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

He's here!

The bright spot through everything has been the arrival of our new nephew, John. He's sweeter than sweet and cuter than cute and we can't wait until the coronavirus situation finally lets up so we can meet him in person!

These are strange circumstances to have a new baby, to say the least, but Susie and Sean seem to be handling it as well as is humanly possible. We all wish we could be there to hold him for a few hours so they could nap, but for the time being, it is just their little family of three. Until things change, at least we have pictures ... and hopefully a video chat in the near future when his schedule is more predictable :)

Here's John, with his big eyes open, looking adorable (and like his dad, if I do say so myself)

Snug as a bug in a rug

The new mom :)

And the new dad

Congrats, Sus and Sean! He's precious!

Sheltering at home

We're almost through the first full week at home, and I think we're doing all right. Molly's e-learning has been almost entirely self-guided. She gets up, checks Google Classroom for the daily message from her teacher, and then goes through her list of subjects one by one. Occasionally, she asks one of us to play a math game or get something for her, but for the most part, she's been doing it on her own. She gets a little stir crazy around 3 or 4pm every day, but I get it. We've spent a lot of time in this house with only Grandma over every couple of days to visit.

On Thursday, Molly started video chatting and instant messaging with her friends and that has made a HUGE difference. I fear it may be the gateway to social media and phone addiction, but if it gets us through the next few weeks at home, I am ok with it. She had her lunch bunch on one chat and then half her class on another ... I could hear the laughter and excitement from two floors away.

My week started out kind of slow, but after everyone had a few days to adjust, it was back to business as usual. I'm a little worried that the 9-5 boundaries will dissolve now that everyone is home and bored and staring at their phones and computers all the time, but at least work helps make the time pass. I also have the elementary school yearbook to keep me busy -- goodness knows how we're going to fill all the pages without the end of year activities, but we'll figure something out. Maybe have the kids send in selfies of themselves e-learning? And even though spring is technically here, I've brought my knitting out and am working my way through unused yarn.

Jason has done an excellent job stocking our fridge and pantry. We're not hoarding or prepping by any means, but have enough to get us through a few weeks. We're trying to take this seriously and really limit our trips to the grocery store. The days are long, but we're taking advantage of the new Hulu subscription and unwinding with The Handmaid's Tale and Letterkenny (a Canadian sitcom that is so stupid-smart and totally addictive).

Riley definitely benefits the most from this new arrangement. She's getting long walks multiple times a day and tons of attention from her 3 human family members, especially Molly, who looks for her puppy when she's bored and needs to blow off some steam.

So, we're hanging in there. Same as everyone, I suppose. Just hoping for warmer weather to come and the corona virus curve to flatten out so we can get back to our normal lives! Here are a few pics from Week 1:

Riley is trying her best to take over my spot on the couch

Puzzle #1 complete, with a little help from Grandma

Bridge building with toothpicks and marshmallows .. it held a pen, but not for long 

Selfies with Riley

Taking long walks to the beach

"Spring Break" makeover

"Spring Break" makeover part 2

Face masks, just because

Crazy times - Day 1 of our confinement

Social distancing is now in FULL effect. I got the word today that I'll be working from home for the next 3 weeks, through Friday, April 3rd. Molly will be home through April 10th. Jason is here every day anyway, but he's not used to having the rest of us around. It seems that Riley is the only one with a place to go! We will probably continue sending her to Rex's Place for a couple of days a week to let her see her friends and hopefully help keep that business afloat.

We have a schedule in place for meals, a schedule in place for e-learning, and I'm going to have to come up with some sort of workout schedule. I don't know yet how busy I'm going to be with work. It could be crazy, or it could be slow. We're all taking it one day at a time.

I'm glad I recently invested in some new leggings. It's going to be comfy clothes and air-dried hair in this place for a while. Wish us luck!

Finally, some good news

Well, it's been a little crazy the last few days / weeks. With coronavirus ramping up, life is ramping waaaay down. Molly's school will be closed for the next 4 weeks and the kids will be e-learning from home instead. I just found out tennis classes are cancelled and the gym will be closed. I cancelled my girls' trip to Mexico. We cancelled our Spring Break trip to London and Switzerland. We're all disappointed, but what can you do? People need to just wait this thing out. For now, my office is open, but there's a chance we may be working from home for a few weeks. It's pretty nuts.

But wait, I titled this blog post, "Finally, some good news." What's the good news? Well, Molly is officially scheduled to start OIT - oral immunotherapy - in May! We've been on the wait list for a little while. She had the opportunity to start last summer, but we passed it up because of summer camp. But now, it's time!

So what is OIT? Basically, Molly will start taking mini doses of the nuts she's allergic to every morning until she is desensitized and no longer allergic. It is a loooong process. She'll have to do this every morning for 6 months to a year, with appointments every 1 to 2 weeks to increase her dose until she's able to eat handfuls of these nuts. She'll have to get up early, and make sure she doesn't do any physical activity for a couple of hours after taking her dose. And then after she is through the official Dr's office part of the process, she's still going to have to eat these nuts every day for a couple of years to make sure she keeps her tolerance up.

It's a pretty big commitment, but people who have done it say it is absolutely life changing. For the most part, Molly's allergies are pretty under control. She is so good about checking labels and asking if things contain nuts. It's not holding her back from doing things, but it's a pain.

For example, when we still thought we were going to Switzerland, the Dr said we'd need extra epi pens, and benadryl, and a prescription for steroids in case of an allergic reaction while trapped on a plane over the Atlantic. We'd have to have all of the nuts she's allergic to translated on cards in different languages in case we ended up at a restaurant where the wait staff didn't speak English. We had to tell her in advance she probably wasn't going to be able to have Swiss chocolate or pastries on the trip since hazelnuts are everywhere in Switzerland. Not the end of the world, but allergic reactions are scary and I know Molly lives with a certain amount of fear. 

There's no guarantee that this will work, but it does work for most people who are able to follow the protocol and keep it up. Molly is pretty determined and I think she'll do well. And she's at a good age too - we'll hopefully have it done before the teenage years when everything becomes a battle.

Two months until we start. I'm happy to have something to look forward to!