Our Temporary New "Normal"

Our daily routine is looking a little different now. I'm sure it's like that for everyone right now. The kids started remote learning for three days the week before spring break. (This past week was spring break.) They will start that again on Monday. On a school day, the kids can sleep in a little unless their teacher is holding "office hours" at a certain time and wants all the kids to log on. They get up, work on their schoolwork for however long that takes them, and then the rest of the day is theirs. I'm sure we'd have to handle things differently if the kids were younger, but they are both capable and responsible enough to be sure their school work gets done. One day Tyler set his alarm to log on to the live discussion for his 9am class. When that was over, he finished his other classwork for the day, and then went back to bed until after lunch. Tyler has a very easy course load this semester and his remote learning schedule is easy, too. Danielle's is a little harder. I think the remote learning will become stressful for her if it goes on much longer...and I think it will.

One of Danielle's classes during "office hours".

For my job, my department split into shifts so we aren't always physically together. For the most part, I work on even dates and have odd dates off. I walk to work in the morning and am usually home by 1:30 or 2. Lunch ladies don't typically get much respect, which is fine. It's kind of funny now, though, that I'm considered essential. When I was at the grocery store yesterday someone recognized me as "that lady who passes out food at the elementary school". I'm thankful I'm in a position where I can make a difference. Ron is still working his normal hours, which is a good thing. There are so many people without jobs and incomes right now. I'm thankful we are both still able to work.

I try to do something with Danielle in the afternoon. We enjoy spending time together and usually do a lot together in the summer anyway. We just have to be more creative about it now since so many things are closed. We walk a lot. We like to go to the park, but since nothing else is open, everyone else does, too. Sometimes it's a little crowded. The weather has not been cooperative, either, but we grab umbrellas or bundle up and try to make the most of it.

I bought some pottery for us to paint. When the stores open back up we can take the pieces in to have them fired. We also went to the library as soon as we knew school was going to be closed for a few weeks and stocked up on some reading material.  If the weather cooperates, Ron and I try to take Danielle to the park to practice in the evenings as often as we can. A lot of the time Tyler plays games online with his friends. I'm glad he's able to keep in touch with them that way.  Sometimes we all play a game together after dinner.

We have always tried to have family dinners but it was difficult to make it work all the time. That has certainly gotten much easier! The other thing I've noticed is that there is much less complaining about what we're having for dinner. The option to eat out has been taken away for the most part, and everyone is aware of the grocery store issues. I have gone to the grocery store a few times. I try to be more diligent about keeping track of what we need so we limit the amount of times we go and how long we're out. The shelves are filling up some, but it is still hard to find some items. The meat is still sparse and toilet paper is almost impossible to find. Even so, we continue to have everything we need and a lot of what we want. Before I go to the store I try to check with my older coworker, our neighbors who work at the hospital, and my aunt & uncle that live nearby to see if they need anything.

I took this yesterday. It is the toilet paper/paper towel aisle at Meijer.

One of our new daily routines is to watch a couple episodes of the original Star Trek series before we go to bed. Ron and I thought we'd watch them all, and Danielle decided to watch them with us. It is so funny to watch those now, but it's a fun time that the 3 of us look forward to. Tyler rolls his eyes when we ask him to join us. :)

Our days are definitely slower paced than before. I think not knowing just how long this will all go on makes things difficult. It's definitely not all bad, but there are a lot of things we miss. I know it won't be like this forever. We really are thankful for the extra time we have together. I also think about Tyler leaving for college and all the changes that will bring, too. I think it will be awhile before we figure out what our new "normal" is.