Day 8- March 21, 2020

Day 8- March 21, 2020

One week of house arrest officially completed.  I think the hardest thing is not knowing how many more weeks of this are on the horizon.

I'm still pretty sore from the fall yesterday.  I was doing alright, and then rolled over around 4AM and woke up to find I'd definitely aggravated something in my back.  I spent the next hour and a half doing the deep breathing exercises my friend Lisa went over the other day during a Facebook Live meditation session.  I fell into a restless sleep eventually, and woke exhausted.

The girls were eager to leave their rooms (they had listened to our directive to PLEASE let us sleep), and each had a bowl of cereal.  The last soymilk container is getting woefully light, and I rationed out less than I normally would for each serving.

I made myself a tofu scramble, and ate about half, saving the rest for when I need more protein on another day.  I also took the advice of my friend Andy, and used some of the water I'd drained out of my cannellini beans in place of an egg in my pancake mix.  Since I was already using water in place of milk, I figured it was worth a shot.  The frozen blueberries I added and the syrup made it so you couldn't really tell the difference.

E's Mars Spaceship

I spent some quality time cleaning the kitchen- it has been a few days, and we've been traipsing dirt in a lot from our outdoor playtimes.  I got the counters pretty clean, but sweeping did not agree with my back, and I ended up having to spend much of the next few hours lying/sitting in bad watching Cheers with Jeff, and then rewatching the 2012 Olympic Final between the US Women's National Team and Japan with Ella.  I also took a few more Tylenol, which seem to be helping.

Yoda's Home

The girls completed new Lego Challenges.  E. did today's, which was to create a return vehicle from

a Mars expedition, and R. did one from a few days ago, making a set for a new Star Wars Movie.  "It's Yoda's house, and the clear piece is so it will look like he's levitating.  I wanted it to be for a movie that's a Yoda prequel," she explained.

We did some Facetime with Grammy and Granddad, and I talked to my mom for a while.  It's so strange to not see them in person, since normally, we're all at one another's houses several times a week.  G&G are supposed to be going on a family vacation with us to Delaware this summer, and we had to face the very real possibility that it may be canceled.  We have until May to make a decision and get our money refunded, so we're going to wait it out a bit, but it's seeming more and more that this is going to still be going on over the summer.

I also had a video chat with one of my best friends who lives in Colorado.  We reminisced over an adventure we had going to Montreal and my sister's farm several years ago, how adorable her dogs are, and how we are worried for our parents and grandmas, who fall into the "high risk" category.  It was comforting to see her face, though, and to walk through the anxiety of this new existence.

Governor Murphy shut down all nonessential businesses officially today.  I wish it had been done earlier, as more and more people are testing positive, and it feels like the actions being taken now should have been done a week ago.

People walk past our house a lot, and I saw a post on social media about drawing chalk messages on sidewalks and driveways.  Despite the chilly temperatures, we took out some warm snow boots, coats, and gloves (bonus: they protect hands from getting covered in chalk and go straight into the laundry), and headed to the driveway.  The girls made a colorful rainbow heart (R.), a disco ball (E.) and both made messages such as Happy Spring! and Hoppy Spring ("because frogs!").  E. wrote a letter saying Good day people.  It's cold out so I hope you wore a coat!  Happy Spring!  I hope you have a a good weekend!  When we went inside, the girls had a blast making popcorn, and then standing by the window, hopping from foot to foot every time someone approached, and squealing "They're reading it!" when people stopped.

Dinner was another example of culinary genius, with Annie's Mac and Cheese (my children's favorite), mixed veggies, and leftover vegan gravy from the comfort food I made yesterday (mashed potatoes, gravy, and veggies- a deconstructed chick'n pot pie without the pie crust).  We promised the girls a movie, so we settled in and watched Jumanji: The Next Level.  If you want to feel better, watch Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson imitating Danny Glover and Danny DeVito.  It's a special kind of really funny comedy.

Midway through, though, I had a group hangout scheduled with a few of my mom friends.  It was wonderful to see their faces, and hear their voices.  Texting is good, but being able to actually talk, and see each other's faces, is necessary.  I keep thinking how lucky we are to have these types of technology- texting, talking on the phone, video chatting.  In How We Got To Now (the book I've read, and the kids' version Riley and I just finished), one of the chapters, Sound, goes through all the steps and coincidences and innovations it took to get to the telephone.  In the chapter on Clean, it refers to all the occurrences that led to the chips that are now used in smart phones.  In both instances, creative minds working towards singular purposes created tremendous advances.  I keep thinking that in this crisis, we have similar great minds working towards a cure, and towards prevention, and it gives me hope.