Day 16

It's Friday, and my brain is 100% fried. I have not been sleeping well. Last night's lack of sleep was compounded by the fact that last night, I got some random "your card wasn't present for this $0.00" charge alerts, and I haven't been able to get a hold of my credit card company to determine if these were legitimate or in error (because I can't see this activity if I go to my account online).

Fortunately I can temporarily lock and unlock my card, as I don't dare try to replace it out until I can get a firm answer on if I can even feasibly get a new card reissued in a reasonable amount of time right now.

I waited in chat for 45 minutes last night before giving up and sending a secure message. I'm trying again right now and am just about at the 45 minute mark. I'll give up again when food gets here.

Kid had a mostly good day, but with me being fried right now, they are way too loud and rambunctious. But will not go outside on their own (and even getting them out for a socially distanced walk has been a challenge this week. If Pokemon Go isn't involved, that's a no, basically). We got out yesterday. I went out for a walk the day before that alone, but today we haven't been outside.

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Post Dinner update: After an hour of sitting in the credit card chat waiting for a rep, food came, so I quit out. Husband went for a walk, and kid is watching tv. I went out briefly to try to wash the gross front windows. I'll have to give them another pass, because between the snowblower being in my way and the amount of grime on the windows, they're all streaked now. It's better...I guess?

I hope to get some rest tonight. At least I have vacation in a few weeks, which I'm taking even if it means being stuck in the house. Cuz. I'm. Fried.

13th Day

It's day 13 of social distancing for us (and about Day 9 for most people who started being remote in the state last week).

The past few days have been okay. Yesterday and today both started with Yoga, breakfast, and coffee (yesterday I had yogurt and a donut, today was a fruit smoothie).

Yesterday morning there was a bit of a blow up at home. The kid was melting down about doing their math on Khan Academy, because they didn't want to take my recommendation to write it out on scratch paper. Husband started yelling from upstairs about how kid just needed to do it themself, and how I should just them to figure it out. All this, while I'm actively helping and calming the kid down by SHOWING them that it's easier if they write it out.

That got me frustrated, given how well the kid and I have been managing so far (with no direction from him), so I yelled back that if he wanted to steer the curriculum and how the kid was doing it, he was welcome to come downstairs and manage it. To which he responded that the kid just needed to do it themself so no one needed to be down helping.

Once they accepted that the scratch paper helped, the rest of yesterday was smoother. There was a "field trip" to the Louvre, which they enjoyed so much that they went back to the site today.

Today, there's also been some science time, from a video and project involving wind and storms, computer programming, and a virtual visit to the New England Aquarium to see the octopus feeding. Kiddo has also been doing some math on Sumdog today, which was our concession for their getting through yesterday's math.

We've been practicing our violins for about 10 minutes most days as well, and I finally ordered a collapsible stand, because balancing it on our bookshelf is a pain in the ass.

Fewer fires at work this week, so I'm slowly slogging through some other work tasks between dealing with work issues coming up due to the COVID-19 situation.

We'll all get through this.

Sunday

Weekend is almost over. We didn't get board games done, but we did some relaxing on the couch with shows, and the kiddo was working on making their book on the laptop this morning and is currently doing Scratch.

Was telling husband that, all other things aside, I'm kind of loving working from home. I basically get 12 extra hours a week to do things; time I'd usually spend commuting and not able to do anything beyond phone games, YouTube, and browsing (when my phone is actually getting a signal on the train, which it often doesn't for about half the underground stops). The commute will be worse come summer too, since there are going to be closures related to the green line extension. So....I hate commuting. But, I also hate driving in awful traffic to pay more than the subway pass costs me....and at least I can browse the phone and stuff while on the train.

I also kind of like how much more engaged the kid seems to be in education. There's push back on math and grammar lessons, but everything else is more custom tailored to their interests, and last week, the kid had: math, grammar, music (violin, also mixed sounds in garage band), computer programming, history, baking, art, science, creative writing, and lots of reading. This coming week, I'm already planning on a "field trip" to at least one of the museums that has some virtual stuff available, and the Museum of Science is doing a STEM session that we've signed up for. I did feel a bit of frustration when my husband remarked that he thinks that the stuff "we've" been providing the kid with this week was a really good variety and well rounded education; since all week, I've been the one downstairs steering the activities, and have found all the things that the kid had done. We're both working from home, but since I'm the one working downstairs, a lot of this has fallen to me. Which is fine, since at least my work is understanding about mom-duties.

Can I just be a full time work from home person with my kid being mostly schooled from home (and can get supplementary lessons somewhere to ensure that they can get into colleges or what not when the time comes should they want to?)...that would kind of be my ideal life. If I could have had a work from home job when kiddo was younger, maybe I would have had the energy for two kids. But nope. Not enough energy for that now.

Now off to lose myself in video games during what's left of the weekend.

Routine

Just finished out my work week, and I'm logged off from work related tasks, lest my boss need something urgently, in which case, they'll text (but they definitely only use it for really urgent things).

I'm finding that the most important thing while being home is having a routine. Even when it's hard. This morning, waking at 7 am was REALLY hard. I was slow about it, but I did it. I was even on the computer and working, coffee in hand and news in the background, by 7:30 am (which is why I clocked out around 3:30ish).

Before I've started work this week, I've been good about making sure that the dishes are put away (and the dishwasher is ready for dirty dishes), and the laundry is in (If my goals that day include laundry. Today they did not.).

There was no yoga today, because I'm still sore today. I think tonight will be an epsom salt bath.

My kid's classroom now has an online portal to use with some resources, and they were thrilled to be able to use their reading site (epic), and a book creating tool. In fact, they just sat down to read books on the computer, and we've already concluded our learning for the day.

Today was a bit less "rigorous" for home learning curriculum, since they've been so good about getting things done and have been really involved in the things I've sat them in front of.

This morning was an art project with Mo Willems, then some reading on epic, then a Baking History lives stream (today was rainbow muffins and Alan Turing). Then they spent time creating comic-style books on the book creator tool.

After mid-day video games (for the kiddo, since I was still working, alas), we went out for a walk.

First full week of social distancing over.

This weekend's plans are to sleep in (at least later than 7 am), and play some board games, video games, and crochet and watch shows.

One Week

Because right now is such an unprecedented time, I've seen many recommend that people keep a journal. The recommendation is a handwritten one, for archival purposes, because digital media doesn't archive as well. Maybe at some point, after all of this is over, I'll print this out and create a physical, archival copy. But the chances that I'll consistently write in electronic form is already slim enough - it's near non-existent if I have to find a book to write in, too (and time to sit undisturbed).

For most, they're about 4 days into the social distancing recommendation. My family has currently been home for one week, with minimal trips out. 

Last Wednesday, we got some messages that two people were diagnosed in our city with COVID-19 who were connected with the school system. In response, the schools were closing for two days to do a deep clean. 

My husband's job had already made the call to start prepping to work remotely and were working on getting everyone working from home as of Thursday. Since his job may have required him to go into the office to troubleshoot if anything went awry that day, I stayed home as well, since our kid was home. 

Thursday night, the call came that they were opting to close the school for two weeks for the time being. 

Come Saturday (or was it Sunday? I don't remember, and this is why I should start writing all of this down), the situation evolved pretty rapidly, and Governor Baker made the call that schools should be closed for a minimum of 3 weeks. 

During all of this, things were pretty nuts at work. I work in higher education, and so we were scrambling as the situation evolved to figure out what we were doing with the students, how we would teach and assess remotely...all the while trying to ensure that the students who are meant to graduate this year are set up to still be able to do so. 

Like many other campuses in the Boston area, ours made the call to have faculty and staff work remotely for everyone able to do so. My whole office has been remote since Monday (while I've been remote since last Thursday, due to school closings). 

Businesses have been having to close down temporarily. Few of the shops down the street from us are currently still open and doing business. Other businesses, like where my husband works, have been having to downsize, in what is hopefully a temporary measure until all of this is over. Fortunately for us, the downsizing didn't impact us (yet?), but there are lots of people being hurt by this. 

Much of this makes me really angry because part of the reason that it's gotten like this is because Trump downplayed it for weeks, rather than taking proper preventative action. Despite the outgoing administration covering a very similar scenario with Trump's administration during the transition period in 2016-17, they scaled back the CDC's pandemic team. He's been quoted as not wanting to make the numbers rise (in giving a reason for why he didn't want a ship of passengers, some of who had COVID-19, to dock), because his primary concern has been appearances in hopes of winning re-election. I hope that the pain of these past few, and coming, weeks will ensure that he doesn't get it. 

Now, returning from that tangent. 

My husband and I are both currently working from home. Because of the situation at work, I've been putting in a bit more than my regular hours (though I've been trying not to go over too much for my own well-being, but since I am spared a commute time, it still feels like less time overall, I guess?). 

In the meantime, I've been trying to make sure my kid has been doing some constructive things, and I'm rather proud of myself for how productive I've been while finding adequate enrichment and some schedule stability for them as well. 

We're using Khan Academy for Math and Grammar at their grade level. Since the kiddo is really into computer programming, we've also added that, and we rotate through some of each in the morning. There have been some really great live streams going around, and so far, they've done: 

• Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
• History of Baking 
• ZooAmerica live streams
• Art lesson, making a robot with Cassie Stephens (an elementary school art teacher who has been doing live streams during the day)

On the Zoo America and History of Baking live streams, I've been letting them interact in the Facebook comments to ask questions, which I think is also a good lesson in and of itself on internet etiquette (today's lesson was "do not type in all caps, it is seen as shouting and is considered rude). 

Beyond the computer, there's been the usual reading (sometimes on a tablet, sometimes a physical book), and in the mornings, we've been trying to do yoga (skipped today, because I was sore), and we've started practicing our violins a few minutes each evening. 

Most of this week, we've gotten out for a short walk each day, just to get air and sun (keeping our distance from others!). Today, it's been gray and rainy, so it's been indoors all day. My husband has made an occasional trip out for necessary errands (shopping, mailing something that needed to get to someone for work), and for coffee (I've been drinking mine at home). 

We've kept on top of the laundry, dishes, and other basic household maintenance on top of everything. 

Tuesday night, we all stayed up a bit later than usual to watch the Dropkick Murphys live stream (after a dinner of corned beef, carrots, potatoes, and brussels sprouts).

I've definitely felt a lot of anxiety. I've been biting my nails and picking at my skin on my fingers more than usual, and I have not been sleeping well. I've lost about 5 pounds, despite walking about 1/8-1/4 of how much I usually move. Some of it might be that I'm not drinking Starbucks daily, but I was already moving towards that and bringing my lunch everyday for several weeks at work, so I suspect this is stress weight loss. Hopefully I can relax a bit over the weekend, while away from work-related things.