Tales from the Pandemic: 15

My sister's husband started a new job this past Monday and that would mean that Lori is single parenting it with a 6 year old, 2 year old and 1 month old.  Rachel, who is 6, is doing online school and needs a lot of help during the day to navigate her schoolwork.   Sarah, who is 2, is a ball of energy and doesn't slow down for anything.  And then of course, are the demands that a newborn has and needs attention too.  I told Lori that when Ben got a new job, I'd come down for the first week and help.  This time I brought Samantha with me, who desperately needed a change of scenery since being at home for the last 2 months.

The silver lining in all of this is that Samantha got to meet her newest cousin and was able to spend time with her. Under normal circumstances, Ian, Samantha or me would not have come down here during this time.  We'd only be visiting for the baby naming.  With the Pandemic we've had the opportunity to visit and the kids can continue with their schooling online without disruption.   With that said, we know we are taking a big risk visiting when Caronavirus could be transferred to either us or Lori and and her family. The kids and I took all the precautions we could to minimize the risk.

While the last two sets of flights (when I came down in mid-April and Ian came down at the beginning of May) had very few people flying and airports that resembled a ghost town; this wasn't the case when Sam and I flew down on May 16th.   It was still easy to keep our distance from all the other travelers, but people are starting to travel again.  Our options for a flight home were limited and we weren't able to go non-stop.  Samantha and I will be changing planes in Chicago (!!) and then catch a flight to DCA.  We have 40 minutes to change planes.  I hope we can do it in time. I will not be surprised if we end up spending the night in Chicago.

I am happy to report that Lori and Ben have hired someone to help and she will start next Tuesday. Whew! 

Tales from the Pandemic: 14

10 weeks!  This the amount of time we've been quarantined and have been told to stay at home.  10 weeks since the schools have been opened.  10 weeks since Ian or me have been able to have a hair cut.  10 weeks since we've eaten inside a restaurant.  10 weeks without going to a clothing store, or a movie theatre.  10 weeks of being scared to be in public without wearing a face mask and having to keep 6 feet of social distance between you and anyone near you.  10 weeks of toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies (disinfecting wipes!!), flour, and random grocery items (sometimes its frozen vegetables, other times its been chicken) have been in high demand and extremely hard to find.  10 weeks of FaceBook memes accurately capturing what life is like during a pandemic, all with a funny twist.  10 weeks of trying to homeschool our kids and feeling like a failure at it.  10 weeks of starting to hear all summer camps and activities will be cancelled too. 10 weeks of waiting on pins and needles to find out what will happen with school in Fall 2020.

10 weeks of not knowing when this will end and life will go back to the way it was pre-March 13h.  10 weeks of having all plans for upcoming plays, concerts, sporting events, and reservations cancelled.  10 weeks of having to entertain the kids and everyone being home 24/7.  10 weeks of juggling working from home and taking care of the kids.

10 weeks of having routine orthodontic, dental and medical appointments cancelled and not knowing when they can be re-booked.  10 weeks of not having friends over, or playdates, or dinners out to celebrate birthdays.  10 weeks of not giving someone a hug that you run into at the grocery store.

10 weeks of watching the news and keeping track of all the new cases of Caronavirus being diagnosed each day in your city, in your state, in the country.  10 weeks of hearing how our President keeps doing the absolute wrong thing or says the wrong thing each chance he gets.

10 weeks that have felt like 10 years.

Tales from the Pandemic: 13

Ian was down in Orlando visiting with Lori, Ben and the girls during Mother's Day.  The family waited until he was back home to give me my present.  It was a huge surprise and I was blown away by their thoughtfulness.  Truly, this is a Mother's Day I will always remember and it's easily been my favorite one in the last 15 years of being a mom.

Samantha came up with this awesome idea!  Jeff and Sam worked on this behind my back, and once Ian got back into town, everything was ready to go.   It was seriously the cutest thing ever! 

I have the best family ever! 

Tales from the Pandemic 12

In some ways this pandemic has been wonderful for our to-do list.  I am delighted with the projects we've been able to get done around the house.  It feels great!

Master bedroom:  It has been repainted!  New duvet cover!  New lamps!  New curtains!  I walk into the room and it's so bright, crisp and fresh.  I love it!

Before:

After:

Master bathroom:  Once I got the bedroom done, I couldn't stop and gave the bathroom a mini update and repainted it as well.  Plus, we got rid of this ugly rolling cart that held towels and hung shelves up on the wall that can hold the towels.

Kitchen:  New dishes!  Jeff and Samantha are not a fan of them, but I adore them.  They are quirky and unique.  New dishwasher!  Our old one was starting to fall apart and we called the company to see how old it was.  It was 28 years old.  Definitely time to replace it.  It's amazing the cool features that is in our new dishwasher.

Here is a pic of the new dishes.  They are quirky and uneven.  Jeff and Sam are not a fan of these at all.  Jeff says it looks like someone was under a tight deadline when making them and ran out of time.  Ha!

Lighting: New sconce in our living room.  I am pretty certain the one that was there was original to when the house was built.  It was dying and needed an electrician to fix the wiring.  Jeff and I never liked this sconce and decided to replace it.

Samantha's room:  Samantha got motivated and wanted to organize her room, by getting rid of her dresser.  The dresser was from Ikea and was falling apart.  Samantha managed to clean out all her drawers and get everything in her closet.  It really does look amazing.  And there is now more room in her room with the dresser gone.

We've also had the house power washed and we mulched & planted flowers.  Our front yard is looking fantastic!

I am sure all of the above would've gotten done eventually, but when you have loads of time on your hands, there is no time like the present.  Goooo us!

Tales from the Pandemic 11

Distance learning for the kids has had a very rocky start.  It took 4 weeks from when school was first closed to start distance learning.  To be fair, we did have 19 snow days built in the calendar and there was 1 week of spring break.  April 14th was the big day!  However, things didn't go as smoothly as everyone wanted.   Kids from other schools were crashing the virtual classroom and saying vulgar things or giving themselves profane names as their ID. Additionally, students were having a hard time logging on.  It was a mess!   Quickly the announcement was made distance learning will take the rest of the week off.  FCPS would use this time to improve the security of the system and logging on issues.  A fresh start would be begin again the following Monday.   Fast forward to Monday, and new issues abound.  The system could not handle all the traffic.  There are 189,000 students in this county.  Teachers themselves couldn't log on.  Oh my!  Again, another announcement is made that distance learning would not be able to continue.  Teachers will keep posting assignments on blackboard or google or thru email for the students to complete.

At this point any kind of patience and understanding has been tested to its limits.  Teachers are doing their absolute best to adapt to all the new directions on how to instruct and communicate with their classes. Numerous emails from FCPS keep getting sent and completely overwhelm us with information and how distance learning is going to work. 

Even with distance learning working the way it should, Samantha has 1 hour, 4 days a week.  Ian has 5 hours on Tuesdays, 4 hours on Thursdays and a full hour for lunch in that time span. And Ian is in high school!  While I understand why it has evolved to this, it is crazy to think these students are going to be ready to go for their next grade in the Fall.  There is no way any real kind of learning is taking place.  Maybe at best, reviews of the concepts learned is the most we can hope for.  I feel for the families who don't have the resources we have; who don't have internet, or enough computers/tablets for each child in the same family to be on at the same time,  or parents that need to work and can not afford to help their child; or those families who don't speak English as a first language and can't keep up with all the changes. 

It was discovered that part of the issues the system had was not doing 7 different computer updates over the last 20 months to the technology FCPS was using.  Wow, that's pretty bad.  And that is the moment when I no longer had patience for the higher ups to get it figured out.  They had plenty of time -- 6 weeks at this point -- to get their ducks in a row and make the system work.  FCPS let everyone down.

We've eventually settled on a way that distance learning can work.  Teachers now use Blackboard Collaborate as the way to connect.  But to get to this point, much time was lost and the number of emails sent to parents was so overwhelming. 

I am not sure where we go from here.  I heard a rumor that during snowmaggedon (in 2009), FCPS said it would work on making distance learning a possibility so that students didn't have to miss school. It's been 11 years and yet here we are, still trying to make distance learning work.

Lately, there has been chatter on what will happen come Fall 2020.  Will school be back in session or will distance learning have to continue?  Time will tell on if we can resume our normal lives.  All of this is unprecedented.   Being part of a global pandemic is a history making.  Right now, it feels like there is no end in sight.  Patience and understanding is key to surviving. 

Tales from the Pandemic 10

Introducing Alexis Leah Wronsky! 

Born on Thursday, April 16, 2020   
7lbs, 10oz  and 20 inches long

What a little love bug!   It is so crazy to think that for the first few months Alexis won't have any visitors or anyone to hold her other than Lori, Ben, the girls or me (the few days I was there after her birth).  What an  unusual time to have a baby.  I feel so fortunate that I got to be here for her birth and spend the first few days getting to be around her.  She is so delicious!

Tales from the Pandemic 9

It's now been a complete week of being at Lori's house.  She had the baby on Thursday, April 16th and I was here to save the day!  :)  It was just me and the two girls for 3 1/2 days and 3 nights.   We did it!  The girls were so well behaved and we even had a little of fun. There was one situation that will forever be known as "The Applesauce Incident".  Oy!  Applesauce everywhere!  Note to self:  Playing tag with Rachel while Sarah is holding one of her Go-Go Applesauces does not end well.

It's been many years since I had little ones to take care of around the clock. And true to myself, I blocked out all the hard and challenging stuff of Ian and Samantha's toddler years.  The girls and I got into a good groove and somehow time moved at a good pace.  We started each day with a 3.5 mile walk around the lake.  Well, let me correct that statement a bit; I walked and they rolled in a double stroller.  Now that's a workout pushing a double stroller with a 6 year old and 2 year old.  We did sidewalk chalk, games of Chutes & Ladder, Candyland, drew lots of pictures, made a fort, and took out the magnatiles.

Here's a funny story from our Thursday together:

Sarah and Rachel love to FaceTime every single one of their contacts in Rachel's iPad, to the point of being a bit annoying.  Can you imagine my dad getting FaceTimed multiples times a day and then the girls have nothing to say when he answers?  They sort of just stare at each other.   Anyway, they love to call random numbers that may mean something to Lori, but the girls don't know who they are getting.  Yesterday afternoon, Sarah hits dial on this one unknown number.  It turns out its really good friends of the family and I do know the mom, Elana.  Elana was really excited to see the girls and had wanted to know what the situation was with Lori.   We had just found out the baby was born, what her name was and pics we could share with Elana.   While all this is going on, the girls and I decide to make a "Welcome baby Alexis" sign for when they come home on Saturday.  I am at the table helping Rachel (age 6) with the sign and I've now inherited this FaceTiming iPadto chat with Elana (because both girls quickly abandoned it when the person answers -- they more than anything just want to dial random people -- ugh!!).  I look down for 10 seconds at the most, and the next thing I know, Sarah (age 2) has gotten out all the paints (the kind with the little tubs all stuck in a row) and is now painting the table we are sitting at.  Lori's kitchen table!  OMG!!  I quickly jump into the action, get her a piece of paper to paint on and put a paper towel down and start cleaning up the paint -- all the while still talking to Elana.  I turn my back for 10 seconds to throw away the paper towels I was using and somehow, Sarah managed to get water  -- from where?  I have no idea -- she woud've had to walk past me to get to the sink -- and is now making her art finger paint  (these aren't finger paints!!!) with the water.  I take another look at Sarah and she has just taken her hand and wiped it down the front of her white shirt to get the extra paint off her hand.

I'd love to say this took up at least an hour of the day, but sadly no. The whole thing was 5 minutes tops.

But wait there's more!

The next morning:

Sarah woke up at 4:30am.  I changed her diaper (it was really full!!) and told her to go back to sleep.  I had to show her how dark it was outside the window for her to believe me that she should go back to sleep.  It worked!!  She woke up for the day at 6:00am.  Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Rachel woke up a 6:10am.  She comes downstairs and I said, "How come you are not dressed?"  She said I am so tired.  I told her to go back to sleep, It's still very early.

Sarah, meanwhile, is asking for Rachel's iPad - which is not where it should be!  This can only mean that Rachel took it in the middle of the night and brought it back to her room.  Yes!  That's exactly what happened.

At 7:04am, we are locked and loaded for a walk around the lake.  3.5 miles for a change of scenery is definitely needed.

It's a good thing I love these girls like they are my own.  :)  Oh and I never went back to sleep, so I've been up since 4:30am.  Fun!

The icing on the cake comes when Lori tells that she is going to be staying for another night.  They will now not come home until Sunday.

I have countless stories of my time at Lori and Ben's house.  An extra pair of hands (maybe even 2 extra sets of hands) is needed like we need air to breathe.   With everyone awake, a three ring circus is less chaotic.  There is a lot going on!!! 

On top of it all, Ben is interviewing for a job and on Tuesday needed a quiet house for him to take a timed test.  And on Wednesday, needed a quiet house to do an interview virtually.   On Tuesday, Lori and I packed up the 3 girls and hit the road.  Only, we can't even go somewhere and get out.  We do a drive-thru of Jeremiah's for Water Ice, get gas at Costco and then park near the lake to wait out the rest of the time.  It's a pretty intense time with trying to get a DVD to play, looking for the wireless headphones, and Sarah thinking its fun and funny to try to hit Alexis.  I move Sarah's monster car seat to the back row (seriously, this thing was easily 50lbs!) and get her away from Alexis.  This whole scene is trying the patience of Lori and the absurdity of it all is enough to make us laugh.  We get to do it all over again the next day.  Oy!

The next day when we had to leave the house, I am very happy to say that all of our lessons learned on Tuesday worked out on Wednesday.  We were rockstars!  All was harmonious in the car.  Yippee!

I feel for Ben and Lori.  They really do need more help.  And right now, that help is not possible.  Social distancing is having everyone keep to themselves and not It's amazing how it all feels like so much to handle when school has been closed for the remainder of the year and no one can leave the house.  It's 24/7, 7 days a week.  There is no break.  And these girls all need help; Rachel needs help with her online schooling - which starts at 8:00am and runs through the day; Sarah needs a set of eyes on her at all times and has endless amounts of energy and is prone to destruction; and Alexis needs all the help that a newborn requires.  During any other time, the older 2 girls would be out of the house each weekday and there would be time for Lori to have to heal from the C-section, get time to bond with the baby and be able to relax.  But you throw in experiencing a pandemic and this just never ends.  It's quite insane when you think about it.

The day before Lori gives birth!

Created a fort and the girls loved it!

One of our many walks around the lake.

How cute is Sarah!?!?!?

 

Getting smoothies from Planet Smoothie.  Yum!