Corona Quarantine

I started this post thinking it was going to cover a couple of odd weeks in our lives, the Covid-19 (Corona Virus) Pandemic.  But it is a year and a half later and we are still in it.  Some things are now "normal," but many things are still far from it.  But if I don't post this now, I might never be able to sum it up!

On March 13th, 2020, we left school having no idea that it would be our last day at school until August 20th.  In fact, we were to return to school that night to see the kids' spring concert that they had worked on all year.  It didn't happen.  Hannah was supposed to go to the school the next morning to finish her junior high cheerleading try-outs.  It didn't happen.  In the blink of an eye, we went from a normal day of school, with an afternoon concert, with cheerleading practices all week, to a shut-down, quarantine, order to stay at home until April 7th.  That date felt so long away.  But everyone kept saying we would be back to school for April and May.  We did not go back until August, and even when we did, it was half days, with face masks and temperature checks, mostly just 4 days a week.  It's so weird how all of this has become so "normal" so quickly.  (Quick note to add that it is now August 28th, 2021, 1.5 years later, and our kids have STILL not had a full day of school since the pandemic began.)

We did remote learning for the final quarter of the 2019-2020 school year.  My cookie room became a school room.  Every week, we picked up a stack of work from the school, and we returned that work weekly.  During this time, the school also provided breakfast and lunch foods for the kids each week.  That was a tremendous help with the amount of food we were going through.  For awhile, it was hard to get grocery pick-up times, and when we did, half of our order was out of stock!

Another big change in our house was that Josh started working from home at the end of March.  We've always kind of dreamed of that, but it's never seemed possible.  By the end of October, and he had only stopped in his office three times in 7 months!  He has loved working from home, and we have loved having him here.  It's going to be really hard if / when it goes back to normal!  (Quick note-In the late Spring 2021, Josh returned to the office about 3-4 days/week.  That is still his current schedule in August 2021.)  

The first several weeks of quarantine felt like a welcome break from the absolute crazy go-go-go.  I tried to get ALL the projects and things done around the house that I normally don't have time to do.  I organized every room and closet, even the garage, shed, basement, and attic.  We got rid of a TON of things (sold online, had a rummage sale in August, gave away tons).

We didn't see anyone for weeks.  They weren't sure how the virus spread, so for awhile, we were nervous to see anyone.  We drove by our family's houses and shouted from our cars at a safe distance.  We had church online.  We had drive-by birthday parties.  The teachers did a drive-by parade past every students' house!      

At home, I quickly noticed that we had a lot more dishes and cooking and a lot less laundry.  I always cook a lot, but it's weird to literally never eat anything from anywhere else.  No grandma and grandpa's house, no school lunches, no restaurants, no friends houses, no parties, no SS breakfasts, no nothing, ever!  6 people eating 3 meals a day, 7 days a week is 126 meals a week, plus endless snacks!  Feeding people became a full time job!  Not long into quarantine, I bought more silverware for the first time in my life!  We just couldn't keep up!

SO MANY things were canceled that disappointed us.  It became our new normal.   

We did a lot of things around the house that we don't normally have time to do.  We read a lot of books and watched a lot of shows & movies.  We went on a decent number of walks.  Things like trampolines, bikes, and pools became very hard to get!  We ordered a trampoline right before they went out of stock.  I got a bike at the beginning of summer (my first since 5th grade!), but Josh wasn't able to get one until October because they were so hard to find!  

The ironic thing is that for all the months we were SO CAREFUL, there were hardly any cases in Vermilion County.  During March, when we went NOWHERE, our county had ZERO cases.  Even after March, April, May, and June, we only had 64 total cases!  The numbers started to pick up once school started again.  We went from just over 300 at the end of August to over 1500 by the end of October to over 11,000 by August 2021!  People that we are close to started to be infected, including both of my brothers families and some of our closest friends. 

Towards the beginning of quarantine, my mom asked if I wanted her to make us some cloth masks.  I didn't imagine that we would need them as we were staying home all the time, and it was supposed to end in a few weeks, so I said no.  Well.... by July, we HAD to wear them EVERYWHERE.  Every store, every restaurant, on vacation, to church, to school, everywhere!  Needless to say, we ended up needing a lot of them!  The kids have to wear them to school every day (and still do fall of 2021).

Here are some pictures to remember the odd times:

Homeschooling:

Our community egg hunt was moved to individual yards... 2 years in a row:

Our church served pick-up meals:

Our church services were online only for 4 months, and it was 1.5 years before we got back to Sunday School and 2 services

Our first set of masks made by Grandma Teresa:

New silverware because we didn't have enough for all these meals and snack at home, haha!

Some staples became hard to get.  I panicked over the lack of flour one day, and a lady I hardly know brought me these:

The school provided food all summer (2 summers now), and school breakfasts and lunches became free:

We ordered a trampoline about a day before we realized they were going to be hard to get!

Communion at home:

Sudlow family parties, and all other get togethers, were on Zoom:

I cooked through this ENTIRE cookbook, EVERY SINGLE RECIPE.  It was my big covid project, which was an extra challenge trying to acquire groceries:

I learned how to cut Josh's hair.  I was so nervous the first time.  I think it has become my permanent position.

I did so many odd projects, like adding hardware to my laundry room cabinetry:

We had and attended so many drive-by birthday parties:

The teachers drove by every house in Catlin one day to say hi... and we drove by the school to say good-bye to these retiring teachers!

I painted some furniture:

I painted the front railings:

Josh was working a lot of hours, but he used his evenings and weekends and commute time for lots of projects around the outside of our house.  He created a fire pit area.  He built the benches and pit himself.  I painted everything.  He stripped and stained the whole backyard fence.  That was a HUGE job.  He had a drainage system installed and planted grass.  He had trees cut down and weeds sprayed.  The man never rests.  He got so much done that he wouldn't have in a normal year.  Having no rec league baseball added a lot of time to his schedule!

Church at home with friends in the summer:

Josh got a griddle and a smoker and learned to cook some new, amazing dinners:

We did a puzzle.  This is news worthy.  We never have time to do a puzzle.  Haha!

Our first Sunday back at church!

I kept waiting to publish this, but like I said, it's August 2021, and there still doesn't really seem to be an end in site.  So, this is part of the story so far...