quarantine chronicles, week 5

oof.
5 weeks of living in a shut down world.

when easter weekend arrived, cold and cloudy and rainy and without our usual family visits and hubbub, it certainly felt weird. the kids talked and talked about how much they missed their cousins, and i agreed: i missed all the good usual things. but then we reminded ourselves that following stay at home orders, we all continue to share our love with one another by sacrificing activities and gatherings in the name of keeping other people healthy. and really, we have what we need right here with us, and i seriously think about that every.single.day. how lucky and glad to have this time, to be with these people. to have this home, this yard, in this community.

so we cheered ourselves up and did some usual things, some not so usual things, in celebration of one of our favorite holidays.
we painted the front windows in paint that david promises me is washable.


instead of finding the baskets after church, this year was unusual in two ways: the kids KNOW there is no bunny now, and we didn't leave the house to go to church, losing my usual cover for hiding the baskets right before hopping in the car. so we made an egg hunt with scavenger hunt clues all over the house that finally lead them to baskets and it was sooooo much fun. here is a moment of standing still to read a clue, before sprinting off to the indicated location...


we spied a weirdo unicorn easter bunny in a cloth mask sneaking around our house, which brought so much laughter to our family....


we scootered to break up the day


and then we got down to the business of decorating eggs,



making that bunny bread,



hunting for eggs (check out david's amazing egg placement with curb camoflauge)



and binge eating candy.

we even managed the traditional family picture on the front porch. conspicuous absence of fancy church clothes/bathing/grooming on full display. except ramona, who took great care to look wonderful.



after easter, and the gloriously successful initial family viewing of the 10 commandments (oh boy there are some things that just did not age well in that film...), we headed into the second week of online distance learning for our kids, and the 5th week of david working at home. it was my first week of COVID leave, meaning i was off of work for the whole week. we just haven't been busy enough to keep all the providers on the schedule, and i'm not mad about being at home with the kids.

but before we cracked open those monday morning laptops, we loaded up for a drive to morton forest county park and hiked and ran around and got our exercise. it was just beautiful.




lest you start to think that everything is holidays and sunny family hikes in wisconsin's beautiful driftless region, just remember: this has been hard, too. like, every day it's hard, and i have to make rules and be the teacher and the principal and the mom and the punching bag for kids who miss their friends and their routine, and sometimes we run aground. so that's hard. and then they go outside to draw and end up drawing a picture of me as the "evil queen of baldwin street" and frankly, that's ok. sometimes i am.


when the raised voices finally go away, we take a walk down sherman to this super great fallen willow,


and we still sometimes recieve gifts of premixed cocktail deliveries from neighbors and we all sit in the sun before dinner on the front steps and no one calls me evil queen.


and i'm not the only one acting as teacher: david gets to do the dance of working parent/homeschool teacher too, and he did some pretty cool experiments burning methanol and other chemicals that release cool colors when they burn. i doubt anyone is actually "learning" chemistry, but they sure think their dad is cool.



the city did a pretty cool thing (and maybe with the nudging of yours truly and the rest of the neighborhood council) and they closed e mifflin street--already our bike boulevard, which shares traffic space with cars--for a physical distancing safe space where everyone can walk, jog, ride, skate, and be outside without getting too close. the sidewalks were getting crowded.


so we've been running, biking, and rollerblading up and down that road with some regularity, but we ALSO have a pretty sweet home gym set up in the garage. once the project starts and the garage gets torn down, i don't know what we're going to do. check out this fancy gym.


david's cousin made this little watercolor of our house as a quarantine gift, and i absolutely love it. she's going to send it to us in the mail.

we rounded out the week with another family hike to another gorgeous county park,

with more sidewalk chalk creations,

and a research project presentation on some national parks we plan to visit this summer (FINGERS CROSSED) out west. james gave a detailed and riveting report on lassen volanic national park while sporting his cutest underwear look,

and ramona gave a surprisingly in depth historical view of the formation of crater lake. and she wore a poncho.