We are on Day 14 of being home during this corona virus social distancing time. My husband is working from home out in his studio in the backyard. The kids and I, and our newish kitten, spend our days in the house, the backyard, and go for the occasional bike ride or walk. Last week the weather was beautiful, which was so nice for our first week at home. This week it's 15-20 degrees cooler and rainy. Monday morning was a lot harder this week.
I jumped into this time with a bunch of gusto. I am a stay at home parent already and I love to cook. I loaded up my Libby App (digital library card) with books to read and listen to. I started dreaming about all of the knitting projects I could finish. This wasn't going to be hard. I thought it would be similar to Summer for us. What I didn't count on is that a lot of our Summer is built around little excursions; to the library, to the park, out for ice cream, swimming at the community center, swimming in the inflatable pool on our back patio. All of that isn't available right now. I usually make up a daily schedule during the summer, mainly so I can point to Snack Time when a kid tells me they're hungry. I've got a schedule now and you know what? I've been so busy that I haven't done any reading. So many kid squabbles to break up. Trying to help with online math? Yikes! This is hard.
Most days I break up the day into half hour increments, focusing on that chunk of time and not the unknown length of time this is going to go on for. I tell myself that I used to spend the majority of my day at home, so this isn't really that much of a change.
Over the last year or two we've maybe gone out to breakfast once or twice, but over the last week I've been craving a big diner breakfast, with crunchy hash browns and sausage links and a bite of something covered in syrup that my kids would order. If we weren't stuck at home I would be dismissing thoughts of going out to breakfast because it's such a hassle, but here I am thinking about what I can't have. Sure, I can make all of that at home (and I'm sure I will) but it's just not the same.
Cooking is my Love Language. Here's what I've been cooking:
Baked Oatmeal with Caramelized Pears
Bananas Foster Upside-Down Cake
Parmesan Broth
Mushroom-Farro Soup with Parmesan Broth
Meatloaf
Spatchcocked Chicken
Slow-Roasted Salmon with Harissa
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Pizza
Muddy Buddies
Citrus-Braised Pork
Teriyaki Chicken
Pasta with Meat Sauce
Many plates of fried eggs and toast
Many quesadillas
So Many Snacks
I've also been doing a lot of dishes. So Many Dishes.
It is so easy to focus on what is hard right now, so here's a little list of good things:
-Everyone I see while out walking in my neighborhood smiles and says hi
-Flowers and trees are blooming
-I turned over one of our garden beds and sowed some seeds
-I listened to one of my favorite books again
-Kitten snuggles
-I'm so glad we added on a second bathroom last summer
-I picked up an old knitting project and started working on it
-My youngest learned how to ride a bike last week!
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