoom meetings, taking care of myself, keeping everyone fed, keeping the house kinda-clean, maintaining a healthy marriage, and oh, did I mention an almost two year old that destroys everything in his path, does not sit still and whose favorite words at the moment are STOP! MINE! GO AWAY!

But all in all, I have enjoyed the time at home with my family. I sure do miss seeing my parents, Ethan and Rachel all the time though. There is so much uncertainty right now, and heavy things happening around us but we are finding silver linnings every day.