1.) As a type this, we are under a "stay at home" order because of a highly infectious coronavirus. We have been mostly in our house and yard for... about a month as I type this. I'll come back to this one later.
2.) You and Zoe started homeschooling this year and we are all pretty happy with it and our plan is to continue until something changes. We picked a good year because they closed public schools for the last quarter of the school year. You're happy about that because now your friends are pretty free to Facetime and chat on Messenger Kids.
3.) We just lost your Grandpa Russell to cancer last week. We are heartbroken.
I wanted to make sure I updated this blog during this quarantine period because I know we'll want to remember what our lives were like. Luckily, your dad's job is stable and he's able to easily work from home. Jack is quarantining with his mom because she's still working and he can't really go back and forth safely. This is his senior year at SME so no graduation, no graduation parties, etc. Fortunately he doesn't seem to mind about that stuff. We miss him, but he comes over for fires and stuff.
Our days aren't terribly different from our days when we were home before the quarantine. The biggest difference is there will be no travel for the next... who knows how long? We spend a lot of time outside; we feed the birds and you have a mud kitchen, fairy garden, dome climber and disc swing to keep you busy. We let Zinia and Willa use the playset because they enjoy it and don't have one. We had the tent up for a while and will probably get it out again. Dad builds a fire many nights, which is fun and we have eaten a lot of s'mores. You also have figured out how to play with Willa and Zinia pretty well from 6 ft away, so we are thanking our lucky stars we have friends that live next door!
We get our groceries delivered and we eat every single meal at home! This is a surprisingly weird change - I guess we were eating out a lot. :) We have been baking a bunch so we are going through eggs and butter like crazy (you guys get a lot of inspo from the kids baking championship on Hulu) and it's so weird to be sort of worried about going to the store. I really took "running out to the store" for granted!
The first part of the quarantine, your dad spent about half the time out in Lawrence helping to care for Grandpa Russell since we couldn't have a lot of nurses in and out of their house because of the virus. We made a lot of batches of Snickerdoodles for Dad and Grandpa Russell and Grandma Jackie during that time. I can probably make them in my sleep now. :) You and Zoe slept with me on the nights Dad wasn't home and that was fun.
You had your 9th birthday in the middle of the quarantine. We couldn't have a party, so our friends gave you a drive-by birthday party parade. It was really pretty remarkable. I didn't know what to expect, but they really delivered.
Right now there is really no clear end in sight for when life will return to normal so it's making life a little wonky but I am so, so glad I get to be cooped up in our cozy house with you, Zoe and Dad. You and Zoe are playing a lot of Roblox and Animal Crossing and we are having family movie nights. We saw Onward a few weeks ago (now movies come out straight to streaming services!), and Stepbrothers last night. I'm reading a lot and walking every day and Dad is playing a new video game. We are trying not to watch too much news because it makes us nuts. Donald Trump does a crazier thing every single day, I swear. He is batshit.
I love you, Bean! This is the weirdest blog post I've written.
xoxoxo Mama
