Pandemic Diaries: Day 26

We have been mostly at home for 26 days.

(Except dear Shawn, working hard for us in an office without much work to do. He said they're discussing a reduction of their hours -- not of pay, yet, but hours. Makes sense if there's nothing to do.)

What we've been doing on the homefront:

This past weekend was really lovely -- I'm finding that to be true during COVID-19, the weekends are so nice. Time at home, without extra obligations, really feels restful. Imagine that! I would like it to continue, please, after this crisis has passed, although who knows what kind of lives we'll lead by then. Or when. I really wonder when things will be normal again. Today I read a very optimistic email from one of Kate's teachers, saying, "[we'll do X] if the stay-at-home order is lifted by April 13," and... I doubt it will be, ma'am. Nice try, but no. 

Anyway, Saturday I feel like we were able to all do what we like. I read my book, Shawn played some video games in the daylight, Alex too, and I think Alex also practiced clarinet in prep for his lesson on Sunday, and Kate made TikTok videos and probably played with Adrianna. We've completed one puzzle, and we started a family game of Monopoly that I hope we'll finish tonight.

On Sunday morning, I reluctantly put on our parish's Palm Sunday Mass livestream. It was incredibly boring, I have to say. I mean, our church isn't known for being exciting, and it was our most boring priest, and the Palm Sunday Passion gospel reading, the longest of the year, took FOREVER, and there was only one musician, singing, behind the camera. It... doesn't make for the best television. ;) But we suffered through it to assuage my guilt. We watched in our jammies. The kids checked their phones a few times during the service. (Fine, whatever.) When it was over, I got out the Easter baskets and a few other small decorations. Yesterday I ordered 2 small items each for the kids from Amazon, and at Publix I found some candy to put in their baskets, and that's going to have to suffice. I also bought ham and asparagus, and I suppose I'll make them on Sunday and maybe even serve them on the good china at 2pm, to make it official. 

Sunday our one outing was taking Alex to his clarinet teacher's house. I wondered if we'd get "caught" doing something non-essential. But we didn't. And I let him drive us home. In another instance of bad timing, Alex's 2 two-hour driving lessons with an instructor were cancelled, and with nowhere we can go, it's hard to get him driving experience. I guess we'll have to start just taking a drive for that reason -- good thing is, the streets are empty.

We're also, of course, taking walks in the neighborhood.

This week begins the kids' Spring Break and my furlough weeks. I am finally a stay at home mom. ;) My fear about this week is that the days will all seem the same, and will go by too fast. We don't usually take big trips over Spring Break, but this year we had planned to go to Pensacola, to meet my sister's fiance's 3 boys and see Mom and Dad. It is a huge bummer not to get to do that. Maybe we should plan a FaceTime chat with them. 

For Spring Break Day 1, we watched 2 episodes of Survivor (don't judge, it's really fun), I went grocery shopping (Kate couldn't come with me since that is not recommended at this time), we had lunch outside on the front porch, played a card game, had time on our own for reading/whatever, and then the kids had to make dinner because I cut my stupid finger trying to slice onions. !! 

What we're eating: 

We've been trying to get take-out once a week, to help the economy but also keep our budget in mind, and on Saturday what the kids wanted was Culver's burgers. Meh. It was fine but not really what the adults wanted. Adults get to choose this weekend. 

Our home dinner menu this week includes:

S - Hello Fresh meal #1, which was a "southwestern" (debatable) sausage and rice casserole, basically. Delicious. 

M - HF #2, pork burgers with caramelized onions and roasted potatoes. Also delicious, moreso because the kids cooked it. ;)

T - Turkey Sausage, roasted broccoli, and cinnamon apples I made myself from some pink lady apples that weren't being eaten as snacks (am so proud, usually I buy those from the frozen section, lol)

W - Chicken Fried Rice

Th - Rotini with meat sauce, and salad and garlic bread. (lots of bread lately... I'd even like to make my own, but I cannot find yeast in the stores.) 

F - I think I'm going to make shrimp etouffee over rice (lots of rice, too), with a lonely little can of shrimp I bought at Publix. Sacrificial Good Friday dinner, you know.

I'm also having to think more about lunches, since we're all real sick of sandwiches. I bought some Lunchables yesterday and Kate said "they're so cute!" Lololol. Some other alternate things I might offer are potato soup, make-your-own pizzas in lieu of pizza Hot Pockets, which the kids are eating a LOT of, snacky lunch, and oh, hey, surprise, leftovers. ;) 

How we feel:

I'm still not really able to watch the national news. Or maybe I should say, I just don't want to. I'm reading the local newspaper (reduced number of print days), and mostly avoiding Twitter. Like I said, the main emotion is that these 2 weeks are going to go by too fast and I won't have made the most of them. So job number one right now is: Savor what we can. Breathe deep. Smile more. Spend time together. Make it count.