5 weeks in

We've been at home for 5 weeks now. What am I going to want to remember about this time?

5 weeks in, and I feel like I'm watching Molly turn into a tween / teen right before my eyes. But in a good way. She's mostly happy. Sometimes bored. Sometimes stressed. Pretty independent when it comes to eLearning. Almost always sweet. Occasionally helpful. A total slob. We give her a LOT of freedom on her iPad to play games and chat with her friends. I really think she needs it, so we're not really worried about screen time limits. We can deal with that later. Especially since she's still getting outside with us for walks and working out with me in the basement. She still wants to hang out with us -- to cook, to play Monopoly, Yahtzee, and Clue, or to watch a movie. These are happy days. They're a gift. A total gift.

5 weeks in, and Jason and I are still 2 peas in a pod. We walk Riley together for at least an hour every day. It's not just one of us taking her out. It's just something we do together. We don't always talk. Sometimes we don't stop talking. It depends. He's my person and we're in this together.

5 weeks in and we've learned a thing or two about how to stock our fridge and pantry. I never knew we could successfully freeze and re-heat so many things. We've been fine on food, only needing to order groceries once every week or two (before this, it seemed like we were picking something up from the store almost every day). I really only stress about making sure I have access to coffee (and half and half).

So what's a typical day like? Just in case I want to remember what things were like ... Here's a work day. They go fast. We're definitely not bored here, just sick of our surroundings!

• 7:30 am: Alarm goes off
• 7:50 am: Struggle out of bed and make the coffee
• 8:15-9:00 am: Walk Riley
• 9:00 am-noon: Work. We're all pretty good about just powering through the morning. No one really talks. We just all do our thing and get stuff done. Molly has been working from a bean bag chair next to my desk. It's nice to have her with me.
• Noon-1:00 pm (ish): Eat lunch and walk Riley ... Our lunch "hour" may shift from day to day depending on calls, etc. Sometimes it only lasts 15 min, taking Riley to the park to run around, and then eating food at our desks. 
• 1:00-3:00 pm: More work. All of us. We're busy people. Though Molly usually starts to get more restless after lunch so I can expect a few interruptions with questions. 
• 3:00-3:30 pm: Short break. Molly and I will usually squeeze in a quick workout together. We started with "alphabet" workouts - each letter is assigned an exercise (e.g., A=40 jumping jacks) and you spell a few different words or names to create a workout. Now we're using the FitOn app. I love it!
• 3:30-5:30 pm: Finish up all the things. By this point, Molly has usually moved on to chatting with friends or watching episodes of The Simpsons. But sometimes, she is still finishing up her school work at 5.
• 5:30-6:30 pm: Molly and her BFF have their standing 5:30 pm video chat. Jason and I walk Riley and do the chores (put away laundry or the dishes, whatever needs to be done).
• 6:30-7:30 pm (ish): Cook, listen to music, have dinner. Sometimes one of us has a Zoom happy hour. Usually there are at least 2 of us hanging out in the kitchen.
• 7:30-9:00 pm: Family time. Sometimes we play a game. Sometimes we watch a movie. We try to play games during the week and watch movies on the weekend, but it depends. Gotta mix things up to keep it interesting. We're on a Star Wars kick right now, so those take up some time.
• 9:00-11:00 pm: Maggie and Jason time. Usually involves a glass or two of wine and some TV. Hopefully when it gets nicer outside, we can trade TV for evenings out on the porch!

Sleep ... repeat. We're 5 weeks in ... hopefully we only have 5 more weeks to go! 

Missing Grandma

My Grandma Overbey passed away last night. She was a wonderful grandmother. She loved her family. She loved nature and knew the name of just about every tree, plant, and bird out there. You almost couldn't take a drive with my grandparents without her wanting to stop the car to get out and pick something she noticed on the way. I remember even after they moved out of their house in Tennessee (to a retirement home, not that far away), she still went back to water and take care of her plants. One thing that comforts me is that the day before she passed away, she spent time planning her spring garden with my uncle.

It's always hard to lose someone you love, but it is especially hard at a time like this when you can't visit or hug the ones you know are hurting the most. I called my Dad and Grandpa, but it's not the same as being able to comfort each other in person. At least Betsy and I were able to mask up and drive over to see Susie and baby John through the glass today for a little bit of family and togetherness.

I'm hoping it won't be too long before we're able to get to Cincinnati to see my Grandpa and the rest of the family to remember her life and share our favorite stories. I know I'll be thinking of her daily until then, especially as things start to turn green and the flowers start to bloom. I'll make sure I plant something new this year, just for her.

We miss you, Grandma

One month at home

You'd think I'd be blogging more now that we're home. all. the. time. But I've actually been busier than ever with work. And when I'm not glued to my computer for work, I'm busy trying to figure out the elementary school yearbook. A word of advice for any of the parents out there ... DO NOT sign up to help with the yearbook! It's a nightmare. Especially now that half of the events for the year have been cancelled! But at least we'll have it wrapped up in the next week or two and then I can hopefully get back to my normal routine of podcast listening, magazine reading, and TV watching.

So ... what else have we been doing? We had "Spring Break" last week, which was actually really nice. I still took most of the week off, so we could do some things as a family and relax. This included chipping golf balls in the front yard, playing one-on-one soccer at the field near our house, "hiking" around the nature preserves near Evanston, riding our bikes on side streets and hoping not to come too close to anyone, taking Riley on a million walks, baking, playing board games, and watching some of our favorite movies (Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Lord of the Rings were all hits with the Molls).

After Spring Break, Molly started a more structured version of e-Learning, and I have to say, it has been a bit more stressful than I was expecting. There's so much info coming in and so many emails with links and videos and apps that she needs to sign up for. It's a little overwhelming - for all of us. Molly has been handling it all pretty well, but she seems kind of unsure of the expectations, and is starting to crack a little under the pressure. We just found out that school will be closed for the rest of the year, so that is also hard. Summer camps are starting to cancel as well. But we'll figure it out!

Molly is loving all the screen time though, especially the freedom we've given her to video chat with her friends, so there's that. I've had some fun Zoom calls with my friends from high school. And we've had a few with baby John as well. Top Chef is back on TV, so how bad can things be? Here are some pics from April:

A glimpse of John and Sus through the glass

Molly with teal hair - I died a few pieces in my hair as well. Why not?

Chipping practice

M&M cookies made with my great grandma's recipe