Social Distancing Visits and Small Circles

These pictures loaded in reverse (from March-July), and so I will leave them as is, but these capture our social distancing visits and the small circle of friends we kept to, knowing each family's boundaries and limited circles too. Keeping our circles limited surely felt restrictive and left us sad that we couldn't visit many other friends as well, but we have been extremely grateful to be able to have some outside contact and visiting through this time.

There were lots of reminders to not touch and to use a lot of hand sanitizer. The kids got really good at the whole routine rather quickly. Hendrix obsessed for a while about the germs being all around us and thought for sure the "coronovirus comes out at night...", so it was important we were home and inside before dark, so he wouldn't worry too much.

When people started to venture out, we would try to catch glimpses of each other and wave from afar.

Digging our way...

...to somewhere other than...

Stockpiling for the Critters

So luckily I buy bulk of much of our food at the end of each month, and then fill holes and resupply things like milk, produce and bread every 4 or 5 days, but with everything shutting down in March, I had to go as far as thinking through how we were going to feed our reptile and gecko. Luckily we didn't have to do this for very long, since pet stores ended up classified as essential businesses. 

What to do about somethin'. . .

 

These were the very first days of elearning during COVID, when we thought it would be for 2 weeks and we were going into an extended spring break. Vanessa and her best friends took on creative, art challenges, often to personify things like the coronavirus. Zane and Vanessa enjoyed excercising in the basement and being outdoors in different ways. And they loved lessons coming from a variety of resources and also showing off their prized belongings over Zoom meetings.

COVID Hit and We've Got Each Other

It is my goal, in October 2020, to go back and upload pics back to March 2020, from the time I stopped when COVID hit. When stay-at-home orders were launched, we had to find a new balance to things and it didn't permit me much time to grab my laptop and sit down. And even when I could've maybe gone in to grab my laptop, I didn't have much motivation to do so since I was spending so much time on electronics with guiding and entertaining the kids.

Now, with a new pup, who needs a lot of reassurance and comfort for now, I'm finding I'm starting to sit in one place more, alongside Zane as he completes school work, so I'm maybe going to be afforded opportunities to catch up. 

Since this quiet moment on the blog, we've learned even more that we are extremely blessed to have each other. We've strongly considered what we can take from this time and one blessing is the extra time Hendrix has with older siblings.

As shutdown was settling in, Vanessa had an abrupt stop to lacrosse, which she plays very well. Teammates were certain Vanessa had to have had prior experience and were always surprised to hear it was her first time. Zane was planning to play soccer again, but of course that changed too. We were somewhat sad knowing he's an excellent soccer player. Summer vacations were canceled, as well as hope to visit extended family. But we remained pretty positive through it all. School went to elearning and it was a rushed but impressive implementation by Hilliard City Schools. Adam moved to working from home and was amazing how he rolled with the rapid changes. Hendrix got a free pass to play Xbox a little more than we would like to admit but he seemed to thrive in just having us all together. And I have felt extremely blessed to not be in work contracts that could have prevented me from being as flexible as I needed to be as a support to the family.

An Artist

We finally went to the OSU Billy Ireland Museum to check out the Women Cartoonist exhibit and while there, continued to some of the other related exhibits. I was glad Vanessa and I did the women's exhibit by ourselves, so we could discuss the meaning behind some of the content from over many decades and how the cartoons reflected emotion and reactions to politics and civil rights movements of different times. 

Vanessa has quite the passion for being a cartoonist/comics author. She was telling me that Calvin and Hobbes are probably some of her favorites, cause they are just so very cute and imaginative. (Now I need to go back to her Uncle Thom and ask him to let us borrow some of the C&H books I unloaded on him several years ago.)

 (bronze figurine by Rube Goldberg)

 (cartoons from the 1800s)

 (more than 100 comic strip characters embroidered on this cloth; unknown artist)

Proof is in her closet. . .(and overflowing drawers . . .)

A few weeks ago I decided to take a snapshot of all the cute clothes that collect dust in Vanessa's closet. She recently weeded out a ton. A part of me is thrilled that Vanessa doesn't care that her choices for everyday wear is one of her pairs of black leggings (cause she has many), a baggie t-shirt (sometimes a well loved hand-me-down), and one of her most favorite hoodies. But then another part of me wishes she would doll up every now and again in something cute from her closet. No matter, she is very blessed to have options when she has a wild hair.