About March 2020 (actually written in February 2021)
We knew about the coronavirus in China and when it was spreading
in different parts of the world (starting in December 2019), but for whatever
reason, I felt like we would be able to handle it better in the United
States. In retrospect, that obviously
wasn’t the case and I truly had no idea how the world would change,
In February, I started hearing things that we may go into a
short quarantine situation, so I did my best to stock up on some
essentials. Not everyone got that message, and even I had a hard time believing it. We have a 3 month
freeze-dried meal for a family of 4 in the basement, but if we had to actually get
that out, I was nervous that the kids would not eat it. I really should have already had a month or two on hand of
things we always eat, but it felt challenging to play catch up - especially in February/early March.
I’m glad I was mostly in the stores in February, because March got
crazy. Lots of shelves were empty at the stores and
things like toilet paper, flour, canned goods and meat were completely out of
stock.
March 13 is when everything shut down in Utah – churches
& temples, all schools, non-essential businesses, extra-curricular activities,
restaurants, etc. The state’s leaders
were taking a conservative approach and I supported their decisions. Now in retrospect, that was a little
aggressive and I wish that more businesses could have stayed open, but there
was so much unknown that I understood why they were making their
decisions. On the 18th, there
was an earthquake near Salt Lake City and thankfully, we didn’t even feel
it. But I opted not to tell the kids
about it because I didn’t want to make them worked up and start panicking.
We socially distanced ourselves from everyone outside of our
household. Thankfully we can be in our
own yards (just not parks or any place where other people might be). The weather was pretty good for spring, we
had everything we needed and we were safe and sound. The hustle and bustle of daily life slowed
way down and we spent a lot of time together as a family. Brandon tried working for home (on a plastic
table, in our bedroom), but that only lasted a couple days – he had such a
better set up at work with his own office.
At home, I set up a routine, so that the kids knew what to expect. We had extra screen time in the mornings,
then online school, piano, jobs and exercise in the morning hours before lunch. After lunch, we occasionally had quiet time
or just play time followed by an afternoon movie. We had a designated snack time (since Andrew
is a stress eater), and more playtime until dinner. After dinner, we all cleaned up from the day
and we put Carson to bed. After Carson went
to bed, we had a family activity with the big kids (games, show, etc.). The days were long, but we survived being "stuck" together! Something that I truly
didn’t know at the time if we could survive.
Highlights:
- Millie getting blessed over zoom (Cade & Ally went down to AZ to quarantine)
- Carson's wart was relentless, but daddy finally took care of it
- Trip to get out of the house - we went to South Fork & hardly saw anyone else
- St. Patrick's Day Mint Julep
- Puzzles with Kendall
- Made a list of "Boredom Busters" for the kids
- Meme's were at their finest
- Borrowing Kipper for a day
- Hike to the G with Brandon for our date
- I got tired of making forts - not gonna lie
- Playdates with friends over facetime
- Not sure why it was soooo funny, but we were on a walk and Carson had to poop (in his diaper) and he insisted on pooping on a specific rock - we had to wait quite awhile
