Unlike the rest of the world, my guess is, I am not able to tune in to the news until very late at night. I spend the day with the kids homeschooling; cooking meals and cleaning after them; attempting to do some writing for my blogs; getting essential (only) work and calls made at my desk, etc. So by the time I watch the news, between 10 11, I feel like I have been gut-punched. In my tiny orbit, I am in my own version of survival mode, trying to care for 4 kids with no reprieve. That said, every night when I finally watch the news and am able to find out what is going on "out there," I feel such an incredible disconnect between my life and all of "that." I feel shocked, saddened, scared and so very guilty, that I have it so easy, really. All I have to do is care for 4 kids in my house, as opposed to what I see everyone else having to do, when I watch the news. . I see people putting their lives on the line to help others, so many people sick and suffering (alone) in hospitals and worst of all, staggering numbers of people dying each day. As real as those situations are and my feelings about them as well, I cannot dwell on them. As I have known since this all began, my job is to stay in this house, as many hours a day and as many days a week as I can stand and make sure my family stays well and doesn't add to this pandemic. But last night my repair seemed inescapable. When I saw that horrific "10,000" number on the news, I could hardly breath. I couldn't fathom that while I have been going about my days as a shut in, that many people have lost their lives. I tried my best to fall asleep, and stay asleep so that I could start another long day. It was a tough night. I was grateful that I was able to walk this morning, which helped. Miles had a lovely virtual music class at 9:30, with a bunch of little preschoolers shaking their instruments and singing along with the teacher, online. How can that not make you smile? For the first time, Catherine was on time and completely prepared for her 10 AM Zoom meeting, which made me very happy. Ms. Fleischman started out with a scavenger hunt for the kids, which was fun, light and adorable. Graham's meeting was at 12. I asked him to make sure to use the potty beforehand, which he did, since it's a long meeting. I noticed when he came back to the table, his hair looked wet and freshly brushed. When I asked him, he said that he had "fixed" it for the meeting so that he would look nice. Okay, I guarantee, that Graham is probably the only boy in this country that coiffed before his online Zoom meeting. He's a boy after my own heart. I spent a few hours this morning writing some blog posts for my other website, which was fun (check them out on JanaLieblichLifesyle.com) When I went to make lunch, I realized that I had forgotten to defrost bread last night. I had to think of something quickly, since it was already after 1. I decided to do breakfast for lunch. Usually we do breakfast for dinner, which always wins me big points with the kids. I quickly whipped up a double batch of buttermilk pancakes on the griddle and a fresh fruit salad. The kids were over-the-moon. My afternoon consisted of watching YouTube videos with Garin on Greek and Roman art history. It wasn't exactly what I had planned on, but these days one has to be flexible. I had to get serious with Garin about finally get around to his art class, He has been avoiding it like the plague (maybe a bad analogy to make at this moment), since we embarked on this distance learning experience. His teacher has been kind enough to cut him slack, but when he checked his grade online today and it was notated as an "F," he freaked out a bit, to say the least. So I told him that I would hunker down with him and help. It turned out to be a nice review of some of the art history I took in college and certainly more interesting than some of the other books and videos I have been had to endure over the past 3 and a half weeks. We skipped our walk this evening, due the rain, but still had a nice evening in with leftover pasta, cookies and ice cream sundaes. Not a bad day, I would say.
Miles enjoying his virtual music class with his St. Bernadine's classmates.
Pancakes cooking on the griddle
The smell of freshly cooked pancakes on a rainy day was intoxicating.
A healthy fruit salad served on the side.
The finished result with powdered sugar, whipped cream and a blackberry on top.
Catherine and Graham doing their indoor Go Noodle P.E., after lunch.
Catherine working with Miles on his letters after our first order of preschool supplies arrived from Amazon.