Living Through the Unexpected
Well, I think it is fair to say that we are all experiencing situations we Never anticipated. We live in Washington, the state that has been hardest hit by the coronavirus so far. All schools have been canceled until April 26th at least, and many people think it won’t resume at all this year. For our household, this means all of Jubilee’s community college classes are online and Avi and Mordecai don’t have school. Hezekiah, Tucker, and Apollo were already homeschooling.
Enoch is a Resident Advisor at Central Washington University and in his senior year. The commencement ceremony has been canceled and all classes moved online. He is still at the university, though, because as an RA he still has work to do, for now, anyway.
Social Distancing as a Pasttime
As you can see, Tucker is doing a great job practicing social distancing. The weather has been warm and sunny here, everything you could hope for in spring (minus a pandemic) so we have been spending tons of time outdoors. Never have I been so thankful for five acres for the kids to explore.
Not only that but having neighbors on only one side (and separated by trees) means we are already somewhat isolated. The kids have been exploring outside, building weapons out of sticks, and riding bikes.
Mordecai was delighted to find this baby garter snake. And for those of you who aren’t familiar, they do bite but are so small even the adult ones can’t do any damage. Oh, and they pee on you. I assume that is a stress response. Don’t worry, this little guy was returned to where he came from, unharmed.
We have only left the house once and that was to go to a local park with a bike track. I gave the kids the proper Social Distancing Talk before we left home and they did great. We didn’t get near another human.
You longtime readers will be happy to know Avi hasn’t changed a bit…
Frodo loves having everyone home.
Kalina is Stuck…In New Zealand
In other news…Kalina is currently stuck in New Zealand. She left on February 19th for a six-week holiday. She spent time with Tilly and Jared, with Ben and Iris, then spent a week on the South Island (where she went skydiving and bungee jumping) with Ben’s brother, Jason. She was supposed to return home on March 25th…but New Zealand is now on total lockdown. She canceled her flight last week (realizing this is the worst possible time to travel) and made plans to head back up to Tilly and Jared’s place on March 25th instead. The situation was changing in New Zealand rapidly, so she headed up early and arrived back with Tilly less than 48 hours before the country went into total lockdown.
Yeah, that was too close for comfort. So what’s the plan? She’ll stay with Tilly and Jared until it is safe to travel home…she is sorely missed.
Skydiving Vs. Bungee Jumping
I asked Kalina how skydiving was and her response was, “It wasn’t as exciting as I thought, tbh. I think if I was more scared it would have been more fun. But I wasn’t scared. LOL. It was awesome.”
But bungee jumping? Apparently, that was a different experience altogether.
“I cried the whole way up and was shaking for 15 minutes afterward”
No ABA or Home Care Aides
We also made the difficult decision to cancel all ABA therapy and home care aids for my son with autism. All of his behavior techs and home care aides work in other homes, with other people, and the risk seemed too great. Especially for Apollo who has a heart defect and respiratory issues.
The School District is Delivering Meals
Our school district is delivering meals to every family in our district with kids under the age of 18…even if they don’t attend a school in the district. This means twice a week we get three breakfasts and three lunches delivered for six kids. And if you know me at all, you know I never turn down food for my family.
It has been pretty cool to see our community pull together like this.
And, since we are a family that thrives on humor (and far too often dark humor) here are some memes Enoch came up with that are too good not to share.
And that pretty much sums up life here in our corner of the country. What is it like where you live?
Love the posts about your family. Life is going on as usual around here, lots of time at my sewing and hubby working on a truck. Lots of phone conversations with friends. Miss the time at church, tho.
Would love to have an update on your older children (especially adopted ones) as it feels it’s been a while!