I’ve done several things these past two weeks that I never thought I’d do. For starters, I used generic toilet paper. I’ve been a fan of Charmin for a long time, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I found that Member’s Mark brand, from Sams, does the job well. No complaints. My only worry is that when this runs out, I won’t be able to buy any more online. I’ve been checking day after day, week after week to try and order it, but I’ve had no luck on Amazon, Walmart, Target, Sams Club or even Lowe’s. I hear there’s toilet paper inside the stores, but I’d rather not go there unless I really have to.
I’ve also used milk that was past its best-by date, after doing a sniff test of course and I’ve participated in a procedure to replace a chicken’s prolapsed vent. Was the procedure successful? Only time will tell.
School has officially been called off for the rest of the year, which is bittersweet. I love having Emmy home, and I believe it was absolutely the right call on the governor’s part, but she never got to say goodbye to her teacher or her friends. She also mentioned that she’ll never go to her particular school again (the second graders are in a separate building), and she feels a little sad about that, but overall she’s taking it well. She’s happy to be at home, and we’ve both always been fascinated by the idea of homeschooling anyway.
The situation for Lizzy is sadder. She loved going to school, and she would have had an adorable little preschool graduation like the one she saw Emmy have. It would have been so nice for her to have a class picture (I’m still holding onto hope someone might have taken one) to remember everyone by, because the odds are against her seeing any of them next year. She mentioned being sad about one little friend in particular, so I reached out to the teacher and asked that we give our contact information to his parents. She did, but we haven’t heard anything from them yet. It probably isn’t a slight, these are just tough times for everyone.
Life is good for Frank. He doesn’t have to wake up early anymore to ride along for school drop offs, and I’m no longer interrupting his playtime for school pickups. He has his sisters and his dad at home all day to play with, instead of just me. He’s one happy guy.
We still have all seven chickens, and we’ve gotten to know them pretty well. Justin called me when he was out in the run with them, I heard clucking in the background and said “calm down, Brownie.” He was impressed that I could tell the difference between their voices. He joked that he can’t tell the difference between the kids’ voices (and actually Lizzy and Frank do sound a lot alike). They lay an average of 3-4 eggs a day, which has been plenty for us. We’ve been torn lately on whether/when to let them free range, since Spring is here and predators are on the move. Last night, Justin saw a possum in the driveway, so that’s definitely got us worried.
We’ve been finding mushrooms, mostly in our yard, but a few in the woods too. The kids all love eating them, and Emmy has a great eye for searching them out. We’re seeing Facebook posts from people we know who are finding several pounds of them at a time, but we haven’t been that lucky yet.
Mother’s Day is coming, and I’m a little bummed that the kids won’t get to make me something at school. From Emmy’s previous years, I’ve got cute little hand print crafts, and lists of her answers to questions her teachers asked her about me. They’re so precious. I may have to head up some projects like that myself, or have Justin do it. It’s a sad thought I never really considered before, fathers never do get those school gifts, since their day is in the summer.
I made a little trip last week for a doctor’s appointment, and it reminded me of the last time Justin and I were in that city. It was on March 3rd, not terribly long ago. My mom had the kids. We ate dinner at Red Robin, walked around checking out a site he’d been working, and then randomly, just because we had extra time, we went shopping at Kohl’s. We were just enjoying being out of the house, the ease of going into a store without any kids. He tried on some shoes, but didn’t find the ones he wanted. I wonder how much longer it’ll be before we can go out to eat again, and make a random run into a store to look for something that isn’t essential. If I’d known then what I know now, I’d have insisted on a stop at Target, and another stop for ice cream before heading home.
Some people in our state have been protesting. They believe they’ve been locked down long enough, and they’d like life to return to normal. Some of them probably just want to get their hair done and go out for a few drinks, but others are out of work and concerned about their families’ financial futures. Some are worried about a total economic collapse, and frankly I am too, but I think reopening the state would be a deadly mistake. Protesters are arguing that our sparsely populated part of the state should still be operational, because we’re separate from the larger metropolitan area with it’s exponentially higher number of confirmed cases.
What the protesters don’t seem to consider, though, is the reason why the number of cases in our immediate area is so low. The reason is twofold: we started the lockdown early (as soon as things started getting bad in the bigger cities) and there are barely any tests available around here. So we have a higher number of cases than people think we do, but we have substantially fewer cases than we would have if the state went back to business as usual.
There is some talk about the schools still doing e-learning in the fall. People hate the idea, and I can’t blame most of them. Some parents are still working full time in essential jobs while trying to homeschool multiple kids in different grades. Some parents are trying to work from home while balancing the basic needs of their younger kids and the school demands on their older ones.
I kind of like the idea, for us personally, since I’m going to be here anyway. Better safe than sorry, and there’s a lot I can do with my girls at home, but I know that isn’t the case for everyone. It does suck that, if we’re going to try homeschooling, it’s going to be at a time when field trips can’t happen. I always pictured field trips as being integral to homeschooling, teaching kids how different facets of life actually work. For now our life skills curriculum just revolves around a whole lot of cooking and laundry.
I don’t know what’ll happen next, or what to even hope for these days. I miss eating food I didn’t make at home, and I miss taking the kids on fun trips, like to the zoo and to the Great Wolf Lodge. We wanted to take them to Harry Potter World in Orlando this year, but it’s not looking like that’ll happen anytime soon. Maybe it’s better that they’ll be a little older when we go. They can remember more of the trip that way. But at this point it’s hard to even imagine a time when I’ll feel safe taking them into a big crowd. Sooner or later a vaccine will be available, but that’s another discussion for another day.