Don't Rock This Boat: Home in the Time of COVID-19

When we look back on the great pandemic of 2020, what will we remember the most? The crushing anxiety? The loneliness? The monotony? The barrage of negative media? Yesterday I read an article about a guy punching another passenger on a bus, and then coughing on the bus driver and peace officers who tried to break it up, then saying "I hope you get COVID-19"(he alleged he had tested positive). That is effed up, people!

But is that what I'll remember when I think back on this time, squirreled away at home? I really hope not.

The long and short of it is that our family is lucky. Tom and I are both still employed, we are essential workers who are able to work from home, and our kids are safe and sound with us. Are we exhausted at the end of the day from working, entertaining the kids, and making endless food that is bound to be rejected as "yucky"? Yes! But we're very aware that we are lucky to have our health and family and employment. COVID-19 is a lot of things, but it's definitely a stark reminder of how easily our world can be turned upside down.

I have spent many hours stewing over all the terrible things going on in the world. Today the headline was that the company that runs Lysol had to publicly discourage people from ingesting or injecting themselves with disinfectant, because of comments made by the one and only US President Donald Trump. I'm not even going to touch that with a ten foot pole.

But there have been a lot of good things happening in the world, and specifically in our home. I thought I'd share the things that we would have missed, (or might not have happened), if we weren't working from home.

There were snowmen. Or more specifically, a snow hoppy.

Lacey has been cruising on a balance bike for about two years. At the end of last summer, she was gliding like a pro, and we attempted to transition her to a pedal bike. In typical Lacey fashion, she wasn't ready for it, and doggedly refused to give it a real go. Fast forward to a week ago. We decided to give the big girl bike a try again, and after two tries, she was pedaling around an empty parking lot like a pro. The look of pride on her face when she realized she was biking all on her own... Gad, I will carry that in my mind until my dying day.

Scarlett, has been more than pleased to take over big sister's balance bike. And with daily practice, she's starting to move pretty quickly on that thing. Lacey was probably 2.5 when she started to figure out the balance bike, and Scarlett's not even two yet!

As many of you know, Scarlett has never been a good sleeper. After almost a year and a half of random sleep screaming, Every. Single. Night. She has finally started to settle into a (slightly) more stable sleep routine. By more stable, I means she's asleep by 8pm, there's a 50/50 chance she'll sleep scream at least once during the night, and she's up between 5-5:30am. No, you did not read wrong. What I just described is an improvement to her sleep pattern. Anyway, Scarlett wakes up so early, that she can barely make it to lunch time. It's become a common occurrence for her to nod off before, during, or shortly after lunch.

We've spent a lot of time playing Anna and Elsa.

We planted some tomato and cucumber seeds! Hopefully we planted them early enough that we will actually see some sprouting soon. Lacey started "helping" us with gardening two years ago when she was two. This was the first time she was actually a help!

Scarlett and I had a talk about not drowning the seeds...

There have been chats with familiar faces.

Scavenger hunts (we didn't actually make it through the whole scavenger hunt. Lacey couldn't find a snowman, and promptly lost interest).

There have been plenty of loopy days. The days can be long, but the weeks are short. And most of the weeks end with plenty of morning snuggles and sister-bonding.