Coronavirus Thanksgiving

Since mid-October we've seen an increase in Covid-19 cases and it's been surging in our state since early November. About a week before Thanksgiving, the governor announced major restrictions - the most we have had since spring.  Bars, gyms, theaters, museums, and other entertainment venues are closed; restaurants are only open to take-out, delivery, and drive-thru; there are increased restrictions on gatherings such as weddings and funerals.  He also shut down all youth and high school organized sports only a week away from the culmination of the high school football season. Yeah, the governor really upset some people with that one!  (It had already been decided there would be no state-level tournaments; only sectional.) We were given two day's warning, so sports organizations tried to cram in as much as they could in those two days - which was quite opposing to the objective.

We are also not supposed to have members outside our household in our home, though it is openly unenforced.  But that meant no Thanksgiving gatherings for those who were willing to comply with the emergency order (currently through December 18).  For us, it didn't change things anyway.

It wasn't all that unusual for us.  Bryan's parents always stay home for Thanksgiving because of hunting season.  So if we get together, it is with my family.  My parents like to head south in their RV before Christmas, so we often do Christmas at the same time.  I had really hoped somehow to see them again before they leave but it's just not going to happen.

Regardless, there is much for which to be thankful.  Bryan's company is feeling the squeeze of the economy, but it is nothing in comparison to the screeching halt the entertainment and hospitality industries have experienced. He has been back at the office since June, but has little in-person interaction, so I am thankful for that!

We are thankful that we have remained healthy and overall so has our extended family.  A few family and friends have tested positive for Covid-19, but no one has required hospitalization.

I am thankful for every nice day that we - or at least the kids - can get outside and enjoy nature.  As I am writing this post, they are at the park playing basketball.  They have been going down to the pond and exploring almost every day. We checked one more state park (Frontenac) and one more county park off our list. There was an early cumulative snowfall before Halloween, but since we have had very little snow (not complaining - we have plenty of time for that in January!)

I am also VERY thankful for the amount of things we are able to do virtually.  On Wednesday: the kids "went" to 3 different schools, Reggie had a wrestling workout, Brett had speech therapy, and Lydia had piano lessons. I never took my slippers off!  In our normal life (which I will be happy to return to), I would have easily spent 3 hours in the minivan!

Shout out to Special Olympics who did an incredible pivot during the pandemic, and enthusiastically continues to meet the social and fitness needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities.  They have a full calendar of virtual events for athletes to do.  Brett does basketball, art, and cooking classes.

I am glad that we have been able to watch professional and college sports the last few months.  We enjoyed following the shortened MLB season, though the Twins continue to disappoint me in the post season.  We were able to go to a few minor league games this summer.  The Packers have not had any fans at their home games, so I can be thankful that we didn't pay for Bryan's season tickets this year!  Reggie is really into fantasy football, so I'm glad he has had that to occupy his mind while there are very little sports for him to do.

My garden seemed to appreciate the extra tending and attention it received this season and rewarded us with bountiful harvests.  My pumpkins are never great but I got a lovely pie pumpkin for my pie for Thanksgiving.  We had well over 100 pounds of apples on my two small trees, endless cucumbers, and plenty of beans and tomatoes to eat and preserve. We learned how to make zucchini noodles and Lydia loves them! Kale and collards for four meals, more peppers and berries than we could eat, and as always lots of herbs.  

Lastly, I am thankful for the gift of time.  Our kids are growing up so fast.  It has not been lost on me that this year has given me something special - time to connect with them just before friends and social engagements and school and sports take over their lives.  Some days I have to remind myself that this is a gift, but mostly I know I will miss all of this time once life is in it's next chapter.

Coronavirus Halloween

Minus the actual trick-or-treating, Halloween was pretty normal! 😆

A mom podcast I listen to suggested thinking through all your holiday traditions, evaluating risk for each tradition, and deciding which ones you can still do and which one you need to table for this year.  This was helpful to think through our fall plans, and I will be doing it for all the holidays and birthdays coming up in the next six weeks.

Most of what we do for Halloween was easily doable.  We have our pumpkin patch where we always go to get our carving pumpkins.  In every year, I love this patch because it's not overly commercialized with kiddie rides and games.  It's simple.  You go and pick a pumpkin, either from the barn already picked, or take a walk out in the field behind the barn and find one for yourself.  Every year, we avoid weekend crowds, and with the kids having less structured days it was easy to pick a nice weather afternoon during the week to keep this tradition.

We also usually make our own costumes.  This was also still doable.   Lydia and Brett love craft projects, and Reggie tolerates them. Brett had his mind made up from the start that he wanted to be "Metal Sonic". I let him take the lead and tried to keep it simple.  

Lydia did a little Pinteresting and decided she'd be a cactus.  Her costume was easy, but I really annoyed her that I made her hand sew instead of hot glue the cactus spines on her shirt.  I wanted her to get some more wear out of the shirt after Halloween!

Reggie had an idea of what he wanted to do after some online searching and knowing how quickly he loses his patience with diy projects, we found most of what we needed at the party store.

Then there was the pumpkin carving.  This year, we kicked it up a notch and watched some Youtube videos for ideas first. (Also because we had more time!)

We avoided costume parties, trunk-or-treat events, trick-or-treating and passing out candy.  Obviously, the whole point of Halloween for kids is getting loads of candy.  So I bought a ton of candy and treats.  On Halloween, we had a household-only party with our traditional "spooky foods" menus.

But also some silly games.

And a "graveyard hunt" where the kids took their trick-or-treat bags and flashlights for an after-dark candy collection.

We finished the night with a sleepover in the living room and spooky movies! 

the beat goes on

School has had it's much anticipated ups and downs.  With the kids in two districts and three schools with three different learning platforms, there has been one constant: change.  All three schools made an attempt to do part-time in-person learning.  Brett participated; we elected to do full time online with the other two from the start.  The deciding factors were a combination of school size, ability to keep the shuffling to a minimum, and individual needs.  Not surprisingly but still disheartening, the last of their three schools will be transitioning to full-time online learning this week.  Secondary students in our district's hybrid model attended a grand total of 16 hours of in-person learning.  

The demographics and culture in our school district provide a unique set of needs.  Our inner ring suburban area brings together nearly 11,000 students, about 60% free and reduced lunch - but also plenty of affluence - and 57 different languages spoken among the families.  There is a large population of multi-generational and first generation immigrant families who tend to work in frontline and service-oriented industries that do not lend themselves well to work-at-home options.  This is partially why about half of the district's secondary students elected to do online learning.  They are responsible for the care and education facilitation of younger children in the home.

What's wrong in this picture? 😏

I praise our district's attempts at making education equitable where the privilege is blinding.  Think about teaching gym online to a population of students so diverse.  Do students have a safe place to go outside for exercise?  Do they have a brother or a sister to kick a ball to? Or even a ball?  None of this can be assumed.  And really, how many days and weeks and months can teachers engage kindergarteners in calisthenics?  Last week, Reggie was doing his online gym class in the living room when I overheard the gym teacher say, "Today we're going to do some jump roping. If you don't have a jump rope, you could place a towel or a stuffed animal on the floor to jump over."  How ironic that last year I was in the PTO meeting that approved buying new jump ropes for the gym teacher. 

Quite honestly, I have grown tired of people whining about kids missing out on sports or birthday parties or homecoming or trick-or-treating.  The truth is kids don't need any of that, and though some believe otherwise, these all have a degree of risk contributing to the spread of the virus and shutdown of our schools. Please don't mishear me - I like all of these things.  But what price are we willing to pay for them?  For this false sense of normalcy?  I believe that some time in the future, historians will look back on this global crisis with a lens that it is yet another example of the privileged asserting rights that ultimately oppress their less-fortunate neighbors who are just trying to survive. (Not even to mention the health care community that is relentlessly working on our behalf.)

School is not going to be world-class this year, and our students might not meet all the standards and benchmarks.  But that's okay with me.  What my children need to learn is not found in a textbook.  They need to learn that our actions affect other people in very real ways, both positively and negatively. That sometimes we need to give up our personal comforts for the well-being of our community.  And when we go through hard stuff, we often grow in ways we didn't expect. 

This photo was taken in September!  Our table is under a few inches of snow now!

furry forever friends

My computer broke.  It was still under warrantee, but it took nearly a month to get the repair done. That's my excuse for the lag time on the blog.  I think I will leave our general fall happenings for an upcoming post.

We had a sad goodbye in September.  Our loved guinea pig, Milo, died.  He was a part of our family for 6 years.  He was a good boy who would make even the worst of days better.  He could restore calm to the saddest Brett.  He was very easygoing and was perfectly content with being a lap pet.

His passing was not a surprise, as his health had been declining for a few months.  Brett thought we should have a cake and punch as apparently all good funerals do. This we forewent, but we did have a ceremony of sorts to say our goodbyes and then we got take out.  

Most guinea pigs are happier with a friend, but getting guinea pigs that will get along with each other can be tricky.  I was hoping to get three guinea pigs so each kid could have one to call their own.  So we quickly snatched up a trio of little girls from a local rescue when they became available.  I also got rid of the old cage that was in our dining room.  It was too small to house three guinea pigs and I didn't want the guinea pigs in our dining room anymore. Our new cage is bigger, upright so it takes up less floor space, and on wheels so it can be moved.

The guinea pigs came with an interesting story.  Two of the piggies were abandoned at a pet store in February, about 6 months old.  One of the guinea pigs was pregnant and had a girl and a boy.  The boy was placed with another male guinea pig.  The girl stayed with her mom, so we have a mother and daughter!  

The mom became Brett's pet, and he named her Oreo.

The "baby" became Lydia's friend, and she named her Violet.

The "aunt" is Reggie's piggie, and he kept her given name, "Penny".

The trio are so different from our other guinea pigs.  They are very active and curious.  They are loud and messy.  They are a little wild and opinionated!  

My kids are smitten and they have already brought them so much joy.