Covid & Quarantine

March 2020 was the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in Utah. I'm writing this almost a year after the fact so I have the benefit of hindsight at this point, but for a couple of months it was very scary and things were very uncertain. We were all watching the news daily, watching the governor's and president's covid updates every day, etc. It was uncertain what it would mean for our future and there was so much we didn't understand about the virus yet. 

It really seemed to happen all of a sudden. The beginning of the week of March 8, if you would have told me what would happen and how shut down the world would become, I wouldn't have believed you. And then within a few days of that, basically everything was cancelled. "Dear Evan Hansen" that I'd really been looking forward to. The kids' school was cancelled (at first it was just for a few days and then after a few updates ended up being closed through the end of the school year). No church or church meetings. No dance/soccer/piano/lessons of any kind. Our April Hawaii trip was canceled. (And then we booked a trip for August to Hawaii and it got canceled too.) It was crazy. Basically starting March 10 and all of April we were hunkered down in our house, just our little family. No seeing extended family. No playing with friends. They even closed parks, because they weren't sure if the virus could live on surfaces at that point. Restaurants were closed except for take-out. Grocery stores had lines and they were really cleaned out. My sweet friend Michelle who works at Costco would send me daily updates about what was being re-stocked that day: it was really hard to find baby wipes, toilet paper, flour, rice, etc. I was really stressed about running out of formula for Davis for a while and had family keep their eyes out. It was a really crazy time. 

Doing homeschool was incredibly difficult for me. Being every role for my kids was so hard--mom, school teacher, piano teacher, church teacher--everything. Doing Andy's math with him was extra difficult for me. Every day I would go into it channeling all the patience I could muster, and I think I lost my temper every time. :) Being so isolated and without much of a schedule is basically my worst nightmare. But all things considered, I really do feel like we were blessed during this time and I was given extra capacity to handle everything. I basically went on a walk or run almost every day outside which helped a lot (making sure to stay away from other people you pass on the sidewalk). We ordered to take-out three times a week to "help local businesses" (but also to give ourselves something fun in our lives). We made a pseudo schedule to get through the day that had homework time, movement time, outside time, etc. We learned how to zoom and did a lot of that. There were some days that were extremely challenging, but somehow we survived! 

Starting in May, things became a little more normal? We started seeing friends. We started going to restaurants. Of course, this is also when we started having to wear masks everywhere. I found a little shop to order our first masks from. Now (I'm writing this in Feb 2021) we have oodles of masks and we wear them everywhere we go. (Costco masks are the best!) Everyone has returned to a more normal life at varying rates. My parents are still really apprehensive to be with anyone or go anywhere, but hopefully that will get better now that they got their first dose of the vaccine this week! 

At this point, we all know people who have had the virus, who have been really sick/in the hospital from it, and even people who have passed away. It's a very real, sad thing and we're all ready for the nightmare to be over. Luckily church started back up again, but we have to wear masks, alternate rows, etc. And we have to sign up to go because capacity was only 100 and now is 150. No primary meetings. Our Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood are all online. So many huge changes in the way things are done! By some miracle, our kids started school back up in the fall (with masks) and it's the BEST. I thought school would get canceled again for sure, but it never has! The kids are back to doing extracurriculars with various mask rules. 

It's been a really weird thing to experience because there are such varying opinions about masks/covid/how we should return to normal life or not between all the people in my life. There's such a spectrum of how people feel, all the way from "anti-maskers" to people who are still living like we lived last March/April. It's been really difficult to navigate so many situations because people really feel differently and all of this is really unprecedented. At this point, none of us have gotten it! (Fingers crossed) Of our family, Brendan and Madi got it and so did Ben. But that's it so far! We've all been tested a fair share of times (you have to get tested any time you have symptoms or you've been around someone who is positive), but so far all negatives for us. Vaccinations are starting to be distributed and hopefully this nightmare can finally come to an end! 

School work!

Doing some cosmic yoga! Go Noodle was also a favorite.

This journal entry from Max really cracked me up. I think I just totally forgot it was St. Patrick's Day and didn't do anything fun for it, ha ha. 

Violet attempting a little virtual dance class (I think it happened once).

One of Max's cute journal entries he'd do daily I had to send to his teacher. I think this one is about making a leprechaun trap.

There was a while I had a lot of hope school would start again May 1, so this message was a big blow for me.

Another cute assignment Max did.

This really spoke to me ha ha. I consumed a lot of memes during this time. Humor really did help a lot! And it was unifying to feel so many of us experiencing the same struggles.

Lots of creative ways to pass the time! This was a photo scavenger hunt that I'm sure didn't take up as much time as I'd hoped. ;)

A major highlight was when we left our house to go sledding up at Tibble Fork! Abby came with (poor thing had to come home from her study abroad in Jerusalem). It was so refreshing to do something that kind of felt normal?!

We tried to do some service! This is when we "chalked" Greg and Kathy's driveway. We also heart attacked some doors and left cookies (GG still has her hearts up!). I don't have a picture of this, but Greg and Kathy made the cutest gift bags periodically for the kids with activities and treats. It was so thoughtful.

The school did a parade and the kids got to wave to their teachers. I was surprised by how emotional it made me.

More creative kindergarten assignments for Maxy.

Max had to do a peaks and valleys assignment about living through quarantine.

School assignment from Andy.

I think this is my favorite journal entry from Max.

As the weather got warmer it got a lot easier! I'm so grateful we have a yard I could send the kids outside to play in. We even eventually starting meeting up with friends on our front lawn and putting our blankets six feet apart.

Poor Davis didn't get enough attention during all this! He was such a trooper just playing by himself while I had to do school with the older kids.

Violet wasn't in school, but would beg me for school assignments since her brothers had them. 

This ice transferring activity kept her pretty busy for a while. 

Another big outing was when we went to the tulip festival! This was in May when things had very slightly started to open up. It felt so good to go out and do something as a family.

Monopoly Deal was the game that got us through quarantine. We played it A LOT. At least every day, usually multiple times a day.

This picture will always crack me up. This was a pic of my dad in his grocery store attire. 

One cute thing about quarantine--Max became quite the letter writer! This is a letter he wrote to his friend Sawyer. Most of his letters went to GG, who he was worried was lonely. He wrote letters to lots of people--my parents, Abby, Sara, Rachel/Jake, Greg/Kathy...we went through a lot of stamps. And he still has a stack of letters he got back from people. He loved checking the mail! :)

Max's fantastic teacher Mrs. King dropped off an end of the year gift for him. She was so great and adapted so well to online teaching.