The World Turned Upside Down

So many conflicting thoughts and feelings right now.  It really does feel like the world has been turned upside down.  We are into our third week (ish) of this Corona virus/Covid 19 craziness.  I have lots of ideas swirling in my head-- I doubt any of them are helpful and they are feeling stressful.  I find that when I write down my concerns, they become less stressful.  So here are some of them--in no particular order.

1.  This seems much more serious and scarier than the media first reported-- or at least what I interpreted they were reporting.  When we first started hearing about it, I understood it would be mild to moderate cold symptoms for younger people and more dangerous pneumonia for older folks.  It is still more dangerous for older people, but it seems like it's pretty awful for younger people as well.  I am genuinely hoping to avoid anyone in our family catching it.  Maybe that's not reasonable, but that's my hope.

2.  The morning of the earthquake-- March 18th, our dishwasher leaked and flooded (and ruined) our kitchen floor.  Mind you, we'd been hard on that floor and it was definitely past its prime. So, besides the hassle and some expense, it wasn't entirely unfortunate.  For the last two weeks we've been living in a construction zone with fans and ripped up floor.  And this past week has been the actual construction of getting the new floor put in.  The contractor is a good friend and neighbor of ours (along with the help of another friend and neighbor) and they are doing a magnificent job.  They're repainting the main floor as well--it will be so fancy and I am so excited to see the finished product. 

3.  One thing that has been rather humbling for us, is for these friends to see just how much work is needed in home improvements in our house.  Neither Abe nor I enjoy, or have any skill in this area.  For quite some time we didn't have the resources to put towards home projects, so we neglected what we ought to have attended to some time ago.  Oh, well.  Here we are now, grateful for the expertise of those who can help us out.

4.  Peter is obsessed with building a dirt bike trail in the back yard.  How did he even get the idea?  He asked about it at least 25 times today.  Peter gets an idea and he is not easily distracted.  He also attaches to certain articles of clothing -- and this week it's this red Nike hoodie.  I am extremely grateful for the nice spring weather we've lately for the kids to be able to spend a lot of time outdoors while the construction is happening indoors.  They are already getting a little tan and it's only the beginning of April.

5.  All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players...

I took this picture after they had removed the railing but hadn't torn up the rest of the old floor yet.  You know we would get excited to realize we now had the perfect stage in our own home!  As of writing this, the railing has been reattached, so the stage is no more.  But at least we know we could have one if we wanted it!

6.  There are some really crummy, unsettling things about this stay-at-home/quarantine business.  AND there are some really great parts.  Down time.  Family togetherness.  Slower schedules.  Time.  Sometimes, vacation times like Christmas break and summer are challenging for me, because the expectation is to not be productive.  Nowadays, we are going slow, but still with the expectation of getting school work and practicing done.  Kind of the best of both worlds. This picture was family D&D on Sunday afternoon with Clark as a master dungeon master.  This was Peter's first D&D session and we got a pretty great little video ...

7.  I am thrilled to have all of my Foxy Ladies back in the house together.  I adore their company.   

There are times when I am enjoying them so much and then I remember that there probably a lot of people who are having to stay home pretty much alone.  I feel somewhat greedy (maybe that's not the right word) that a quarantine for us basically means more time with lots of people we like the best in the world anyway.  

8.  Abe is working from home and we love it.  This week was a little more chaotic with the construction happening,  but even so, he had a great week and we enjoy having him home.  Often time one or two kids will go into our room where he is working and quietly work on their school work.  They just like being around him.  Mostly, in this uncertain time, we are feeling beyond grateful for the work that he has.

9.  TECHNOLOGY!!!! Can we all just take a moment to acknowledge technology in our lives right now.  It's amazing.  I am teaching piano lessons online.  It's not a effective as in person, but it works.  It's miraculous.  That's all I have to say about that right now.

10.  A few weeks ago-- heck, it could have been a year ago-- I've completely lost track of time passing.  It feels like it was a long time ago, but I think it was this year-- anyway,  Abe and I went with friends to go see a play at Hale Center Theater-- Bright Star.  Remember way back when we could go to the theater with friends?  I LOVED this play.  I LOVED the music.  Last week I ordered the piano music from the play and Bethany has been singing while I play and we're basically in heaven.  We found on YouTube a theatrical concert performed by the original Broadway cast.  We were eating it up and loving it.  Greta has gotten into dancing the the beyond adorable way a three year-old little girl does.  She was getting into the groove of the music and Bethany and I were cracking up.  We called it her "Janky Leg Dance".

One more video of Greta entertaining us on a recent neighborhood walk.  We go on A LOT of neighborhood walks these days.