Life in the Time of COVID

The first 3 months.

I guess I was waiting for life to come back to normal before I posted, but I guess this new way of "social distancing" is here to stay, so let's catch up on what has happened the past several months around our household.

When the school shut-downs were announced (March 11-13) and the world felt like it was coming to a halt, we were all beside ourselves and did not know what to think.  The girls asked if they could put up a tent in the living room. The answer was YES, and this became their "safe space." They did their school work there, they slept there, and felt insulated from a world that felt chaotic and uncertain.  We all agreed it was time to take the tent down after about three weeks, when we realized that we had to get used to the new normal.  The tent served its purpose.

SLC had a pretty significant earthquake on March 18th, which rattled our already frayed nerves.  That same day, Steve's company called from Sweden and said that they were closing the business he was working on .....OK.  Just some more "new normal" to get used to. This was definitely a memorable day for our household.

The girls found creative and entertaining things to do during the early days  - like making costumes out of dog beds and blankets, puppets that became mascots and led the activities for the week, wedding dresses made from the laundry they should have been putting away, and a dog house for JoJo that they designed and built with Dad in the garage. The girls have always been good friends, but their friendship has become even more salient during these times when we have all had to be at home.  

  

We took advantage of the parks by our house and biked and hiked a lot.  Our daily walks became hikes with picnics.  Bike rides became adventures.  Every night as the sun went down, the girls would walk with me around the block, looking at the stars. Lizzie almost always wore Steve's shoes and coats on our evening walks.  As the weather warmed-up, she now insists on doing our nightly walk barefoot.  Over time and especially as the weather began to turn to spring, the girls' boundaries expanded.  They began to explore the foothills and the neighborhood on their own.  This was their time to get some "alone" time and to re-establish some of the independence they had when they were at school, away from our watchful eye and supervision.  Lizzie rides her bike about a mile and a half each day to the cemetery in our neighborhood, where she sets a timer and reads a book for 30 minutes. She needs routine, and this was one of her most sacred routines during her home-schooling day.  I never would have let her do this before COVID, and would have made her at least have Carolyn with her, but it became the most important part of her day.  (Of course, I secretly rode my bike or drove by where she was, without her seeing me.  She was always so careful riding her bike and was so diligent about setting her timer and showing up to home exactly when she said she would that I just learned to trust her as she took this alone time each day)     

Steve let the girls shave his head with the dog clippers -- I do not have a good photo of the end product -- I think this came a day or two after he learned that his company was closing.  No work, and definitely no interviews would be coming up anytime soon!

The garage has been turned into our gym, where the girls have a pull-up and strength work out each day after lunch.  Lizzie is up to 6 pull-ups, and Carolyn can do 3.  Impressive.  While it is not the same, Steve and I have done yoga classes over Zoom.  I have watched a lot of Netflix or listened in on conference calls while on the ellipitical machine.  Our home has become the site for everything!

With time, everyone settled into their home-school routine.  The girls figured out how to find their assignments each day and how to get them done.  Carolyn did some bigger projects where she excelled, while she struggled with the every-day math and writing assignments.  Lizzie's work was similar everyday, and it became a bit tedious, but it was enough to give her back the routine that she needed. 

As time went on, and as home-schooling never took full days, we decided that some days were better spent at a park or doing some other activity. We tried to mix up the mundane with something a little more exciting, like the time we spent all afternoon walking around the block looking for the letters of the alphabet in everyday objects, or the day we discovered that JoJo would play frisbee with us, or an afternoon that we all practiced doing headstands at the park

 One day, we skipped all home-school and spent the entire day on Antelope Island, which is in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.  We had no plans and no schedule.  As we drove out there, the car windows were open and we sang at the top of our lungs.  Then, we spent hours just playing and exploring along the beach.  It was perfect, until the flies nearly ate us alive as the sun began going down.  So much for trying to see the sunset over the lake.

We always find great views and a clear mind when we hike the foothills above our house, but over time, the girls got sick of hiking and biking and started resisting those activities.  Even the dog declined my evening walks a few times lately.  Some trails were so crowded that you had to wear masks because of how close we were to so many other people.  And look at the photo below - even the Buddha at the top of Jack's Peak had hand sanitizer.  What a strange new world we lived in.

The girls are constantly coming up with new activities to try.  One night, they decided to sleep on the porch.  The tent has come back out a lot, for one-night campouts in the backyard.  

Both girls decided to invest more in their music during this time - Carolyn decided to spend some time on cello, so she can audition for the middle school orchestra next yer.  Lizzie started playing the piano and really looked forward to her weekly Zoom lessons with a piano teacher.  She also built a ukelele and started teaching herself how to play it.  In early April, the youth theater program at the University quickly assembled a cast of kids to do an online show.  As they coped with the disappointment of a cancelled talent show and a big play that was supposed to happen this spring, they both decided to audition to be in "The Show Must Go Online."   The full cast met over Zoom twice a week and were each given a scene to record.  The Director then edited it all together into a video-production.  This was a very special and creative use of their time.  Lizzie was Bob Flossy and Carolyn was Tommy Tooth. 

Lizzie and Carolyn's scene is around 25 minutes.  They are also in the final song and curtain-call at the end.

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A post shared by Youth Theatre at the U (@uuyouththeatre) on May 29, 2020 at 11:35am PDT

Their audition videos crack me up, especially Lizzie's:

 Birthdays were a bit different while in quarantine .... happy birthday sung over Zoom calls and porch parties with friends, where everyone sat 10' apart and wore masks.  For my birthday, the kids decorated the little house (which has become my office).  For Lizzie's birthday, Carolyn planned a scavenger hunt which took us throughout the whole neighborhood.  Lizzie had to solve riddles to find the next location, where she would collect a card, which were then exchanged for gifts when she made it back home.  We all had bright-pink team shirts for the birthday scavenger hunt.  Lizzie wanted a party and asked to see her friends, so we did a drive-way, drive-by get together.  She made individually wrapped brownies which she passed out with a set of long tongs to each of her friends.    Almost all of her friends and their families got out and chatted around the cul-de-sac.  People were craving conversation and interaction with someone other than their immediate household.  It was fantastic.

 

The girls have missed their teachers, but appreciate and commend the efforts that they made and the creativity they have shown during this time.  Lizzie's teacher records a video of him reading/acting out chapter of a book every day, which has become something that our whole family listens to.  One day, the teachers did a car parade through the neighborhood. The teachers have sent out creative videos and photos to all of the kids, encouraging them to keep up with their work.  And, whenever possible, the teachers have done zoom meetings (occasionally with the full class, but also individually) and have all had personal phone calls and text chats with each kid. I am so thankful that they both had such caring and creative teachers during all of this. 

On a not-so-special evening, Steve and I decided to commemorate this moment in history by drinking the small bottle of white wine in the photo below.  It was a 1975 Chateau d'Yquem.  Apparently, this is known to be one of the most highly-ranked white wines ever.  It was a bottle gifted to Steve by his late father, and something that he has saved and cherished.  We enjoyed a glass, which tasted a bit like Mead given its age, but still had a complex, rich flavor.  It was a nice moment to reflect on the finer things in life, to remember his dad, and to dream a bit about where our lives may go next.  

1975 Chateau d'Yquem

When the climbing gym re-opened a few weeks ago, we debated whether we allow the girls to go.    However, after our first session back, we decided that the benefits outweighed the risks.  Climbing is by appt only, and as you can see on the picture below, they are often the only people in a particular part of the gym.   It is not hard to social-distance in this enormous space. Masks have to be worn, and you are asked to use liquid chalk (which is primarily alcohol) and/or sanitizer between each problem.  It is not ideal and we always question whether we should actually be going, but it gets them out and doing something they enjoy.  And, for now, while it is still so empty, we feel like it is safe-enough.  Team practices with the coaches are still on hold.

Being away from friends has been hard. Carolyn copes by withdrawing and saying she doesn't want to see or speak with them.  Lizzie has developed a lot of pen-pal relationships with her friends, and writes/exchanges stories with Grandma Lynn.  Then, after they tried to do charades and dance-offs while maintaining their distance with neighbors, we starting allowing them to play more closely with one neighbor - Kaydence.  The girls spend hours a day making movies (Dr. Sprinkles).  Below you can see them dressed as mermaids, in princess costumes with roller blades, and sporting the awesome watermelon helmets they made.  I believe all of these costumes were for a movie they were making, or maybe they were just part of their day's adventures.  To date, they have made over 20 short movies.  For each movie, they write up a story and script, design and build a set, create costumes and makeup, and then film/edit the movie. Each movie takes them all day, and usually multiple days.  Kaydence goes to her dad's house in Montana for the summer, so this will come to an end, but it has been a major bright spot in this era of social distancing. They would quickly and efficiently get their school work done, so they could get out to their movie making.

Looking at these photos makes it seem like it has been a pretty special time, which I guess it has been.  However, it has also been hard!  There has been no down-time, no alone time, and no separation of physical space.  For me, it has been hard to figure out how to work from home while everyone is in the house and while we had to swap devices/computers between everyone who wanted the same internet bandwidth at the same time.  My work has increased, rather than slowed down, given the many new changes and challenges that came with converting the entire university online, and now figuring out how to re-open this fall amidst the continuing COVID requirements and now drastically-reduced budgets.  A couple of my instructors were diagnosed with COVID, which meant I had to pick up extra teaching during this transition.  I also had to tweak my entire research study, which was ready to launch June 1, to accommodate our new reality of virtual interactions.  Ah.  I have always enjoyed my job and still do, but I feel like I no longer have any boundaries between work and family, which as a working mom, were so carefully constructed and balanced before.  

As we move into the summer and as the school year comes to an end later this week, I am feeling like we accomplished so much with the transition to home-school, but also feeling some new anxieties, wondering what we will do with the girls all summer.  Everything they were looking forward to has been cancelled - no sleep-away camps, no day camps, no track and field team, and (so far) no public pools......  We booked a camping site every couple of week, and also decided to not give up on our annual trek back to Ohio to see family.  Instead of flying, though, we will be coming in a Sprinter van.  Let's hope this is an epic road trip.  Let's hope we can continue to have an great summer, despite everything being cancelled.  Let's hope the girls continue to be friends through all of this.

This is a world like none I have ever experienced or imagined.  May we all stay healthy and well as COVID-19 makes its way through our world.  May we all find the grace and patience to weather this storm.