Bopril

Quarantine Notes: Week Four and Happy Easter!

Easter looked different than we had planned or than it has ever looked before, but it wasn't bad. Blessings were there, they just required us to look a little harder and to embrace the way things are with grateful hearts. Our church hosted beautiful masses throughout holy week, and Easter Sunday mass was no exception - it is a gift to be part of our school and church community, and I loved listening to the heartfelt blessings our priests poured out into our (virtual) parish. We listened to Andrea Bocceli from The Duomo -- I've perhaps never felt such meaning in a rendition of Ave Maria, and then Amazing Grace. So lovely of him to use that God-given gift to bring a moment of peace and joy to the world. 

There was brunch and bubbly and excited kiddos tearing through the backyard in search of plastic eggs. Oh, and the easter bunny found us thanks to the generosity and love of our sweet Nana Bunny. 

We were supposed to be in Charleston this week with my entire family for spring break, and I'll admit that I am feeling the distance from them in an especially acute way right now. But I am grateful for near daily FaceTimes or zoom calls and text exchanges that keep us close. I remind myself to focus on the true gift of family and the sort of closeness that no virus (or anything else) can touch or change or break. And when we are all together again, I know everyone will understand and be grateful in a new way for the gift of each another. 

We are ensconced in week five of quarantine now, and this week is less structured given we aren't in "school." We are embracing slower mornings and just seeing where the days take us. I have a loose goal of one activity per day outside the norm: yesterday the kids painted outside, but today they seem content with their legos and their play structure and each other, so perhaps we'll wait to pull out another activity until tomorrow. And so it goes. 

I still fill out my planner and derive great joy from crossing off tasks, whether for work or to help keep sanity in check. Daily vitamins, daily tea, tracking water intake, planning out workouts, setting goals to write here a couple of times each week. And then being ok with it when it all goes to hell for a day (like yesterday) and I do mostly nothing. That's alright too. 

And above all, I remain so grateful for our health, that we have each other, that we're able to work from home, for deep breaths and the ability to move, for cerulean skies and sunshine, for carefree drives along the coast. For our frontline heroes battling this beast every day (my God, the stories are endless and brutal and beautiful and I cry every single day at the beauty of the helpers and the resilience of humanity). As everyone says, we're in this together. Let's remember that when we are able to return to some semblance of normal, too.

Sending love far and wide! xo

 

 

 

Scenes from a Kindergarten Zoom

Graham has a pretty steady weekly schedule of zoom meeting across various classes. I typically sit across the table from him and work so I can listen in and help him if needed (to grab supplies or prompt him to answer a question, for example). 

But today, I just got to witness a precious and hilarious 30 minutes. These quotes are too good to keep to myself -- enjoy! 

He is mid-zoom with his library class and the teacher is reading a story to the kids. Every 30 seconds or so, we hear a rooster in the background. G's eyes get huge every time and after the third, he looks at me and says "Mom! Do you hear that?! Ms. Oliver's rooster won't stop cock-a-doodle-doing!" 

A little later, she showed them a video of a giraffe being born and then they talked about the baby's abilities and why they were necessary in the wild. G was pensive and quiet for a bit, and then:

 "Mom! This giraffe just pooped out its baby!

Me: "How neat that you get to see how a baby giraffe is born!"

"Well, that's weird."

After another brief pause: "AWKWARD!" And he adds a head smack to drive home the point. 

You're welcome, friends. 

Quarantine Notes: Week Three

This week, our third in quarantine, I thought so much about the concept of boredom. I have had many discussions with friends about it, sent lists of suggestions to fight it, read endless articles on the art of accepting it. But it isn't really a concept that I relate to in my daily life. In general, I am not bored. There are endless things to read, activities to design, rooms and closets and nooks and crannies to clean, walks to enjoy, habits to break and habits to establish. I am ok to sit. To think. To just be. I don't have a compulsive need to fill every minute, not for myself or for my kids. And right now, I am really grateful for that. 

We carried on with homeschool this week: we completed assignments, we showed up for our Zoom classes, we baked cookies for Foodie Friday, we rolled out our yoga mats with fellow kindergartners, we made a butterfly with moving wings. We spelled words and wrote sentences. Practiced site words and began learning to tell time in an analog way. We sang songs and joined wacky dances and workouts sent by our P.E. teacher. All of this to say, we thought about things. We worked on things. We learned. 

The weather was nice all week, and we know how lucky that is. We walked and rode bikes and played with chalk and sand and swings and the basketballs and dolls. We watched movies and read books. Played Roblox (a lot) and joined Adventure Academy. Dad cooked every meal but one, and we devoured them all (he enjoyed a break Saturday night when we ordered pizza - it was delicious, too.). We delighted in almost nightly "happy hours" with a friend at our school who is also a DJ. He spins tunes live on instagram, and we pour a glass of wine and dance in the kitchen while our friends all across the city do the same. It is a gift. 

Today is Palm Sunday. We watched mass via livestream and it was beautiful. I missed holding an actual palm in my hand, fumbling around trying to tie it into one of those crosses that I'm never quite able to craft. It is strange to enter holy week this way. And yet, it is also beautiful and quite fitting in a way. Today's readings and homily worked around the important (and so timely) question: "Oh God, why have you abandoned me?" And I was blessed to leave the experience knowing in my heart that He has not. He is there in all of it: the healthcare workers who never waver even though they have families at home too, the neighbors who check on each other and feed each other, the kids who laugh and play, the friends who drive by each other's houses just for a wave, the generous gestures of those who donate what they can, the dawn of each new day as we carry on. We can do hard things. He taught us that. He showed us that.

Tomorrow brings week four and the beginning of spring break in addition to holy week. None of it will look like we planned, but all of it will happen just the same. We will carry on and make it great. We will wave to you as we do. We are honored to be alone together with you. xo